@frankenswine@lemmy.world They do have some locations that OpenStreetMap has not (and vice versa), and they are more friendly for finding places with alternate spelling. There is a reason I check both.

Also, their linked images are useful for visualizing these locations. Though I think I saw an OpenStreetMap version with geotagged images once, but I can’t find it again.

@HumToTable@sfba.social Depends a bit on the neighborhood.

While romance novels predominate in all of the six or so little free libraries within easy bicycling distance, only two are filled with them entirely.

The very best (for my purposes) is the one next to our local city theater - it almost always has books on history, culture, or travel.

@Em@lsbt.me Hmmm. Hannover is my usual layover city when I travel by train to visit my father. Is the store you are referring to the one at the Limburgstraße 1?

If so, I might be able to check it out.

@quicksand@lemmy.world https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunderland_Kalkar

@halla@fosstodon.org If you remember the name, I might check it put!

@Ellirahim @raymccarthy

Here is another thing that was probably influenced by Christianity: German folklore constantly harps on about how cursed those people are who mess around with other people’s field boundary markers. They not only inevitably return as ghosts as punishment for their crimes, but frequently as ghosts _set on fire!_

I suspect that this is directly derived from Deuteronomy 27:17:

“Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”

I suspect that cultures that _don’t_ have Christianity’s obsession with clearly marked lots of land don’t have such legends, either. And I gather that many cultures have a more communal approach to land ownership.

@Ellirahim @raymccarthy @germany @folklore @rorystarr

That’s probably the intended effect - scare people (especially children) away from places where they might drown.

@Ellirahim @raymccarthy @germany @folklore

Sometimes the “wisdom” is a little dubious. The folklore of the European alps holds that the upper ranges of the mountains were once fertile meadows, but got covered by ice due to “the sins of humans”.

Considering that those same glaciers are now rapidly melting away _because_ of the “sins of humans”, I find this deeply ironic.

@Ellirahim @raymccarthy @germany @folklore

There’s little of that in German folklore - the biblical command to “subjugate the earth” tends to override environmental concerns in the tales.

Though there _is_ a tale where you are supposed to leave a corner of the field alone during the harvest time, in order to appease a certain group of angry, hungry spirits. I couldn’t help but wondering if this was a remnant of older beliefs about spirit worship.

@Ellirahim @raymccarthy @germany @folklore @rorystarr

His whole “Fireside Fairytales” playlist is worth checking out, and I’m not just saying that because he has read a bunch of my translations as of late. 😁

@Ellirahim @raymccarthy @germany @folklore

German folklore does have some “grain spirits”, such as the “rye mother” and the “rye wolf”. They mostly serve to terrorize children so that they won’t go into ripe grain fields and thus damage the crops.

@Ellirahim @raymccarthy @germany @folklore

@rorystarr did a reading about some tales of German water spirits, which you might want to check out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8h7OfWm64

@raymccarthy @Ellirahim @germany @folklore

Yeah, there are spirits of mountains, lakes, springs, and forests aplenty in German folklore - but not of individual plants.

There _are_ some extremely weird, supernatural plants in German folklore - but there is usually no indication that they are actually spirits.

@Ellirahim @germany @folklore As the notes mention, these are types of spleenwort.