Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a member of the Apiaceae family—otherwise known as the Carrot family. It's also known as Beaver Poison, Devil's Porridge, Herb Bennet, Poison Parsley, Water Parsley, and Spotted Hemlock.

The plants can grow to 2.5m, and they're commonly found in the British countryside. The whole plant is toxic. According to Mrs Burke's Language of Flowers dictionary, hemlock meant 'You will be my death'.

The plant appears in history, but how does it appear in folklore, if at all? Let’s find out in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore!

Find the images and sources used on the associated blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/folklore-of-poison-hemlock/

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Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna) is part of the Solanaceae family, which also contains peppers, aubergines, tomatoes and potatoes! This most famous of poisonous plants is also known as belladonna, banewort, deadly dwale, Devil’s cherries, or death’s herb.

The deadly nature of belladonna was noted as far back as 1550 BC. It's not a particularly common plant in the wild, although it does prefer woodland.

Yet it’s not necessarily a plant you might rush out to grow. You might also be hard-pressed to use it for meaningful communication. According to Mrs Burke's Language of Flowers dictionary, nightshade meant 'truth'. In the same book, belladonna is listed with the meaning 'silence'.

So how does this plant appear in folklore, besides its links to the Devil and witchcraft? Let’s find out in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore!

Find the images and sources used on the associated blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/deadly-nightshade-folklore/

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Aconitum, referred to as ‘aconite’, is part of the Ranunculaceae family, or the buttercup family. 

The Aconitum genus contains around 100 species, each of which is poisonous. Records of its use date back 3000 years. 

The Anglo-Saxons apparently called it ‘thung’, which meant 'poison plant'. The plant also gained the nicknames 'helmet flower', 'friarscap', 'old wife's hood' and 'granny's nightcap'.

Given how horrifically poisonous the plant is, it has few medicinal or even magical uses. Yet it still appears in folklore and legend, so let’s explore some of the tales of aconite in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore!

Find the images and sources used on the associated blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/aconite-folklore/

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Foxgloves are one of the most enchanting wildflowers you might encounter in a shady woodland. With their deep pink flowers on spikes that can grow as tall as a person, they certainly arrest the attention.

Even their name is evocative, with a smattering of legends to explain where ‘foxglove’ came from. Yet as pretty as the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is, the plant is also poisonous. It’s great for bees, but less so for us.

At least, not if we don’t need the toxins it provides the pharmaceutical industry for heart medicine!

But given their host of folk names, association with witches, and appearance in legend, let’s dig into the folklore of foxgloves in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore!

Find the images and sources used on the associated blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/folklore-of-foxgloves/

Non-traditional haunted houses writing workshop: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/summer-scares-6-week-horror-writing-school-tickets-1980775625216

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When we talk about poisonous plants, your mind might leap to the celebrities, like foxglove, aconite, or belladonna. You may not immediately think of cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum). It’s native to the UK and surprisingly common. I’ve equally found it in botanic gardens and city centre flowerbeds.

Poisoning caused by this plant is thankfully rare, and they do serve a purpose in the ecosystem. Their berries feed birds and they’ll grow in conditions other plants don’t enjoy. Arum maculatum is in the araceae family.

But how did people use arum for both mundane and magical purposes? Let’s find out in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore!

Find the images and sources used on the associated blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/cuckoo-pint/

Buy Bring Me Love: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/12992/9781786789747

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We're finishing up Witches Month by switching gears a little to examine the genesis of a foundational text of modern Wicca - Arada: Or The Gospel of the Witches. To do so, I'm joined by Dr A. D. Manns to explore the life, work, and possible influence of Roma Lister, a longtime collaborator of Charles Godfrey Leland. We chat about Florence as a hotbed of occult activity in the late 19th century, Roma's work collecting folklore from Italian witches, and how she may have had a hand in the creation of Aradia.

Dr A. D. Manns is a historian and writer who has long maintained a deep interest in folklore, comparative religion, dissident politics, and mystical literature. He graduated from the Warburg Institute in 2019 with a study on the religio-political storytelling of the 17th-century English propagandist and parliamentarian William Prynne. In 2025, Hexen Press published his first monograph, Aradia's Hidden Hand: The Untold Life of Roma Lister.

Visit Drew's website: https://thethinkersgarden.com/

Buy Aradia's Hidden Hand: https://www.hexen.fr/books-prints/aradia-s-hidden-hand-ad-manns

Find Drew on Instagram: https://instagram.com/druidauvergne

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In this episode of Fabulous Folklore, I'm chatting to Marion Gibson about Helena Scheuberin and her witchcraft trial in 1485 in Innsbruck, how her clash with Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer led to the Malleus Maleficarum, and how that hateful book led to such widespread disaster across the centuries.

Marion Gibson writes accurate, engaging books about witches and magic in history. She’s been interested in witches for over thirty years, since she read the words of women accused of witchcraft in Elizabethan England. Why were they accused of crimes they didn’t commit? And why did they confess? Marion’s books tell the stories of these women and the men accused alongside them, and she explores the wider history of witch trials, folklore, magical and pagan beliefs and things that go bump in the night.

Buy Witchland: A Tale of Witch Hunting and War in Seventeenth Century Britain: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/12992/9781398545144

Find Marion online: https://mariongibson.co.uk/

Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/

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In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I chat to Dr Andrea Wright about the fairy tale film as a concept, Jim Henson's career in film and television, the influence of the Muppets on fairy tales on screen, and what Jareth would have made of Miss Piggy!

Andrea Wright is a Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning Development at Edge Hill University. She leads the Professional Standards Framework CPD Scheme, teaches on the PGCert Teaching in Higher Education and is involved in staff development across the University. Her discipline expertise is in screen studies and fantasy/fairy tales, New Zealand cinema, and British television costume dramas are central to her research interests. She has written on production design, landscape, gender representation, and national identity.

Recent publications include chapters on the New Zealand short films Possum and Nature’s Way for the collection Haunted Soundtracks, and The Frankenstein Chronicles and The Alienist for the collection Diagnosing History: Medicine in Television Costume Dramas. Andrea is also the author of the monograph The Fairy Tales of Jim Henson: Keeping the Best Place by the Fire.

Buy a copy of The Fairy Tales of Jim Henson: Keeping the best place by the fire here, using the code EVENT30 to get a discount: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526166111/

Contact Andrea at [email protected]

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In this episode, we're chatting about witchcraft in Shropshire, a specific 19th century witch named Ann Morgan, and what Ann's life - and death - can tell us about Shropshire, her century, and ourselves.

Amy Boucher is a writer and folklorist, who focuses on her native Shropshire. Her emphasis is primarily on the interplay between folklore, history and the paranormal, and perceptions of the past through the lens of folk customs and belief. 

Find Amy online at: https://nearlyknowledgeable.co.uk/

Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/

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In this first episode of Fabulous Folklore's Witches theme for July, I'm chatting to Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack from the End Witch Hunts project about the Salem Witch Trials. We'll be discussing the context of the trials, possible causes that don't involve mouldy bread, the aftermath of the trials for those accused, and the ongoing witch hunts that result in very real harm around the world.

Josh Hutchinson is a descendant of people accused of witchcraft and of people who accused others of witchcraft. Sarah Jack is a documented descendant of victims of witch trials held in Salem, Boston, and Hartford, including Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easty, Mary Hale, and Winifred Benham.

They co-host three history podcasts: The Thing About Witch Hunts, The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials, and Salem Witch Trials Daily. They are also co-founders of the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project and End Witch Hunts, America’s only nonprofit organisation dedicated to raising awareness of the continuation of violence related to witchcraft accusations.

Let’s explore the Salem Witch Trials in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore!

Find Sarah and Josh online: https://endwitchhunts.org

Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/

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