The events at Frodriver read like a mixture of a Christian exempla with more traditional Nordic notions of the undead, while the events described at Byland in Yorkshire feature the kind of aggressive, physical apparitions that Vikings were fond of describing.I live in somewhat of a close proximity to Aarey Milk Colony.
![ghost story ghost story](https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ghoststory2.jpg)
But they can also show the exchange of cultures happening over a large expanse of time. Medieval ghost stories, then, often fall into the category of exempla – cautionary tales intended to reinforce Christian values. The labourer digs up a set of spoons stolen by the ghost, and afterwards its spirit rests in peace. The man calls on the lord, and the ghost confesses that it was the canon of Newburgh, excommunicated for theft.
![ghost story ghost story](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmNmODllNWYtODU1NS00Njg1LWIyNDEtMzY0YWMyYzQwMmY3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTAzMTY4MDA@._V1_.jpg)
In another local story, a spirit accosts two farm labourers, attacking one of them. The man agrees, and the load is carried across a river, before reappearing on his back. The spirit claims that it means the man no harm, and asks to carry his load of beans for him. The spirit then appears as a glowing ball of light in a cloud of hay.įinally the man confronts the spirit in the name of the lord, and a ghostly figure appears in front of him. He sees a terrifying apparition of a horse, and after he tries to scare it away it begins to stalk him. One such tale features a man trying to make his way home with a load of beans after his horse meets with an accident.
![ghost story ghost story](https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/screen-shot-2017-03-28-at-8-24-02-am.png)
There are many ghost stories recorded by the Monk of Byland. The priest offers up prayers, and sure enough the ghostly attendant never returns to him.įrom fragments in a late 14th-century manuscript, transcribed by MR James in 1920 in Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories He entreats the priest to intercede on his behalf so that he might find peace in the afterlife, and when he finishes speaking he vanishes, so that the priest knows for certain he has seen a ghost. He explains that he cannot eat holy bread, for he isn’t a living man at all, but an apparition of the former overseer of the baths. When the man sees the loaves, he becomes distressed. He returns the next time with two Eucharist loaves, and offers them to the man with his gratitude. Eventually the priest decides that he should give the man a reward. The priest then visits the baths several more times, and each time the man appears to him and offers to help him, but doesn’t extract any form of payment. The man promptly begins to attend to him, helping him to take off his clothes and shoes, and the priest naturally assumes that he is one of the servants there. Translated by EG Gardner in 1911, and published in Medieval Ghost Stories, by Andrew JoynesĪ priest is visiting a hot spring when he comes across a man he hasn’t seen before. The ghouls are charged with staying unlawfully in the hall, and eventually their leader declares, somewhat petulantly: “We have here no longer a peaceful dwelling, therefore will we remove.”įrom The Dialogi of Gregory the Great, published in the mid-10th century. After a funeral feast is held, they are beset by a crowd of walking ghouls that refuse to leave, and which gather around the central fire of the main hall each night.īut deliverance soon arrives when Kiartan, the son of Thurida, engages a local priest to stage a trial.
#Ghost story series#
Inevitably, Thurida can’t resist taking the rich bedding of Thorgunna for herself, and sure enough the residents of Froda begin to fall victim to a series of grisly accidents, ghostly attacks, and mysterious plagues. This, she says, is not out of spite, but as a way to protect the settlement from an evil that is coming. Soon Thorgunna falls ill and dies, but leaves behind a warning: her bedding is to be burnt, and most of her effects given to local monks.
![ghost story ghost story](http://www.thecatyouandus.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/AGhostStoryPoster-lettering-2.jpg)
Thorgunna refuses to part with any of her precious things, but agrees to stay and work as a servant.