Just saw one of those bot-like posts that’s like a selfie photo of some pretty woman and the caption saying “I’m bored. Reblog this and talk dirty with me.” And I investigated the notes and this one random dude had commented “yes, talk with me Scarlet” and the bot replied telling him to dm it.

And I’m thinking like these bots are the equivalent of those folklore creatures who would convince men they’re beautiful women who want them (in a ridiculous location like a swamp) and then drown the stupid men who fall for it. Except nowadays instead of being drowned they just get hacked and scammed.

I always would laugh at folklore stories like that. Like who would be dumb enough to believe that some attractive woman is rising out of a swamp or a random field or whatever and desires them randomly? But it turns out that there are men who fall for obvious bots and would absolutely be drowned by a folklore creature too.

Explore the myth of Atlantis as described by Plato, its philosophical significance, and the modern quest to uncover this lost civilization.

Folklore and Mythology: The Birth and Persistence of the Atlantis Legend

folklore truly remains the album of all time

Traditional costume of Patmos, Greece

Idryma Zisi

Another gentleman with a rooster feather. This is the Rattenfänger von Hameln.

Ojcowski Park Narodowy, 2025

Diverse World of Dragons

Dragons have fascinated people for thousands of years. Many cultures and narrative traditions have used them as symbols of power, knowledge, chaos, and mystery. The Connect Paranormal Blog goes into great detail on these wonderful animals, looking at everything from old stories to new video games, from ghostly appearances to crystal psionics. This essay looks at the wonderful variety of dragon stories on Connect Paranormal. This essay demonstrates how these fabled creatures continue to evolve, yet remain captivating as natural forces that frighten, challenge, and inspire us.

It’s always “the abominable snowman” this and “the abominable snowman” that, but what about the inevitable snowman? No matter what you do, no matter what path you take or what choices you make in life, it’s going to be there. There is no way to escape it. It will find you — inevitably.

Can we actually talk about why the Yuki-onna legend needs a modern sequel? ❄️🔥

I’m sitting here thinking about the 1964, 1968 and 2016 films and, honestly? I’m frustrated. We keep getting these gorgeous, atmospheric “cautionary tales” that basically end with: “You made a mistake, now your family is destroyed. Bye!”

It’s peak nihilism, and I think we’re overdue for a rewrite that actually respects the characters. Here’s why we need a sequel that follows the “Sentinel and the Spirit” arc:

Western Folklore is already doing the work: Look at Hades, where the game features Orpheus and Eurydice helped by Zagreus and reunited again. Or even Hadestown musical. We are obsessed with taking these “tragic” Greek myths and finding the human agency inside them. Challenging the rules/Gods and Fate.

We’re asking “What if Orpheus tried again?” or “What if Persephone chose her own throne?”

Are Japanese myths still trapped in “rigid, archaic rules” era where there is no room to explore the aftermath of the tale or the films? It’s time to stop treating these stories like museum pieces and start treating them like living metaphors. The West is way ahead of that with their own deconstructions of mythology and folk tales. We’re driven by the “what if” explorations in even our most tragic ones.

The Original is a “Male Gaze” Trap: Historically, these stories were recorded by men to warn men about the “danger” of powerful women. In the original, Minokichi is a passive victim, and Oyuki is a plot device. A modern sequel gives them the ability to change their fates.

It turns Minokichi into a Sentinel (and a badass) - a man who uses his wit and backbone to protect the mysterious nature of his wife, rather than just fearing it.

Buddhist Principles > Nihilism: The original ending is so… un-Buddhist? Where is the Karuna (Compassion)? Where is the Atonement?

Sentient Accountability: Traditionalists argue that she represents winter - beautiful, cold, but deadly. She’s not human, she is a natural force operating under the same ruthless laws as a blizzard.

Except, Oyuki is portrayed as a sentient being: if she can love, cry, marry and build a family as a human, she is sentient enough to atone. Compassion and mending a broken home shouldn’t be reserved only for humans.

In the modern era, atonement for one’s crimes also extends to supernatural beings and monsters.

Universal Principles of Atonement, Reconciliation, Love and Forgiveness: Minokichi and Oyuki would need the courage to forgive each other because they both screwed up: him for breaking the vow, and her for killing his mentor and holding him hostage all those years under a burden that was bound to explode. In Buddhism, this is called Zange (repentence or confession), Tsumi-horoboshi (atonement for expatiating one’s sins) and Jihi (compassion).

Minokichi would not be passive either. He would fit the modern hero archtype with cleverness, wit and selflessness: He would ask Oyuki that if she can’t forgive or be with him, atleast “be there for your children.” He would not care about the supernatural rules either, as they’re outdated and cruel from a modern perspective.

This is only if Oyuki had the choice to stay and wasn’t kept prisoner by her own supernatural world. And if she was? Challenge them. Do it if you truly found something worth loving a human man and living a human life, and your children.

- In a modern sequel, Minokichi’s breaking of the vow isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of his sincerity (Makoto). He would vow to protect Oyuki’s secret, but this time not out of fear, but fear for her. He knows how cruel and evil humans can be when they fear or envy what they can’t control.

Instead of the story ending in abandonment, it should explore Kintsugi and Buddhist Atonement. True strength isn’t never making a mistake. It’s staying to fix the mess you made.

The Philosophy of Kintsugi (金継ぎ): This is the biggest missed opportunity. In Japanese culture, we have the art of repairing broken pottery with gold, making the piece stronger and more beautiful for having been broken.

• The broken vow, threatening and traumatizing the one you love by that vow and then lying to them for 10 years about your true identity are the cracks in the bowl.
• The reconciliation, atonement, forgiveness, trust, love and a new vow (one actually kept under sincere circumstances) are the gold.

A sequel that shows them rebuilding their life together—scars and all—is, to me, more profound than a story that just throws the bowl away because it’s not “perfect” anymore.

Mono no aware: A lot of traditionalists cling to the original ending because they believe the tragedy is the only way to express mono no aware (物の哀れ)—that bittersweet “pathos of things” and the beauty found in transience.

But a modern sequel doesn’t kill that feeling; it actually makes it deeper. Traditionalists argue that Oyuki must leave because she is like the snow—beautiful because she is fleeting. But that is a surface-level reading. Mono no aware is found in the “replanted grove.” It’s the sweet sadness of Minokichi and Oyuki choosing to build a life in the “middle ground” while knowing their time is limited.

Minokichi is a mortal woodcutter and Oyuki is an eternal spirit. Their Soul-Bond is precious precisely because it is a “loophole” carved out of a finite human life.

We need the “Loophole Woodcutter”: I want a hero who acknowledges he’s “messy and flawed” but uses his human cleverness to out-reason the gods of winter. We need to see that a family built on Truth is more powerful than a law built on Silence.

The original tale is a tragedy of what we lose when we’re afraid. A sequel would be a celebration of what we gain when we’re brave enough to be honest. 🌲✨

“The Verbal Sellsword: Scheherazade and the Weapon of Suspense”

People tend to think of storytelling as a cozy, soft art form. Lullabies and campfires. But if you look at the roots of human mythology, storytellers were often verbal sellswords.

The ultimate example is Scheherazade from the One Thousand and One Nights.

She walks willingly into the bedchamber of a serial killer—a King who has been executing a new bride every single dawn. She brings no hidden daggers. Instead, she brings the greatest psychological weapon in human history: the cliffhanger.

By beginning a tale and abruptly stopping right at the climax as the sun rises, she effectively holds a tyrant hostage. She leverages his own curiosity against his madness. He stays the executioner’s blade just to hear the ending, day after day. She sustains this high-wire hostage negotiation for three years.

It is a brutal, brilliant lesson in power dynamics. Words aren’t just air. They are armor. If you know how to command and hold a room’s attention, you are the most dangerous person in it—even if you are the one in chains.

Far beyond the mist of Northlands,

Where the lakes lie vast and silent,

Lay the land of roaring waters,

Valley deep and hills forbidding.

There did Oskari, valiant vintner,

Turn the stone and tame the forest,

Planted vine where frost had slumbered,

Warmed the roots with fire and labour.

“Laugh they did in far Ontario,

Mocked they did in old Niagara,

‘Fool, who grows the grape in winter?

Frost shall eat your harvest early!’”

Yet the vines took root and prospered,

Softened by the sun of springtime,

Bore the fruit like red Aurora,

Draped in gold approached the autumn.

Oskari of vine and valley,

Tilled his land with steady labour,

Pressed the grapes and sang the stories,

Passed on down from old Suomi.

Then one spring the winds grew silent,

Came no song of finch nor swallow,

Only whirr of restless hunger,

Wings that darkened all the heavens.

Hoppers leapt and gnawed the tendrils,

Stripped the vines till roots lay naked,

Not a leaf to shade the berries,

Not a branch to hold the bounty.

Oskari wept, his hands hung helpless,

Raised his voice in lamentation,

"Lo, the curse of dark Louhitar!

Pest of Northland, bane of plenty!”

Then upon the hill there sounded,

Soft as waves on silent waters,

Pluck of string of the kantele,

Winding like the dawn through vineyard.

Tall he stood, with eyes like sunlight,

Cloak of green and voice of thunder,

“Saint I am, and Urho called me,

Grasshoppers my foes of old!”

Strings did ring and notes resounding,

Urho sang with voice unyielding,

“Shoo! Away, ye beasts of famine,

Take cursed wings to other pastures!”

Hoppers fled with raising terror,

Blown upon the northern tempest,

Scattered far to lands unyielding,

Never more to mar the harvest.

Thus the vines in joy did blossom,

Suckled by the earth and sunlight,

And Oskari knelt in wonder,

At the saint with kantele singing.

Happy St Urho’s Day, O best beloved!

Born from Finnish-American wit in the 1950s, Saint Urho’s Day (March 16th) honours a saint who banished the grasshoppers and saved the famous Finnish vineyards. The Finnish communitiy’s tongue-in-cheek answer to St. Patrick, Urho’s tale grew into its own legend, celebrated across Minnesota, Ontario, and beyond.

Oh folklore, you are so so so special to me.

What is your favourite album by Taylor!

masterlist ‧₊˚✮˖ ⋆.˚

folklore series ₊˚⊹♡

track 01: the 1
we were something, don’t you think so? - choi soobin x reader

track 02: cardigan
i knew you - hueningkai x reader

track 11: invisible string
one single thread of gold tied me to you - choi yeonjun x reader

folklore is still such a comfort listen for me. idk if it’s the nostalgia and the memories or if it’s the production etc but smth about it just reaaaally calms me down (yes even the sad stuff)

This is me trying

— This fanfic is based off of the song this is me trying by Taylor Swift.

— yelena is your older sister.

═══════════

You were only sixteen years old. Yelena’s younger sister. You lived in the compound with her, you shared a room, shared secrets & jokes between one another. You both knew eachother inside out. Well, that’s what Yelena thought.

She didn’t know about the silent crying before you fell asleep each night, the battles of war you were fighting silently in your head, the exhaustion that was mounted ontop of your shoulders of not being enough.

You pushed through like you always did, with a smile, you didn’t want anyone to worry about you. Especially Yelena. She has dealt with enough problems with the passing of your older sister, Natasha.

She found out about everything one evening.

You were sitting in your room staring at the wall, the thoughts overwhelming you. You couldn’t do this anymore, you didn’t want to be alive anymore. Everything felt like a chore that left you burnt out way too easily. Tears were streaming down your face hot and salty. Your body was shaking from trying to hold in the sobs that wanted to emerge free.

Yelena had knocked on the door. No answer. She waited a few seconds before knocking again. She thought you were asleep, so she twisted the handle and stepped inside.

The scene she saw infront of her, made her chest ache. She quietly walked over to you, not wanting to startle. She put her arms around you and pulled you into a tight hug. Running her hands through your long blonde hair while whispering soothing words in Russian.

You jumped when Yelena had pulled you into a hug. You tried to fight it and act like everything was fine but your body was too exhausted to. Too tired of trying to be okay when everything was falling apart.

Yelena held you close and whispered asking what happend.

That’s when it came crashing down. You sobbed into your older sisters arms, every emotion you had been holding in pouring out so fragile between you two.

You explained the emptiness you had felt lately, the thoughts, everything that was going on, because once you had started explaining you couldn’t stop.

Once you had finished telling Yelena everything, you took a breath and apologised. Apologised for being a burden and apologised for being too much.

Yelena sniffled, crying as she couldn’t bare the pain you were in. She held you and said she’s getting you help.

You both laid on the bed, cuddling, Yelena held you close and sung a lullaby to send you to sleep. in Russian that Natasha used to sing before she passed.

──── ୨୧ ────

I’m so sorry that this is so shit 😭😭. It’s my first ever fanfic so I don’t really know what im doing, I promise I’ll try to get better 🙏. If you have any requests please leave suggestions and I’ll try to get around to them! <3

— sincerely, Belle ⟡

The drama of the green-eyed monster escalates.

This might have been more serious than Margit realized.

Introducing a new character, Dreng. He’s an art student and a friend and fellow tenant of Margit. And maybe something else that will turn out to be important.

Duality and Balance: