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Once Upon a River

Diane Setterfield

6.8 (6 Ratings) Rate It

Book

A dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames. The regulars are entertaining themselves...

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Dec 21, 2025

❄️🌙 The Longest Night is here… and the sun has wandered too far. Would you walk into the dark to bring it back?

In Winter Solstice – The Night the Sun Was Borrowed, young Fire-Keeper Maelin takes on the shadows to guide the Sun-Child home. Can she succeed where the night itself seems endless? 🔥

Read the full story and decide for yourself: https://morgan-sheppard-author.kit.com/posts/winter-solstice-the-night-the-sun-was-borrowed

✨ How do you celebrate the return of light? Share your solstice traditions below! ⬇️

#WinterSolstice #Folklore #Magic #SolsticeStories #Courage #LightInDarkness

Kudos Comment

Charlotte (184 KP) rated The Assassin's Legacy (Minte and Magic Adventure #2) in Books

Dec 17, 2021 (Updated Dec 17, 2021)

Fun and engaging

Filled with fun, banter and cheeky assassins what's not to like?
The Assassin's Legacy is a good all around read. I love the different themes, monsters, family dynamics and folklore. Sasha is a charming man that just wants a peaceful life..... Don't we all? I really feel for him, trying to leave his past behind but being pulled back in and not in a good way!
A young adult plus read that will have you entertained from start to finish. Grab a cuppa, some biscuits and settle in for a cracking read.

@Merissa

Kudos

Percy Manning: The Man Who Collected Oxfordshire

Michael Heaney

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Percy Manning (1870-1917) was an Oxford antiquary who amassed enormous collections about the history...

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Jun 23, 2026

There's a particular kind of summer storm that arrives in the weeks after the solstice, heavy and deliberate, the sky darkening in the middle of a bright afternoon, as though the weather has somewhere to be and intends to get there.

Welsh storm folklore didn't treat that kind of weather as random. Storms in the old tradition were purposeful things, carrying intention rather than simply meteorological force. Thunder was understood as the sound of the Otherworld pressing closer, the boundary between worlds thinning under pressure. Lightning was older than explanation, something that belonged to the divine rather than the atmospheric. The Cŵn Annwn, the hounds of the Otherworld, were said to run with storms, their howling indistinguishable from the wind for those who didn't know how to listen, and entirely unmistakable for those who did.

Storms in Wales also carried protective folklore alongside the more unsettling associations. Certain prayers and household acts were performed when thunder came, not out of fear exactly, but out of a recognition that something significant was moving through the world and deserved to be acknowledged.

What I find most compelling about it all is the underlying assumption that the weather is not neutral. The land has moods, and the sky has intentions. The storm is not happening to you, but it is happening, and it knows. 🌩️

#WelshFolklore #TalesFromWales #MythAndMoonlight

Kudos Comment

Beth Ingham (28 KP) rated The Bear and the Nightingale in Books

Jul 9, 2018

The Bear and the Nightingale

Katherine Arden | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy

9.4

(17 Ratings)

Book Rating

Strong female protagonist (1 more)

Reminiscent of Grimm Fairytales

Favourite book read in 2018 (so far!)

The first thing I have to say about this book is wow. I went into it not knowing what to expect but was completely blown away by the storyline of Vasya as she navigates becoming a young woman who is powerful, in a time when women were not; whilst using old school magic to try to help her people.
The Russian folklore gives this book a modern fairytale feel, however the darkness echoes that of the original Grimm Fairytales.
Altogether, this is a very well written epic, not to be missed, and that I very much enjoyed.

Kudos

James Koppert (2698 KP) rated Spirited Away (2001) in Movies

Oct 29, 2019

Spirited Away (2001)

2001 | Animation, Fantasy

8.4

(62 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Iit can be watched again and again (0 more)

Some people will ignore it thinking it's another usual animé. (0 more)

The greatest animation made

If you haven't seen this just stop. Stop reading this and watch it. It is absolute perfection. It is the only film I watched and then watched it again straight after. No wonder it won an Oscar it is a masterpiece.
Based on Japanese folklore, Spirited Away doesn't treat it's audience dumb like Disney often does. It doesn't limit its imagination, it continues to push it's imagination and concepts to the ones from dreams and becomes hypnotic and beautiful. Go and watch it.