Today I started working on a new series of drawings, namely; magical objects in folklore. I have made a couple of drawings before concerning this subject (which can be found here: [link]) but I wasn't all that satisfied about the result, so I thought I would give it another try. This time using much more black and leaving away the recipes. The first drawing is made after the famous story; 'The Hand of Glory'.

THE STORY:

"Hand of glory was the name given to the severed hand of a hanged man, which was carefully dried and prepared into a candle. It was a popular amulet among thieves as it was believed the hand of glory could open locks, make one invisible and bring the owners of a house in a deep sleep from which they could not awake until the hand/candle was removed from their sight. A little incantation is said to be used by thieves to increase the power of the amulet when they needed it the most. It goes as follows:

"Let those who rest, more deeply sleep;
Let those awake their vigils keep.
Oh, hand of glory, shed thy light
And guide us to our spoil tonight."

But not only thieves were accused of possessing such amulet. In several witch trials we can find evidence that the hand of glory was also believed to be a favorite object among so called witches........"

READ THE ENTIRE STORY HERE: [link]

For those who are interested prints can be purchased here:
[link]
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Other places where you can find me:

My Folklore Blog: [link]

My Etsy shop: [link]
My official website: [link]

My column at Dante's Heart: [link]