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 histo

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Recent Episodes

Trolls (Pt. 1)

Posted March 7, 2026 • 00:49:19

Trolls in Scandinavian folklore can be a little different from what’s imagined in the rest of the world. We begin our show with a montage of clips...

Rhymes for Those Who Can Neither Read Nor Run

Posted January 31, 2026 • 00:37:06

Gammer Gurton’s Garland, published in 1784, is one of the earliest collections of English nursery rhymes, and contains verses both familiar...

A Christmas Ghost Story, VIII

Posted December 24, 2025 • 00:38:20

The Christmas Eve ghost story is a fine old tradition associated with Victorian and Edwardian England, one that’s been making a comeback on both sides...

Christmas is Carnival: Carols and Calendars

Posted December 17, 2025 • 00:27:18

Historically, the celebration of Christmas and Carnival could overlap, and there is some reason to believe that customs associated with the former were...

A Werewolf in Court

Posted November 25, 2025 • 00:21:54

In our second short episode for November, we take a close look at a the 1692 trial of Thiess of Kaltenbrunn, a purported werewolf in the town of Jürgensburg,...