A Naughty Victorian Primer for Dark Fiction

The Dark and Gothic genres have always dealt with human depravity and included themes of taboo relations and sexual deviance. In the Victorian Gothic this was especially sensational, though in an age that appeared prudish they were anything but.

According to this post by Professor Calamity and Margaret Killjoy for Tor.com, there were approximately 23 patents on fully mechanical dildos in the 19th century, some steam powered. Ouch. Strap-ons, dildos, and a sundry of other devices were available, along with all manners of kink, fetish and BDSM. Also, here is a list provided by Listverse of kinky books written by Victorians, that should give you an idea of just how not prudish they really were.

While I will not be going all Marquis de Sade here, I thought I'd share with you some bawdy terms, as well as a few other resources to assist you in your research. Though if you want to delve into the darkest of dark, reading Marquis de Sade would certainly assist you. He was not a Victorian nor is his work erotic, but both he and his writing are one hundred percent human depravity and sexual deviance.

A Short List of Bawdy Victorian Terms

Abbess - a Madame
Abbot - a Madame's favorite client
Bordello - brothel
Backgammoner - anal sex
Bagpiping - blowjob
Ballocks -  man's testicles
Bawbles -  man's testicles
Cooler - arse
Dollymop - a part-time prostitute
Dugs - breasts
French Envelope - condom
Fruitful Vine - vulva
Harlot - a whore
Knee Trembler - sexual intercourse standing up
Left-Handed Wife - a mistress
Mary-Anne - a male sex worker; homosexual

Night Flower - a prostitute

Prigging - sexual intercourse

Quail-pipe - a woman's tongue

Quim - vulva
Sheath - condom
Tart - an immoral woman
Tip the Velvet - going down on a woman
Toffer - a high-class prostitute
Tool - penis
Tom - a masculine lesbian


For more Victorian slang, I recommend checking out this post by quailbellmagazine.com and the Dictionary of Victorian Slang. There is also the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue which dates back to before the Victorian Era, but still a great resource.

Recommended Blogs, Websites and Books

TheWhoresofYore.com

ListVerse: 10 Fascinating Facts about Prostitution in the Victorian Era

The Pearl: An almost complete collection of the Victorian Erotic Newspaper (1879-1881)

HistoryUndressed.com

The Dictionary of Victorian London

The Victorian Guide to Sex: Desire and Deviance in the 19th Century by Fern Riddell

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill


What other helpful resources have you come across in your writing research? Let me know in the comments and I'll make sure to add it to my list.

Stay Beautifully Haunted, Night Writers,

♥ Shadow.

Stay Connected! 
Join the Web! 
Author Shadow Leitner's Monthly Newsletter.
http://bit.ly/ShadowsWebNews

Gothic Elements: Snakes and Toads

Serpent/Snake

Forked tongue, venomous fangs and sinuous coils of sleek scales. What's not to love? The serpent is a beautiful and at times deadly creature and a darling addition to any dark storytellers bag of tricks.

Ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes, is #2 on top ten list of most common fears according to FearOf.net. So, if your purpose is to fill your audience with dread, add a snake and your chances of accomplishing this increases, exponentially.

While the Snake has many meanings, I feel its key Gothic meanings are Immortality, Death, Secrets, and Deception. Volumes have been written on snake symbolism and it's made multiple appearances in mythology and folklore, too many to reference here. But, if interested you can visit here to learn more about snakes in mythology and here to learn more about their symbolic meanings.

However, I've chosen a few of my favorite snake associations to share with you. I'd love to hear yours.

Snake and Skull: "Dead men tell no tales" is the line that jumps immediately to mind when I see this symbol. The snake meaning knowledge, secrets, immortality and the skull representing death, the association here to me is the secrets we take to the grave or the knowledge we carry beyond it. It also speaks to life after death, whatever that form might take. We may slough off the mortal coil, but the spirit remains. One of my favorite uses of this imagery is in the Harry Potter books, as the Death Eaters sign is a skull and snake.

Medusa: The Greek creature, a Gorgon (meaning "dreadful"). And whether it is the beautiful woman turned Gorgon after being raped in Athena's Temple or born as one of three Gorgon, she is ultimately beheaded and to me a tragic figure. Medusa is many things, but for me the snakes on her head represent deception. Self-deception, feminine deception, deception of evil or against evil as her head was depicted on shields and doorways to ward of evil and for protection. Carl Jung also refers to her as the devouring mother, which is a theme I'm fascinated with. If you are interested as well, more on that can be found here.

Growing up Medusa ©Shadow Leitner

Serpent and Eve: Another form of deception is the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden by none other than a serpent. It wasn't a cow or bird that tempted her, it was a serpent. This is where the forked tongued is relevant, its dual nature, but mostly what fascinates me about the symbology of this particular serpent is that everything the serpent has ever represented can be rolled up into this one. Deception, Death, Immortality, Knowledge, Secrets, Poison, Chaos, and the list goes on, this snake bears it all.  It may not be the first time in mythology and folklore that snakes are associated with evil but it has cemented our association of snakes with the Devil.

Ouroboros: The snake or dragon eating its own tail is a symbol that means infinity or the cyclic representation of nature, as well as life and death. Its most notable Gothic association is the use of this symbol in magic, from Ancient Egyptian to Renaissance magic. It is also a prominent symbol used in alchemy. Another example of the Ouroboros is Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent of Norse Mythology. A serpent that grew large enough to surround the world and bite its own tail.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Damballah (Voodoo Loa): A common element in Southern Gothics is Voodoo or Voudoun. The common loa (intermediary between "God" and "Man") depicted is Damballah Wedo (Li Grande Zombi) one of the most important loa and is characterized by a snake or serpent. Damballah represents balance, creation and water/rain and has its origins with the African creation deity, Nzambi. Snakes are often used in rituals invoking this loa who can possess a human and speaks with hisses. More on serpent worship and Li Grande Zombi can be learned here.

Photo by Jack Hamilton on Unsplash

Toad/Frog

Toads as a Gothic element usually pertain to magic, magical folklore, and superstitions.  I'm sure we've all heard that rubbing a toad on your warts can cure them. Some accounts state you have to impale it on a tree rubbing it on your warts and leave it to die, only then will it cure your warts. Poor frogs. Don't do that, neither rubbing or impaling said toad will cure you of warts.

Though, many a witch's spell call for frog parts. And modern science has confirmed that some frogs do have medicinal properties. However, some botanicals have the word frog in their common name. For example, when the witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth call for Toe of Frog it may actually be a variety of buttercup with the common name of Frog's Foot. Okay, that may be a stretch, but you get the gist.

Many ancient cultures viewed the frog and toad as positive symbols of luck, fertility, and protection One such example is the Ancient Egyptian Goddess with a frog head Hekt, who was associated with fertility and protection. Frogs were so sacred to Egyptians that they were often embalmed after death. The toad was sacred in other cultures, as well, because they either held the souls of dead children, as told in some European myths or were responsible the cycles of life and death and rebirth.

It wasn't until the Middle Ages that the toad fell from its sacred toadstool, as it were and become an element of evil. This is when they became known as witch familiars, doing the devil's work and were a common ingredient in witches brews and spells, according to the witch hunters of that day. Most accounts of their evilness describe their filthy habitats, cold and slimy skin, calculating eyes and harsh croaking. Hmm...sounds like some of my old boyfriends.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your favorite serpent or toad references or if you've used either in your stories. Let me know in the comments.

Also, if you are on Instagram, be sure to post your snake and/or toad images this week, using the hashtag #DarkInklings for a chance to be featured across my social media channels on Friday. They can be old or new images.

@shadowleitner on Instagram

As always, stay beautifully haunted!

♥ Shadow.

Birds of Gothic Lore

So, I’m dedicating this post to those birds that give you that prickle along the back of your neck. And no, it’s not because they can poop bomb you from above, though that's certainly something you should look out for. I’m talking about the birds that have been inducted into the Gothic Hall of Fame (no, this doesn't exist, I wish), including some reasons why they are considered dark creatures. And as always, I hope to leave you with some resources to fuel your own inspirations.

Of course, just mentioning birds, I immediately think of Tippi Hedren being attacked by birds, in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” based on a short story of the same title by Daphne Du Maurier.

via GIPHY

I still get shivers. Or the crow tapping on a lover’s grave bringing him back to life to act his revenge in “The Crow”. And I would never leave out the iconic “The Raven” quothing Nevermore by Edgar A. Poe, least I’m burnt at the stake for such gothic sacrilege.

RAVEN

Let’s start with the Raven. It truly sits atop this pecking order. But long before this bird showed up rapping on the chamber door of Lenore’s lamenter, it was considered a bird of bad omens and death.

Photo by Tyler Quiring on Unsplash {My edit using tin type}

Ravens have appeared in ancient texts and folklore as dark figures and continue to peak the imagination of writers and artists. Their mythical association to death is due in part to their black feathers and their formidable caw. They are also scavengers who eat carrion (decaying flesh), which is a common trait amongst most birds of gothic lore.

But not all historical references are to its darker nature, there are some depictions of white ravens, mostly in indigenous tales, but also in mythology. For example, Appollo was said to have had a white raven messenger and after receiving bad news threw a fit of fire, blackening the raven's feathers. Others refer to white versus black themes, like the raven and the dove sent out by Noah.

My favorite ravens are Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory), the ravens of the Norse god Odin. He would send them to gather information from every realm to report back to him, even from the underworld. Apparently, the dead are insufferable gossips.

An illustration from a 18th-century Icelandic manuscript

depicting Huginn and Muninn sitting on the shoulders of Odin.

{my edit using tin type}

Ravens have symbolically represented various things in different cultures, some are:

• trickster, 
• messenger, 
• bad omens, 
• malevolence, 
• the three phases of day,  
• the guardians of hermits, 
• wisdom, 
• prophecy, 
• magic, 
• facing one's fears, 
• evil and death. 

I'm certain you could find a new spin on an old raven's tale, once you look in the different folk tales and myths of other cultures, as there are many.

If interested, a good place to start is here. You can also find more in-depth symbolic raven meanings here. 

CROW

The bird closely related to and often mistaken for a raven and vice versa is the Crow. 

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

Much of the lore surrounding crows seems to be interchangeable with the raven, but there are some differences. Where the raven is mysterious, the crow is cocky and catty. The crow has a lot of secrets but not known for keeping them. But for all of that, crows are known for their intelligence. They are in the realms of chimpanzee and dolphin smart.

But back to their induction into the Gothic motifs. Black feathers, carrion eater, you know the drill. It's black, therefore, it must be evil, or at the very least, mysterious. And so it is associated with death and violence, among other nefarious things.

Here are few interesting Crow associations:

Counting Crows, and no I'm not referring to the rock band. Counting Crows is a form of fortune-telling, also known as augury, that dates back to Greek and Roman times. How many crows and which direction they were flying foretold everything from whether it was going to rain to misfortune to someone dying.

                              

Eating crow is a saying attributed to these birds as someone having to eat their words or having to admit they were wrong, in other words, humility. May also be associated with literally eating crows, which was done during times of war and famine.

Crow and Pie is ballad from circa 1500's about a rape and was most likely a warning to women to be cautious and not let themselves be seduced because apparently in the 1500's rape was the woman's fault. This one ruffles my feminist feathers, but I will not digress.

The Crow can symbolize:

• Intuition
• Fearlessness
• Wisdom
• Messenger
• Magic
• Bad Omens
• Death
• Violent death
• Trickster

Corbies are another name for Ravens and Crows. Our other black feathered friends are the Magpie, Jackdaws, Blackbirds, and Rooks.

 VULTURE

When I think of Vultures, also known as Buzzards, I immediately think of old westerns. There is always a scene in the desert where they are circling the dead or dying. I would love to see a gothic story set in the old west, maybe set in a ghost town.  However, the Vulture is an even more ancient creature.

This bird was venerated in ancient Eygpt and is depicted in hieroglyphics as the letter "A". It is often referred to as the Pharaoh's Hen or Chicken.

wiki commons

Nekhebet is the goddess mostly tied to the Vulture, but it was also the favored bird of Isis, amongst others. Symbolically, the vulture represents the death and rebirth cycle, and thus immortality and associated with the feminine. Definitely, a figure to consider in a story that is rich with ancient Egyptian lore. You can find out more here.

The Egyptians weren't the only ones to recognize the vulture, as in Greek Mythology, Zeus turned two of his enemies, Aegypius and Neophron, into vultures. There are also several Native American and South American folk tales that depict or characterize this bird in some way.

We are most familiar with the bad connotations associated with the vulture, but actually, this bird has a lot of positive symbology, such cleanliness, rebirth, resourcefulness, and protection. More vulture symbology can be found here.

OWL 

Okay, any bird that can turn its head 180 degrees like in "The Exorcist", warrants being on this list. And if you ever heard a barn or screech owl scream, you'd agree. I swear you'd think you heard a banshee.  

Photo by Massimo Mancini on Unsplash

{my edit using tin type}

Unlike the other birds of this post, this is a bird of prey, meaning it hunts living things for its food, and is nocturnal. However, its close relationship to magic, as well as, the night in general, I felt it warranted being here.

In mythology, the owl is best known for its association to the goddess Athena, and is thought to be wise, with such sayings as "Wise old owl”. It is also known as the guardian of souls and the protection from evil. However, the owl is the character of many folklores and superstitions. Some see the owl as a bad omen, but I much prefer its relationship to secrets and mysteries, like a crone witch.

It also serves as a prominent figure at Halloween, with its hooting haunting the spooky night.

There are many owl mythos and is rich with symbolism that I feel is worth exploring. If interested here is a great place to start.

How have you incorporated birds into your stories? Do you have any favorite books or movies that feature Gothic birds? Are there any other birds you would have added? If so, let me know in the comments.

Stay beautifully haunted!

♥ Shadow.