The Golden Leg (11 page)

JAKE’S TOKEN

Proctor’s Cove, Newfoundland

The story of Jake and his token was inspired by a story by Charles Jamieson
entitled “Are There Such Things as ‘Tokens’? Do ‘Spirits’ Walk Abroad?”
printed in
The Newfoundland Quarterly
(1928: vol. 28, no. 3). One of
the most common types of hauntings reported in Newfoundland is that of the
token or death token. A death token is where a person becomes aware, through
some paranormal means, that a person close to them has recently died. The
appearance of a token may also be taken to mean that someone’s death is
about to occur, which is what happened in the Proctor’s Cove story.

THE WEEPING WOMAN

Davis Cove, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland

The story of the weeping woman is a traditional ghost story from Davis
Cove, a fishing settlement located in a small, sheltered cove on the west
side of Placentia Bay. In the census of 1845, the cove boasted a population
of 35.
Twelve of these residents were small-boat inshore
fishermen. Davis Cove was probably named for an early settler, and by 1928,
the Davis family had been joined by Brewers, Cauls, Connors, Emberlys,
Greenes, Hickeys, and Palfreys. Today, the community has been resettled, but
stories still circulate about one of its more vocal ghosts. The story was
one of several collected by elementary school students as part of a Heritage
Fair project, and which was passed along to me by Robert Parsons of Grand
Bank, a noted author and story collector in his own right. Crying ghosts
have their own motif, E402.1.1.6, “Ghost sobs.”

A STRANGER AT THE DOOR

New Perlican, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland

Inspired by an old story recorded in
Edie’s Book: Thoughts, Memories
& Folklore from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland
by Edith Burrage
(A Bailey Book, Stockholm, 2003). The idea that ghosts may return if their
final resting place is disturbed is a recurring theme in ghost stories and
local legends, but I have not come across another case where the ghost was
quite as polite as the spirit from New Perlican. The ghost in the story
bears some similarity to motif E235.2, “Ghost returns to demand proper
burial.”

THE THING IN THE WELL Happisburgh, North Norfolk, UK

Folk literature motif E413, “Murdered person cannot rest in grave.” Adapted
from the story “Hasbro’s Pump Hill Ghost” in
History and Legends of the
Broad District; With a Glance at its Folk Lore, Ghosts, Churches,
etc.
by Ernest R. Suffling (London: Jarrold & Sons, 1891).
Happisburgh (pronounced Hasbro) is a coastal village in Norfolk. It is known
for its red-and-white striped lighthouse, built in 1790, and this most
remarkable ghost story. There seems to be something of a tradition of
haunted well stories. My favourite literary tale in this genre is the short
story “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” by the master of the English ghost
story, M. R. James. It is well worth a read for its description of a
many-tentacled horror guarding a well in a quiet churchyard.

THE GHOSTS OF HARNAGE FORD Hughley, Shropshire, UK

This story combines two well-travelled motifs, E275, “Ghost haunts place of
great accident or misfortune,” with motif E421.1.12, “Ghost visible to
horses alone.” The story is based on a series of events which were written
up in the article “Ghostly Goings-on At Bridge” which appeared in the
Shropshire Star
, Tuesday, November 12,
2002. The
idea that horses can see ghosts which humans cannot is a recurring motif in
many ghost stories, on both sides of the Atlantic. Newfoundland musician and
storyteller Emile Benoit told a story about a horse which saw a ghost, and
his tale was included by folklorist Gerald Thomas in his book
The Two
Traditions
(St. John’s: Breakwater, 1993). Along the Southern Shore
of Newfoundland, there are a number of large rocks alongside roadways said
to be possessed by the Devil. Horses would run away once they approached
these sites, and many people were injured as a result.

THE MAN IN THE NET

Lawn, Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland

Like the story “The Weeping Woman,” this story was one of several
collected by elementary school students as part of a Heritage Fair project,
and which was passed along to me by Robert Parsons of Grand Bank. The story
existed only in a very short fragmentary form, and has been elaborated upon
here. No collection of ghost stories would be complete without a headless
ghost! The idea of a ghost doomed to wander forever in search of a missing
head is folk literature motif E419.7, “Person with missing bodily member
cannot rest in grave.”

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN United States of America

This story is based upon an incident described in
Haunted Waters
by
Elliott O’Donnell (Tiptree, Essex: Anchor Press, 1957). O’Donnell based his
story upon what he called a presumably true tale, which had been printed in
an early edition of
The Boys of England
. The haunting was said to
have taken place in the late 1860s outside of an American town identified
only as “Bayswater,” most likely a false name, though there is a Bayswater
in New York, as well as one in New Brunswick, Canada, and one in London,
England. While presented as true, the tale is related to a contemporary
legend known as “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” (motif E332.3.3.1), one of the
world’s most enduring and well-known tales. Jan Harold Brunvand made a study
of the story in its various forms in
The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American
Urban Legends and Their Meanings
(New York: WW Norton, 1981). The
section of the story where the girl vanishes is similar to motif E581.4.1,
“Ghost rides on bus, disappears before it crosses bridge,” and may be
related to older stories where spirits cannot cross running water.

THE
ISLE OF SKYE
’S GHOSTLY RETURN Holyrood, Newfoundland

The legend of the lost schooner the
Isle of Skye
is a fairly
well-known ghost ship (motif E535.5, “Ghost ship”) story
from Conception Bay, Newfoundland. The core of the story was taken from
“Superstitions and Legends” by P. J. Wakeham, which appeared in
New-Land
Magazine
(Spring 1968: vol. 13). Pius Joseph “P. J.” Wakeham, born
in 1910 in Petite Forte, son of Thomas and Mary Ellen Wakeham, began
publishing
New-Land Magazine
in 1962. Wakeham was a noted
storyteller, with many of his stories having a ghostly theme. According to
the
Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador
, Wakeham
wrote 11 novels, 250 short stories, at least 15 plays, an
estimated 150 ballads, and numerous newspaper articles.

THE SKATING SPIRIT

Potter Heigham, Norfolk Broads, England

While the idea of a ghost on skates might seem to be a very Canadian
invention, this story is actually based on an English local legend. An early
printed version of the legend, called “The Hickling Skater,” can be found
in
History and Legends of the Broad District; With a Glance at its Folk
Lore, Ghosts, Churches, etc.
by Ernest R. Suffling (London: Jarrold
& Sons, 1891). It is related to motif E310, “Dead lover’s friendly
return.”

A CARD GAME INTERRUPTED Trinity, Trinity Bay,
Newfoundland

“I have an excellent ghost story from an old house in Trinity,” said the
letter from Sandra Hallett. With an opening like that, how could someone
like yours truly resist? I asked Hallett for more details, and she shared
with me a strange story which took place in the early 1960s. While the young
couple, Eli and Edith Toope, were from the community of Ireland’s Eye, the
action in the story took place in Trinity.

“I heard it from my uncle Eli Toope, my mother’s brother, and his wife, my
Aunt Edith,” explains Hallett. “I also heard it from my great-uncle Eli
Toope and his wife, my Aunt Beatrice, whose house in Trinity was where the
story took place. They were all present, as well as others. My great-uncle
Eli and Aunt Beatrice Toope are now deceased, but Aunt Edith and Uncle Eli
Toope live in Trinity East.” While the story is told in the region and by
relatives as a true story, it is very similar to folk motif E443.5, “Ghost
laid by adjuring it to leave in the name of God.”

CRUSTY HARRY

Various locations, Newfoundland

The story of Crusty Harry is one of my own invention,
but
it includes portions of a number of ghost stories which were believed to be
true. “Crusty Harry” was a real person, a man who lived and saw a phantom
schooner (motif E535.3, “Ghost ship”) in Trinity, Trinity Bay, and who was
immortalized by William White in an article entitled “Ghosts and Phantom
Lights” published in
The Trinitarian Christmas Number
in
December 1925. White also recorded the story of the black bear (motif
E423.2.1, “Revenant as a bear”), which was said to haunt the community of
Trinity. And there was truly a man with no fear of ghosts, and who hit one
over the head with his walking stick, as remembered in 1993 by George Scott
of Little Harbour East, and written up in a report called “History, Folklore
& Tall Tales” prepared by Lisa Young for the Town of St. Lawrence on
the Burin Peninsula.

Dale Gilbert Jarvis is a researcher, writer, and storyteller
living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He holds a B. Sc. (Honours) in
Anthropology from Trent University and an MA in Folklore from Memorial
University of Newfoundland. He currently is the Provincial Registrar for the
Historic Places Initiative with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and
Labrador, and sits on the board of the Newfoundland Historic Trust. Dale’s
fortnightly exploration of all things paranormal in the province, “Newfoundland
Unexplained,” is a regular column in
The Telegram
.

As a storyteller, Dale has performed at festivals and concerts across Canada.
Locally, he is best known as the host and guide of the St. John’s Haunted Hike,
a walking ghost tour through the haunted streets of old St. John’s. Under his
supervision, locals and tourists have been introduced to the vengeful lovers,
murdered soldiers, and mysterious fires which await those brave enough to
explore the secrets that lie in wait in St. John’s darkest corners. Mixing
history, humour, and traditional storytelling, Dale has been winning over
audiences and throwing in the odd scare here and there, and has been covered by
a wide variety of local, national, and international media.

Dale regularly teaches workshops for beginning storytellers, and has taught
workshops across Canada on storytelling for historic sites, museum, and park
interpreters. He has also taught the basics of storytelling to grades three to
six. Dale is the founder of the St. John’s Storytelling Circle, and one of the
coordinators of the annual St. John’s Storytelling Festival. As of 2007, Dale is
the Eastern Canada Coordinator for the national guild of storytellers,
Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada.

Dale is the author of two books on Newfoundland and Labrador folklore,
Haunted Shores
and
Wonderful Strange
, both published by
Flanker Press. He is committed to spreading the art and profession of
storytelling and encouraging new storytellers to tell their tales.

Newfoundland and Labrador is blessed with more fairies, devils,
old hags, phantoms, Jacky Lanterns, sea monsters, and other fabulous and
frightening creatures than any other spot in Canada. Author and researcher Dale
Jarvis, creator of the award-winning St. John's Haunted Hike, has pulled
together a compendium of strange tales about the even stranger spectres,
sprites, and curious beasties that inhabit the province's shores. From Signal
Hill's headless ghost to the Northern Peninsula's Isle of Demons to the fairy
paths of the Southern Shore,
Wonderful Strange
is your guide to
encounters with the unexplained.

ISBN: 978-1-894463-76-8 216 pages $14.95

From the northern shores of Labrador to the south coast of
Newfoundland, there are as many ghost stories as there are bays and inlets. The
place is rich with tales of ghost ships, mysterious lights, sinister spectres,
tokens of impending death, headless pirates and murdered loves. From legends of
phantom loggers to stories of possessed teapots, this book is an eerie
exploration of the phantom-filled nooks and crannies of the province.

Drawn from both archival sources and first-hand accounts, the stories herein
weave together anecdote, oral tradition, history and folklore to form a rich
tapestry depicting a rarely explored side of Newfoundland and Labrador.

ISBN: 978-1-894463-54-6 206 pages $14.95