In the face of technology and the fears to be found in modern life, the folk horror that developed in the late 19th century in the hands of writers such as Bram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu and EF Benson continues to resonate – as evidenced by the popularity of the British Library’s ‘Tales of the Weird’ series. With their atmospheric covers and accessibility – the individual Tales can be read in one sitting – these collections caused bit of a stir in the Postscript office. Here’s a sneak peak into some of their contents, followed by an odyssey that takes in some of the strange creatures whose tales have seeped into the folklore of countries from Japan to America.
Cornish Horrors, ed. Joan Passey
From his parish of Morwenstow, just a few miles north of Tintagel on the Cornwall coast, the eccentric vicar Robert Stephen Hawker played a key role in promoting Cornish folklore and, through his writing, demonstrated how the genre blurred with fiction in the 19th century. Included among the Gothic tales collected in Cornish Horrors is Hawker’s ‘Cruel Coppinger’, which builds on the prominence of caves and smuggling in local legends to tell the story of a lawless sea captain who arrives on a ship that appears as a phantom in a storm, claims a home and a bride, terrorizes his neighbours, then abruptly vanishes.
Circles of Stone, ed. Katy Soar
With their long association with pagan rituals the standing stones, dolmens and burial sites of the British Isles became a rich source of inspiration for the writers of folk horror in the 19th century. Among the 15 such tales Circles of Stone is HR Wakefield’s ‘The First Sheaf’, telling of the disappearance of a young girl and her father’s conviction that the villagers have stolen her. The curiosity of the narrator – a newcomer to the village – is roused and his secret observation of a bizarre ritual held by the locals around a standing stone, with teeth at its centre, has life-changing consequences.
Eerie East Anglia, ed. Edward Parnell
Credited as ‘the father of folk horror’, Cambridge scholar MR James drew on the myths and landscapes of eastern England to create the ghost tales for which he is famed and his 1904 ‘“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”’ opens Eerie East Anglia, a collection of 17 uncanny stories. The tale describes how the discovery of a mysterious bronze whistle leads to the haunting of a young professor by ‘a figure in pale, fluttering draperies’ – the rising of his bedsheets to form ‘an intensely horrible face of crumpled linen’ becoming the basis for the archetypal image of a ghost.
Momotarō and the Island of Ogres, retold by Stephanie Wada
Written forms of the story of Momotarō have been traced back to the early 17th century but the tale is likely to be much older. Discovered inside a peach by a childless couple, the hero is a young boy who grows strong and brave enough to challenge the ogres who attack their land. With three companions – a dog, a monkey and a pheasant – he travels to the distant island where the ogres live and forces them to surrender the treasures they have stolen and to live peaceably. Our edition of Momotarō and the Island of Ogres is beautifully illustrated by Kano Naganobu (1775–1828), whose painted silk handscrolls are replete with objects symbolizing longevity and good luck.
A Purse Full of Tales, retold by Chan Young Kim and David Carter
Often translated as ‘goblin’ and described as a mischievous being, the Korean dokkaebi can take a variety of forms and while they usually help those in need they can also play tricks. In one version, ‘The Forgetful Dokkaebi’, the roles are reversed – a poor orphan is befriended by a dokkaebi whose overwhelming generosity leads the child to think of a way to trick the creature into no longer visiting. Their encounter is related in A Purse Full of Tales, a collection of 21 Korean short stories, suitable for children but equally appealing to adults, that are rarely available in English.
Serpents, Siren, Maelstrom & Myth, retold by Gerry Smyth
The fearsome draug with its hatred of humans has its origins in northern Europe and has taken many forms. In the 19th century the Norwegian writer Jonas Lie published a maritime version, ‘The Fisherman and the Draug’, which follows the fate of a man who accidentally spears the creature in the neck. Revenge is slow to come, but ancient proverbs say a man who sees a draug at sea is doomed and the fisherman pays his dues. Lie’s retelling of the tale appears in Serpent, Siren, Maelstrom and Myth, which accompanies 28 sea-themed folktales from around the world with illustrations from the British Library’s artwork collection.
Myths and Legends by John Pemberton
The vast range of cultures across sub-Saharan Africa tend to share a belief in the afterlife, with a worship of ancestors and faith in a supreme god often at the heart of rituals that include the retelling of traditional tales. Among these stories, which feature in the global coverage of Myths and Legends, is that of the sky serpent Damballa – according to Voodoo legend it was the shedding of his skin that released the planet’s waters and the movement of his coils that made its mountains and valleys.
A Brief Guide to Native American Myths and Legends, ed. Lewis Spence and Jon E Lewis
In his updated edition of Lewis Spence’s seminal Myths and Legends of North American Indians Jon E Lewis includes further examples of the tribes’ traditional stories, which often demonstrate a strong sense of connection with the surrounding environment. One such addition is the recounting of the Inuit tale of Sedna, a water spirit whose insatiable appetite – even for the flesh of her parents – saw her being taken out to sea in a canoe and thrown overboard. To prevent her from clinging to the vessel her fingers were cut off and, as they fell into the water, they were transformed into the ocean’s creatures.
