Hellebore #4: The Yuletide Special

Hellebore Zine #4

by Maria J. Pérez Cuervo (Editor), Katy Soar, Jackie Bates

Midwinter. The shortest day, the symbolic death and rebirth of the Sun. It is a time of darkness, but also of hope and celebration. For this Midwinter special we’ve gathered stories to help us through the darkest months: ancient legends that may still be re-enacted, accounts from a frozen past, tales of ghosts and revenants and witches and warlocks, stories that bring chills into our living rooms. In this issue, sinister rituals unfold during the longest nights of the year, spirits drift through the icy landscapes of the Arctic, and churches are never safe havens.

Gather around the fire. Let’s gaze at the shadows lurking beyond the Christmas lights.

Featuring words by Katy Soar, Jackie Bates, John Callow, Verity Holloway, John Reppion, Shane McCorristine, Roger Clarke, and Elizabeth Dearnley. Artwork by Blood and Dust, Eli John, and Nathaniel Winter-Hébert.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Folklore, History, Occult, Gothic, Nature

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2020

Reviews

[👑 💀 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now THIS is the kind of magazine I want to read.

Supernatural theme? ✅
Affordable price? ✅
Comfortable size? ✅
Professional layout? ✅
Stunning artwork? ✅
Interesting articles? ✅
Scholarly perspectives? ✅
Up-and-coming writers? ✅

Without a doubt I will be ordering Issue #5 as soon as it’s available.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5

I think this is my favourite issue of ‘Hellebore’ so far. I loved all but two of the eight articles featured here. I found ‘The Haunting of Cold Christmas’ particularly interesting and thought-provoking, and ‘Children of the Snow’ made me very nostalgic for all the wintry books I loved as a child. I really recommend this offbeat magazine.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever wanted to read the history around Yuletide? This little magazine packs a wealth of knowledge, written by different scholars in their field on interest. I personally loved the articles that focused on the ghosts around that time and how horror has changed over time, for example our love for ghosts seems to be have been surpassed by demons. Short but informative read.

[Paloma · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating zine on the magic of midwinter and yule

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another superb issue of Hellebore, and although I am two years behind still, the timing of reading this is just right seeing as this is the 'Yuletide' special and we are pretty much still in the deep midwinter. Previous issues of Hellebore have been bright with splashes of colour, but the art direction in this issue is colder, more subdued as if it fits a mood to read on a cold winter's night.

For those who do not know, Hellebore is a small press zine dedicated to folk horror and the occult, and at the risk of repeating myself from previous reviews, the articles tend to be from a considered, scholarly perspective, whilst remaining accessible. Each article is referenced, and entices one to read more (what I would do for more time to be lost in books!).

There are quite a lot of highlights in this one.

Katy Soar's exploration of the history of 'The Lord of Misrule' is a captivating one, as she explores the admittedly tentative links of 'servants being kings' for a while to Roman Saturnalia festivities and other historical touchpoints. She explores the claim that 'The Lord of Misrule' ended in a human sacrifice in Roman times, and also the idea of King's being sacrificed when they reach an age where they are not at the peak of manhood. She dispels these claims but it's interesting nonetheless, and there is a tenuous link to the 'sacrifice' of Santa Claus (drawing on a 1960's example of a church in France torching a Santa effigy because of what he has done to Christmas). I did like the link between Saturnalia festivities and the Christmas 'do' and the overindulgence in booze and other frolics.

I often find Hellebore's approach to articles often takes the fun out of folklore and stories, by having the cheek to explore them a little more scholarly. It seems mostly by suggesting writers from a century or so ago took liberties with the scraps of evidence they found for things.

'Midwinter Megaliths' by Jackie Bates is a pictorial guide to the best places to see the sun set on Winter solstice. If you like pictures of standing stones this is the one for you. As if I haven't got enough on my plate, I did think it would be a good hobby to wander around ancient megaliths. I do wonder how I would probably break my neck wandering around the countryside in the dark just to experience a solstice - I mean it's a miracle to see anything but cloud and rain this time of year anyway.

'From Ghoul to Godhead' by John Callow was pretty interesting, looking at Herne the Hunter, once again spoiling everyone's fun by suggesting he was a Shakespearean invention, before entering folklore and then paganism, before finding his way back into popular culture via the 1980's Robin Hood TV show. I did find the exploration of how Herne has been a non-problematic aspect of masculinity in pagan workshop really interesting. I'm also quite comfortable with the notion of Herne originating from Shakespeare because in my mind it is what the figure represents what is important, not whether it is a 'real' God or not.

Verity Holloway's 'Haunting of Cold Christmas' is a piece about a ruined church which has a legend about it being so cold every child in the village died one Christmas. There's no evidence to suggest this ever happened, but the church is very old indeed. The article is more about conservation and how generations of ghost hunters in the social media age have descended on the site in recent years causing harm to the site, including graffiti and the such like. I was left with the notion of both wanting to see the church and also wishing people would leave it well alone.

The article about Arctic Seances and 'rational' Christian Western explorers encountering indigenous shamans in the Arctic was interesting but left me wanting much more.

There is a lovely piece about 'Mother's night' which appeared to be referenced as a pagan festival on what we now call Christmas Eve in the early Christian period in the UK. What we have is an exploration of rituals and practices linked to 'three sisters' or 'three mothers' drawing on Roman practices, but also Scandinavian 'blood sacrifices' led by women, even suggesting Macbeth drew on the same motifs. What I did find fascinating is that there is a church a few miles from where I live which has a baptismal font adorned with the three mothers which was an altar from a Roman era temple found in the 17th century. I've suggested going to look at this with the kids tomorrow to aghast looks!

'Tales of the Unsafe Church' is an exploration of three short stories centred on the church. It was a timely reminder that one day I must read Sheridan La Fanu!

The final piece refers to the role of snow and winter in children's fairy tales and literature. Not only do the pages and illustrations look absolutely gorgeous, they are a lovely mini literature review of the magic of the forests, winter, darkness and snow. It's beautiful and is practically begging me to dig out old editions of Grimm Fairy Tales.

Love this zine!

[Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The highlights in this collection for me were "The Hauntings of Cold Christmas, "The Night of the Mothers," and "Arctic Seances." All three are fantastic, informational, and easy to understand as an American.

The low point for me was "Tales of the Unsafe Church," because there is a requirement you read all three stories before reading the article. Yet, the article itself is written in a very pompous chaotic fashion.

Anyway I really liked the closing paragraph:

"Returning to winter-themed stories at different ages as the seasons wheel round turns the act of rereading itself into a winter ritual. Alongside digging out the decorations and remembering traditional recipes, we often rediscover books and films we haven't seen for the past year, building up new associations and memories each time. Both as children and as adults, we can enjoy these tales of ice and snow for their suggestion that a simple change in the weather could turn ordinary streets and gardens and woods into something sparkling and strange, that the wintry expanse of woods and moorland just beyond our front door might be wilder and weirder than it appears"

[Mr. S · Rating 4 out of 5]

As was the case with the previous issue, this fourth issue of Hellebore was a thoroughly engaging installment, but not without a few duds. The first being Shane McCorristine's "Arctic Séances," in which he delivers an unnecessary bad-faith chiding of explorers wishing to dispel unempirical practices, and the second being Roger Clarke's "The Unsafe Church," where his purple prose constructs a lovely series of sentences, but fails to pique my interest.

Here's to hoping the next issue is a fiver.

[Paul Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Hellebore] (21/12/2020). Issue Number 4. SB. 89 Pages. Purchased from Hellebore.

“…a collection of writings and essays devoted to folk horror and the themes that inspire it…”

I wish that the publisher had included sharp, unamended photographs rather than blurred images with clumsy and pointless blue smears thrown in.

Roger Clarke conveys a sense of self-satisfaction in his over-written “Tales of the Unsafe Church”.

Numerous interesting and well-researched articles.

[Kevin Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best collection of the three Helkebore Yuletide collections (so far), perhaps because the content feels the most wintry and connected to the holiday(s) of the season. Beautifully illustrated and laid out, these fascinating articles give deeper insights and pleasures to this time of year and the darkness were surrounded by.

[Tim Rideout · Rating 5 out of 5]

Late finishing this instalment of Hellebore. It’s superb - the best yet. Every article fascinating. I love the weaving together of folklore, the gothic, horror and the weird. A series that is going from strength to strength.

[Andrea Greene Myers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought it'd be creepy but it wasn't. I found none of the articles creepy at all but maybe the one about Saturnalia cuz the person chosen as king gets killed in the end. The titles lure you in, but then it's a letdown. I did like the artwork a lot.

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, thought provoking and leading to more book purchases.....

[Julie Garfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just loving this little mag

[Scott Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic zine!

Each issue is just a great informative read and look forward to the next release!

[Ed Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of these have been absolute brill so far.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid issue of the arthouse folk horror periodical. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this issue the associations between midwinter and dark forces abroad in the land are neatly embroidered.

[Ned Netherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful issue, marred only by my puppy chewing the corners and ripping off the back cover when I was two articles from the end. Truly the sky is emotu6

[Michael (Horror Gardener) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the essay on the Arctic shaman practices. Another great issue.

[axea · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and informative read - nothing like a good bit of the occult to get you into the Christmas mood!

[Sterre · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

This one was less my thing personally, but I still enjoyed my time reading it! I especially enjoyed the articles about unsafe churches and herne the hunter :)

[Greg Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

To sum it up, neither folk nor horror as genres are even remotely exclusively white. So why are the contributing writers for this publication almost exclusively white?

Something that I’ve always valued about folklore is the inherent formlessness of it. It’s not something that belongs exclusively or even particularly to any one culture or time or part of the world. Horror, meanwhile, at least in Western tradition, seems to have more specific and defined roots that are often times extremely problematic. The combination of the two broader genres into one sub genre is a fascinating topic of conversation, and I’ve been excited to see this magazine grapple with that dynamic. And I’ve loved reading each issue of this magazine, but I don’t feel like it has addressed any of that at all. I was at the very least expecting more variety.

I was mostly excited to dive into it for the sake of gaining fresh insights and perspectives, and it seemed that several articles alluded to dissecting the problematic parts of certain influences on the genres, but few really ever got there. With each passing issue of this magazine, I become more and more aware of a trend herein that seems to be more in lock-step with the history of folk curation and horror writing than it is actually challenging those traditions. Foremost of all, while several contributing writers address their subject matter from a progressive standpoint, the bulk of the articles are still white writers, and it seems that most of what I’m reading concerns a very narrow perspective. That can become especially problematic when the writers often times try to address things like co-opting and marginalization. It usually seems clunky at best.

I’d like to see a publication like this, that is so plainly aware of the marred history of the genres it’s celebrating, do some self-reflecting on that and be better. I’d like to see the editor do some corrective work with selecting writers and entries to carry this genre and this publication forward in a direction that isn’t going to land it in the same category of “problematic” as the previous eras that it kinda/sorta seeks to address.

In short, I’d love to see more articles from writers of color and writers from other cultures. I’d like insights and perspectives that challenge and counteract and call out some of the egregious mistakes that are still being commonly made in the curation of folklore and the legacy of horror writing. We have a unique opportunity while folk horror is still such a young and burgeoning field of work and study. We can choose to guide it away from the gutters of the likes of HP Lovecraft and Bram Stoker, or folklore curators who focus exclusively on white, Christian, European collections, and to embrace traditions and voices that works like theirs have previously sidelined. I know that Mexican culture and countries all over Africa and in the Middle East and the East all have so much to add to this conversation. Where is that content? I know that Black writers from America and the UK and across Europe would have a lot to say about the topics being discussed in these articles. I bet there are plenty of indigenous people who would love to have a voice here.

I would love to see a pointed breaking down of “whiteness” by reclaiming and embracing folk traditions that predate Christianity in various cultures of predominantly white people, too. I’d like to see that reclaiming come along with embracing and uplifting the traditions of all the people that Westernism and Christianity have fought so hard to crush flat. Frankly, I think there are a lot of non-white writers who could have tackled some of these articles with a lot more grace and justice, or even contributed different articles of higher value.

I’m not even saying the articles were bad. I really enjoyed most of them. It just feels so incomplete. There is so much missing. I want to give this magazine 5 stars. I want to love it so badly. It’s so visually stunning. It covers topics on which I’m desperate for more content. But I can’t give it 5 stars if I think it’s reinforcing an exclusionary dialogue, whether I think the creators are doing that intentionally or not.