#FolkloreSunday In Celtic mythology deer are connected to the fairy realm or Otherworld. They are messengers associated with spirits, or gods who may shape shift into the form of deer. Some tales say they are “fairy cattle" herded and milked by an otherworldly woman.

The painting is called Lamia by John William Waterhouse an English Pre-Raphaelite painter. It is inspired by the poem Lamia by John Keats.

#FairyTaleTuesday “Left to herself, the serpent now began To change; her elfin blood in madness ran.” ~John Keats, Lamia. In Greek mythology Lamia is a child-eating serpent, a beautiful Libyan queen who had an affair with Zeus and is driven mad by Hera who steals her children.

An illustration from The Puffin Book of Magic Verse, by Barbara Swiderska. #fairytaletuesday

The Baobhan Sith is a faery vampire of the Scottish Highlands. She appears as a beautiful woman in a long green dress that hides her hooves, immediately after a male hunter expresses a yearning desire for female companionship. She seduces then attacks her prey. #FairyTaleTuesday

For those anxious to keep vampires at bay this #Halloween - the rosehip should do the trick. Its thorns when placed around a vampire’s grave can trap it therein, whilst the hips, when thrown, can stop an out & about vampire in their tracks. #FairyTaleTuesday #LegendaryWednesday

Little Red dare not fear, for the last wolf in Scotland was killed by Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel in 1680 at Killiecrankie. She only has to worry about the werewolves now! #fairytaletuesday #perthshire art: Adam Oehlers

#FairyTaleTuesday Dearg-due, “red bloodsucker” is a vampire in Irish myth. She fell in love with a man beneath her class but was forced into an arranged marriage that was unhappy, driving her to suicide. She avenges herself by rising from the dead to seduce & kill unwitting men.

#FairyTaleTuesday Wirral lore tells of a boy born illegitimately to the Bidston Hill miller & his married lover. When his mother dies and neglected by his father, he grows up left to his own devices, surviving off the land like a wild animal, assuming wolf form every full moon.

In Eastern Europe, the first vampires were not elegant but bloated, red-faced corpses rising from graves. They brought disease and drought, not seduction. Only later did literature teach them to whisper. #FairyTaleTuesday Art: Munch

In European folklore, a vampire's favored animal is usually a wolf, and in the novel, Dracula likes wolves as much as bats. But it was cheaper and easier for early horror movies to produce a believable bat than a wolf. Thus, it became the vampire's main form. #FairyTaleTuesday

#FairyTaleTuesday Lamia was a female monster or spirit who belonged to the world of Greek popular religion. In later sources, in addition to stealing & devouring babies, she would also seduce and destroy attractive young men, like a vampire or succubus. https://t.co/8poTU3Ur1A

On #BookshopDay Ladybird book character Jane, choosing herself a new Ladybird book Artist: Harry Wingfield, (Read and Write, 1965)

🎨George Dunlop Leslie (British, 1835–1921) Sun and Moon Flowers, 1889

Drink tea Stand tall Don't overthink

https://t.co/e9YnNKA6Z4

#MythologyMonday In Greek myth Melete is a Muse, those divine deities of inspiration for arts and literature. She is the muse of thought and meditation, one of the three original Boeotian Muses. She epitomises the importance of thought and reflection in the creative process.

The noblemen at King Arthur's court were said to keep vigil and pray before the altar, on the eve of being knighted. 🎨John Pettie, The Vigil, 1884 #MythologyMonday

“Maid Reading in a Library”. Oil on canvas. Edouard John Mentha. Swiss-French Artist. (1858-1914)

"Only the best golden leaf tea here, don't you know". #FallInWonderland

🎨Coby Whitmore (1913 - 1988) Girl by a Lagoon