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Magpies. One for sorrow, two for joy. We all know the nursery rhyme. But what on earth was the backstory? I could find nothing that satisfied me, and so I wrote my own. And naturally I gave it a darker history and a place where the warnings have consequences. The Magpies of Hagley Stile. #Edvane #Folklore LINK IN COMMENTS
Fantasy has a small vocabulary for women. There is the warrior in impractical armour, whose fighting ability is introduced in the same paragraph as her sweaty cleavage. There is the ethereal beloved, who exists to be worth saving. There is the scheming queen, whose ambition is presented as a corruption of femininity. And there is the sacrificial figure, whose death or suffering provides the emotional fuel for someone else's story.
In this post, I explain why I avoid these defaults #Edvane #TheDarkHearth LINK IN COMMENTS
Later Anglo-Saxon law could punish an adulterous woman by cutting off her nose and ears.
Mutilation was not seen simply as vengeance. It could be described as punishment of the body while preserving the soul.
The law disfigured the sinner.
Then called it correction. #Edvane #GrimHistory
#vss365 “Enjoy the feast, mortals, but make no sound,” warned the Archfae. “Stay your raptures or be guests of this castle forever.”
They ate and drank in silence until a servant stumbled, spilling wine across their captor's robes. Delighted to see him humiliated, they erupted in #cheering.
The banquet vanished. Doors slammed shut.
Their captor wiped his robes and smiled. “Never fails.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy
Under King Æthelstan, an Anglo-Saxon moneyer caught striking false coin could lose the hand that made it.
The law ordered that the severed hand be displayed at the mint as a warning to others.
Counterfeiting did not just cost a man his livelihood.
It could leave part of him hanging over it. #Edvane #GrimHistory
#vss365 “Master, how did our world #start?”
“We murdered a god, boy. Built our kingdoms upon its bones, filled its wounds with oceans and drew our magic from its dying flesh.”
“Then why does the earth tremble?”
The old wizard stared into the fire. “Because we never taught it how to die.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy
In 1419, Margery Chaloner of Leicester was convicted with two men of killing her husband.
The men were sentenced to hang. Because a wife killing her husband was treated as petty treason, Margery was sentenced to be burned.
Same killing.
Different fire. #Edvane #GrimHistory
#vss365 An imp promised Meredith a shortcut through the wood. “Follow my footprints and #travel true,” he said. “Stray once, and you’ll never leave.”
Meredith obeyed until he reached a clearing. There, the footprints ended.
The imp waited with a shovel. “I lied, mortal. Start digging.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy
Sunday gratitude to all new followers in the past week. Special thanks to everyone who reposted my stuff. Follow them too! @aHEMandias @bottomlight5evr @fizzyfizzytwiz @robbeeio63 @simon_coll87859 @skeptikoi @alienfromheart @waggishauthor @DrNaveedAhamed1 @Latikay001 @PriyambanaP @niasruv @Officeofdarknes @RedRH3000 @Davidcs_AW @Write2Fite @candace_mi54817 #Edvane
In 1722, Bartholomew Roberts, one of the most successful pirates of the age, was struck by grapeshot during battle with HMS Swallow off West Africa.
Roberts had already told his crew what to do if he died. They weighted his body and threw it into the sea before the Royal Navy could seize it.
The navy captured his ship.
It never captured the captain’s corpse. #Edvane #GrimHistory
#vss365 For two hundred years, the villagers had kept a #taper burning, passing the watch from father to son. While its flame endured, the murderous ghost beneath the bridge could never rise.
The new keeper tended it faithfully for seven nights. On the eighth, he thought of what the villagers had done to his daughter.
And blew. #Edvane #DarkFantasy
In 1704, Captain John Quelch was marched through Boston under armed guard with five of his crew after being convicted of piracy.
Crowds followed as the condemned men were taken by boat across the Charles River to the place of execution, where all six were hanged.
The procession was deliberately public.
Justice wanted an audience. #Edvane #GrimHistory
#vss365 Blunderbore's many heads could spot a traveller from #miles away. No one crossed the western hills unseen, and those who caught sight of the giant fled in terror.
One evening, a shepherd found him weeping, his eyes fixed upon the distant horizon.
“What do you see?” he asked.
“Nothing,” whispered the giant. “It's eaten everything between here and the sea.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy #Folklore
In 1701, Captain William Kidd was taken to Execution Dock in London after being convicted of murder and piracy. The rope broke on the first attempt and Kidd fell alive beneath the gallows.
There was no reprieve. He was hanged again, and his corpse was then displayed in chains beside the Thames for years.
The first hanging failed.
The warning did not. #Edvane #GrimHistory
#vss365 At Easter, the pace-egg players came, singing for pennies. Behind them, Little Devil #Doubt, carrying his broom.
“If you do not give me money, I'll sweep you all out!”
The squire laughed and slammed the door. By morning the manor was spotless. No servants, children or wife remained.
Only the squire, who had paid with his soul. #Edvane #DarkFantasy #Folklore
In 1566, pirate Richard Hitchens was convicted in Guernsey after admitting attacks on Flemish fishermen and merchant shipping. He was taken to St Martin’s Point at the sea mark and sentenced to be hanged and strangled until dead.
His body was then left hanging in chains by the shore as a warning to other pirates, with the tide rising and falling beneath him.
Even after the sentence was carried out, the coast continued the punishment. #Edvane #GrimHistory
#vss365 The witch thought her secret safe when a nobleman made his #commitment to marry her. She arrived at the appointed hour in her finest gown, only to be dragged to the scaffold, screaming curses.
He had promised they would tie the knot.
That day it was around her neck. #Edvane #DarkFantasy
The wizard is one of the most recognisable figures in fantasy, and one of the best understood. He arrives with a staff, a pointy hat, a reputation, and answers. The template has barely changed. My wizards are not that, and here's why. #Edvane #Wizards #TheDarkHearth LINK IN COMMENTS
