Dearly Not So Departed

Hello everyone! This is Casimir with The Skald’s Circle again. Today we’ll be talking about ghosts, spirits, spectres, geists, and all other things from beyond the grave that don’t rest after death.

It’s always fascinating to me when there are similarities in cultures all across the world. Everyone has dragons for example. Another common one that you can find in cultures all across the globe are ghosts. If you take a ghost story from the countryside of France, and compare it with a ghost story from Feudal Japan, you’d likely find more in common than is particularly comfortable to think about, given the subject matter. There’s something about the idea of part of us remaining behind, whether it’s from unfinished business, being a particularly wicked person, or dying in a particular way. You can find these explanations everywhere; is it because we use these ghost stories as an explanation of what happens after, or perhaps as hope of some kind of life after death, or even as some way of envisioning the punishment of those who were bad in the world, forced to live out eternity here on earth for their transgressions.

You’ve got the Vodianoi and Rusalka from Slavic folklore, the ghosts of the unclean dead — people who died from suicide, died violently, or died before their time, who haunt the waters drowning passersby. The Draugr of Norse mythology who haunt their graves and the places they “haunted” when they lived protecting the treasures in their grave, kept alive because they were mean, evil, or greedy people in life. Then you’ve got the standard ghost stories that we’ve all heard of — maybe there’s a local abandoned house, or even lived in house, that for some reason the past inhabitants are a bit too attached to the location. These spirits are bound to the place they lived in, or had a strong attachment to because part of them is still there, or they left something unfinished. The types from each culture are as varied as the reasons that they’re left behind.

Back to where I started though. We all as humans don’t want to leave anything unfinished in this world. Whether that’s a chosen task of protecting our wealth, or something that an untimely death prevented us from doing, such as simply living our life. There is the case of ghosts caused by violent death, or failing to come home, and only returning as a ghost to haunt the place we longed for so dearly.

I mean curious though, tell me about your favorite ghost story from where you are. I’ll start first to prove that it’s safe. One of my favorites is from my family actually. My grandparents have a very old house, well, from an American stand point at least; it’s over two-hundred years old. The house had originally been owned by a family before the American Civil War.  In fact, one of the residents of the house didn’t make it back from the war alive. I was told that one day, one of the previous owners of the house saw someone walking down the driveway. They were dressed in the uniform of a union soldier, missing a leg and walking on crutches. They disappeared though upon reaching the house. It seemed to me like the soldier finally made it home.

I hope you have enjoyed our discussion of mythology, folklore, and history on History with The Skald’s Circle. If you’d like to know more, or perhaps discuss it with me I’m always more than willing. Also, if you have something you would like us to research, please let us know! Also if you learned something new, give us a like, and let us know, we really appreciate being noticed. Until then, I’ll be back next week with another fascinating topic. This is Casimir, signing off, and remember, always check your sources!