folklore

Ben Hellman

Jun 29, 2023

Of Beasts that Gloat and Plunder

The Twa Corbies, preparing to dine on the dead knight below, from “Some British Ballads,” 1919, by Arthur Rackham, (Wikimedia Commons)....

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Fright Club: On the Equality of Monsterkind

Ben Hellman

Jan 17, 2022

Fright Club: On the Equality of Monsterkind

“It’s no use, dear boy. The shadmocks aren’t going away. We have to learn to live with them.” My impression of how the fictional world of...

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Her Undying Love; Gothic Viking Zombie Mayhem

Ben Hellman

Oct 31, 2021

Her Undying Love; Gothic Viking Zombie Mayhem

Hild, unable to bear the deaths of her lover and father, raises their bodies with the bodies of their warriors, leading to an endless...

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Teaching Gluskabe: Wrestling with American Values

Ben Hellman

Sep 19, 2021

Teaching Gluskabe: Wrestling with American Values

Gluskabe turning man into a cedar tree. Scraping on birchbark by Tomah Joseph 1884. (Image from Wikipedia). I never read a piece of...

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Timely Lessons from the Land of the Coming of the Light

Ben Hellman

Sep 6, 2021

Timely Lessons from the Land of the Coming of the Light

Just before dawn, Rockport, Maine August 26 (photo by author). The Native tribes of New England formed the Wabanaki Confederacy....

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Summer has Come; A Folklorist’s Notebook

Ben Hellman

Jul 14, 2021

Summer has Come; A Folklorist’s Notebook

A summer hare enjoying clover in my yard in southern New Hampshire. (Photo by author.) Summer has been here for a couple of weeks now and...

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Into the Mouth of American Kitsch: Wisconsin’s House on the Rock

Ben Hellman

Jun 28, 2021

Into the Mouth of American Kitsch: Wisconsin’s House on the Rock

The author contemplating another round of phantasmagorical excess at the House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin. Photo by Rachel...

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Sons of Earth and Fire; The Strange Case of the Narts’ Metallic Men

Ben Hellman

Jun 1, 2021

Sons of Earth and Fire; The Strange Case of the Narts’ Metallic Men

Batraz blasts down from the heavens, landing in the hearth of the Narts, the force of it burying him to his thighs, by artist Andrew...

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Too Much of a Good Thing; Epic Burnout in the Jangar Cycle

Ben Hellman

May 9, 2021

Too Much of a Good Thing; Epic Burnout in the Jangar Cycle

Too much of a good thing isn't always fabulous. A hero of Jangar drinks a bowl of wine it would take sixty men to lift, a common...

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Beyond Beowulf: Curses, Shapechangers, and Doomed Love

Ben Hellman

Apr 24, 2021

Beyond Beowulf: Curses, Shapechangers, and Doomed Love

The Saga of King Hrólf Kraki features two warriors, man and son, who fight as bears. The father is cursed to roam as a bear by day. The...

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Ben Hellman

Apr 11, 2021

To Catch a Catoblepas by the Tail

Detail of Sludge, the Catoblepas, a wall-mounted sculpture by author, paper mache and mixed media, inspired by an illustration by David...

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Stealing Fire: John Colarusso and the Tales of the Narts

Ben Hellman

Mar 29, 2021

Stealing Fire: John Colarusso and the Tales of the Narts

A fountain in Vladikavkaz, Russia with the Nart Sosruquo, dancing on the edge of a magic bowl. (Image courtesy Lhiten Hatko.) A range of...

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One Sad Woman; Reclaiming Hildeburh’s Tale from her Men

Ben Hellman

Mar 7, 2021

One Sad Woman; Reclaiming Hildeburh’s Tale from her Men

“The lady lamented, sorrowed with songs...the greatest fire of the slain, roared before the mound” (Beowulf, 1117-1120; Benjamin Slade...

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Look to the Light; A Folklorist’s Notebook for February

Ben Hellman

Feb 18, 2021

Look to the Light; A Folklorist’s Notebook for February

Dawn in southern New Hampshire, the first week of February. The light is returning. Every day the afternoon seems to last longer and...

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Toying with Ancient Stories; Uncovering the Tales of the Old English Poem “Widsith”

Ben Hellman

Jan 25, 2021

Toying with Ancient Stories; Uncovering the Tales of the Old English Poem “Widsith”

Danish King Hrothgar with his nephew Hrothulf, cutting down the Heathobards as Heorot Hall burns, following the failed wedding union...

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Beauty in the Beast: Photographer Charles Fréger and the Wilder Men

Ben Hellman

Jan 12, 2021

Beauty in the Beast: Photographer Charles Fréger and the Wilder Men

A winter festival performer from Christiansand, Norway, playing a Julebukk, a figure who goes door to door between Christmas and New...

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The Farmer from the Barrow: an Unusual Christmas Story

Ben Hellman

Dec 24, 2020

The Farmer from the Barrow: an Unusual Christmas Story

My Christmas eve recording of the traditional Norwegian Christmas carol "Haugebonden." A farmer and a gnome meet on a cold evening on...

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Seldom Told Tales; Unraveling Viktor Rydberg’s Norse Mythos

Ben Hellman

Dec 8, 2020

Seldom Told Tales; Unraveling Viktor Rydberg’s Norse Mythos

Freya and Svipdag, by the illustrator John Bauer. This is one of several stories I had never read about before reading Viktor Rydberg's...

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Ben Hellman

Nov 23, 2020

Discovering the Dawnland

The Abenaki's Promethean Gluscabe, outside the Millbrook Heritage Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada, part of the ancient lands stretching as...

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Dracula Revisited: On my long-ago journey to Romania

Ben Hellman

Oct 27, 2020

Dracula Revisited: On my long-ago journey to Romania

My original article, published in the Eagle Tribune about my search for the historical Dracula, and the author, twenty years ago this...

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