The disruption of our meticulously observed natural order of the world, and the enveloping darkness associated with a solar eclipse, is a rich source of folklore and belief in many cultures and traditions #FolkoreThursday (a thread)

In Vikings mythology a pair of sky wolves Hati and Skoll chase the sun and the moon endlessly, finally swallowing their prey and plunging the earth into darkness, heralding Ragnarok - the final destruction of the Viking gods #FolkloreThursday

In ancient China, the earliest word for eclipse, shih, meant to eat. Eclipses were believed to be caused by a legendary creature, the Tiangou, which resembles a black dog, eating the sun. In Yugoslavia it was a werewolf, in Siberia a vampire; in Vietnam, a frog #FolkloreThursday

In 1918, Howard Russell Butler an American portrait and landscape artist, and science graduate, painted a very different portrait, of an otherworldly, celestial sitter: a total solar eclipse #FolkloreThursday

Careful observation of our cosmos is a very human experience. Roy Lichtenstein, avid reader of scientific journals, is another artist who captured an eclipse of the sun, on canvas, with a pair of paintings in 1975 #FolkloreThursday

Illustrations:

Skoll and Hati, by Dobi
https://www.deviantart.com/dobie 

Late Qing dynasty (c.19thC) painting where Tiangou attempts to eat the sun

Roy Lichtenstein, Eclipse of the Sun I & II , 1975

Howard Russell Butler, Solar Eclipse triptych: 1918 left, 1923 central, 1925 right