Lecture V: Tale Types and Motifs

 

Ghost Stories



Caption:  A scary ghost

from Brian's Ghost Pages

 

It may be chilling enough to consider how death and dying are treated in the folklore of different cultures - but we all find the specter of the Return of the Dead to be truly frightening, for many reasons.  We have looked at Taboo stories, and again, there is much overlap between ghosts and taboo.  And, like the Elvis sightings and Urban Legends, modern folks are adding to the legendstock of ghosts at a remarkable rate.  Some of these stories persist, moving into the oral tradition.   But you might want to look at the ones that won't last, too, to see what is lacking in terms of persistency, appeals to our imagination.

With the advent of photography, ghost pictures became popular.   However, the idea of a picture of a ghost tends to work two ways - we can be disturbed, or we can dismiss the photo because it might have been simply a mechanical error, or outright doctored.



A photograph of a ghost on the road

From Roddy Douglas' page on how to create ghosts with photography.

ghost stories continue to be invented.  If you love them, you will want to go to AFU and Urban Legends site - ghost stories and see the newest ones!



The ghost Dragon

Images are from

John Howe's Paintings and Tim Kirk's Paintings for Tolkien stories.

The folktales of ghosts contain surprising information about the historicity of stories and about the cultures that produce them.

From the Cornwall folklore site - Jenkin says that perhaps the strangest notion of all concerning death was that the soul could not "pass easily" if the body lay "athurt the planshun" (across the direction of the floorboards), as follows:

On one occasion, many years ago now, an old woman had lain for a great while upon the point of death, but to the surprise of all, the hour of her dissolution was still delayed. At length a consultation took place amongst the relatives and various sympathetic neighbors.
"Well," said one, "she edn't gone yet, nor edn't like to, by what I can see."

"Poor, dear saul," said another, "she wisht and slow, sure enough."

"I tell 'ee, soas," chimed in the older woman, "tes my belief she wean't never pass as she is, for her body's lying athurt the planshun."

"Why, ais, that's so," exclaimed the daughter of the house, "I never thoft upon it before. Come awver steers and just help me move here round a minute, will 'ee?"

By dint of much starining effort the party at length succeeded in shifting the cumbrous old-fashioned bedstead in the tiny room. Some hours later the doctor called to see his patient.

"She's gone, doctor," cried the daughter as she met him on the threshold, "we just shifted her bed round, and she went off like a lamb!"

(Jenkin, Cornwall and the Cornish.)




Magic ghost kingdoms of air

Sometimes the ghost material is quite fragmentary, as though the lore were important on its own, and did not need a story to enclose it.  This is often because the point of a ghost story can be mainly to attest to the presence of the spirit world - no need for moral or further message.

On the occasion of a death, the old people made it a point to drape the flowers with mourning and tell the news to the bees.

Mrs. Pascoe of St. Hilary relates that in 1838 she saw a bit of black flag attached to a church woman's flowers. She explained that since her son had died being burnt to death, the flowers had begun to wither away and were only revived after she put on the piece of mourning.

A man in 1888 mentioned that as a boy he had seen thirty beehives belonging to Mr. Joshua Fox of Tregedna tied up in crepe
because of a death in the family.

Another man at the same time said that recently he saw at the First and Last Inn in Land's End, at the death of its landlady, all of the flowers and birdcages creped in order to prevent their deaths.

(Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England.)



Caption:  On the Ghost Ship



Caption:  A ghost in the cemetery

If all of this leaves you wanting to know more about haunting, you can join the International GhostHunters Society.!



Caption:  A ghost in his house (haunting)

haunted house for sale!


 

Continue Lecture V.