Folklore Rising by Ben Edge
Description
Ben Edge has travelled the length and breadth of Britain recording the weird and wonderful folk customs alive in communities all over the country. In this book, the first trade edition of his art, he shares over 200 paintings and photographs, along with real-life stories, anecdotes and legends. He talks about how connecting with our incredible living folklore helped him recover from depression, and also introduces his idea of folklore activism, suggesting that the current massive folk revival represents ordinary people's desire to find new ways of envisioning community and caring for and connecting to nature.
Readers will be enchanted and inspired by the images and description of: Mass events that are attended by thousands such as the solstices at Stonehenge, the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss parade, the Burry Man's Day and the Straw Bear of Whittlesea. Practices to celebrate the turning wheel of the year, from wassailing and well dressing to moon-phase rituals and Beltane fire-making. The progressive all-female Morris dancing side Boss Morris.
The Green Man - how this has become an icon of modern spirituality and eco-consciousness. Standing stones. Overall the book explores the psyche of British folklore, showing how this has fed into his art and what this means in the context of contemporary life.
It's a book about reconnection with nature, each other and the past through art and folklore.
£25.00
If you like this, you might also like:
Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread by Scott Richardsson-Read
£80.00
Limited, first edition hardback, published by the author. Now out of print.
Condition: Fine.
Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread takes readers on a captivating journey through Scotland’s landscapes, legends, and lore. This rich tapestry of folk belief and folk magic uncovers the enduring connections between land, community, and spirit, rooted in the ancestral traditions of Scotland. From animistic practices and seasonal celebrations to the struggles of resilience against suppression, this book reclaims a marginalised cultural heritage and invites readers to rediscover its relevance in the modern world. Blending deep archival research, personal storytelling, and vibrant explorations of ecology, history, and spirituality, this work is an evocative homage to Scotland’s past and a powerful call to embrace its enduring wisdom. Whether delving into the fairy faith, uncovering the rituals of ancient festivals, or examining the impact of societal upheaval, Mill Dust & Dreaming Bread offers a transformative perspective on our shared heritage and a vision of how it can inspire us today.
This limited edition, specially crafted book, supported by a Kickstarter, is for seekers, storytellers, and all who yearn to connect with the echoes of an ancient land.
England on Fire by Stephen Ellcock & Mat Osman
£22.50 £25.00
On these fabled shores we are all castaways, whether our family has lived here for four thousand years or for four. Here you will find depictions of ancient trackways, chalk carvings and standing stones, of animal-masked community rituals, of streets set ablaze in protest, of occult dreams and psychedelic prophecies. There are over 200 images by artists ranging from William Blake, J.M.W.
Turner and Samuel Palmer to Paul Nash, Louis Wain, Bill Brandt, Derek Jarman and Ithell Colquhoun to present-day visionaries such as Paula Rego, Cathy de Monchaux, George Shaw, Jamie Reid, Matt Collishaw,Tacita Dean, Lina Iris Viktor, Yinka Shonibare, Nick Waplington, Dan Hillier, Nicola Tyson, Sutapa Biswas and Chila Kumari Burman. The mind-blowing selection of images is accompanied by short texts by Mat Osman, exploring magic and mazes, ghosts and gardens, shipwrecks and cities. These poetic renderings of a spectral isle, together with Stephen Ellcock's hallucinatory visual journey, reclaim Albion as an eternally inspiring and anarchic domain - an England on fire.
Gullveigarbók by Ekortu
out of stock - £66.99
Third standard edition bound in black faux leather, 600 copies. Hardcover book stamped with golden Utgarða-Heiðr rune, black endpapers. Fully illustrated, 371 pages including a fold-out map of Heldrasill, the underworld. Published by Ixaxaar 2025.
She is known as the black underworldly crone and giantess of the black anti-cosmic runes and magic, who comes at midnight up from under the ground and walks between houses to visit the practitioners of the black arts (or fjölkunnigr, as they were called), to teach them about the black runes and anti-cosmic magic. She is known as first wife, or mistress of Loki. Her names are many, amongst which the most well-known ones are Gullveig, Heiðr, Aurboða, Angrboða and Hyrrokin. She was looked upon as an evil woman, "illr kona", and the mother of all trolls, "flagð", troll being the Old Norse term for malignant and bestial demons, viewed upon as a thurs-kin, which are often dwellers of the forests, mountains and the underworld.
The book explores Gullveig through Old Norse mythology, sagas, Witchcraft & Poetry, which also includes descriptions of related giants and underworldly locations connected to her, such as: Loki, Jørmungandr, Fenrir, Hel; Jøtunheimr, Helheimr, Niflheimr, and much more.
The Gullveigarbók gives the student a wide overview, explaining the darker side of Norse mythology as a whole, making it an important work for readers searching for knowledge concerning this before seldom explored aspect of Northern Spirituality.
The latter part of the Gullveigarbók book is called Fjølkyngi, witchcraft, and holds the esoteric aspects and praxis of the author's own witchcraft as connected to the Thursatru Tradition - Þursatrú siðr - and divulges aspects of the author's magical Gullveig workings. This part of the book also introduces students to how the Gullveig sigils, or bindrunes are to be employed.