In the French fairy tale The White Cat by Madame d'Aulnoy, a prince discovers an enchanted castle ruled by a mysterious talking cat. The cat is actually a princess under a spell. Breaking it requires a rather alarming act involving her head. #MythologyMonday

The Swedish tomte or nisse guarded farms and livestock, provided the household treated him respectfully. A bowl of porridge was a traditional offering. Forgetting the butter could provoke trouble in some tales. Even fairy farmhands had culinary standards. #MythologyMonday

One widespread fairy belief warns against eating food in the Otherworld. Accepting fairy hospitality could bind a mortal to the supernatural realm or make returning home impossible. It's one of folklore's strangest recurring warnings: sometimes the feast is the trap. #MythologyMonday

The fairy ring was believed in parts of European folklore to mark a place where fairies danced. Entering one could bring enchantment, illness or a terrifying distortion of time. The mushrooms are real; the supernatural dance is folklore. Both make the circle intriguing. #MythologyMonday

The Irish leprechaun wasn't originally a cheerful mascot with a rainbow. Older folklore depicts a solitary fairy shoemaker, often dressed in red or green, who guards hidden wealth and tricks anyone attempting to capture him. Catching one was easier than keeping one. #MythologyMonday

The Irish Tuatha Dé Danann were a supernatural people who battled the Fomorians and ruled Ireland in medieval myth. Later traditions associated them with the sídhe, the fairy mounds. The Fair Folk weren't always tiny. Some were once the gods and heroes of Ireland. #MythologyMonday

In Irish folklore, the Aos Sí are supernatural beings associated with ancient mounds and the Otherworld. People sometimes called them the Good People or Fair Folk rather than speaking of them disrespectfully. When your neighbors might curse your cattle, politeness matters. #MythologyMonday

Rhode Island's Mercy Brown died of tuberculosis in 1892. When her body was exhumed, relatives interpreted its preservation as evidence she was harming her sick brother. Her heart and liver were burned, and the ashes were reportedly used in a remedy for him. #WyrdWednesday

The modern movie zombie owes an enormous debt to George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead from 1968. Curiously, the film itself generally calls its creatures "ghouls," not zombies. Audiences supplied the name that would redefine the monster. #WyrdWednesday

Art: George Pfau

In New England's 18th- and 19th-century vampire panics, families sometimes exhumed relatives after tuberculosis struck a household. A corpse showing unexpectedly little decomposition might be blamed for draining life from surviving family members. #WyrdWednesday

Connecticut's mysterious "JB-55" burial contained a man whose bones had apparently been rearranged after death, possibly as an anti-vampire measure. Researchers later used DNA and genealogy to identify him as likely John Barber, a 19th-century farmer. #WyrdWednesday

On the Greek island of Mykonos, botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort witnessed a vampire panic in 1701 involving a dead man blamed for nighttime disturbances. Villagers eventually burned the corpse. An Enlightenment-era scientist accidentally walked into a vampire story. #WyrdWednesday

The Serbian vampire Petar Blagojević became the subject of an official 1725 report after villagers claimed he returned from death and attacked them. When his body was exhumed, observers interpreted its condition as proof of vampirism and burned it. #WyrdWednesday

In Eyrbyggja saga, Thorolf Twist-Foot becomes dangerous after death. His corpse reportedly grows so heavy it can barely be moved, then later leaves its grave and terrorizes the countryside. Eventually his body is dug up and burned. Some neighbors require extreme measures. #WyrdWednesday

The medieval English chronicler William of Newburgh recorded several 12th-century stories of corpses leaving their graves to terrorize communities. He even remarked that such cases were so numerous it would be difficult to record them all. Medieval England had a revenant problem. #WyrdWednesday

The familiar skull and crossbones on early American gravestones wasn't necessarily meant to frighten anyone. Puritan-era "death's head" carvings bluntly reminded viewers that death comes for everyone. Later, winged cherubs gradually replaced some of those grinning skulls. #FairyTaleTuesday

A broken column on a gravestone traditionally symbolized a life cut short. An inverted torch could represent death while its still-burning flame suggested life continuing beyond it. Victorian cemeteries weren't simply burial grounds. They were libraries written in stone. #FairyTaleTuesday

The yew tree has been planted in British churchyards for centuries. Its extraordinary longevity, evergreen foliage, and ability to regenerate helped make it a powerful symbol of death and immortality. Some churchyard yews are older than the churches beside them. #FairyTaleTuesday

Art: Michael Kelly

A widespread cemetery superstition says you should hold your breath while passing a graveyard. Explanations vary: to keep from breathing in a spirit, to prevent the dead from entering you, or simply to avoid attracting their attention. Difficult advice beside a very large cemetery. #FairyTaleTuesday

Old European folklore sometimes warned that pointing at a grave was disrespectful or unlucky. In later versions, the offending finger might supposedly rot unless bitten or treated in some ritual way. Graveyard etiquette could become extremely specific. #FairyTaleTuesday

Image: Tiny Pine Art