Tag Archives: Walpurgisnacht

Night of the Gorgeous Goth Girls–again!!

This poem was meant as a light-hearted celebration of all things Gothic, and of scholars and students in the field. I crammed in as many tropes, archetypes, characters, and clichés as I could, torturously straining the rhymes on the rack. … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Happy Walpurgisnacht!

I know I’ve posted this previously, but I made some slight changes and additions–my poem celebrating OGOM and Gothic Studies and general witchiness: Night of the Gorgeous Goth Girls: A Paranormal Romance. (for Sam George, Alison Younger, and their students … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Witches and Walpurgis Night

Happy Walpurgisnacht! Here’s an excellent article by Prof. Owen Davies of the University of Hertfordshire, ‘Witches and Walpurgis Night‘. He traces the folkloric origins of the supposed sabbat of witches through Goethe and Bram Stoker to contemporary popular culture.

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ring-a-ring-a Widdershins: It’s Walpurgis Night and Halfway to Hallowe’en!

  It’s Walpurgis Night  (Walpurgisnacht or Valborgsmässoafton),  the night that marks the transition from winter to spring, falling on the eve of the first of May. It’s also halfway to Halloween!! Kaja will like that!  In folk tradition, witches and … Continue reading

Posted in Fun stuff, OGOM News | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Disco Magic

But what I’m dancing to tonight, when I’m not swirling in the air on my besom, is this great generic mutation of Mussorgsky–very apt for the hedonism of the 1970s New York club scene.

Posted in Fun stuff | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Disney’s Walpurgisnacht

Witches and magical transformations are themes that OGOM will be pursuing over the next year or so. Disney’s wonderful adaptation of Walpurgisnacht in Fantasia (1941) makes full use of the potential of cinematic technology to depict the transformative powers of … Continue reading

Posted in Critical thoughts, Film Clips | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Walpurgisnacht: Musical and textual variations

Sam has posted some fab items on witches below to celebrate Walpurgisnacht, so I’d better follow suit before dawn arrives and the wild partying has to end. The Walpurgisnacht motif has inspired artists in all sorts of media. It’s a … Continue reading

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Night of the Gorgeous Goth Girls: A Paranormal Romance

I’ve done a little retouching and extending to my poem, which envisages a comic Walpurgisnacht scene, with witches wildly celebrating their creativity. It’s a homage to lecturers and students of the Gothic and fantastic. Not sure if it quite works; … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Writing | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Mussorgsky – Night on the Bare Mountain (Bernstein)

Continuing the witches theme. Not strictly for Hallowe’en, but an eerie accompaniment to my Walpurgisnacht poem: Mussorgsky – Night on the bare mountain (Bernstein)

Posted in Fun stuff | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Happy Walpurgisnacht!

Tonight is the night that witches party. There is a wild, fantastic depiction of this in Goethe’s Faust and there are memorable reworkings throughout literature and the arts–in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Joseph Heller’s … Continue reading

Posted in Fun stuff, Resources | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment