Bone and Sickle

Bone and Sickle

BONE AND SICKLE explores historical topics related to folklore and horror. With acerbic wit and a scholarly penchant for the grotesque, rogue folklorist Al Ridenour delves into a wide but carefully curated range of topics illustrated by stories from historical texts. Narratives are given dramatic readings by “Mrs. Karswell” (Sarah Chavez) backed by richly produced soundscapes blending original music, sound design and effects. The source books, though real enough, are said to be pulled from an imaginary library on Ridenour’s imaginary estate situated somewhere in the neighborhood of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey. Each episode begins with our hosts briefly discussing goings-on in this world before diving into the topic to be explored. Occasional alternate-format episodes are devoted to readings of classic horror stories or curious texts of antiquarian interest. Ridenour is the author of “The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas” (2016) and “A Season of Madness: Fools, Monsters, and Marv

Episodes

October 30, 2025 37 mins
This year, in the tradition of Halloween fortune-telling, we have an interactive divination game you can play at home.  It comes from aa 19th-century book on cartomancy called, The oracle of human destiny: or, the unerring foreteller of future events, and accurate interpreter of mystical signs and influences; through the medium of common cards. TO PLAY ALONG,  you will need an ordinary DECK OF CARS or you could can draw your cards...
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If you've been curious regarding Mr. Ridenour's and Mrs. Karswell's troubles with anomalous events in the house, this short episode should answer some of your questions as Dr. Bartusch and crew attempt to restore order.
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October 20, 2025 4 mins
(SPOILER ALERTt: Do not listen to this until you have heard Episode 146 "Urban Legend".) This is  a short postscript to our "Urban Legend" episode based on feedback from a listener. It has to do with a very curious grave in Chesterton, Indiana, which may be related to our story.  And here is the grave:
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October 18, 2025
A 1968 Halloween "Spook Show" in the Midwest left an unsettling heritage of urban legends possibly rooted in even more unsettling facts.  What little is definitively known regarding this event comes from the newspaper archives of the Danville News-Gazette, in which we find a short October 28  promo piece in the "Entertainment" section featuring this photo presumed to be of the impresario behind it all, J. Jolly. "Dr. Killer Hertz"...
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September 30, 2025 51 mins
The Halloween Jack-o'-lantern, made from pumpkins in the US and originally turnips in the UK, began its existence as a wisp of glowing marsh gas or "spooklight." We begin our episode with a montage of modern American spooklights including that of Oklahoma's "Spooklight Road," North Carolina’s Brown Mountain, and the flying saucers sighted in Michigan in 1966, famously identified by investigator Allen Hynek  as "swamp gas." "Jack-o...
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August 29, 2025 49 mins
There's so much more to the figure of St. George than his battle with a dragon. Legends also tell of his grisly martyrdom, capture of a demon, and postmortem abilities to cure madness through contact with his relics. In the Holy Land, there is even a tradition syncretizing St. George with a a supernatural figure of Muslim legend. We begin with a look at a modernized take on the St. George legend, the annual Drachenstich, or “drago...
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As a summer replacement for our regular episode: a round-up of non-English-language Folk-Horror films (here as audio but also available as video) The presentation was created by Mr. Ridenour’s for the Rural Gothic conference hosted by The Folklore Podcast on 9/26/2020. The focus is on European folk-horror films, including Russian productions, and a few especially interesting Turkish films are also highlighted. It's by no means com...
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July 8, 2025 49 mins
The Fates of Classical Antiquity not only survived in the form of related fairy-tale figures but also as the object of superstitions and rituals associated with newborns. In South Slavic and Balkan regions particularly, these customs represent a surprisingly long-lived and genuine case of pagan survival. We begin our episode examining the fairy godmothers of "Sleeping Beauty" as embodiments of the Fates.  Mrs. Karswell reads a few...
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May 22, 2025 33 mins
During the 15th-century, citizens of Nuremberg, Germany, experienced spectacular Carnival parades highlighted by the appearance of floats known as "hells."  Featuring immense figures, including dragons, ogres, and man-eating  giants, these hells were also peopled with costumed performers and enhanced with mechanized effects and pyrotechnics. In this episode, adapted from a chapter of Mr. Ridenour’s new book, A Season of Madness: F...
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April 30, 2025
Your favorite podcast is now seven years old!  As a birthday gift to our listeners, we decided to try a super short, experimental video podcast. For your pleasure, Mr. Ridenour yesterday edited together this vide0, entitled "The May Queen".
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April 21, 2025 24 mins
Mr. Ridenour introduces his new book "A Season of Madness: Fools, Monsters, and Marvels of the Old-World Carnival," explaining how the project grew out of his research for "The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas."  In this episode, he sketches out chapter themes and topics, from ancient Rome to modern Bulgaria, focusing particularly on cultural hinterlands where festivities still echo the cruel realities of the old, agricultural w...
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March 24, 2025 45 mins
The Sin-Eater was a figure associated with funerals of the 17th - 19th century, mostly in Wales, and the English counties along the Welsh border. According to tradition,  he was invited by grieving families to transfer the burden of sins from the deceased to himself by consuming bread and  beer in the vicinity of the corpse, after which he might receive some financial compensation. He typically came from the fringes of society and ...
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February 18, 2025 55 mins
Mélusine is a female fairy of medieval legend. who suffers under a curse transforming her once weekly into a monstrous form. In various tales she becomes either a serpent or fish from the waist down, or fully transforms into a dragon. Mélusine can only break this curse via marriage to a mortal who is obliged to allow her certain secret freedoms.  In return, her husband enjoys magical assistance and sees his fortunes flourish, at le...
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January 31, 2025 29 secs
Unfortunately, release of the episode scheduled for this month has been delayed thanks to the Eaton Wildfire in California. Your hosts are safe and sound, but complications from the fire temporarily halted production. The episode in question should be available in February. Thank you for your patience!  
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December 23, 2024 33 mins
The Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas has been celebrated by Bone and Sickle since 2018.  This year is no exception as we share two stories in this episode, one comic, and one frightening. We begin with the Introduction to the 1891 anthology, Told After Supper, by the British writer, Jerome K. Jerome, following this with "The Old Portrait" from  Scottish writer Hume Nisbet's 1900 collection Stories Weird and...
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A short extra episode on Befana, the gift-bringing Italian witch associated with Twelfth Night, the end of the Christmas season.  Included in the show is material from the book, "The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas," traditional music of the season, audio from actual celebrations, and a few pop songs associated with la Befana. Befana on the Piazza Navona, Rome. The Cucibocca of Montescaglioso
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December 1, 2024 54 mins
A figure of mythic proportions during his lifetime, Vlad the Impaler's notoriety receded over the centuries only to be resurrected in the 1970s, when a pair of Boston University scholars went public with theories connecting him to Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. We begin with snippet of Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, the first film to connect the literary vampire with the Eastern European prince -- a rather ...
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October 28, 2024 34 mins
The devilish reputation Ouija boards enjoy in horror films is a relatively new phenomenon.  In the Victorian era, they were regarded by "psychical researchers" as something to be embraced in a spirit of calm scientific inquiry, while Spiritualists saw in them a means of reaching out to those who'd passed into the "Summerland," an anodyne realm of sweetness and light. While these were the dominant attitudes of the day, the idea of ...
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October 18, 2024 5 mins
Apparently, I clipped off the beginning of the show during the initial upload.  It's been fixed, so this would only effect those downloading yesterday, but for those who missed it, here it is..
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October 17, 2024 38 mins
Ouija boards, or more generally, "spirit boards" have antecedents going back to the very first days of the Spiritualist movement.  We begin our show with a seasonally spooky visit to the cottage of the Fox sisters in Hydesville, New York, where the ghost of a murdered pedlar supposedly began communicating with the family through a series of mysterious knocking sounds. While the method used by the Fox sisters to translate these knoc...
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