Spotlight on Algernon Blackwood

English author, Algernon Blackwood was one of the most prolific authors of ghost stories in the golden age of Victorian literature. He lived from 1869 to 1951. Born in England, he lived there for the majority of his life but spent some time in Canada as a (not very successful) dairy farmer and hotelier. He was known to be an avid outdoorsman and this is reflected in his stories such as The Willows, The Wendigo and A Haunted Island. Blackwood had a variety of jobs in his life and finally found a place to belong as an author. 

  

He was a member of The Ghost Club, Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were also members. The club, founded in London in 1862, investigated and researched the paranormal. He was also a member of the 

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn . He investigated Buddhism and other religions, it has been speculated he did this because of his strict Calvinist upbringing, but he was also a product of his times and during this era, pictures made of human hair, seances and spiritualism were all the rage. Blackwood is known for writing ghost stories that are not gory but have an uneasy psychological effect. His talent is the emotion he weaves with his words. Some might find his writings wordy, but it was the style of the time, his stories don't reach out and knock you on the head but they make you wonder about every little sound or shadow you think you are seeing or hearing in the dead of night!

The Willows

Blackwood is the creator of the character, John Silence, one of the first occult or paranormal detectives. His writing talent was also praised by Lovecaft. One of his most famous stories would be The Willows, (novella length). An early collection of his work (1914) is entitled "Incredible Adventures", it includes these stories "The Regeneration of Lord Ernie","The Sacrifice", "The Damned", "A Descent into Egypt", and "Wayfarers". Other highly recommended works include- The Wendigo, John Silence stories, A Haunted Island, The Empty House, The Kit-Bag, and The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York.

His works are in the public domain so free versions of his story collections can be found and downloaded for kindle or other electronic devices, and are also available free online at sites such as

Project Gutenberg here: Algernon Blackwood at Gutenberg.org, here: Algernonblackwood.org, and here:Algernon Blackwood at American Literature. Check them out.

Halloween Reads...

5 Reads about witches for Halloween... (click here)
 

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen...social commentary and satire of all horrid novels!

  I am a fan of Jane Austen books and movies. I think I own all the various versions of the movie Pride and Prejudice that are available on dvd. Northanger Abbey is the first of Ms. Austen's novels that was readied for publication but one of the last to actually be published. The novel is a satire of the Gothic novels that were popular in the late 1700's (novels involving romantic adventure, soap opera type plots, emotional drama, and a touch of the supernatural). 

 

Satire: noun

1. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. (dictionary.com)

Northanger Abbey was a social commentary on the time period as novels (fiction stories) were considered frivolous at the time and classical literature and non-fiction were accepted as socially acceptable and not frivolous. At the time, such 'novels' were deemed to have a damaging effect on young, impressionable, female minds. We see in Northanger Abbey that the 17 year old heroine of the book, Catherine, is not damaged by her love of reading such novels, she just has some growing up to do. Shmoop.com makes a nice analogy of Northanger Abbey: think of it and the books it parodies as a modern day author doing a spoof of something like Twilight.

Austen had originally named the novel "Susan" and then changed it to "Catherine" when she reworked the manuscript after the family purchased it back from the publisher in 1813. The publishing house sat on the manuscript for 10 years because they could not decide whether it was worth publishing or not. Her brother had the novel published in December of 1817, several months after his sister died. 

Movie scene with Northanger Abbey (Lismore Castle) in the distance.

Two movies have been made of the book, one in 1986 and another in 2007. It is a coming of age story about a sheltered teen age girl, one of 10 children of a country clergyman. The main character, Catherine, loves reading Gothic novels and reads works by Ann Radcliffe during the story. The novel also lists other Gothic novels (called Horrid Novels) and at first it was believed that Austen made up those works but they turned out to be real stories that had been previously published by the time Northanger Abbey was written. (A list of the Horrid Novels will be given shortly, and they have been recently re-published for readers who are in interested in obtaining them.) Northanger Abbey has proven itself to have timeless appeal with the universal themes of growing up, the nature of love, the nature of friendship, and explores human relationships and behavior.

Another view of Lismore Castle.

 

The movie setting was Lismore Castle, which is located in Waterford County, Ireland, ancestral home of the Dukes of Cork (The Boyles). Originally built in 1185 at the location of a former Abbey, it has had some famous owners and residents such as; Robert Boyle, of Boyle's Law, who is considered one of the father's of Modern Chemistry and the Scientific Method, and William Cavendish; 4^th Duke of Cavendish who became Prime Minister of Great Britain and Ireland for

approximately 8 months in 1756-7.

The 6^th Duke of Cavendish, known as the "Bachelor Duke" refurbished the castle in the Gothic Style in the early 1800's. The present Duke maintains an apartment in the castle but it is not his principal residence. Today there is an art gallery in the west wing and the lovely gardens are open to the public. Visitors can also rent rooms for a vacation stay in the castle. I couldn't find any ghost stories connected to Lismore Castle but as we all know...every castle has it's ghosts, the locals probably know. We need to book a few rooms and find out for ourselves!

 List of Horrid Stories mentioned in Northanger Abbey:

• Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons. London: Minerva Press.
• Clermont (1798) by Regina Maria Roche. London: Minerva Press.
• The Mysterious Warning, a German Tale (1796) by Eliza Parsons. London: Minerva Press.
• The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794) by 'Ludwig Flammenberg' (pseudonym for Carl Friedrich Kahlert; translated by Peter Teuthold). London: Minerva Press.
• The Midnight Bell (1798) by Francis Lathom. London: H. D. Symonds.
• The Orphan of the Rhine (1798) by Eleanor Sleath. London: Minerva Press.
• Horrid Mysteries (1796) by the Marquis de Grosse (translated by P. Will). London: Minerva Press.
  

All seven of these were republished by the Folio Society in London in the 1960s, and since 2005 Valancourt Books has released new editions of the first six. (Wiki)

Egyptian Sorcery by Algernon Blackwood

But what happens when the mind is unconscious
and the tired body lies submerged in deep sleep, no
man, they say, can really tell. (Egyptian Sorcery by Algernon Blackwood)

 Link to the 8 page story "Egyptian Sorcery" by Algernon Blackwood 

Crows and Ravens...

A lot of people think of crows and ravens as representatives of scary beings or even as evil birds because they are black and have been given a bad rap in movies and books. We have Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 movie classic "The Birds" to thank for terrorizing many of us in our youth. Also crows are often depicted as spies for witches or evil overlords in many fantasy books and movies. Think- The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe). The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne describes crows as spies and The series of Young Adult Books- The Secrets of the Immortal Life of Nicholas Flamel also describes crows as evil spies and they attack people and automobiles.  There are others examples, but those two just came to mind easily as I was writing this up.

Here is a different take on crows and ravens; great photography depicting their beauty and a nice human interest piece about a young girl who has been regularly feeding crows in her back yard. The crows are her friends now as they will often bring her gifts and leave them in the bird feeder for her. Enjoy.

Stunning Photos Capture the Majestic Beauty of Ravens

and

The girl who gets gifts from birds

Have a Howling Good Time...

"The Book of Werewolves" by S. Baring Gould (1865)

~ Being an Account of a Terrible Superstition ~

S. Baring Gould was a prolific 19^th century author, writing as many as 500 works of fiction and non-fiction. As well as being a Reverend, he was also a scholar of history, architecture, folklore and legends. He lived in Devon, England. He is also noteworthy for writing a classic Christian hymn entitled "Onward Christian Soldiers". His study of werewolves has stood the test of time and it is still acknowledged as a seminal and classic work on the subject of Lycanthropy. These werewolves are not from a fantastical Native tribe in Washington State that occasionally make truces with Edward and the local vampires, nor are they of the Hollywood variety. The werewolves described by Gould are blood thirsty, or apparently poor folk that just want a taste of meat a la Homo sapiens, or, of the historically documented, true crime, mass murdering variety. They might even have been the true Viking Berserkers!

The author traveled around to the locales he wrote about in this book and asked the people about local lore about the subject, then he recorded them. Part of the narrative is folklore and some of it is a retelling of true crime with bone chilling accounts perpetrated by some of humanities worst specimens ever. The book begins with an historical account of the Lycanthropy phenomenon and then delves into one of the best accounts of Scandinavian werewolf folklore ever put together, it moves on throughout history. This is one fascinating, eye popping, cringe-worthy book. It's rather like the fascination one gets from staring at a particularly awful automobile accident on the expressway as you drive slowly by.

Do you want to know how to transform yourself into a werewolf, get this book, interesting in protecting your family from werewolves?...ditto. The author also discussed possible causes for the werewolf condition which range from psychosis and insanity, to a byproduct of a witches salve, natural phenomenon, and just plain old evil blood lust.

Typical 19^th century language and sentence structure is used throughout the work, Victorian drama included free of charge, and a bit of good and evil thrown into the mix. Makes for interesting reading, a good reference for those interested in the subject or for budding authors wanting background knowledge to write about the fantastical. This work has stood the test of time, and is still considered one of the best works of Werewolf folklore ever written. I got it free on my kindle. Also available from booksellers as a paperback. Online text posted at sacred-texts.com, also available at various other places on the net. Not for the faint hearted.

A sampling from Chapter VIII, Folklore:

"The Russians call the were-wolf oborot, which signifies "one transformed." The following receipt is given by them for becoming one:
"He who desires to become an oborot, let him seek in the forest a hewn-down tree; let him stab it with a small copper knife, and walk round the tree, repeating the following incantation:--

On the sea, on the ocean, on the island, on Bujan,
On the empty pasture gleams the moon, on an ashstock lying
In a green wood, in a gloomy vale.
Toward the stock wandereth a shaggy wolf.
Horned cattle seeking for his sharp white fangs;
But the wolf enters not the forest,
But the wolf dives not into the shadowy vale,
Moon, moon, gold-horned moon,
Cheek the flight of bullets, blunt the hunters' knives,
Break the shepherds' cudgels,
Cast wild fear upon all cattle,
On men, on all creeping things,
That they may not catch the grey wolf,
That they may not rend his warm skin
My word is binding, more binding than sleep,
More binding than the promise of a hero!

"Then he springs thrice over the tree and runs into the forest, transformed into a wolf."

 Here is a link to a once popular song about Werewolves: 

Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon (1978)

Contents of the Book of Werewolves:
Chapter I. Introductory
Chapter II. Lycanthropy Among the Ancients
Chapter III. The Were-Wolf in the North
Chapter IV. The Origin of the Scaninavian Were-Wolf
Chapter V. The Were-Wolf in the Middle Ages
Chapter VI. A Chamber of Horrors
Chapter VII. Jean Grenier
Chapter VIII. Folk-Lore Relating to Were-Wolves
Chapter IX. Natural Causes of Lycanthropy
Chapter X. Mythological Origin of the Were-Wolf Myth
Chapter XI. The Maréchal de Retz.-I. The Investigation of Charges.
Chapter XII. The Maréchal de Retz.--II. The Trial
Chapter XIII. Maréchal de Retz.--III. The Sentence and Execution.
Chapter XIV. A Galician Were-Wolf
Chapter XV. Anomalous Case.--The Human Hyæna.
Chapter XVI. A Sermon on Were-Wolves

 

Lewtrenchard Mansion where S. Baring Gould lived.

The Mummies of Ferentillo

Ferentillo- Provincia di Terni, Umbria, Italia

Entrance to the museum

Ferentillo is a town in the Umbria region of Italy. In the town you will find ancient castle ruins in the hills and Santo Stefano, an old church built on top of an even older church. The area is known for good hiking and is near one of the largest waterfalls in Europe. It's not a hot tourist spot but Ferentillo offers a unique museum- one that was never intended to be such, but through unusual circumstances, is.

A road sign points the way.

In the lower level of the Church of St. Stephen (Chiesa di Santo Stefano) is a crypt. Through unique climatic conditions and a distinct microorganism, the people that were buried in the crypt were naturally mummified, they still have eyelashes, hair, teeth, nails and remnants of their original clothes on. It is a snapshot in time.

In 1804-1806, Napoleon issued the edict of Saint-Cloud forbidding the burial of bodies within the confines of a town, (for health/sanitation reasons). Thus the bodies interred beneath the church were unearthed to be buried elsewhere. Excavators were expecting to find a pile of bones, instead they found whole bodies complete with skin and clothes, which had been naturally mummified. Santo Stefano church was built in the 16^th century over the ruins of an even older church. The older ruins were used as a catacombs but the bodies were not unearthed until after the Napoleonic edict. Scientific studies of the remains determined that a fungus had populated the remains and halted decay, preserving the bodies and leading to natural mummification. The bodies have been conserved and encased in glass, and the place has been made into a museum.

Oggi a me, domani a te.
Io fui quel che tu sei
tu sarai quel che io sono.
Pensa mortal che il tuo fine è questo,
e pensa pur che ciò sarà ben presto.
Today me, tomorrow you.
I was what you are
and you will be what I am.
Consider, mortal, that your end is this
and consider also that it will be quite soon

What makes these remains unique is that they are not all special citizens or religious figures who have been purposely preserved, they are regular people. You can see a mother, who died in childbirth, and her infant, art frescoes from the earlier 13^th century church, and along with the mummies are the stories of the people that used to be. There are the Chinese tourists, supposedly on their honeymoon...the husband died of the plague. The wife brought his body to the church and prayed for him, she also wound up dying and they were both interred in the crypt, where you can see them today.

One of the Ferentillo mummies

You can also see the man who was struck by the church bell and killed, with bell damage plainly visible on his remains. There is the lawyer who was murdered and buried in the crypt, and right beside him the lies the body of his murderer (the hunchback Severino), possibly put there to help his soul transition into the afterlife. The Capuchin monks were the caretakers of the church and the crypt and what is known about the persons buried there has been found in the church archives and from oral tradition.

Inside the museum

Ferentillo is an interesting find in the hills of Umbria, if you ever have the pleasure of visiting make sure you take a few hikes in this scenic place, check out the remains of the castles, Rocca di Precetto (Pentagonal Tower) and Mattarella (the Bell Tower), and the Church of Santa Maria along with it's Renaissance art.

You tube video: Le mummie di ferentillo by wunderk (5:19 min):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-HdfayJuQg

Matterella, ruins of the Bell Tower