I have long been fascinated with the idea of ghosts. Even in my teenage years, when I called myself an atheist (agnostic may have been a better description for my belief system at the time), I was a firm believer in ghosts, even if I never could wrap my head around the science of them. I'm pretty sure my house is haunted, but the spirits in the house (my old cat, a little girl, and a couple others) are pretty benevolent. I live down the street from the Bernal Ranch, one of two locations in San Jose that is certified as being haunted - the other being, of course, the Winchester Mystery House. (Also apparently being certified haunted is a thing?)
But do you ever notice that most ghost stories you hear about never seem to go back any further than the Renaissance? You hear about the ghosts of Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette and all those Civil War soldiers and murder victims from the Victorian era all the way up until now. But human history is way older than all of that. Millions and millions of souls have died after all - surely, there must be older ghosts. Did they all move on? Why don't we ever hear about them?
The thing is, if you do a little research, you totally can learn about them. For example, the Ancient Romans divided ghosts into 3 different categories - those crazy scoundrels loved orginising things into categories:
Lares - good spirits who were willing to help the living
Lemures - truly evil spirits who physically harmed the living
Manes - largely indifferent but generally good(ish) spirits
I am going to share with you three stories about ghosts, all from before the year 1000 CE. You're welcome.
 |
| No Ouija Boards required! |
Perhaps the most famous of Ancient Ghost Stories is the one Pliny the Younger told in one of his writings. ("Natural History" I believe?) A lot of ghost cliches - rattling chains, a spirit seeking proper burial - come from this one. Basically, this is how it goes down:
There was a large house in Athens, nice enough, but no residents ever kept to it for long. They were all scared out of it by the sounds of disembodied rattling chains, and the apparition of a scraggly old man. One day, a philosopher named Athenodorus came to town, and though the Athenians warned him, he wasn't deterred - he was a man of philosophy, damn it! Athenodorus bought the house.
Sure enough, on his first night, Athenodorus sat down to get some writing done and was interrupted by the sound of rattling chains. At first, they seemed to come from elsewhere in the house, but they got closer... closer... closer...
This is the part when any sane person would run for their lives. Athenodorus, however, was a philosopher. When the ghost appeared to him, he didn't flee - he followed it. It led him to another room, and disappeared. Athenodorus marked where it had disappeared. The next day, he contracted a magistrate and they dug up that exact spot - finding a corpse bound in chains. It was given a proper burial, and the ghost was never heard from again.
The Tale of Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre
Though they're not as well known as my main man Pliny up there, there actually are a lot of surviving medieval ghost stories for those who care to look. Most of them are told through a heavily Christian bias, though, so many secular paranormal enthusiasts just... don't care to look. This one is one of the oldest, and yes it is very Christian, but it's still worth telling. See, the thing about Germanus is that he was later sainted for all his conversions of Pagan Saxons so...
But this isn't about his Sainthood. You can research that on your own if you're so inclined. No, this is about the time he was in one of many many places where he'd gone to preach and maybe convert a heretic or two. He - and a few cohorts - had arrived in this particular town in the winter, and had decided to get to know it a little better on foot. As you do.
Night fell, and it got cold - winter tends to do that - and they sought shelter in a dilapidated old building. The building's reputation preceded it, but it didn't bother Germanus - he wasn't one for Pagan "superstition" I guess, I dunno - and so he fell asleep quickly. One of his fellow travelers was not so lucky, and woke up Germanus sometime later by shouting in alarm.
An apparition was slowly rising from the floor, and pebbles were flying all about and hitting the travelers, who didn't know who or what was throwing them. And this is where the super Christian bias comes in. You have been warned.
 |
| This guy? Religious? You don't say |
Are you starting to sense a theme here?
A Very Viking Ghost Story
Oh yes. The Vikings had ghosts too. You knew this was coming - our friends the Old Norse are no strangers to this blog. Technically, this one gets in on a technicality. The story comes from the Eyrbyggja Saga, which wasn't actually written down until the 1200s at the earliest. But it tells of events that happened in the 9th century, according to the saga, sooooo...
In one of the chapters of the Eyrbyggja Saga, a man named Thorolf Halt-foot dies and is entombed. However, his spirit is unhappy and becomes a Draugr - a type of Norse revenant, sort of a combo of a zombie and a ghost.
If you've been paying any attention, you may have already guessed that the living - in this case, Thorolf's son Arnkel - dig up the corpse and rebury it. They totally do that. But guess what? In this case, it doesn't work. Those Norse, man. They don't play by your rules. Arnkel digs up dear old dad again, and this time burns the remains, but Thorolf still won't leave the living alone.
In many other cultures, Arnkel may have tried to communicate with him, tried to figure out what he could do to maybe put Thorolf at peace.
But that is not how one deals with a Draugr.
No, Arnkel built a high stone wall around where what was left of Thorolf was. Therefore, the Draugr couldn't get out and wreak havoc upon the living. Arnkel had people to protect, after all, he wasn't going to dilly dally and let more people die.
Still, it is said that whenever birds landed on Thorolf's final resting place, they immediately fell down dead...
 |
| Be careful where you step in Iceland... |
So there you have it. Some super super super old ghost stories. Feel free to share with me some of your personal favourites
Pleasant dreams,
Nym
No comments:
Post a Comment