King Gylfi of Sweden compassionately awarded an old woman with as much land as four oxen could plow. She was secretly the Norse goddess Gefjon, and her four oxen dragged away enough land to create the island of Zealand. The hole left behind was Sweden's Lake Mälar. #WyrdWednesday#folklore#mythology#NorseMythology#Norse#Viking
Though Apollo was the noble Greek god of music, light, and healing, he also was the feared god of diseases. People would pray to Apollo to protect them and their livestock. If Apollo was angry, he'd use his arrows to destroy them with horrible illnesses.
🎨 Pierre-Charles Jombert #LegendaryWednesday#folklore#mythology#Greece
The Egyptian god Set being called the "red-headed god" marked him as an outsider. It linked him to the red desert sands rather than the fertile black soil where most Egyptians lived. It also gave him the hair colour of a foreigner; Set was the god of foreigners. #mythologymonday#folklore#mythology#Egypt
When a strange light is seen at night in the Welsh wilderness, often it's a pwca's candle. These black-furred goblins love to play tricks. Sometimes they turn into animals, other times they use their candles to lead lost travelers off cliffs and into bogs.
🎨 Huw Aaron #FolkloreSunday#OfDarkandMacabre#mythology#folklore#Celtic#Wales#fairy
The oak is the favored tree of thunder gods all over the world, such as Zeus, Thor, and Perun. This is due in part to the oak's strength and power, but also because it is more often struck by lightning than other trees due to its height and high moisture content.
🎨 Lan Nghiem-Phu #MythologyMonday#mythology#folklore#tree
"I know that I hung on a windy tree
Nine long nights,
Wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
Myself to myself,
On that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run...."
Sesame Street's Count has precedent in folklore. In various parts of Eastern Europe, vampires are compulsive counters. They're especially drawn to mustard seeds, so if you scatter the seeds while being chased, you can escape while the vampire counts them all. #FolkloreSunday#folklore#mythology#vampire#monster#SesameStreet
The pwca is the black-furred Welsh version of the pooka - a forest goblin trickster. Sometimes the pwca uses a magic candle to lead travelers off the path, and other times it turns into a black animal, such a horse, and entices travelers to try to catch them.
🎨 Tony DiTerlizzi #FolkloreThursday#folklore#mythology#fairy#Wales#Celtic
In some Welsh folklore, the fairies treat corgis as their version of horses - riding them, having them pull carts, putting them to work on the fairy farms. The greatest corgis are the ones who carry the fairy knights into battle.
🎨 Sandara #FolkloreSunday#Superstitiology#mythology#folklore#fairy#Celtic#Wales