Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Cursed Sea: Sailors, Omens, and the Rituals That Kept Them Alive

The Cursed Sea: Sailors, Omens, and the Rituals That Kept Them Alive

Webb, Jon

Paperback

AnthropologyMythology & Folklore

ISBN13: 9798249623555
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 24 2026
Pages: 132
Weight: 0.41
Height: 0.28 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Before weather forecasting, before GPS, before any of the technologies that make the ocean navigable with something approaching confidence, sailors crossed the world's most dangerous waters armed with skill, experience, and a complete belief system built to manage the unmanageable.

The Cursed Sea explores the extraordinary body of ritual, taboo, and supernatural belief that governed life at sea across Britain, Scandinavia, Iberia, and the broader Atlantic world. It covers the words that could not be spoken aboard a fishing boat and the ceremonies that had to be performed before any vessel left port. It examines the birds that carried the souls of dead sailors in their wings, the cats that predicted storms, the tattoos that made bargains with the ocean on behalf of the men who wore them. It looks at the deep fear surrounding a ship's name, the elaborate rituals of burial at sea, and the belief that a single unlucky crew member could doom an entire voyage.

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