Shadows Corner

  By  Nicole Panken FAERIES: by so many  names Name Faerie, Færie, Faery, Fairy. Faeries (plural). Irish: sidheog (unreformed); síóg (reformed); sheogue (anglicised). daoine maithe (“good people”), daoine sidhe; áes sidhe (“people of the mound”); daoine uaisle (“the noble people”); bunadh na cro, bunadh na gcnoc (“host of the hills”); bunadh beag na farraige (“wee folk of the sea”). Scottish Gaelic: boctogaí, s’thiche. daoine s’th (“people of the mound”). Manx: ferrish. ny guillyn beggey (“the little boys”); ny mooinjer veggey (“the little kindred”); ny sleih veggey (“the little people”). Welsh: y tylwyth teg (the fair folk). bendith y mamau (“mother’s blessing”). Cornish: spyrys. an bobel vyghan (“the little people”). Breton: korriganez, boudig. Sources Midsummer Night’s Dream was written by William Shakespeare. Origin of the Faeries Fairy comes from the Old French word faerie. The word has been overused to describe a supernatural being. There is a great deal of differen...

  By Nicole Panken Looming over the surrounding city of Himeji, in Hyogo Prefecture, Himeji Castle would be an impressive enough sight without the added lure of a spookily famous well contained within its massive grounds. Ghost Stories are a popular subject of Japanese woodblock prints. The ghost story of  Okiku , an unfortunate servant maid, is one of the best known and was transformed into a Kabuki play and numerous novels. Kabuki (歌舞伎) is a classical Japanese dance-drama . Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate keishi/keishomake-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is considered to have begun in 1603 when Izumo no Okuni formed a female dance troupe to perform dances and light sketches in Kyoto, but developed into an all-male theatrical form after females were banned from kabuki theatre in 1629. This form of theatre was perfected in the late 17th and mid-18th century. In 2005, the ...

  By Nicole Panken Admin    The influence of the megalithic monuments on the local life of Wéris can be deduced from the local folklore, the legends and traditions that live on here. Since time immemorial, people have been looking for an explanation for these heavy stones: could giants, dwarves, fairies, witches, or ... the devil have something to do with it? In Wéris ( Belgian Aredennen), several legends circulate around the miraculous rocks: the "Pierre Haina", "Lit du Diable"   the Devil's bed) and "Pas-Bayard"  hoofprint of 't Ros Beiaard, a legend about orphans and a horse). The "Pierre Haina" is not a menhir but a freak of nature: it stands here as the only remaining boulder, the other boulders having been rolled away.  This boulder is about 3 metres high, with a slope of +/- 45°. It is possible that the term "haina" comes from the Celtic language, one could then speak of the "stone of the ancestors". The "P...