Hello and welcome!

Welcome to
Time travelling through Bulgarian myth and folklore

Blog by Moni Georgieva Sheehan

British-Bulgarian oral storyteller and author

Here you'll find my thoughts and musings on oral storytelling, and on Bulgaria's wonderful traditional tales, rich folklore and mysterious ancestral roots, as well as my work with British-Bulgarian storytelling company, A Spell In Time.

I'll also be sharing insights into my trail-blazing new book, Beyond Nine Forests: Tales of Hidden Bulgaria - time travelling through Bulgarian myth and folklore. It includes over 50 stunning Bulgarian traditional stories - Bulgarian folk tales, wonder tales, mythological tales, epic tales and legends - and explores their roots in the hidden world of Bulgaria’s folklore and ancestral past.

With a foreword by Professor Ronald Hutton, the book is beautifully illustrated in full colour with artwork from some of Bulgaria's finest artists.

PS Dear readers,
This blog is still in the process of being set up. I hope that the navigation and other details will be up and running soon to make it easier to follow. Thank you for visiting.

Pazardzhik Venus -ancient goddess figurine from Bulgaria

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Samodivi, wild Bulgarian nature nymphs + A Spell In Time events

Image: Samodiva, painting by Bulgarian artist Biserka Dobreva Source: internet In early autumn, the samodivi, the wild and beautiful nymphs of the waters and the woodlands, leave our world for their winter abode in Zmeykovo (Dragon village) at the ends of the earth. For me, this passage from summer to autumn marks a change in mood. I love autumn. It is a contemplative season, a time for dreams and memories of what was and what could be. Samodivi are perhaps the most magi

spellintime

Aug 303 min read

Image of a Bulgarian lamya breathing fire

Bulgarian dragons, folklore, traditional tales and climate change

Lamya, illustration by Viktor Paunov in “Vampiri, gunduratzi, zmey” by Krassimir Mirchev. Panorama Publishing House, Sofia 1998 The Lamya, the Zmey and Climate Change In Bulgarian folklore, drought is caused by the lamya, a malevolent female dragonish creature, usually with three or more heads, that locks up the waters, swallows the harvest and brings pestilence to the land. In the past, several rituals were observed to keep her at bay, including the Peperuda (butterfly) and

spellintime

Aug 102 min read

Silver greave with image of the ancient Thracian Great Goddess

Bulgarian folk tales and snake mythology

Image: Gilded silver greave from the Mogilanska Mound, Vratsa, probably depicting the ancient Thracian Great Goddess with serpentine features. Source: © Ivor Davies The Hot Days and the Snake Bride Did you know that in Bulgaria, 15-17 July are traditionally known as the Goreshtnitsi, the Hot Days, and in the past they were thought to be the hottest days of the summer? There was a real fear of wildfires and lightning strikes, so people observed various taboos and rituals durin

spellintime

Jul 112 min read

Beyond Nine Forests: Tales of Hidden Bulgaria, book cover

Magical animals in Bulgarian folklore tales - bears, deer and horses

Bears, deer, horses – these animals have fascinated me since I was a child, and I have followed their tracks throughout my life, mostly in dreams and in the journeying of my imagination as well as through research. They are beautiful animals in themselves, but for me they are also a way of connecting with our remote ancestral past and our wilder nature. It is as if in following them, I am brought closer to the times when people still walked in “the way of animal powers,” as i

spellintime

Jul 22 min read