Hallowed Ground: The Folklore of Churches and Churchyards by Mark Norman
Description
Hallowed Ground examines the surprising traditions, customs, superstitions, and secular imagery found in Christian churches and churchyards, with a particular emphasis on the traditional rural protestant church. Beginning with stories associated with the construction of church buildings themselves and the role that they played in the community, the book moves through a number of subjects where everything might not be as it would seem it should be in the Christian church and its grounds. Expect vestiges of pagan symbols hidden in the fabric of the church building and clergymen rumored to hold strange arcane knowledge of their own, kept within their personal occult libraries. Learn the ways in which you can use the church and its grounds to divine who might die in the next twelve months, where you might find love, and how you might cure illnesses. Watch out for a number of figures you wouldn't expect to find on such holy ground, from run-ins with the devil to spectral figures inhabiting the church or its graves. Discover some of the ways in which magic and witchcraft seep into the hallowed ground of the churchyard from outside. Hallowed Ground will offer more than a few surprises about the folklore that surrounds the church andchurchyard and a fascinating insight into the social history of our place of traditional Sunday worship, all delivered with the academic rigor and accessible, engaging style for which the author is known.
If you like this, you might also like:
The Watkins Book of English Folktales by Neil Philip
£13.49 £14.99
Neil Philip has provided a full introduction and source notes on each story that illustrate each tale's journey from mouth to page, and what has happened to them on the way. These tales rank among the finest English short stories of all time in their richness of metaphor and plot and their great verbal dash and daring.
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.