Notices by Jürgen Hubert (juergen_hubert@mementomori.social)

One of the most common antisemitic slanders against Jews was "blood libel" - the notion that Jews desired the blood of Christian for nefarious purposes.

#Germany #antisemitism #folktale #folklore
https://sunkencastles.com/2024/01/29/antisemitism-in-german-folklore-part-2-blood-libel/

Ich habe gerade in der Bekanntschaft einen Notfall.

Hat hier jemand eine Ahnung, wer in #Düsseldorf und Umgebung unentgeltlich zum Thema #Visum beraten kann?

Bitte boosten!

I could use some book recommendations. I am looking for folk tale collections which are

1. from cultures outside of Europe, and

2. were written by people _from_ that culture.

Ideally, they should also be translated into English (or German) by people from that culture as well.

It would also be a plus if they contain a lot of "local legends" which incorporate local geography and history (as opposed to "fairy tales" which take place at indeterminable places and times).

#folklore #AmReading #Bookstodon

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct. 6: What might an inattentive reader miss in your work?

I dunno, but I would like to know, since I try to explain the subtleties in the stories in my copious footnotes and commentary.

(Since these are 19th century German folk tales, such explanations are very much needed for an international modern audience.)

From time to time, a ghostly funeral procession appears in the valley of Seon.

#MythologyMonday
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Nighttime_Funeral_Procession_Near_Seon

This is a bad idea. Just like Judaism itself, #Zionism means a lot of different things to different people, and plenty of people both see themselves as Zionists _and_ want a two-state solution.

And Jews _do_ have a valid ancestral claim to this territory. This doesn't invalidate that Palestinians _also_ have a valid ancestral claim, but still.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/04/green-party-votes-adopt-policy-zionism-racism

When encountering strange, beautiful women who express an interest in you out of nowhere, you should be suspicious.

At the very least, you should be more suspicious than _this_ guy.

#Germany #folktale #folklore
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/How_A_Burgher_Mistook_A_Dead_Cow_For_A_Beautiful_Woman

Blood will tell.

#Germany #folktale #folklore #Lübeck
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Church_at_Maitenbeth

Yes, #AI _will_ kill us all within 10 years, and this provides us a glimpse of how it is going to happen.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/report-us-almost-boarded-chinese-ship-over-hallucinated-ai-arms-report/

Would _you_ trust a naked maiden guarding a treasure?

#Germany #folktale #folklore #magic #treasure
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Treasures_of_the_Isholz

I find it _interesting_ that most modern portrayals of fairy tales involve kings, knights, princesses and so forth - the privileged aristocratic classes on top of the social pyramid. Even if the protagonist of such a tale is poor, they are still secretly from privileged parents, and their story tends to be about reclaiming their "rightful" (i.e. privileged) place in society.

Meanwhile, the _vast_ majority of German folk tales I have read feature peasant protagonists. Nobles _might_ appear, but they are the villains as often as they are a force for "good".

Reframing fairy tales to focus on protagonists of privileged birth and relegating low-born characters to sidekicks and background characters was a _choice_. It's so pervasive nowadays that most modern-day storytellers don't even realize that they are making this choice, since they have accepted this as "normal". But it is a choice nonetheless.

And if we are telling stories of our own, we need to ask ourselves what choices we are making when developing our protagonists.

#privilege #storytelling #AmWriting #ClassStruggle

There is often beautiful furniture at the places where witches gather.

But things are rarely as they seem at such occasions...

#MythologyMonday
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Horse_Skeleton

Magic and dating are a _bad_ combination.

#Germany #Austria #folktale #folklore #magic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2isQIBnCLKg

Beware of free-roaming ovens!

#MythologyMonday
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Glowing_Oven_in_the_Forest

Just like priests, the Devil also wants the dying to confess their sins - if for rather different reasons.

#Germany #folktale #folklore #Devil
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Devil_Hears_a_Miner%27s_Confession

Plot idea: A fiendish partron of witches and warlocks loses the book where all his mortal partners signed their names.

This now becomes a _very_ sought-after McGuffin for any number of interested parties...

#ttrpg #dnd
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Witches_Make_Butter

I have added an #AI policy to my wiki.

To wit, I don't use AI for my #translations .

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Main_Page

Gazing into the future can summon great misfortune.

#MythologyMonday
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Crystal_Gazing

An announcement: I moved my #BookWyrm account from

@juergen_hubert@bookrastinating.com

to

@juergen_hubert@tomes.tchncs.de

However, you should be aware that the import of my old data... did not go smoothly. So over the course of the next few weeks I will have to re-add a couple of hundreds of books manually to my account.

There is a right time and a right place for everything - including card games.

Conversely, there is very much a wrong place and wrong time for card games.

#MythologyMonday
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Devil_Fetches_Card_Players