The world is entering a time when countries once part of a long-in-the-tooth empire want to be rid of them. And rightly so. Barbados shed its Commonwealth skin in favour of ruling as they see fit. Belize is another nation looking to rid the Crown as head of state, whether […]
Tag: Folklore
Memorial University, Haunted Hike explore fairy folklore at Botanical Gardens
Those venturing out to the Memorial University Botanical Garden this September are advised to have bread in their pockets to keep the fairies away. The university’s garden staff has combined resources with folklorist Dale Jarvis of the St. John’s Haunted Hike to present The Fairy Path, an exploration of fairy […]
Review: Redcaps of Unwelcome remind us who the real monsters are
Unwelcome Director: Jon Wright Cast: Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth and Colm Meaney Warner Bros. UK & Ireland / Ingenious Media 4/5 I’m not much of a meme person. Don’t get me wrong, I find some funny. Some go over my head as maybe my Gen-X self is just getting a […]
Review: Inconvenient facts deconstruct America’s popular ghost stories
When you tour along with Colin Dickey in his 2016 book, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, you get the sense that most paranormal stories are a grift. There may be small details that can trace themselves back to real history, but the rest are part of a slick […]
Folklore is littered with chimeras — all the more reason to dissect the fiction
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a chimera as an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts. It seems the perfect term to use when discussing the strange creatures our ancestors first bore witness to when they were exploring the world. Imagine the first time an explorer crossed paths with a tapir, capybara, […]
Review: The Quarry a howling good time, folklore wise
The Quarry Supermassive Games Microsoft Windows, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S 4.5/5 I grew up in the 1980s, the peak of Choose Your Own Adventure books. So, when the novelty of a game like Until Dawn first manifested itself on the PS4 console, I picked it up. I […]
What to listen to this Halloween
Paranormal and pop culture go hand-in-hand. A strong example of this is the “Supernatural” episode where the Winchester brothers battle a tulpa. Broken telephone factors into a ghost story that changes through online discourse. The changing story alters the haunting as the two brothers investigate. New tropes are added to […]
Memorial PhD student maps Newfoundland’s ghost ship tales
Memorial University PhD student Karin Murray-Bergquist has taken her interest in history and folklore and mapped it out for her new home province. The 29-year-old Ottawa transplant has marked phantom ships, lights, dogs and shipwrecks through an online Map app called MapHub. Initially, she wanted to map legends of the […]