Obvious jokes aside, why is it fairy lore hasn’t the broad cachet in the New World as Eire, and Blighty? Dr. Beachcombing’s pals and correspondents have overwhelmed him with comments, ranging from cultural biases to modern analogues such as grey aliens, or black eyed kids. Contributing to the feedback, we’d recommend Beach pay attention to […]

We begin our journey through history’s mysteries with Dr. Beachcombing’s observeration of Martellus’s cartographical curiosities. Predating Columbus by three years, the German cartographer’s map may be a misunderstanding of southeast Asian geography, but the devil’s in the details. With many tales of Chinese, vikings, Greeks, and Hebrews visiting America’s shores, the New World was far […]

Continuing research into these will o’the wisps, Dr. Beachcombing presents the unusual suspects in the case of the Durham Lights. Keeping the door open to all possibilities, like a good fortean, Beach weighs the pros and cons of each. Was similar scrutiny applied with the risky appointment of John Podesta? He could spark a new […]

Blamed for the countless wrecks along Britain’s eastern coastline, the nature of these will o’ the wisps remains elusive. Enter Dr. Beachcombing, citing the great Charles Fort and David Clarke, reacquainting our community with this forgotten mystery. Stay tuned, since Beach always sheds new light on old topics. Another giant, whose shoulders we stand upon, […]

What’s braver than a lion? A hippopotamus. What’s more fearsome than a hippo? The nightmarish hippophugi encountered, thank goodness, only in Beachcombing’s research library. The author of this Latin snippet might as well be describing the biblical Behemoth, considering its fearsome proportions. Scroll down a bit as there may be resonance between this beast and […]

As the year winds down, we find ourselves sharing company with Beachcombing regaling anomalists young and old with the fey foretelling funerals. These odd tales have locals hearing processions which end up as omens of death in their village. Adding to this conundrum is the belief of fairies originating as spirits of the dead. Should […]

The quaint correspondences between fairies and flora are more modern than presumed, writes Dr. Beachcombing. Inspired by Theosophical teachings and the fad of spiritualism, the concept of a fairy was reimagined as elementals. Fairy theory and folklore are all fine and dandy, but it’s the stories driving the field. Enter The Professor with a clutch […]

Gotta love Dr. Beachcombing! He’s no stuffed shirt Oxford don, but a regular down-to-earth guy. Beach gleefully shares some scans from his latest acquisition The Mermaids Of Venice and forgets there’s text accompanying those images. We think he wrote something about mermaids too, but dig these choice specimens of Homo sirenis. — Delivered by Feed43 […]

Huzzah! Dr. Beachcombing, with a little help from his friends, has found the original Portuguese text claiming American Indians made their way to Germany. Why is this so important? Rather than working on a secondhand account, Beach can give an accurate translation, check for apocrypha, making the tale far more compelling. Rummaging deeper in our […]

Surprise! Dr. Beachcombing has worked in his favorite field, fairies, into his ongoing Magonian treatise. Part eight kicks off with an entreaty for all of mankind to wed elemental fae, followed by a tale of abduction to make peace with the populace, and a lesson that no good deed goes unpunished. The Myth Continues but […]