Art historian, quarrelsome dame, and folk witch in Scotland. Slowly emerging from the broom closet 🧹🫖🔮
*hagazussa: an early medieval word for witch, later evolving into hex. Cognate with other early words that developed into hag and, possibly, hedge.
Hagazussa in Glasgow
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Since the pyrohy post was a hit, I'll do weekly posts through the summer celebrating joy and excellence in Ukrainian + diaspora culture:
First, the 'Povzunets' folk dance by the Virsky Ensemble, done entirely in a crouch. When you think it can't get more acrobatic, it does. Behold: thighs of steel!
In some European folklore witches were thought to use sleeping people as mounts for transportation to the witches' sabbath, so that they woke exhausted in the morning, or otherwise tormenting them. Perhaps an explanation of sleep paralysis, which causes terrifying auditory and sensory hallucinations
And the lady sitting across the aisle from me on the bus is talking on the phone in Ukrainian 😊❤️🇺🇦
After Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí attended a performance of this dance, he cornered one of the soloists and patted him down, convinced there was hidden machinery powering his knees.
Here it's filmed from the wings, so you can see the footwork! Closest comparison I can think of is break dancing
Another adorable early modern woodcut: 16th-century view of elves as satyr- and demon-like human-animal hybrids.
'Nocturnal dance of elves', in the Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, 1555, Cornell University Library Digital Collections, link ⬇️ #WitchSky #Art #ArtHistory #illustration
A horde of witches and demons fly overhead above a praying couple.
'Na klek', Hinko Smrekar, drawing, 1907, Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hi...
#WitchSky #Art #ArtHistory
Ukrainian folk magic practice (also seen in other Slavic cultures): a red thread knotted around the left wrist (ideally by a loved one) wards off the evil eye and malicious spirits. Red is the colour of life, strength, family, protection, and magic... #FolkWitchFriday #WitchSky
Folk witch novel alert! The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
PhD student Connie moves to her grandma's ancient, formerly abandoned cottage in Salem and discovers a mysterious old book. Features folk divination practices (sieve and shears, book and key)! #FolkWitchFriday #WitchSky
Orkney celebrates the intersection of Ukrainian and Scottish folklore this weekend: www.orkney.gov.uk/latest-news/... #folklore #scotland #ukrainian #orkney
