Ghostlore

Ghostlore or ghost-lore is a genre of folklore concerning ghosts. Ghostlore occurs throughout recorded history, including contemporary contexts.

Athenodorus in a haunted house

History

The first known recorded story to feature a haunted house is often regarded by folklore scholars as Mostellaria, which itself is believed to be an adaptation of a lost ghost story named Phasma written by the Athenian poet Philemon.[1][2] Several centuries later, in the writings of Pliny the Younger, can be found the second-oldest mention of a haunted house in which the philosopher Athenodorus helps lay the bones of a restless spirit to rest.[2]

Around the world

Scotland
See also: Ghosts in English-speaking cultures

The Green Lady is a reoccurring character in many Scottish folktales.[3] This folklore character is often associated with the many castles dotting the countryside. Examples of the green ladies include the Green Lady of Fyvie, Green Lady of Ashintully Castle, Green Lady of Ballindalloch Castle, Green Lady of the Barony of Ladyland, Green Lady of Crathes Castle, and the Green Lady of Knock Castle. The origin of the green lady appears to stem from the Glaistig, which is a type of fuath from Scottish mythology. The Green Lady varies from story to story, in some stories she may act as a type of guardian angel, but in others she takes on the form of a vengeful spirit.[4]

Ireland

The Banshee is one of the most well known spirits in Irish folklore.[5] Within these folktales, hearing a banshee's scream is viewed to portend the death of a family member. The banshees description changes significantly depending on the folktale, with the only consistent details generally being that the banshee is the spirit of a woman with long flowing hair who can be heard loudly keening in the countryside.[6] In some variations of the tale the banshee is thought to be the spirit of a murdered woman or a mother who died in childbirth. The Scottish Bean Nighe is specifically the banshee of a woman who died during childbirth.[7] The banshee is often depicted accompanying the death coach in European folklore.[8]

Latin America
See also: Ghosts in Mexican culture

In almost every Latin American country, you can find stories about the Sihuanaba, or horse-faced women.[9] The Sihuanaba is said to lead unfaithful men into dangerous situations. Variations of the story exist, but in almost all of them, the spirit is a type of shapeshifter who exclusively preys on men. Name variations include Cihuanaba, Ciguanaba, and Ciguapa.

La Llorona, or The Wailer, is an extremely widespread folklore story within Latin American countries.[10] Many different versions of the La Llorona story exist, but generally they focus on the spirit's intense grief for her lost children.[11]

China
See also: Ghosts in Chinese culture and List of reportedly haunted locations in China

'鬼' (Mandarin pinyin: guǐ) is the general Chinese term for ghost which itself is a derivative of the verb "wei 威", which means "awe inspiring”.[12] Belief in ghosts in China is widespread and is often closely associated with ancestor worship.[13] Ghosts have been the subject of censorship in China at various times.[14][12]

The United States of America

Resurrection Mary, a "vanishing hitchhiker" is considered to be Chicago's most famous ghost.[15] Some ghost stories in Alabama can be traced to the folklore of the Choctaw. As many of the state's early settlers were of Scotch-Irish heritage, their tales contain a number of European motifs. According to Jones, ghostlore is more prominent in rural areas. New York state's ghostlore is most readily found the state's earliest settled region: either side of the Hudson River from Newburgh to Troy, and along the Mohawk Valley from Cohoes to Utica. Jones argues that "[f]or ghostlore to thrive one needs a section that has been settled for a considerable length of time, where the houses are old, and at least a fair share of the population is permanent."[16]

Locations

Specific locations associated with death or tragedy quickly gain a local reputation for being haunted quicker than more benign places and as a result appear disproportionately within ghostlore stories from all over the world. Some examples of these locations include:

Cemeteries

Cemeteries often quickly become the subject of many ghost stories and frequently appear in the recorded folklore from all over the world. Popular local examples of cemeteries that have gained a reputation within folklore for being haunted include Bachelor's Grove Cemetery,[17] Chase Vault,[18] Jeruk Purut Cemetery,[19] and Union Cemetery.[20]

College Campuses

The architecture of many older buildings on college campuses resembles that of buildings described in nineteenth-century literary ghost stories and Gothic novels. Often these buildings become the setting for ghostly legends. According to professor Elizabeth Tucker, "[b]y telling ghost stories, students transform their college buildings into mysterious and magical places." The stories serve to "initiate entering students into a new community."[21]

Highways

The haunted highway is a reoccurring theme in many folklore tales from all over the globe. One of the best examples from the United States of America is Clinton Road in New Jersey,[22] but there are many others.[23] In more rural areas the haunted highway will take on the form of a haunted street, road, or even trails.[24] Examples of roads around the globe with attached ghostlore include the Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway, A21 Sevenoaks Bypass, and the Tuen Mun Road.

Railroads

A particular subset of ghostlore is that concerning the railroad. The most famous of the ghost trains, at least in The United States of America, is that of Abraham Lincoln's funeral train.[25]

Hospitals

Hospitals are perhaps one of the most common backdrops for a haunted location story and this type of ghostlore can be found all over the globe.[26] One common aspect of these stories is that the ghosts are either the former patients or the staff themselves and typically act as the vengeful spirits of those who died there, or those who wish to cause suffering from beyond the grave. Popular examples of the haunted asylum are Ararat Lunatic Asylum in Australia,[27] Nummela Sanatorium in Finland, and Changi Hospital in Singapore. The haunted hospital folktale may often be a mental health hospital, but this is not always the case and there are many general hospitals with a haunted reputation.[28]

Observations

American folklorist Louis C. Jones observed the following in 1944:

"Ghostlore is still widespread and popular. While most of the actions thought to be common among ghosts (chain clanking, cemetery haunting, and so forth) can be found, they are by no means so widespread in the popular ghostlore as we have been led to expect. The ghost who is very like the living is far more common than any other… It might be expected that a rational age of science would destroy belief in the ability of the dead to return. I think it works the other way: in an age of scientific miracles anything seems possible."[29]

Jones lists several reasons why ghosts return and interact with the living. Among these are to complete unfinished business, to warn and inform, to punish and protest, to guard and protect, and to reward the living.[16] Folklorist Linda Dégh observed in her 2001 work Legend and belief the following:

"The legend touches upon the most sensitive areas of our existence, and its manifest forms cannot be isolated as simple coherent stories. Rather, legends appear as products of conflicting opinions, expressed in conversation. They manifest in discussions, contradictions, additions, implementations, corrections, approvals, and disapprovals during some or all phases of their transmission, from their inception through various courses of elaboration, variation, decline, and revitalization."[30]

Stories often draw from the general history of an area or from specific historical incidents. Researcher Alan Brown believes that "[t]he association between ghosts and dilapidated houses is conventional."[31] Brown notes that some stories cease to be passed down once the setting has been significantly altered, as in the case of a "haunted house" demolished.[31]

References
  1. Franko, George Fredric (2022). Plautus : Mostellaria. London. ISBN 978-1-350-18841-9. OCLC 1255522472.
  2. Felton, Debbie. Haunted Greece and Rome:Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity. pp. 65–70. ISBN 978-0-292-75732-5. OCLC 1286806031.
  3. Sedgwick, Icy (2020-12-05). "These 5 Scottish & Welsh Castles Feature A Green Lady Ghost". Icy Sedgwick. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  4. "Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland". Notes and Queries. s9-VII (167): 198–200. 1901-03-09. doi:10.1093/nq/s9-vii.167.198g. ISSN 1471-6941.
  5. Lysaght, Patricia (1996). The banshee : the Irish supernatural death-messenger. Dublin: O'Brien Press. ISBN 0-86278-490-5. OCLC 36236797.
  6. Lally, Steve (2019). Irish Gothic Fairy Stories : From the 32 Counties of Ireland. Paula Flynn Lally. Chicago: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-9036-3. OCLC 1078995569.
  7. Monaghan, Patricia (2014). Encyclopedia of goddesses and heroines. Novato, California. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-60868-217-1. OCLC 865297564.
  8. "A Folklore Survey of County Clare: The Death Coach". www.clarelibrary.ie. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  9. Barnoya Gálvez, Francisco (2000). Cuentos y leyendas de Guatemala. Francisco Barnoya Gálvez. Guatemala: Editorial Piedra Santa. ISBN 99922-50-57-7. OCLC 44492958.
  10. Perez, Domino Renee (2008). There was a woman : La Llorona from folklore to popular culture. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-79427-6. OCLC 311058846.
  11. Barakat, Robert A. (1969). "Wailing Women of Folklore". The Journal of American Folklore. 82 (325): 270–272. doi:10.2307/538716. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 538716.
  12. Imbach, Jessica (2016-09-01). "Variations on gui and the Trouble with Ghosts in Modern Chinese Fiction". Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques. 70 (3): 865–880. doi:10.1515/asia-2015-1013. ISSN 0004-4717. S2CID 99496128.
  13. "4. Ancestor Worship", Chinese Family and Kinship, Columbia University Press, pp. 71–106, 1979-12-31, doi:10.7312/bake90638-007, ISBN 978-0-231-87974-3, retrieved 2022-12-11
  14. Zhu, Ying (2022). Hollywood in China : behind the scenes of the world's largest movie market. New York. ISBN 978-1-62097-218-2. OCLC 1261362941.
  15. Heise, Kenan (1990). Resurrection Mary: A Ghost Story. Chicago Historical Bookworks. ISBN 0-924772-09-3.
  16. Jones, Louis C., Three Eyes on the Past: Exploring New York Folk Life', Syracuse University Press, 1982ISBN 9780815601791
  17. Bielski, Ursula (2016). Haunted Bachelors Grove. Arcadia Publishing Inc. ISBN 978-1-4396-5823-9. OCLC 969030274.
  18. Finneran, Niall; Welch, Christina (2020-01-02). "Barbadian Gothic: The Moving Coffins of the Chase Vault in Socio-Cultural Context". Folklore. 131 (1): 55–75. doi:10.1080/0015587x.2019.1637561. ISSN 0015-587X. S2CID 211667892.
  19. "Ghost tales underline Jakartan love for absurdities". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  20. Warren, Ed (2 December 2014). Graveyard : true hauntings from an old New England cemetery. ISBN 978-1-63168-011-3. OCLC 908192684.
  21. Tucker, Elizabeth. Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American College Campuses. Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2007ISBN 978157806994-1
  22. "Clinton Road, New Jersey: The scariest and strangest road in the U.S." New York Daily News. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  23. Kaczmarek, Dale (2012). Field guide to haunted highways & bridges. [United States]. ISBN 978-0-9797115-5-8. OCLC 1227044338.
  24. Lankford, Andrea (2006). Haunted hikes : spine tingling tales and trails from North America's national parks. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press. ISBN 978-1-59580-985-8. OCLC 680277598.
  25. Swayne, Matthew L., Haunted Rails: Tales of Ghost Trains, Phantom Conductors, and Other Railroad Spirits, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2019ISBN 9780738761510
  26. Leslie, Mark (2017). Haunted hospitals : eerie tales about hospitals, sanatoriums, and other institutions. Rhonda Parrish. Toronto. ISBN 978-1-4597-3786-0. OCLC 952386408.
  27. Waldron, David (2020). Aradale : the making of a haunted asylum. Sharn Waldron, Nathaniel Buchanan. North Melbourne, Victoria. ISBN 978-1-925984-91-0. OCLC 1195933741.
  28. Knowles, Zachery (2015). True ghost stories: Real haunted hospitals and mental asylums. Monee, IL: True Ghost Stories. ISBN 978-1-5177-5975-9. OCLC 1233048782.
  29. Jones 1944: 253.
  30. Dégh, Linda (2001). Legend and belief : dialectics of a folklore genre. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33929-4. OCLC 45418957.
  31. Brown, Alan. The Face in the Window and Other Alabama Ghostlore, University of Alabama Press, 1996, p. xvISBN 9780817308131

Notes
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