Signe Maene

@signemaene.com

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Belgian writer of stories inspired by Flemish folklore. Loves spooky woods, fairies, selkies, poetry and pretty shoes :-) BookWormSat with Rachel Deering.🖤 OUT NOW: Flemish Folktales Retold. signemaene.com/links/

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I won't be online for a week or so, except to co-host #BookWormSat, so I'm just dropping a link to Flemish Folktales Retold here.🐦‍⬛🖤 signemaene.com/flemish-folk...

According to a Flemish folktale travellers were very wary of a road where a black cat always sat on a fence. It was said that if someone wanted to walk past the cat, the feline would say that their house would burn to the ground. People preferred a detour. 🎨Jacobus van Looy

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What a stellar day for the bookpost! Ursula K LeGuin (Space Crone), Signe Maene (@signemaene.com) (Flemish Folktales Retold), and Dr. Mary Morse (English Birth Girdles). #books #medievalsky

Copies of Flemish Folktales Retold are now for sale in the Brugse Boekhandel, a lovely bookshop in the centre of Bruges. 💙 If you're nowhere near Belgium's city of canals, there's more info with places where our book can be bought here: signemaene.com/flemish-folk...

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“Rosalie saw before her eyes a tree of marvellous beauty” (1920) by Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900-1931)

Flemish Folktales Retold visits the witches who shapeshifted into cats, the ghosts who were banished to trees, the lost souls who dwelt in the wind, and the many other beings who hid in the darkness. All info with places where the book is available here: signemaene.com/flemish-folk...

How often have I paused on every charm, The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm, The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill, The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade' -Oliver Goldsmith 🎨Ernest Walbourn #BookWormSat

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‘Above the russet clods, the corn is seen Sprouting its spiry points of tender green, Where squats the hare, to terrors wide awake, Like some brown clod the harrows failed to break.’ It’s John Clare’s birthday on #BookWormSat so join us in the rural idylls of literature.

In Flanders, it was believed that sprinkling water from a holy spring on the windows of a house would prevent any damage occurring during a terrifying storm. 🎨Georges Michel

'let me forget the ever dulling shine of hope, let me rely instead upon expectation.' -Rachel Deering Another beautiful and mesmerising poem by the wonderful @racheldeering.bsky.social. This time inspired by the folklore of pretty natterjacks. 💚👇

New poem: Natterjack www.abctales.com/story/onemor...

He's interested in the feathers and not in the book despite the fact that he makes an appearance in one of the tales. 😼 Anyhow, Flemish Folktales Retold is OUT NOW! More info here: signemaene.com/flemish-folk...

A Flemish folktale tells of a captain who had made a deal with the devil. He was the luckiest and wealthiest man alive, but when his time was up, the devil rode over the waves to his ship in a horse-drawn carriage and murdered him. 🎨Egide Linnig

More bad news about my dental woes than I can handle today, but at least I get to open my emergency can of Irn-Bru and cry and crawl into bed.

'Ah! woe is me! poor silver-wing! That I must chant thy lady’s dirge, And death to this fair haunt of spring, Of melody, and streams of flowery verge' -John Keats 🎨Sophie Gengembre Anderson

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Royal Natural History, Richard Lydekker, originally published in 1893. #OwlishMonday

'Follow, follow, nigher, nigher - Over bank, and pond, and briar, Down into the croaking ditches' -George Meredith 🎨Elizabeth Forbes

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"Lie close," Laura said, Pricking up her golden head: "We must not look at goblin men. We must not buy their fruits. Who knows upon what soil they fed Their hungry, thirsty roots?" - Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market" 🎨Arthur Rackham #BookWormSat #BookChatWeekly #31DaysofHaunting

Flemish Folktales Retold surrounded by the magical owls who are the dear companions of one of the witches in the book. 🦉🖤 Info with places where the book is available here: signemaene.com/flemish-folk...

In a Flemish folktale a father locked up his daughter in a tower because she wanted to marry someone he disapproved of. He eventually drowned her. The sun set the tower on fire. Since then, the father could only hear his daughter's cries in the river. He went mad.

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Fairy in Irises, Dora Wheeler.

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‘Charlie…desperately wanted something more than…cabbage soup. The one thing he longed for more than anything else was…CHOCOLATE.’ ~ Roald Dahl. This #BookWormSat coincides with #WorldChocolateDay and so we will eat, I mean, celebrate the sweet treats of literature.

Enter the long forgotten world of Flemish folktales and dance on a dark tune with spirits who live in the wind, monsters who lurk in rivers, ghosts, devils, witches, and other unearthly creatures... Info about the book here: signemaene.com/flemish-folk...

'You must suffer me to go my own dark way.' -Robert Louis Stevenson 🎨Ryan Mutter

Hello lovely people, to celebrate Flemish Folktales Retold's release, I have recorded a video with a reading of one of the stories. Hares are said to be shapeshifting witches and the message is to stay away from them, but sometimes, the hares meet the right person. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Swf...

Reading Flemish Folktales Retold: The Hares and the Accordion Playerwww.youtube.com Flemish Folktales Retold is OUT NOW! Info about the book and places where it is for sale: https://signemaene.com/flemish-folktales-retold/Flemish Folktales R...

A Flemish folktale says a will-o'-the-wisp hovered over the place where a treasure was buried. The light was thought to be the soul of the person to whom this treasure belonged. Nobody dared to go there for it was said the will-o'-the-wisp would break your neck. 🎨Hermann Hendrich

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Just ordered! #books #folktales

📚🐦‍⬛Flemish Folktales Retold is OUT NOW!📚🐦‍⬛ Walk on Flanders's paths to murky castles where will-o'-the-wisp's hover and meet the unearthly creatures who roamed this haunted region. With @cazerin.bsky.social and @kerria.bsky.social. Info about the book here: signemaene.com/flemish-folk...

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Everyone should know about Flemish folklore. 👇 Written beautifully and expertly.

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William Morris & Co.

I just found out that the reason why Frodo's shoebox is torn is because he's EATING IT! 😱