Hi Everyone!

I know Halloween is over, but I've found some good content after-the-fact that I couldn't help sharing before we all start to think ahead towards the holiday season. The first is an ancient Greek tale of a vampire, and the second is a Norse tale of a man who was buried in a tomb with the undead!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LTLVUDFM_Q

Vampires in Greek MythYouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ7t26kYBk

Buried Alive (and Not Alone) | Viking Ghost StoriesYouTube

Cheers!

-KRJones87

In Norse mythology, the Poetic Mead or Mead of Poetry, also known as Mead of Suttungr, is a mythical beverage that whoever "drinks becomes a skald or scholar" to recite any information and solve any question. This myth was reported by Snorri Sturluson in Skáldskaparmál.

I found a wild beehive in the woods and harvested in the honey and used medieval tools to make traditional Norse viking mead. Update: I finished the full video (see below)

https://youtu.be/s9G9vJd55P0

Making Viking Mead from a Wild Beehive (Norse Bushcraft)YouTube

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween today! In the spirit of the season here's some videos on the the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos and the folk saint Santa Muerte:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbEbe4uzbIE&t=25s

What is Day of the Dead?YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOq8tX4gnEw

Santa Muerte: The Folk Saint of DeathYouTube

Cheers!

-KRJones87

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago we agreed that article pages should be in English, and not in the native languages of the culture that the article is about, for a multitude of reasons. One of which being that we are an English website, and the vast majority of our viewers are from the US, as well as a non-negligible amount from the UK, Canada, and Australia. Another reason we agreed to change the titles is for ease of reading, because as I had suspected, we received complaints from English speakers that they were having a hard time understanding and reading through the information on the site.

But what I've noticed is that even though the pages are being formally changed to their English titles, {{DISPLAYTITLE: Desired article name}} is being used to cause the title shown to still be in something other than plain English. This undercuts changing the titles to English in the first place and should be stopped.

I think in general, we're all so enthusiastic about myths, folklore, the cultures they come from, and sharing that information, that we want to just put all the information we can right at the beginning of the articles- but that can actually go against the goals we are trying to achieve by overwhelming and confusing new readers. We need to make sure we all take a deep breath and think to ourselves "does this information need to be at the beginning of the article, or would it better fit somewhere else?"

When it comes to understanding the original language and spelling of a particular article subject matter, as well as the original meaning of the word and how it's changed over time, we already have a place for that- the etymology section of an article.

For standardization, I think that articles should begin we a very simple introduction/overview that's only a summary of the very basic information about the article subject. After the introduction/overview, the very first heading should be the etymology section. In the etymology section you can go on as long as you want about the original spelling of a word in it's native language if you'd like to. As an example I'll show the Chaos page I've worked on:

(Intro/Overview (No Heading)--->) "Chaos (Ancient Greek: χάος Kháos) was the first of the protogenoi, and represented the primeval void that preceded all of creation in Greek Mythology.[1] Although the English word "chaos," meaning, "complete disorder and confusion,"[2] is derived from the word Kháos, this did not reflect the ancient Greek understanding of the deity, and was a product of later associations by late-classical authors who viewed Chaos was a turbulent mixture of the elements.[1]

Etymology (<---This is the first actual heading in the article page)

Chaos comes from the Greek word χάος (Kháos), which means "emptiness, vast void, chasm, abyss," and also from the verb χαίνω (kháskō), which means "gape, be wide open."[3][4] Both terms derive from the Proto-Indo-European *ghen-, a cognate to the Old English "geanian," which means "to gape" or "to yawn."[5]"

Hopefully the example above is clear. If you need clarification you can look at the Chaos page linked below to see the style that I'm using.

So is this something all the active admins can agree with? I know not all of the articles I've written include an etymology section, but I'm going to be changing that for the sake of standardization. Also sometime soon I'll be updating the wiki style policy if we can all agree on this.

So what do you all think?

-KRJones87

ChaosMyths and Folklore Wiki

https://youtu.be/W3-lSzAHW3k

Troll Sightings Trailer - Coming 2022YouTube

Attached to this post is a video of a reading of the abridged version of the American classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving in order to help get into the Halloween spirit!

The story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was written in 1820 and features an evil ghost known as the Headless Horseman: The rageful spirit of a Hessian (German) soldier who's head was blown off by a cannonball during the American Revolutionary War. The horseman's ghost now haunts the area in which he was buried in order to search for his lost head.

The concept of the Headless Horseman was inspired by a similar creature from Irish folklore known as the Dullahan: an Irish phantom, sometimes considered an evil faerie, that rode either on horseback or by horse-drawn carriage, that could remove and reattach his head at will.

Enjoy!

-KRJones87

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ04V_2WXUo&t=745s

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Reading - Live in the Nutmeg Tavern!YouTube

Headless HorsemanMyths and Folklore Wiki

DullahanMyths and Folklore Wiki