Good Nightmare

23. Snow Queen

June 6, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

“The Snow Queen” illustration by Elena Ringo.

The tale of the Snow Queen is one that I am rather unfamiliar with, aside from seeing her represented in Narnia, which stayed very true to the original tale, from what I remember of the film. This episode is another listener suggestion, thank you everyone who has recommended topics so far as it really helps me keep going when my brain doesn’t want to work with me!

The Snow Queen was written by our good friend, Hans Christien Anderson, and was originally published in 1844. It is one of Anderson’s longer tales and is told in seven parts. The story, in all, is a tale of the struggle between good and evil.

The story begins when the devil comes to earth disguised as a troll. He carries with him a mirror that only distorts reflections and turns them into visions of badness and evil. A person’s worst traits are all that is reflected when someone peers into the mirror, or once beautiful and lush landscapes appear as cold and dank as “boiled spinach”, Anderson’s words, not mine. I personally like spinach.

The devil was a headmaster at a school for trolls, and he recruited his fellow trolls to help him to play a trick on God and the angels by bringing the mirror to heaven. He had hoped to make fools of them all, by changing all their innocence and beauty into visions of evil and ugliness. The devil was out of luck, however, as the higher the mirror rose, the more it began to laugh and shake until it suddenly burst and shattered into millions of pieces, no larger than grains of sand, and settled all over the earth.

Years later, we learn of two close friends, Kai and Gerda, who lived so close that you could travel from one home to the next just by jumping over the house’s gutters. Kai and Gerda were raised so that they became as close as siblings. They would often spend days together tending a rose garden in a window box they had built together. The roses were such a special part of Gerda and Kai’s friendship, that roses always served as a reminder to Gerda of her love for Kai. The two would play and read stories while Kai’s grandmother would tell them tales of the Snow Queen. The Snow Queen was woman who was ruler of snow and winter, who would appear where snow gathered most heavily. Just as bees had a ruler, she would say, the Snow Queen was ruler of snow bees, or rather, snow flakes that look like bees. They were her guardians and protectors.

Kai was sitting in the window one day when he saw the Snow Queen herself, who beckoned him to her. Afraid, he backed away from the window until she was gone. Though, later, on a warm summer’s day, a breeze picked up and blew shattered pieces of the mirrors glass into Kai’s heart and eyes, causing him to see only as he would through the mirror. Everything became distorted and evil and bad. He smashed apart the garden he tended with Gerda, and insulted his grandmother, as he no longer saw any good in the world. He left them both heartbroken and confused. The only thing that was beautiful to Kai was the snow bees.

The following winter, Kai took his sled out to the snowy market square to play, as all the children would do. He hitched his sled to the beautiful white carriage of the Snow Queen, who was disguised as a woman wearing a heavy white coat. Once they were outside of the border of the city, the Snow Queen revealed herself to Kai and kissed him twice. Once, to numb him from the cold, a second time to make him forget Gerda, his family, and his life before. A third kiss would kill him. She then took Kai to her palace outside the city, to keep him for herself.

The people of the town assumed that Kai had died when they couldn’t find him in town. They assumed that he had fallen into a river and drowned and did not look for him any further. Gerda, heartbroken over the disappearance of her friend, went to search for Kai alone. She offered her new red shoes to the river in exchange for Kai, but when the river didn’t take her shoes as a gift, she learnt that the river hadn’t taken Kai. Next, Gerda visited a witches home with a garden of eternal summer. The lonely witch wanted Gerda to live with her forever and so she made Gerda forget about Kai and knowing that the roses in her garden would remind Gerda of her friend, she made them all sink beneath the earth. A while later, forgetting the roses herself, the witch entered the garden with Gerda, wearing a rose on her hat. Gerda saw the rose on the witches hat and remembered her dear friend, Kai. Gerda’s tears fell upon a rose bush beneath the earth that rose up and told her that while it was below, it could see all the dead of the earth and Kai was not among them.

Gerda fled the witch’s home and came across a crow who told her that Kai had been taken to the Snow Queen’s palace. Gerda began her journey to a nearby palace palace but on arriving there, she found only a prince and princess. She told the couple her story and they prepared her a beautiful coach and warm clothes.

Gerda was caught on her travels by a band of robbers, of which there was a little girl. Gerda befriended the little robber girl, whose pet doves told her they saw Kai being carried away by the Snow Queen to Lapland. The little robber girl gave Gerda her reindeer who had come from Lapland and would be able to take her there, and together they went.

Along the way, they stopped at the Finn woman’s home, who told the reindeer that the secret to saving Kai rested in Gerda’s heart. She said,

I can give her no greater power than she has already… Don’t you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she has now has… her own purity and innocence of heart.

Gerda finally reached the Snow Queen’s palace and was halted by the snow bees that guard it. She said the lord’s prayer, her breath took the shape of angels who resisted the snow bees and allowed Gerda to enter the palace. Gerda found Kai frozen on a river called the Mirror of Reason, upon which the Snow Queen’s throne sits. The Snow Queen herself was absent. Kai had been given pieces of ice to form a word that the Snow Queen told him to spell. If he was able to spell it, she would release him from her power and gift him a new pair of skates.

Gerda ran to Kai and kissed him, the warmth of her heart and her tears burnt away the splinters of mirror in Kai’s heart. Kai, himself, began to cry, which cleared the shards of mirror from his eyes, and released him from his curse. He recognised Gerda immediately and they began to dance in joy, rearranging the ice shards on the river. They fell down together, tired from dancing, and in the ice was spelled the word “eternity”, the very word Kai needed to spell to be freed.

Kai and Gerda escaped the palace, and with the help of the reindeer and the friends they made along the way, made their way back to their town. Upon returning, they saw that nothing there had changed but themselves. They had grown.

Kai’s grandmother closes the tale with a passage from the bible, reading,

Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Fairy tales often have a theme of good defeating evil, a nice break from what tends to happen in our own reality. Whether they serve to provide moral guidance or simply entertainment, a reader can always take something away from a tale.

This fairy tale has been adapted in film, theatre and TV. The most popular adaption I’m sure every parent is familiar with is Frozen, which takes the Snow Queen and takes her from evil to misunderstood. The story remains though, that a person can be saved by love. While love can’t cure all, it can help save someone from their isolation.

Source

Project Gutenberg

22. The Bell Witch

May 30, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 22. The Bell Witch

William Porter Attempts to Burn the Witch (Illus. 1894)

If you’re a fan of horror, you’ve definitely heard of or watched The Blair Witch Project. Today’s blog looks at a legend that inspired this and many other films: the case of the Bell Witch. Stay tuned until the end where I’ll also include some interesting trivia about the film.

The Bell Witch Haunting is a notable legend originating in Southern America in the 1800s.

John Bell Sr and his family claimed to have been haunted by a terrifying and very active entity between 1817 and 1821. Note quite a poltergeist, not quite a ghost, this entity could speak, shape shift and affect the environment around it. It was also said to possess super human speed, allowing it to travel long distances in a very short time. An example of which you’ll hear later on in the story.

The first reports of the haunting were from 1817, where John Bell Sr claimed to have witnessed an entity that resembled a large dog. Not an unusual sighting, one would think, except that when Bell attempted to shoot at the dog, it simply disappeared. John wasn’t the only one to witness this disappearing dog. An enslaved servant of the Bell family, Dean, also reported that he had seen this unusual dog on multiple occasions when he would travel to visit his wife. Normally, you wouldn’t find a dog to be much of an odd sighting, so we can only assume that there was something strange or ominous about this particular being. Black dogs, in lore, are said to represent a demonic entity. Often they are said to be shape shifters, in league with the devil, they may be described as ghosts or even hell hounds. Their appearance is often an omen of death.

Bell’s son, Drew, also claimed to have seen an extraordinary and large bird perched on a fence which flew away upon being approached. Birds are generally associated with endurance, freedom, talismans for weary travelers or even messengers to the gods. The opposite end of the spectrum to the black dog.

It seems that the haunting began on the outskirts of the property before moving toward and inside the house, and it certainly wasn’t limited to just one person. The haunting became more intense over time as the entity gained strength and energy.

The Bell family often reported hearing the sounds of fighting dogs, chains being dragged along the floors and knocking on the walls of the home throughout the night. Bed sheets would be pulled away from Bell’s sleeping children and the children themselves would be dragged from their beds. Betsey, Bell’s daughter, was especially targeted by the entity. She would be pinched, scratched and slapped as well as being stuck with pins.

After dealing with these occurrences within the family for some time, John Bell confided in his friend James Johnston. Johnston came to stay in the home, to experience the haunting for himself. Upon spending the night, Johnston exclaimed to Bell that the home was haunted by a spirit, like those of the Bible. It was confirmed that this was indeed an evil and mischievous entity.

The spirit was willing to communicate with the family, giving several reasons for its presence and several stories of its origin. It claimed to be a spirit that had been at rest but that had since been disturbed. The spirit appeared to be clairvoyant, able to glean and report information about families from surrounding homes back to the Bell’s. John Bell doubted the spirits abilities, however, and asked it to tell him something no one outside of his family would know. He asked what his grandmother would say to the slaves when they had done something wrong. Not only did the spirit answer correctly, it responded in the same Dutch accent that Bell’s grandmother had. This solidified his belief.

The Bell Witch, as it came to be known, was capable of great and disturbing feats. It was once reported to have recited two sermons that were taking place simultaneously, 13 miles away and seemed to enjoy religious discussions. This theme of religion being a focus in haunting cases is not uncommon. It shows up again and again in cases of demonic possession and sinister haunting.

One skeptic visited the Bell home but soon changed their mind about what they had thought to be a ruse.

While in the Bell house, the spirit relayed messages of the man’s family, speaking in an English accent. He later heard from said family, who were living in England at the time, that they had been visited by the spirit on the same night, again giving credit to the theory that this spirit could either travel at speed or could be in two places at once.

In an attempt to reason with the spirit, the family once asked what would make it leave. The spirit claimed that if Betsey, John’s daughter, who was heavily affected by the haunting, were to marry a man named Joshua Gardner, the spirit would leave. There were rumours, of course, that Betsey could be the one behind all of this. It was even suggested that she had learned ventriloquism, and was attempting to encourage Joshua to marry her through the will of the spirit. Whether or not this is true, it didn’t work. The two were not to be wed and the spirit died away shortly after this was decided.

If you’re like me, you’ll be finding it hard to believe that this was anything more than a disturbing prank or a kind of shared hysteria among the family. Though I do believe in ghosts, or spirits, a lot of this tale is a little too convenient. Many others are also skeptical and have been throughout the centuries, though often skeptics find themselves at the mercy of the spirit.

A troop of soldiers, for example, had been visiting the cave on the property which is now a popular tourist spot. One of the soldiers sat down to rest on a rock outside the cave, and exclaimed that they did not believe the haunting was real. It was at that moment that he felt phantom arms wrap around his chest and pull him backwards.

To this day, people still visit the area, in hopes of experiencing the haunting for themselves, or perhaps just out of curiosity. The tale of the Bell Witch has inspired five films since 1999 when The Blair Witch Project was aired.

While The Blair Witch Project is similar to the Bell Witch tale, the legend behind the movie was entirely fiction. The cast, however, were not aware of that at the time of filming, they were led to believe that the legend of a haunting and mysterious deaths in the area they were exploring in were real.

A lot of the film’s audience also believed the legend and film to be real. Heather Donahue’s mother actually received sympathy cards from strangers who believed that her daughter had died during filming. Ironically, when taking on the role, Heather had asked the director if he had intended to make a snuff film. If you’re unsure what a snuff film is, it’s a film in which a victims death or murder is actually recorded for entertainment and these films are then sold on the black market or the dark web. There may be room for an episode about these somewhere on Good Nightmare. As a note on what a strange and disturbing experience the filming of this movie was, Heather actually brought a knife to sleep with, to keep herself safe when sharing a tent with the two men in the movie. Honestly, I think I would have done the same.

To make the found footage film more believable, and to add tension, the actors were given less and less food to eat each day over the eight days of filming, making them more irritable and less energetic. They stayed in character even while not filming, only breaking character all together and never alone, using their safe word, taco. The filming and constant anxiety was so intense that Heather claims to have been crying and hyperventilating long after her final scene was complete.

It took me a long time to get around to watching this movie, as when it came out, I was one of those people who believed that it was real, that the actors had gone missing, and that the Blair Witch truly did exist. Though, I also took years to watch The Ring because of that whole “seven days” thing. Call me superstitious but I’m not going to be taken out by a haunted film or a haunted anything.

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21. Oak Grove Jane Doe

May 23, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 21. Oak Grove Jane Doe.

Clothes found related to the Oak Grove Jane Doe.

The Wisdom Light Murder is a particularly brutal case that took place in 1946 and that remains unsolved to this day. Please note that this episode involves dismemberment which may be uncomfortable for some listeners.

The victim has never been identified, with only vague identifying features available such as height range, sex, and weight. She has been dubbed Jane Doe, in the absence of a known identity.

Jane Doe was found one piece at a time in the Willamette River, south of Portland, Oregon over several months. The first discovery made was that of her torso, wrapped in burlap on April 12, 1946. Three people had been walking along the bank of the river when they noticed a burlap sack floating just offshore. They investigated the strange sighting, thinking that they may have found a sack of kittens and unraveled the burlap to find the torso of a white woman, along with several items of clothing.

On April 13, Jane Doe’s right thigh and both arms were discovered, almost 10km from her torso, when two fishermen reported their finding. The men noted that they had actually seen the burlap package around 30 days before reporting it, but at first they hadn’t thought it to be anything suspicious. It wasn’t until they read of the discovery of the torso that they reported their finding. They had been wrapped with telephone wire and sash weights from a curtain. The hands and foot had been severed from the limbs and could not be located.

In July the same year, the left thigh was discovered under the Oregon City Bridge, and on July 29 it was reported that bundle’s of women’s clothing had also been discovered in the Clackamas river, leading police to believe that the woman’s body had been dumped in both rivers.

September brought the discovery of “fragments of a human scalp”, and in October, the woman’s severed head was located near where her torso had been found, stumbled upon by a married couple.

The woman’s hands and feet have never been found.

In the initial investigation, Ray Rilance, county coroner, estimated that Jane Doe was in her teens to early twenties, weighing around 50kg. He is quoted as saying the perpertator had done “rather a neat job – at least he knew where the joints were”.

A pathologist from the University of Oregon, Warren Hunter, reported that the torso looked to belong to a woman of around 50, differing majorly from the initial findings. He believed that the woman was petite, with light brown hair. There were burn marks on the lower portion of the torso that also led him to believe that the woman had been tortured before her death.

Upon discovery of the woman’s skull, it was determined that cause of death was likely blunt force trauma. The woman was dismembered post-mortem. While there were investigations into who the victim may have been, which involved looking into missing persons cases, ultimately no identification was made.

As for suspects:

On April 14, 1946, after the discovery of the torso, a man called in from Milwaukee to claim that he knew the woman’s identity and the location at which she had been dismembered. Police ultimately ruled this to be a false call.

In July, 1951, the FBI interviewed Roy Moore, convicted murderer, who recounted in detail the murder and dismemberment of a woman who he claims he disposed of in the Molalla River but did not give any information linking him to the Oak Grove Jane Doe.

As with any case with no new leads, and little evidence, the trail went cold.

In 2004, the case was reopened by the Clackamas County Police Department, however in an interview in 2017, the Portland Police Bureau confirmed that evidence pertaining to the case had been lost. Evidence including the woman’s jaw bone, clothing, dentures and other remains. It’s believed that this evidence was lost some time in the 1950s.

John Krummenacker, who was investigating the cold case in 2017, is quoted: “The end result is this – there’s a middle aged woman that was brutally murdered with a blunt force trauma blow to her head. Then [she] was sawn up, cut up, dismembered and thrown into the river like a piece of garbage”. There have been no new leads and it is likely the case will never be solved due to the loss of witnesses, evidence and documentation.

It’s difficult to believe that a police department could lose such vital evidence for such a brutal case, though as with Bella and the Wych Elm, we know that this is not necessarily uncommon. There have been cases in the past of missing skulls, missing organs, often in cases that remain unsolved. I’m sure the conspiracy theorist in all of us pricks it’s ears whenever it hears something like this, especially when the evidence missing is so crucial or the actually body, or parts, of a victim.

As for the possible identity of the victim, as mentioned, several missing persons cases were investigated for possible leads, though none seem to have come to fruition.

In 1946, a notice was posted in the Altoona Mirror, looking for a Mrs. Marle N. Nastos, who had been missing since August 24, 1945. The notice describes her as follows:

Aged 47… 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds with brown eyes and hair.

A description that matched that of the Oak Grove Jane Doe, though I couldn’t find details as to why, it appears that Nastos was ruled out as a match.

Crime writers JD Chandler and Joshua Fisher theorise that the murdered woman was Anna Schrader. Schrader had allegedly had an affair with a man named William Breunning, a married police lieutenant. During a heated argument in 1929, a gun was fired and Breunning broke several of Schrader’s ribs following, when he tackled her.

Schrader had allegedly told friends in the weeks leading up to the discovery of the body, that she had been planning to move to Minnesota. Around the time the body was discovered, there was a notice in The Oregonian seeking Anna Schader, who was then considered missing. As of 2017, no public records of Anna’s life or death are known. Jane Doe’s physical description is said to have matched that of Anna Schrader.

While Anna Shrader seems like a match for this unidentified woman, there were plenty of other missing woman who matched the description of Jane Doe at this time. It’s impossible to determine whether this theory holds water, especially given there is little to no remaining evidence for the case.

The first tragedy occurred at the time of the murder.

The second, at the callous dismemberment and disposal of the body.

The third, at the loss of the evidence.

And the final tragedy, is that the life and identity of this woman remains unknown, she will never be put to rest and her murderer will never be brought to justice.

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20. Sleep Paralysis

May 16, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 20. Sleep Paralysis

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli (1781) is thought to be a depiction of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.

Sleep paralysis, to say the least, can be a terrifying experience. It occurs when a person is somewhere between sleeping and waking . The mind is conscious but the body is unable to move. It leaves you with a feeling that you are trapped inside your body, and if you’re one of the really unlucky ones, you may also feel a sense of being choked or held down, and may have visual or auditory hallucinations. It’s not uncommon for people to report that they had some kind of creature or evil presence on top of them and preventing them from moving or calling for help.

Sleep paralysis can happen either upon falling asleep or while waking. The latter is more common. While falling asleep some people may notice that their body has relaxed into a state where they are unable to move or speak as the brain starts the sleep process. My only experiences with sleep paralysis have occurred when waking from nightmares.

If you’ve experienced this before, you are not alone. It’s reported that up to 4 people out of every 10 will experience sleep paralysis, usually starting in teen years. It can be affected by a number of factors, including tiredness, substance abuse, use of certain medications, sleeping on your back, which happens to be the only way I can fall asleep. Often times, this is not a condition or occurrence to worry about, though if it happens repeatedly and affects your waking life, it may be worth checking in with your GP.

Research into sleep paralysis in both Denmark and Egypt show that in Egypt, around 50% of sufferers associate sleep paralysis with impending death and it is seen through a filter of fear and superstition. In Denmark, only 17% of people reported experiencing sleep paralysis and it was seen as a strange physiological event, not to be concerned with.

Speaking of impending death, I remember one of the worst experiences of sleep paralysis I had, I was sleeping on my stomach. My mind woke up before my body and I was laying face down in a pillow unable to breathe because I couldn’t move myself. I remember feeling as though there was someone sitting on my back and holding me down. I doubt I was in any trouble, but when you feel as though you’re in such a vulnerable position it really can be unnerving.

Sleep paralysis can lead to what is referred to as “worry attacks” or increased anxiety regarding sleeping. This anxiety can cause nightmares and interrupted sleep which in turn may increase the likelihood of experiencing sleep paralysis. As someone who experiences chronic nightmares and restless nights as a result, I can’t stress how important it is to make your bed or where ever you sleep a place of comfort and safety so you can get as much solid rest as possible.

If you’re looking for ways to prevent sleep paralysis, worry attacks or nightmares, I recommend journaling before bed to clear your head. Having a relaxing nighttime routine before you go to sleep, not sleeping on your back, and making sure you have regular sleeping and waking times.

So, what makes this a Good Nightmare story, aside from the fact that sleep paralysis for me often is the result of a bad nightmare? Well, there’s plenty of folklore attached.

Very early on, sleep paralysis was thought to be the work of demons, more specifically, incubi, who would sit on the chests of sleeping people. Of course, as many of us know, the different visions, beliefs and hallucinations are often heavily affected by a person’s culture. For some, the demon may be an incubus, for others, an Old Hag, or aliens. For me? It’s usually follows a nightmare in which I have been murdered. I experience a moment of pure nothingness before starting to slowly become aware of my body, usually starting at the eyes and spreading from there. Thankfully, it’s never lasted more than a minute. There are many others who have also described the experience as feeling as though they have “woken up dead” and are essentially trapped in their body.

As mentioned, experiences can differ depending on your cultural background.

In Scandinavian folklore, the belief is that a supernatural creature called a mare, associated with incubi and succubi, is the cause of sleep paralysis and nightmares. The mare is a damned woman whose body is carried around in sleep to sit on the chests of dreamers and give them nightmares.

In Fiji, sleep paralysis is interpreted as “being eaten by a demon”. The spirit is usually said to be that of a recently deceased relative with unfinished business with the living. People nearby the sleep paralysis victim will often attempt to talk to the spirit, seeking answers for why they have come back.

In the southern states in America, sleep paralysis is colloquially referred to as “witch riding”, which kind of takes the spookiness and some of the fun out of it.

In Malta, where my dad is from, sleep paralysis is related to Haddiela, an entity that haunts people in a way similar to a poltergeist. To get rid of this entity, you are meant to place silverware or a knife under your pillow prior to sleeping. I consider doing this sometimes, but less for the sleep paralysis, and more for the “oh shit, I just heard someone outside my window at 3am”.

Side note, avoid using a knife to protect yourself. They’re a close proximity weapon with little to no grip, so not only do you have to get up close and personal to a potential attacker, when any sweat or blood gets involved, your hand is likely to slide and end up around the blade if you need to use it. Also, I totally don’t condone using any kind of weapon in any situation. Naturally…

Overall, the most common lore related to sleep paralysis is that it is caused by a malevolent spirit who sits on top of a person while they’re sleeping, causing them to be unable to move and to experience vivid and terrifying hallucinations. It’s not a pleasant experience and with any luck, you’ll only have to go through it once in your lifetime, if at all.

As an extra tidbit for you, one of the worst cases of sleep paralysis I had occurred after a nightmare in which I died. I had dreamt that I was getting out of bed and my nose was bleeding. I was trying to call for help but my boyfriend in my dream was upset with me and by the time he noticed what was happening, it was too late. I held onto his hands while I slumped to the floor, hemorrhaging. Death felt like arms wrapped around my waist, trying to pull me down through the floor. My mind started to go blank and my eyes were closing. The body doesn’t know what triggers are real and what are dreams, it just reacts. My body reacted by going into the worst paralysis I’ve experienced. There was a moment between dying in my dream and waking in life that was just blank, as though my mind had already switched off. The first part of my body that I could feel was my eyes moving against the backs of my eyelids before slowly regaining awareness throughout the rest of my body. It was a while before I could move.

The dream was based on a real life experience. I was prone to mild to severe nose bleeds until my mid- twenties. One night, laying in bed with my then boyfriend, my nose started to bleed and I ran into the bathroom. It was already dripping down my hand, arm and onto the floor. He followed me in, thinking I was upset or crying and kind of freaked out when he saw the blood. I sat down on the edge of the bath thinking I was going to pass out and guided him through what first aid I needed. I lost a significant enough amount of blood to warrant going to the doctor, and spent the next couple of days feeling weak, achy and flu-like. It still makes me sick to think about how it felt.

If you have your own stories of sleep paralysis, whether you interpret it as a spirit, alien or other entity causing it or just a strange physiological occurrence, feel free to write in and let me know.

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19. The Mary Celeste

May 9, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 19. The Mary Celeste.

An 1861 painting of Mary Celeste (named Amazon at the time), by an unknown artist.

Ghost ships, or phantom ships, are vessels that are devoid of crew and life, often found in the ocean. They may have been deserted for any number of reasons, though these reasons are not always clear and the crew cannot always be found. This is the case of the Mary Celeste and the MV Joyita.

The Mary Celeste was an American merchant brigantine, that is, put very simply, a two-masted ship. Mary Celeste was built in Nova Scotia and launched as Amazon in 1861 before being transferred to American ownership in 1868 and was given her new name.

As an aside, if, like me, you’re wondering why ships and often also cars or other modes of transport are referred to as she or her, I have a little fun fact for you. Romance languages, stemming originally from Vulgar Latin (meaning common Latin), such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan, often refer to ships or “the ship” as a female noun. That tradition since carried over into English, resulting in people referring to ships as she or her.

The Mary Celeste sailed without fault until her 1872 voyage from New York to Genoa. She was discovered at sea by the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia, dishevelled but in fine condition, under partial sail (meaning with all sails not in full use) and with her lifeboat missing. The crew was nowhere to be found. The cargo had been left intact, as had the captain and crew’s personal items. None of the crew members would ever be seen or heard from again.

There were many theories at the hearing following her discovery, including mutiny, piracy, or fraud, though there was no evidence to support any of these as being the cause of the Mary Celeste crew’s demise. As happens with unsolved mysteries, further and possibly less likely theories arose, such as paranormal intervention, attack by giant squid, sea quakes or alcohol fumes from the ships cargo afflicting the crew.

The Mary Celeste’s life at sea did not end here. She was handed over to new owners and was in service until 1885 when her captain deliberately wrecked her on the coast of Haiti in order to claim insurance.

Given that the Mary Celeste was a well stocked ship, in great shape, it is hard to imagine why the ship would be abandoned by the entire crew.

It was theorised at one point that the ship may have been abandoned in order to claim insurance, however at the Gibraltar hearing; there was no evidence to suggest this other than the ship having been over insured. The insurance companies never opened an inquiry into the case.

During this voyage, there were Riffian pirates active in the area and naturally it was suggested that the ship may have been attacked, however this theory was ruled out on account of the ships cargo and the crew’s personal possessions being left untouched. Pirates would have pilfered the ship and taken anything valuable. The undisturbed items also lends to the idea that whatever caused the crew to flee, it wasn’t necessarily violent.

This leaves either something natural or entirely unnatural.

Aboard the ship was a sounding rod, used to alert the crew that the ship was taking on water. It was suggested that this rod may have been triggered by some kind of malfunction, causing the captain and crew to believe that the ship was rapidly taking on water and would have to be abandoned. There was a fair amount of water on the ship when it was found, which could have been the cause of a waterspout, also known as a non-super cell tornado over water. It is said that this would account for the slightly disheveled state that the ship was found in. It’s not hard to believe that in the wide expanse of the ocean, that a crew who had abandoned ship, could be lost to a watery grave, never to be found.

As is common in Good Nightmare stories, the facts of the case eventually became intertwined with myth and legend. In 1883, the Los Angeles Times retold the story of the Mary Celeste with some embellishments:

“Every sail was set, the tiller was lashed fast, not a rope was out of place … The fire was burning in the galley. The dinner was standing untasted and scarcely cold … the log [was] written up to the hour of her discovery.”

Other reports claimed that the ship was found 2,600km south of its actual location and that there were live chickens on board upon its discovery.

It was in 1884 that the most memorable retelling was printed by a very familiar name, Arthur Conan Doyle, master of mysteries, himself.

Doyle renamed the ship Marie Celeste as it is still commonly mistakenly called to this day. He wrote that the voyage took place in 1873 as the ship sailed from Boston to Libson, carrying passengers as well as the crew. He created a character named Septimus Goring who hated the white race and gathered members of the crew to murder their captain, J W Tibbs and steal the ship away to West Africa. Only one other passenger survived the murders, a man known as Jephson, who was only spared because he was in possession of a magical charm. Although this story is clearly fictitious and was never meant to be taken as face, the US Consul in Gibraltar was so intrigued that he inquired into whether any elements of the story may be true.

A more serious, though equally ludicrous, theory was presented in The Strand Magazine in 1913, where it was told that all people on board were drowned or eaten by sharks after a platform created for a swimming competition collapsed into the sea.

And most fantastically, in true sea horror story style, it was also suggested that the entire crew was picked off the ship one by one by a giant squid or octopus. Giant squid have been recorded to have reached 15 metres, or 49 feet, in length and have been known to attack ships. Though it’s hard to believe that if this was the way the crew were taken down, that the ship would have been left only slightly disheveled and not one single survivor would be left on board.

Of course, while there are no solid answers, all theories are equally likely. Kind of like the Schrodinger’s cat of ships. Leaving it just as likely that there may have even been some kind of paranormal intervention, in the style of the Bermuda triangle disappearances or alien abduction. Personally, I’m not sure what to believe or rather, what I would like to believe.

I do have a movie recommendation for you. Triangle is the 2009 film that follows a group of friends involved in a yachting accident who find refuge on their very own ghost ship. The story has elements of the legend of Sisyphus as well as plenty of thrills. I watched this movie three times and picked up on something new each time.

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18. The Boyington Oak

May 2, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 18. The Boyington Oak.

Today’s story was recommended by @CynClement who shared with me an equally beautiful and tragic hometown story. Beautiful if you believe in our suspect’s innocence, that is.

Spirits can become attached to places, objects or people. The entities that attach themselves are said to be mostly intelligent entities with a strong emotional connection to the object, place or person, though of course with attachment to people, this can be endlessly more complicated. Today’s episode will look at a case of attachment to an object, or landmark.

A spirit attachment doesn’t necessarily mean that a particular ghost is trapped within an object. Rather, it may mean that the residual energy of a spirit has imprinted itself. This usually occurs in situations that involve volatile or highly emotional experiences, as will be seen in this case. Otherwise, the object may act as a conductor for the spirit which may visit the object in a sense, or interact through it.

The most common spirit attachments we tend to hear about are where intelligent beings attach themselves to or use dolls as conductors, such as Annabel or Robert, two infamous objects said to have malevolent spirits or entities attached to them. In this case, however, we are looking into a tree.

The Boyington oak is located in Mobile, Alabama and is said to be haunted by the spirit of Charles R. S. Boyington.

Mobile was experiencing rapid economic growth in the 1830s, when Charles arrived from Conneticut. He was a printer, operating printing presses and providing printing services to others. He was also a gambler. As we saw with Edgar Allan Poe, gambling rarely ends well in the 1800s. Boyington took up residence in a boarding house in the city. It was here in Mobile that he met Nathaniel Frost. There was some alleged tension between the two as Frost was said to owe Boyington money. On the night that the two were seen on a walk together to the Church Street Graveyard, Frost’s body was found near the cemetery. He had been stabbed to death and robbed.

Boyington found himself in a very compromising position. Having been with Frost the night of his death, and with rumours of tension between the two, he was a prime suspect for the murder. He was subsequently convicted of the crim and sentenced to death by hanging, to be carried out on February 20, 1935.

Up until the moment of his death, Boyington protested his innocence. Before hanging, he proclaimed that an oak would grow from his heart in proof of his innocence when his body was buried. Boyington was right. An oak tree did grow from his grave and still stands. The oak tree is located just outside of the cemetery since the brick wall surrounding it was moved back, and can be found on Bayou Street. Visitors claim to have heard voices and sounds of crying around the tree.

Whether this is a true sign of Boyington’s innocence from beyond the grave or a strange coincidence it’s impossible to tell, I guess it depends on what you do or want to believe. Ultimately, the two men’s spirits would reside in the cemetery they visited as friends for eternity.

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17. Who Put Bella Down the Wych Elm

April 25, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 17. Who Put Bella Down the Wych Elm.

In the spring of 1943, on April 18, four young boys from Worcestershire, England were exploring Hagley Woods, located in the estate of Hagley Hall. The boys were spending their day together poaching on the estate belonging to Lord Cobham but they found much more than they bargained for when Bob Farmer climbed a large wych elm to look for birds nests. He glanced down into the hollow of the tree and found what he first thought was an animal skull, before noticing human teeth and hair. Spooked, he and his friends Robert Hard, Thomas Willetts and Fred Payne, left the skull where they had found it and fled. They agreed not to tell anyone about their discovery since they were on the estate illegally. However, being shaken by the event, the youngest of the four, Thomas Willetts, confessed to his parents about what they had found.

Police were engaged to investigate the boys’ finding. Upon inspection they discovered an almost complete skeleton, along with a shoe, a wedding ring and clothing fragments. The skull was mostly in tact, the body, not so much. The remains of a human hand were found at a distance from the tree. There was hope that the identity or at least some details of the identity may be determined due to the in tact dental pattern and the remaining human hair on the skull.

The skeleton was sent for forensic examination by Professor James Webster. It was determined that the body was that of a woman who had been dead for at least 18 months, concluding that time of death was sometime around or before October 1941. It is suggested, though I couldn’t confirm, that Bella may also have been a mother.

There was a scrap of taffeta in the woman’s mouth which suggested that she may have been suffocated. The body itself was found in a trunk, and it was determined that the woman was placed in the trunk either while still alive or some time before rigor mortis set in, as she would not have fit otherwise. Rigor mortis is the third stage of death in which the body stiffens. In humans, this can occur within 4 hours of death.

Police were able to determine what the woman may have looked like and attempted to compare her details to the records of several missing persons reports from the time of her death. Unfortunately, none of the records seemed to match the evidence. Her dental records were also sent to dentists but again, there was no match.

In 1944, a message was written on a wall in Upper Dean Street, Birminham, reading “Who put Bella down the Wych Elm?”. Other messages supposedly in the same hand appeared in the years following. In the 1970s the slightly different message, “Who put Bella in the Witch Elm” was written on the Hagley Obselisk near the woman’s resting place.

To this day the case remains unsolved.

There are multiple theories regarding who the woman might be and how she may have met her demise.

In 1944, a possible victim was reported to police, in their words, as a prostitute named Bella who had worked on Hagley Road. Bella had disappeared three years earlier. The graffiti artist using the name Bella in their writing suggested they may have been aware of the woman’s identity. Could this have been a case of murder at the hands of a man who frequented the road?

In 1953, Una Mossop made a statement that her ex-husband, Jack Mossop, had been told by a man named van Ralt, that he had been the one who put Bella in the tree. Van Ralt claimed that he had been with a woman that night who had passed out, drunk, while they were driving. He claimed that the men put the woman in a hollowed out tree so that when she awoke she would be frightened of what had become of her. Jack Mossop ended living the remainder of his life in an insitution has he had recurring nightmares of a woman staring at him out of a tree. He passed away there and it was 10 years before his wife would come forward with her statement. The statement was questioned because of the amount of time it took to come to light. It also begs the question that if this were a prank, why was the body then found in a trunk and who stuffed taffeta down Bella’s throat?

There have been two theories that Bella was a spy who was caught and murdered. However, one of these theories, naming her as Clara Bauerle, was dismissed as it was determined that Clara had in fact died in Berlin on December 16, 1942. The other theory was the Bella was actually Clarabella Dronkers, killed by German spies, for, quote, “knowing too much”. While this theory is both ominous and intriguing, there is no evidence to support it.

In 1945, Margaret Murray proposed that Bella’s murder was a ritual killing, involved with witchcraft. She suggested this ritual was the Hand of Glory, in which the left hand of the person who has killed or committed a crime is severed. The left hand often being symbolically connected with evil or Satanism throughout history. This, however, would imply that Bella was herself a murderess, or perhaps someone equally as evil as the people who murdered her.

As for whether we will ever have answers? Unless DNA was extracted somehow, before the skull suddenly disappeared, it’s unlikely that we ever will.

Bella’s skull went missing, or was “lost”, by Birmingham police. While there have been multiple searches into the documentation and possible location of the skull, it has not been located. You might think this is an impossible situation, but this isn’t the first time a person’s organs, bones, or documents have gone missing in a case still under investigation.

Unless someone happens to stumble across a photograph resembling Bella’s sketch, it’s unlikely the woman’s true identity will ever come to light. The thought of disappearing in history so completely seems impossible in the modern age, with paper and electronic trails that we all leave behind.

Tell me what theory you believe fits this case: Was Bella a spy? An unlucky woman who came across the wrong man? Let me know.

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16. Hercules/Heracles

April 18, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 16. Hercules.

One of the most famous depictions of Heracles, Farnese Hercules, Roman marble statue on the basis of an original by Lysippos, 216 CE. National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy

Today, we’re looking at the real story of Heracles, also known in Roman mythology as Hercules.

Most of us know the story of good old Herc to be one of heroism, fighting lions and boars and hydras, oh my, but his story isn’t all power and glory. It’s actually quite tragic and violent. Some of you probably already know all of this, if you’re like me, you love a good myth, legend or tales of any kind, but for those of you who don’t, buckle up.

Hercules, as we’ll call him today, is a hero in Greek mythology, born to Zeus and Alcmene. He was a divine hero, a champion, and a gatekeeper of Olympus, a representation of strength, masculinity, athleticism. He is also known to have been a playful figure, witty and joking and often playing with children. He was said to have “made the world safe for mankind”. You’ll often find him equipped with a club and a lions head and skin as a head covering.

In the Disney version of Hercules, he is portrayed as the son of Hera, however in mythology, as mentioned, he was the son of Alcmene and Zeus and was a victim of Hera’s hatred. Alcmene was a mortal woman who was tricked by Zeus who appeared to her as her husband, pretending to be home early from the war. Zeus is well known for his affairs, assaults and illegitimate children. Hera would often try to take revenge on Zeus for his affairs by interfering in the lives of his children.

When Hercules was only eight months, Hera sent two giant snakes into his nursery, expecting the child to come to harm. Instead, Hercules picked up the two snakes and strangled them. He was found by his parents, playing with the snakes as though they were toys.

Hercules grew up tending cattle in his younger years before moving on the Thebes where he married his first wife Megara. They had some children together but it was not to last. Hercules was called away on an adventure of sorts, leaving Thebes defenseless. Upon his return home, he is praying to the Gods when Hera strikes him down with a curse of madness. He is overcome by a psychosis in which he believes that Megara is in fact, Hera and his children are not his own. He slaughters his family in a brutal manor before coming out of his psychosis and realising what he’s done.

To pay for the crime of killing his own family, Hercules takes on ten labours, set out by his arch nemesis, Eurystheus. If he was to complete these ten labours successfully, he would be absolved of his sins and granted immortality. The ten labours became twelve when Hercules accepted payment and help for the slaying of the infamous Hydra and the cleansing of the Augean stables. The tasks were therefore increased to twelve overall. These were:

Slaying the Nemean Lion
Slaying the Lernaean Hydra
Caprturing the Golden Hind of Artemis
Capturing the Erymanthian Boar,
Cleaning the Augean stables
Slaying the Stymphalian Birds
Capturing the Cretan Bull
Stealing the Mares of Diomedes
Obtaining the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta
Obtaining the cattle of Geryon
Stealing the apples of the Hesperides (nymphs) and;
Capturing and returning Cerberus.

Beyond these, Hercules went on many more adventures and had many more lovers, both men and women. It was because of these labours that Hercules earned the story of his constellation. It was after completing the twelve tasks, when Hercules was kneeling in prayer to Zeus that his image was captured in the sky.

Like most Greek mythologies, this story does not have a happy ending. It barely had a happy beginning and we can all agree that the middle wasn’t exactly fun and games, either.

Hercules went on to marry Deianira and took her travelling. The centaur Nessus, who is featured in the Disney film, if you need a reference, offers to help Deianira cross the river while Hercules swims across. However, Nessus attempts to steal Deianira while Hercules is still in the water. Hercules shoots Nessus with a poisoned arrow, killing him, but before Nessus died, he handed Deianira a blood soaked tunic that he claimed would “excite the love of her husband”.

Years later, there are rumours that Hercules has taken an interest in another woman. She employs the tunic from Nessus and gives Hercules the shirt. The shirt is covered with poison from Hercules arrow and as he wears it, his skin tears and melts, exposing his bones. He rips trees from the ground, building a funeral pyre for himself and is burned to death, or his mortal side is. Upon the death of his mortal side, his immortal self rises to Olympus.

A fun fact to end a disturbing episode, between his wives, his affairs and his lovers, Hercules is said to have at least 50 to 100 children.

If you are interested in further reading, be sure to check out Medea and Other Plays by Euripides which features the slaying of Megara and her sons in a bit more gory detail. Also be sure to check out the Disney version of Hercules if you’re ready to fall in love with gospel music, great animation and hilarious characters. I used to watch this movie at least 3 times a day every day!

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Project Gutenberg

15. Sleeping Beauty

April 11, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 15. Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty, by Henry Meynell Rheam

Sleeping Beauty is my sister’s favourite fairy-tale and Disney movie, so I was lucky enough to grow up alternating between this and Alice in Wonderland on VHS as a child, and to be honest, well into our teens and adulthood. It’s probably quite obvious given the kind of podcast I run but one of my favourite characters is Maleficent. I also love Ursula from the Little Mermaid and most Disney Villains. And of the three good fairies? I stan Fauna.

You might not be aware but the original story has some Shrek like elements, but we’ll get to that later.

The original tale of sleeping beauty was written by our dear friend Charles Perault and was later adopted by the Grimm Brothers and others.

Charles’s original tale consisted of two parts, the first is the most familiar. There is speculation that the two parts were originally separate stories – an idea that I tend to lean towards as aside from both featuring royalty, they don’t quite fit together. I’ll go over both parts, so you can decide for yourselves if this was meant to be one massive plot twist or if someone accidentally merged the stories somewhere down the line.

The first tale begins with the christening of a new princess. Invited to the christening to bless the child are seven fairies. They are all presented with golden plates and jewel encrusted cups, naturally. Not long into the feast an old fairy arrives and is given a china plate and a crystal glass with no jewels. Unlike Maleficent, this fairy wasn’t overlooked because of her reputation, in fact she was overlooked for a reason most of us can relate to. She had been holed up in her tower alone for so long that the people of the kingdom thought she had died.

Six of the seven good fairies bless the child after the feast. They give her the gifts of beauty, wit, grace, goodness, dance and song. Before the seventh fairy can give her blessing, the old fairy, insulted by not being invited to the feast, enchants the child so that she will one day prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die.

Thankfully, the seventh fairy is able to help. While she is unable to undo the curse, she is able to alter it, so that when the young child pricks her finger, she will simply fall asleep for 100 years until she is awakened by a kiss from a prince.

The king orders all spindles and spinning wheels must be burned and that they would be outlawed in the kingdom, however, he is unable to prevent his daughter’s fate. When she is sixteen, and her parents are away, she sees an old woman spinning yarn. Not knowing what the spinning wheel is, having never seen one, she asks the woman if she can touch it. It’s here that she pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep.

The king calls for her to be laid on a bed of gold and silver fabric in the finest room in the castle. Entry to her room would be forbidden. He and the queen bid farewell to the daughter they believe they have lost. They summon the good fairy who altered the curse and the fairy believes that when Sleeping Beauty awakes in 100 years she will be distraught, so she summons a forest of trees and brambles and puts everyone inside the castle to sleep.

After 100 years, a prince discovers the castle and remembers what he was told once by an old man, that a beautiful prince lies asleep in the castle and cannot be awakened without the kiss of a prince.

The prince fights his way through the brambles and trees to find the castle and search for the princess. Awed by her beauty, he kneels by her and kisses her while she sleeps. The princess awakens and she and the prince talk with each other for a long time while the rest of the people in the castle wake up. She and the prince later marry in the castle’s chapel and we can only assume that they live happily every after. That is unless you believe that part two is a part of the original story.

Part two takes place after the wedding.

The prince continues to visit the princess and together they have two children, named Dawn and Day. The princes mother, of ogre lineage, is at first unaware of their marriage and only finds out about the princess when it is the prince’s time to take the throne. Of course, he brings with him his wife and children.

In the typical evil queen style, the queen sends the princess and her children to live hidden in the woods. She orders her cook to serve the children one by one but the cook replaces the children with lamb. The evil queen then demands that the cook serves the princess for dinner, she offers to slit her throat so that she may join her children that she believes to be dead. The cook once more uses another meet and claims to be serving up the princess for dinner. He reunites the young children with their mother in secret.

When the evil queen discovers that she has been tricked by the cook, she fills a tub in the courtyard with vipers and other venomous creatures to punish him. The prince who had been absent while his wife was captive, however, returns before she can complete this task and the queen, exposed as an ogre and an evil-doer throws herself into the tub herself and is consumed. It’s from now on that the prince, his wife and their children live happily ever after.

As you can see, the original tale is reasonably harmless, save for kissing a princess while she’s sleeping.

In Girambattista Basile’s version, the princess is left in a deep sleep when she finds a flax splinter stuck in her finger. The prince who is supposed to come to her rescue does no such thing, but instead, to paraphrase, “gathers the first fruits of love” from the princess. This leaves her still sleeping and now pregnant with twins and gives birth to them while still asleep. As the babes grow, the suck on her fingers and it is through this suckling that the splinter is removed and she awakes. She is left alone in the castle to raise her children until one day the prince who had assaulted and impregnated her returns. They talk for a long time, he explains who he is and what he did to her and they end up bonding. He leaves her again but promises to come back.

The prince, now King, rather, returns to his realm and his Queen. His wife hears him speaking the princesses name in his sleep, saying “Talia, sun and moon”. She threatens the King’s attendant to tell her what is happening and is obviously displeased upon learning of his actions and affair. The Queen writes to Talia, pretending to be the king, and asks her to send her twins to him. Talia sends the twins and the Queen demands that the cook slaughter them, cook them and feed htem to the king. As in other editions, the Cook hides the children and instead serves lamb, pretending that the meat is that of the twins. The Queen tells the King to “eat, eat, you are eating of your own”. She later invites Talia to her realm, with a plan to burn her alive but the King catches wind of her plan. He has the Queen burned in Talia’s place. Talia and the King marry and live happily ever after, so they say.

Personally, I think a better ending would have been the Queen and the princess living together in the castle, getting some serious therapy, and leaving the King to rot alone in his lonely realm.

Sleeping Beauty has gone by many names in the different variations of the tale, including Briar Rose, Aroura, Rosebud and of course, Talia. However, the theme is always the same. She is cursed, put to sleep, impregnated in her sleep and wakes up alone and confused. It’s starting to become a little unnerving to me that these are the stories behind the Disney princesses that we have all come to love as children. Perhaps it isn’t always the step-mother or the fairy that’s at fault. In many cases, it’s the prince who causes the most damage, and the unhealthy message that the princess should accept the first man that pays her attention, no matter what the cost, or what that attention may be.

As we’ve seen with many of the fairytales that have so far been discussed on Good Nightmare, there seems to be a constant theme of the woman being a victim and the man being the hero. I hope to discover more fairytales where the woman saves herself, like Red Riding Hood when she escaped the wolf using her own smarts and was assisted by another group of women. You know, before it was altered to add a male saviour figure.

It would also be interesting to see a vulnerable prince who either saves himself or finds himself being helped by a brave princess. These kinds of stories are showing up a bit more in modern Disney movies, but there’s always room for more diversity in roles, in gender, sex, relationships and plotlines – as well as heroes with disabilities or illnesses that aren’t often, if ever, represented.

I would love for you to share with me your idea of the ultimate fairy-tale character. If you were to write a fairytale, who would your hero be and what would they be fighting for?

Source

Project Gutenberg

14. Edgar Allan Poe

April 4, 2019December 4, 2018 Good NightmareLeave a comment

Episode 14. Edgar Allan Poe.

1849 “Annie” daguerreotype of Poe

Poe is a name as easily recognised as Grimm, Shakespeare or Atwood.

Poe was a writer, editor and a critic. He wrote stories of the macabre, from insanity to murder. He is credited with being a staple in the invention of the detective story, and of science fiction and was the first well-known American writer to attempt to earn his living solely through his short stories and poetry. Just as would be expected now, it was not an easy way to live.

In 1809, Edgar Poe was born. He was the second child of his parents, whose relationship, and life in one case, were not to last. Poe’s father left the family in 1810 and his mother passed away in 1811 of pulmonary tuberculosis, known then as consumption, leaving Edgar and his sibling orphaned.

Edgar was taken in by John and Frances Allan. Though they never officially adopted the young boy, they raised him well into young adulthood. Their home life became turbulent when Edgar was entering into further education when money was already tight due to gambling. Edgar and John would often argue over funds. Poe attended the University of Virginia for only a year before he had to leave due to a lack of funds. He went on to enlist in the army under another name. He ended his military career early, knowing that he wanted to work solely as a writer. He published his first works, Tamerlane and Other Poems, in 1827, thus beginning his writing career.

In 1830, John Allan married his second wife Louisa Patterson. The relationship was unsettled and the pair would often argue over the children Allan had had as a result of his affairs. This led to Poe being abandoned by his second father figure. He ended his military career by getting himself court-martialed, knowing he would be found guilty and subsequently dismissed. His charges were neglect of duty and disobedience of orders.

Poe’s writing career began with poetry which soon moved to prose when he found himself struggling. He submitted stories to several publications and in 1833 won an award for his story “MS. Found in a Bottle”, a story about a man lost at sea and carried to the South Pole by a hurricane. When he finds himself aboard a new ship, he is unable to make use of the maps and tools and is not able to be seen by the elderly crewmen that travel with him. He steals writing materials from the captain and starts a journal which he then throws into the sea. The story ends when the ship approaches Antarctica and becomes caught in a whirlpool where it begins to sink.

In 1835, Poe found himself working as an assistant editor for the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. He was fired shortly after when his boss caught him drunk on the job, though with promising behaviour, he was hired on once again. The same year, Poe would marry his 13 year old cousin. He was 26 at the time. It is said that she may have been the inspiration for some of his writing. She passed away after 11 years of marriage. She had fallen victim to tuberculosis and experienced her first symptoms while playing the piano and singing. Poe had described it as a blood vessel breaking in her throat. He began to drink more heavily in an attempt to cope with her impending death.

Obviously no hero, but just a regular man, Poe actually alienated himself from the writing community at the time. He accused another infamous author, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of Evangeline and The Divine Tragedy, of plagiarism. Longfellow, taking the high road, deigned not to respond.

Poe’s instability and drinking only worsened after the death of his young wife. He attempted another relationship with Sarah Whitman but it did not survive because of his excessive drinking and unstable behaviour. He then went on to form a relationship with childhood love, Sarah Royster.

Poe’s erratic behaviour continued up to the moment of his death. On October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets in, quote, “great distress and in need of immediate assistance”. He was taken to the Washington Medical College and passed away on 7, October 1849 at 5am. During his stay at the medical college, Poe was incoherent. No one could get a word out of him as to how he came to be wasted, dressed in another man’s clothes, and left on the street. It’s alleged that he repeatedly called the name “Reynolds” the night before he passed. His famous last words? “Lord, help my poor soul.” He was 40 years old.

Poe’s cause of death remains a mystery to this day. Though some theories have been put forward such as inflammation of the brain due to alcoholism, heart disease, epilepsy and even syphilis or rabies. A theory that arose in 1872 was that Poe was forced to make a vote for a particular political candidate. Getting the victim into a mindless and vulnerable state was one of the first steps of this practice. Cases like these often ended in violence or murder. His death was officially ruled as phrenitis. Swelling of the brain.

Smithsonianmag.com goes into further detail about some of these theories, and I recommend heading over for a read-through!

John Evangelist Walsh, in his book Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, puts forward the theory that Poe was indeed murdered. I have added this to my reading list. If you have read it, I would love to hear your thoughts.

I also recommend reading a collection of Poe’s work, in whatever format suits you. I have a copy of his collected stories and poetry at home that I received as a teen but I haven’t dived into the entire book completely. I often will pick stories that I want to read and just enjoy them individually.

As for my theory on his death, I think it was a combination of alcoholism, mental illness and perhaps violence. I don’t believe that the mystery will ever be solved, but as the ladies from Wine and Crime would say – let’s speculate wildly.

I also came across a bit of trivia which I hope is true. It’s said that Poe was quite a fan of cats and would often write with one perched on his shoulder or perhaps just nearby.

Let me know your favourite poem or tale by Poe, your other favourite authors in a similar vein, and what theory catches your interest in regards to his death.

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