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Thistlebone: The distillation of British Folk Horror.
Mythology and legend have fascinated me since I first opened a book on the Greek gods as a child. The idea that there could be beings, either gods or heroes, who could say and do things well beyond the norm in strange new worlds burrowed its way into my brain and ignited a fascination that continues to this day. I progressed from the Greeks to the Romans, then the Norse Pantheon (one of my personal favourites) then the Egyptians, then the gods of Shinto and Japanese myth and on and on it went. I devoured anything with a mystical edge; I read about genies, spirits, nymphs and naiads, crossed the ocean with Thor and Odin, slayed dragons and seized the holy grail with Arthur and the Knights of The Roundtable, then all at once I felt as if I’d ran out. The stories seemed to dry up or return to tales I’d heard before with new characters added or old characters embellished. World mythology was so vast that it left me wanting. So, I narrowed the scope. Instead of searching for a whole new pantheon and new worlds to explore, I turned inward; I looked closer to home and focused on the myths and legends of the British Isles.
While most outside of Britain would associate our little island with the legends of King Arthur when you really explore the reasons why these myths exist, it all comes down to one of two things: explaining natural forces or explaining the…
