#FairyTaleTuesday #Celtic: `In the British folk tale "The King of the Cats", a man comes home to tell his wife and cat, Old Tom, that he saw nine black cats with white spots on their chests carrying a coffin with a crown on it and one of the cats tells the man to "Tell Tom Tildrum that Tim
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The Scottish Cat Sìth is a fairy creature said to resemble an enormous black cat with a white patch on its chest. Highland tales warned that it might steal a dead person's soul before burial. Suddenly the cat sitting beside the coffin becomes considerably less comforting. #FairyTaleTuesday

"On the bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod Crane, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin.... [His body] was not to be discovered."
- Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
#FairyTaleTuesday

#FairyTaleTuesday: `The contemporary fear of black cats, like their association with witches and Hallowe’en, may be #Celtic in origin, although some have traced the connection to the Greek goddess of witchcraft, Hecate, who was also associated with cats.` […]

[Original post on hear-me.social]

#FairyTaleTuesday: `The contemporary fear of black cats, like their association with witches and Hallowe’en, may be #Celtic in origin, although some have traced the connection to the Greek goddess of witchcraft, Hecate, who was also associated with cats.`
Source: P.
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In Scottish folklore, a mysterious black cat arriving at your home could actually mean prosperity. The belief that black cats universally bring bad luck is far too simple. Depending on where you lived, that dark visitor might be exactly what you wanted. #FairyTaleTuesday

Art: Marie Brown

British sailors traditionally had surprisingly positive associations with black cats. Cats aboard ships controlled rodents, while folklore could credit them with bringing luck at sea. The supposedly unlucky black cat once had a respectable maritime career. #FairyTaleTuesday

Charles Perrault's version of Cinderella is one of the most popular, and it is this version that installed the pumpkin-as-carriage that Disney animated: this New World crop had become so ingrained in European society by the 17th century it bled into fairy tales. #FairytaleTuesday

The Great Pumpkin isn't old folklore at all. Charles Schulz invented Linus's mysterious pumpkin-patch visitor for Peanuts. That's how folklore-like traditions can begin: tell a good enough story often enough, and eventually everyone knows the rules. #FairyTaleTuesday

JACK-O-LANTERNS Before the grinning pumpkins of Halloween the folkloric versions or Jack-o-Lanterns, named for the Irish myth, were terrifying; carved from turnips or swedes they had the appearance of shrunken heads #31DaysofHalloween #FairyTaleTuesday

The Pumpkin King
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JACK PUMPKINHEAD is a fictional character from the Land of Oz in books by American author L. Frank Baum. Jack first appeared in the 2nd Oz book 'The Marvelous Land of Oz', 1904. Images of my cherished copy! #FairyTaleTuesday

Pumpkins are aligned with the moon and water. They are symbols of prosperity, fertility and protection.
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3/3 I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know I am fooling.
-Carl Sandburg redbubble.com/shop/ap/3965... #greetingcards #Halloween #poetry #31daysofHalloween #Halloween2026 #vintage #illustration #FairytaleTuesday #folklore #gifts #bookchatweekly

2/3 On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon; redbubble.com/shop/ap/3965... #greetingcards #Halloween #poetry #poem #31daysofHalloween #FairytaleTuesday #greetingcards #vintage #illustration

1/3 I spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins. redbubble.com/shop/ap/1731... #FairytaleTuesday #poem #vintage #illustration #poetry #Halloween2026 #greetingcards #bookchatweekly #poem

'Goblin Market' by Frank Craig.
#FairyTaleTuesday #fairy #fairies #faerie #poetry

In Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the object hurled at Ichabod Crane is described as a pumpkin. The next morning, his hat is found near the bridge beside the shattered pumpkin. Brom Bones finds the story suspiciously funny. #FairyTaleTuesday

Art: Andrew Jones

In Cinderella, the pumpkin coach comes from Charles Perrault's 1697 version. The fairy godmother hollows out a pumpkin and transforms it into a magnificent carriage. One of fairy tale's most famous magical vehicles began as garden produce. #FairyTaleTuesday

Art: FineA

In Washington Irving's original short story and the Disney movie, the legendary Headless Horseman is said to carry his own severed head. That Ichabod Crane gets hit by a pumpkin instead is a big clue that he's being attacked by a disguised Brom Bones instead of the real Horseman.
#FairyTaleTuesday