Shadow Texts and the Ancient Magus’ Bride
This month's essay covers an aspect of pop culture and mythology that we don't talk about as often: the way that myths are sometimes used in popular culture in their storytelling. We talk about how mythology is used as a form of exoticisation in some narratives. But we also talk about how some narratives, like the Ancient Magus's Bride, use mythology as a shadow text which provides focus and legitimisation to the story.
Meta-Folklore and Meta-Fandom
There is fandom, but then there’s meta-fandom. Meta-fandoms would be the fandoms within fandoms, or the commentary on fandom from the fandom about the fandom. It’s has it’s own folklore and mythology, stories that are spun and detailed. Speculations, theories, the stories fans spin to each other aside from the canon are all parts of this meta-fandom.
Folklore, but different - a Research Roundup Ramble
So that’s what I want to do today. I want to stroll through some of the ideas that are complicating the field of folklore, and drawing attention away from written narratives and to lived experiences. From the explicit myth, to the implicit myth. From the verbal to the interpreted.
The Witch Trees of Wiltshire
What makes these trees and their story interesting is that they have become markers of memorialisation. Visitors cling to the story of the witch sisters and come to remember them, even those so many hundreds of years in the future that they have no specific familial connection to them at all. But they do have a personal connection – a connection born of something quite different.
The Wild Hunt, in the Witcher and Folklore
I think the Witcher series in general is a good one for simply displaying aspects and stories in folklore and mythology in ways that I think are interesting and more-or-less true to form, and the Wild Hunt is no different.