Sleeping With The Devil: A Weird And Wonderful Collection Of Medieval Bedroom Hijinks With Creatures From Hell
The Conception of Merlin – Histoire de Merlin, France (Poitiers), 1450-1455. BNF, Français 96, fol. 62v
The Middle English Prose Merlin at Cambridge University Library MS Ff.3.11, apparently written near the middle of the fifteenth century, not long before Thomas Malory was composing Morte D’Arthur, is thought the earliest piece of Arthurian literature written in English prose. Continue reading »
Handsome Devils Puppets: These Eerie Puppets Are Made With Human Hair, Antique Lace, And A Dead Grandmother’s Jewelry
The artist Han overcomes personal trauma by making puppets reminiscent of memento mori. Inspired by morbid memories and antique funerary rituals, the Handsome Devils are hand-sculpted, incredibly detailed puppets, decorated with spooky ephemera like bones found in a field or fragments of the artist’s grandmother’s jewelry. In addition to original characters, many of the puppets Han builds are based on iconic horror films or famously mysterious personalities, like Sylvia Plath. Continue reading »
Rare Photographs Of The Dancing Devils Of Liberia
The Liberian dancing devils assume the role of bush devils, spirits that originate from the spiritual world of the ‘Poro’, or ‘bush’. The communities they belong to have long been a part of the culture of certain ethnic groups that constitute present-day Liberia. In the Poro context, the dancing devils are not regarded as evil— they have the ability to inflict punishment on individuals, though this is only used to bring order to society. The devils used to dance only at traditional festivals, though with the arrival of the freed and freeborn American settlers in the 1800s, they brought their dance to imported Christian holiday celebrations such as Christmas. Despite the devils’ ability to adapt, the christian Americans became the ruling class and pushed these unorthodox traditional customs to the underground. Continue reading »
