The True History That Inspired Folk Horror (Part 2)
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
- In the second part of this series we investigate a book which is purported to be a religious text from a witch-cult in Italy; discover how pre-Christian festivals influenced folk horror; and find out why a murder in rural England inspired one of the first folk horror films.
Films/Literature/Events referenced:
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches by Charles Leland
St John's Eve by Nikolai Gogol
Viy (1967) directed by Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov
The Murder of Charles Walton
Robin Redbreast (1970) written by John Griffith Bowen
Hypnogoria podcast episodes on the murder of Charles Walton:
www.hypnogoria.com/h_quinton....
Twitter: / connork_au
Audiobooks: eldritcharchives.bandcamp.com
We have a tradition called Ligo in Latvia which is basically the Baltic Kupala day ritual-wise. Fire purification, water purification, fertility rituals, all the good stuff. Our people have a myth, in which the old gods like Dievs, Perkons, etc. learn of Jesus Christ's birth, and basically do a vote, and according to that vote, they decide to let him overtake all the rituals, festivals and other stuff meant for them, and go to sleep to the bottom of a certain holy lake to sleep until they are again called by the people. So it's like a cultural folk explanation for festivals like Ligo having pagan roots and messages despite happening in a Christian country in a way. Meaning your thesis is true at least for Baltic states!
The sudden urge to dance widdershins around a bonfire and chant praise to ancient gods under the waxing crescent moon is as overwhelming as this subject is fascinating. Really enjoying your essay. Thank you 🌻
Thanks :) I really appreciate that. Part 3 is on its way.
You won't have much time at night since the waning crescent is only up from around 0300 to 2100
There’s a theory, originally brought to my attention by my History of Magic in Early Modern Europe professor in uni, that, in the British Isles at least, much of the traditional pagan religious practices have been carried on and translated, not only through Christianization of certain rituals and holidays, but through folklore. One example that comes to mind is that of leaving milk and honey outside your door, on the windowsill, or by a fairy circle or other such magical place, to appease the fair folk in that area. Many scholars have theorized that the fae in Gaelic, English, Welsh, etc. folklore were actually pagan gods pre-Christianization of the Isles, and therefore it would follow that practices such as the leaving of milk and honey were the remnants of pagan rituals/offerings to their gods that had survived through their portrayal as simply tall tales or “fairy stories”.
But perhaps this is an obvious or already-made point. Thought I would share on the off chance it hadn’t crossed anyone else’s mind lol
The general academic belief if I'm not mistaken is that the stories of Tuatha De Danann later turned into stories about the Aos Si/Sidh and then stories about the Fae.
Somewhat unrelated to that comment, I suggest the book 'The History of the Devil: The Horned God of the West - Magic and Worship' by R. Lowe Thompson. 'Singing with Blackbirds: The Survival of Primal Celtic Shamanism in Later Folk-Traditions' by Stuart Harris-Logan. 'The Witches Ointment' by Thomas Hatsis,
'Veneficium: Magic, Witchcraft and the Poison Path' by Daniel A. Schulke. These have several interesting historical documented leads.
Also Rivers of Life by JGR Forlong but that goes into a whole lot, not just European paganism and folk beliefs.
I also took a class on Magic, Witchcraft and Shamanism in college in San Francisco. It was fascinating
In Ukraine we still celebrate Kupala night. Desite referring to St John in its name, Chritianity is not even mentioned during the feast :) It's just a whole night of dancing, singing, jumping over the fire and decorating the special kupala tree. The songs have nothing to do with Christianinty at all - they are mostly about nature, harvest etc. Girls usually make flower crowns and boys on try to catch them. And there is a legend that only on this night one can try his luck and find the magical flower of fern, which should bring them luck. When I was growing up it was all seemed very magical and not scary at all.
Vij is such a good movie. Also absolutley beautiful representation of medieval Ukraine. I really like all of Gogol's stories generally. Creepy, folky and surprisingly not boring for it's age.
16:55 This also applies to most every medieval demon, many of whom were Canannite deities and contemporaries of Daddy in their pantheon such as Baal, Astarte (Astaroth) and Moloch.
This is sublime. I have been passionate about these themes for years. I heard about Aradia many years ago, but it was so hard to find my way to clear information through the forests of books on Wicca and witchcraft that suddenly seemed to flood the stores. Ive always felt it all feeds directly into folk horror, I’ve never doubted that. But I’ve never heard these themes expressed and discussed quite so well as you’re doing in this series. Wonderful, just wonderful.
Edit…THANK YOU for using the sublime art of John William Waterhouse, he is my favourite artist and seeing these artworks here, within these contexts, helps me understand why his work is so important to me.❤️
I am more impressed by the inclusion of numerous paintings by Goya. There are many, many superb images from his etchings that might also be used to great effect.
There are some really interesting videos about Folk magic practices in the Appalachian mountains and from the Pennsylvania Dutch culture (they call it Powwowing), where you can clearly see old folk magic that survived for hundreds of years but went underground. It was practiced by people who were very religious Christians, but it's died out more as a result of modernity and skepticism. These practices have roots as far back as the 1400s, where it was done in England and Germanic countries and carried over to the US. Dr Tabitha Stanmore has given a few talks about the difference between witchcraft (which has to do with the devil) and folk magic, which was widely practiced and accepted until around the 1700s, I think. I suspect this "folk magic" has its roots in paganism, but was just transplanted into Christianity as time went on. I'm not sure if it's directly related to folk horror but I can see many connections and it's a fascinating topic. Thanks for the video
Really liked your usage of Goya's artwork in this one :)
Also, I just learned that the witch in "The Viy" was played by Natalya Varley, who also starred in the goofy Soviet rom-com "Kidnapping, Caucasian-Style"
This was wonderful! Thank you for making this series it's fantastic!
I'm just in time with my morning coffee for your video. Wanted to thank you so so much for your videos and your research on this theme, such a big great work was done! I'm learning about folk horror in cinema mostly and a bit in literature too, also how this inspired authors and how the motiv changed through the years, so it's a great pleasure to get new details from your side. As a Ukrainian, my heart has absolutely melted when you've mentioned Gogol and his stories, I think "Viy" is a very interesting underrated movie, I wish more people, interested in this genre watched it :) Same I can say about "Robin the Redbreast", "Penda's fen" or many others, that are unknown and can be barely found only in English( i'm a lucky guy i know it, but still the british accent + noises on tape can make things harder haha) and in bad quality. Looking forward to your next videos, many greetings from Ukraine ;)
Thank you :) Gogol is great, and Viy (both the story and the film) is one of my favourites.
Prof. Paul Boyer's book on the Salem Witch Trials, and the book "Devil in the Shape of a Women" both show data driven facts on Salem. Widows and women whose families had been accused of witchcraft in England were most likely to be accused. It was rich girls accusing older women, usually those who lived on the wrong side of the village stream.
These essays are awesome dude. Your curiousity and open-ended, and calls for information and correction represent the best on online dialogue! No one knows everything, but we all are trying to learn.
I never expected that mindlessly surfing youtube would turn up something relevant to my masters program
What I like about Folk Horror, is that it has this unsettling sense of creepiness and a bit of realism to it. I can see some isolated group of people having some kind of old pagan ritual that they've practiced in secret for centuries, either out of tradition or keeping the "Old Faith" alive. Here in the states, there are places deep in Appalachia where something like this can happen. There are still places there where "Grannies" and "Seventh Sons of Seventh Sons" are still around and used by the people for folk cures, and removal of curses. Many of the people that live deep in the mountains came from the Scottish Highlands or rural Ireland and England and they brought their folklore and beliefs with them. Though many are praciticing Christians, they will still seek out the help of a Granny when desperate.
The Neolithic monument shown at 21:18 during the discussion of the Charles Walton murder is one of a group collectively known as the 'Rollright Stones.' It actually does include a stone circle as well as the stone 'clump' shown. The idea that the murder was a human sacrifice is still pretty daft, obviously, but there's still a strong sense locally that the community knew more than they let on, but kept silent to protect one of their own, and its impact on folklore was very real.
You should check out Carlo Ginzburg's works! In particular: "The Night Battles" and "The cheese and the worms".
He goes on with Margaret Murray's path of searching for historical truth behind the withes cults in Europe, in particular Northern Italy. Truly some life-changing books about this subject!
This is an absolutely marvellous series, thank you for all your hard work!
this is great stuff, mr eldritch! keep it coming!
Just subscribed yesterday. Thank you for the good content.
Good examples of "paganism" and folk practice in the UK:
Harvest festivals
The corn dolly tradition (it's Scottish, very interesting)
Morris Dancing
Candlemas / Imbolc
Folk creatures (like great black hounds)
The belief in fairy mounds and the fairy faith in general (which many Christians claim isn't in contradiction to Christianity at all)
The list goes on.
Anywhere where you see people having celebrations or doing things together as a community, that's folk practice. Some is more modern, some is older. But that's kinda cool cuz "folk" is just "people" people doin stuff.
But you have to take the Celtic revivalist movement of the 18th and 19th century into account for alot of things to separate original from reconstruction.
Just for future reference, when using “some” as the subject in a sentence, as it is a “count” noun, you should use the verb “are” to indicate the descriptor. “Some” are more modern; would be an example.
Well researched & beautiful art work included👍👍👍👍👍 Thank You
loving these, viy is one of my fav films so was good to see it here.
Love the artwork used in the video. Really interesting thankyou
I'm from northern italy, near the lake of Como. Here we speak a separate language from Italian and we are more linked to the celtic and germanic world than to southern europe. Here every January we practice the Giubiana ritual. This ritual involves carrying on the streets a women (Sometimes called Stria, a witch) made of wood while all of the people follow her smashing wooden cuisine items onto pots. Then the Stria is brought to a pyre and the fire is lit. This derives from celtic pagan practices and we are still attached to it today. Interestingly all of this take place around churches and they are presided by the local priest even do it has nothing to do with Christianity
Thanks, very interesting to know
It's so interesting that people are like "oh this is pagan. That is pagan." But folk beliefs, folk praftice, and folklore is just that, the beliefs, practice, and stories of the folk. You can have people that are 100% devout Christian but they still practice basically the same folk magics as their ancestors. Communities, especially insular ones, don't rwally change much over time even long after the general "acceptible" society has changed. It's so interesting that folk horror delves into this idea that folk have more control over their communities than society at large.
It's for similar reasons that people in the US fear hippie communes, cults, and communism at large. Liberated democracies are scary. What if the insular group has a different idea of morality than the rest of society? That's deviant. Can't have that.
the litmus test is.... are you worshiping God the Creator, or are you worshiping created beings or created things. if you are worshiping created beings or created things you are pagan and need to check yourself before you get wrecked. we don't pray to created beings or created things. we pray to God the Creator. not even Jesus told people to pray to Himself. he told people to pray to God the Creator
Great video!
Very well done, and I love the artworks you have selected.
With respect to the survival of pagan customs into Christian life, I suspect that about 99% of modern-day Neo-Pagans still do something festive on December 25. Keep up the good work!
It's sort of irrelevant since solstice and equinox celebrations are celebrated by everyone globally. Passover for example is on the full moon closest to spring equinox and easter is based on that, and many European and non European religions have festivities around that time. It's more simply astronomical observation of seasonal shift due to our orbit.
The 8th and 12th divisions are common also, so for instance the time around axis of Halloween/Samhain and May Day/Beltane (which are opposite on a circle calander), a month after fall equinox, is also celebrated by many cultures around the world, Day of The Dead is one example (which may of stemmed from Christian Spain).
The reasonable days to have a festival would be on Perhelion/Aphelion but only the US does that as far as I know and that's because Aphelion coincides with the time period around independence day. Aphelion and Perhelion are also opposite on a wheel calander. Apogee and Perigee (which coincide with Perigean Spring Tides) are another interesting day, especially Perigean Spring Tides closest to Perhelion which cause King Tides, these are all on Full and New moons of course, that's when Spring Tides are (see my moon/tides playlist to learn more)
czcams.com/play/PLgRoK-eyLjok7JUOhySXlnSQHIx9G4KoM.html
Love love love your channel!
My new favourite channel
Although this is not a European example, there is a fascinating anthropological text by Timothy J. Knab, A War Of Witches: A Journey Into The Underworld of The Contemporary Aztecs. It documents a survival of pre-conquest botanical knowledge that involves clear ritual roots. The rituals and incantations involved allowed a “witch” to use highly toxic natural substances - the ritual involved another native anti-toxin to take effect and the incantations allowed the necessary time to elapse - to get rid of inconvenient neighbors. To my knowledge it hasn’t served as a basis for a film, novel or short story, but it does represent a case, not singular in the case of Mexico, of what you might call a pagan survival in what is now a largely Catholic nation.
Excellent series of videos, thank you. I recommend a book called the Mystery of Mercia about folklore and weird shit around the midlands of England. He really goes ultra deep on the Walton murder and about him being a cunning man, but still shows the motive wasn't witchcraft. Loads of other mad and obscure stuff about Herne the Hunter and another occult murder in Worcestershire, the author is Hugh Williams
1. Did you mention The Great God Pan, by Arthur Machen? 2. A modern and disturbing example of European Christianity/non-Christian synchretism in the New World: Santa Muerte. 3. The folk horror scenes in Young Goodman Brown are the 'entertainment'; the moral of the allegory is that Brown's experience--real or illusory--eats away at his trust of everyone he loves, poisoning his life: thus 'the devil' wins 4. Great research, love your videos!
The first thing that struck me about the murder of Walton was that he was killed in three ways.
I believe this is a common Druidic ritual way of killing such as found in recovered Bog Men?
I have nothing to contribute, only many things to learn. I am very happy that I stumbled onto you channel. Your do great work.
My interest in the subject is recent. My brother likes family history. Recently he presented me with a serial list of ancestors showing that Catherine Allen Carrier was my 8th great grandmother. While genetically that makes her pretty insignificant in my genome--only one of 1024 contributors at that distance--I was interested in the concept of "spectral evidence" that convicted her. One thing just led to another as I chased down aspects of witchcraft beliefs and the laws related to such reputed practice.
Such a high quality!
I belong to a coven in the Mohave desert Arizona. We are still here.
Great video 👍
More people need to learn about these things that are the unseen and unspoken ,it would probably scare them less, especially in the USA . if you’re slightly serious about another tradition other then theirs you’re insane immediately.
Fantastic video, but how about next time you put a real photograph of a dead man in a video, chuck a warning in beforehand? I was not expecting to see an actual crime scene photo today.
Adds up pretty well; horror produced , not just by human sacrifice, but also the attempts to exterminate the actors involved; reaching the level of inter-civilizational colonization.That's a lot of fear.
on the note of banning Roman catholicism in England; if one looks at the practices of the religion - in particular the relics and their worship - it could be easy called a "death cult" that is possibly scarier than a lot of "pagan" religions
Santería an example of another religion (Yoruba in this case) disguising itself as Christianism. Also, in Mexico several of our festivities are the old rituals of our ancestors translated to Catholicism, the most famous example being the Day of the Dead.
And about 40 years ago I was part of a coven in California but we were also pentecostal christians.
f̷̩̜͚̤͇͔̿̋̓̐͜͝͝e̷̞͍̲̜̔̃́͝e̷̠̭͎̽̂̾̕d̷̛͈͓͉̮̦͔̼͈̳͔͙͊͌̌̊̔̏̊͂̔̚̚t̸̢̛̤̰̯͕͊̀̈́̈͛́̈̒̓͝͝h̴͖̠̱̝̣̼̩͕̥̭̜͊̍͗̋͛̾͋̌̍̒̓̍͝ę̴̛̯̮̰͖̝͎̼͎͙̼̻̻̺̈́͒̈́͐͂̔͒͘͠â̵̬̰͍̾̉ĺ̸̞͌̐͐̉̑̐̓͒̎̊̈͘͝g̸̛̩̥͌͋̌̊̑̌̈̓͝õ̴̡̯̥͔͓̙̪͓̫͓̞̞̣̜͓̅̀̑̉̒̋̇̄̐̋͝r̸̨̤̤̔̆̍͌̾̈́͆́̚͜į̶̨͓̗͚͚̳͉͕͚̝̪̳͍̲͌̈̊͗͛̎͌̌͒̏̒͋͘͝t̶̨̘͕̂̽̀̉͐̈́̎͌̌̿́̆̿h̴̡̥̺̤̳̘̳̜͈̝̤̱̾̐̽m̷͉͊̾̊̽̅́͋͋̍̂̋́̚̕͘
The Catholic connection is much more important imo. Many early protestants criticized the Catholic church's use of pagan holidays and traditions in their worship, and sought to "revive the true faith" through banning these celebrations. This is why even today you have denominations of Christianity that do not celebrate Christmas or more commonly Halloween. Considering The Troubles were happening when the first folk horror British films were created, this older discrimination would be a good narrative device to convey concern about secret catholic terrorist within the UK, without explicitly hating Catholics.
Source: I was raised catholic.
Young Goodman Brown was assigned reading in my 9th grade American History curriculum. I loved it. One of my first times loving what was assigned ever. Kinda weird how far the cirriculumnhas changed since I graduated in 2004 from historical and cultural works to weird indoctrination and gender peices.
@@DG-iw3yw it actually is if your any generation younger than millenial because the young ones are retards nowadays. Snide POS
Have you heard of a 1966 Joan Fontaine film called "The Witches"? I think you will find it to be folk horror or something close to it.
Do you think that there is any influence from the cultural differences between rural people and non-rural people?
Clearly. Midsummer and The Wicker Man both see ‘urban’, modern, ‘normal’, outward looking and often establishment characters enter into a rural setting which represents the rural, traditional, alternative, closed society and unusual. The genre plays on these differences.
I love folk horror. Probably because I was raised baptist.
Sometimes it is only perceived as horror by those who do not understand.
St. John's night in Ireland is the night of bonfires and has a very pagan feel similar to Kpaiha Day..
Aren't many folk "horrors" passed down, word of mouth, through generations in communities? Those who take up studies often rely on interviews, personal accounts through documents and letters, etc. It's great to come up with solid sources of ideas in books, but I don't ignore the work of those who go out in the field.
They have a Salem witch registry today you can sign declaring yourself a witch , I have signed.
5:50, Not all Slavs were apart of the Kievan Rus, and you should of said cultures sense it was made of not just eastern Slavic tribes but Finno-Ugrics in the North and North east, Baltic tribes in the west, Turkic tibes in the south and south west near the black and Azov sea region and Pontic steppe region, and the Norse or Norse-Slav or Norse-Finn mix rulers of the Principalities. 6:45 Also Ivan is not the equivalent of John in all Slavic languages, Jan is the Polish equivalent of the name John.
To clarify with the Rulers of the Rus being not just Norse, the Norse vikings( Varangians) that went down the rivers in Eastern Europe to trade with the Eastern Roman Empire intermarried with Slavic/Finnic-ugric women and were slavicized since the majority in the area were Slavic and since both Norse and Slavs are apart of the Indo-European cultural/linguistic sphere the Norse gods syncretized. Thor or Odin=Perun. But also Turkicnize with hairstyles, fashion and style of warfare having horse archers for fighting Turkic groups like the Khazars and Pechenegs and the biggest in cultural impact was from the Eastern Roman Empire with trade goods and ideas like Christianity spreading from raids to the ERE in the beginning, trade and mercenary service to ERE later on and alot of the mercenaries from Varangian Guard helped spread Christianity to the Kievan Rus and Norse world.
Intermarriage was not just with Slavs in the Kievan Rus but also Gaels in Ireland and western Scotland, Picts in eastern Scotland, Anglo-Saxons, Brythonics from non Anglo-Saxon conquered Britain people in the Frankish empire, Balts and west Slavs from the Baltic coast. Who ever they captured or married for political power or for love.
Besides Jan, also Janek or Jas.
I suspect the image of the devil popularized, has more to do with Krampus than Pan.
Many Anthropologists say that Krampus also has Pre Christian origins in Central Europe and considering the nature of Krampus's relationship with St. Nicholas seems a better candidate.
The name Krampus is derived from the German word Krampen which means Claw in German.
I suspect this is where we find the nickname of the devil being "Old Scratch".
The biggest contention I have with my own theory is the Story of Christs Ascension on Mt. Hermon.
This is because the location was also a ritual place dedicated to Pan called "The Grotto of Pan", as well as Caesarea Philippi being called "The Gates of Hell".
This is the Location of the words reportedly spoken by Christ
"Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it" as a sort of declaration of war, and victory over other religions.
Krampus was later
I suggest the book 'The History of the Devil: The Horned God of the West - Magic and Worship' by R. Lowe Thompson
Many English Protestants in 17th, 18th, and early 19th century saw Catholicism as a paganised form of Christianity. Many Catholic rituals were described as pagan. So, for a certain kind of English Protestant, calling a thing Catholic or calling it Pagan was a distinction without a difference.
Folk horror stems from class difference, too. Poor folk live differently, harder, than those from the outside. What they'll do to survive seems wrong to the usual protagonist.
I'm betting the Charles Walton murder had to do with sexual bad behavior, possibly with children, or given the time period, maybe he was a collaborator with the Germans during the war. Either one would have been a sore spot for the villagers and it makes sense that they might protect the murderer in either scenario.
Who wouldn't die on a pitchfork??
My Gosh, thanks for not calling Gogol a russian author! As a Ukrainian, I'm so sick of this ever growing tide of imperial appropriation.
Great essays, btw. Instant sub.
Some of this also reminds me of how the Catholic Church used to use made up folk horror as an excuse to persecute/genocide the Conversos (Jewish converts)
10:00
If you make a wish and blow out your birthday candles , that is a pagan tradition.
Kinda hard to separate catholicism from paganism. Father, son, holy ghost isn't exactly monotheistic. Believing in "the devil" kinda trips that up too.
I think Catholic Church traditions are definitely more filled with paganistic traditions than Protestant Churches. Agreed?
John does not translate as Ivan but as Yoan in the Slavic languages.
😎
4:30 ._.
In eastern europe Ivan is pronounced ee-van. Otherwise very informative!
1 Corinthians 10:20, Colossians 2:8, 1Timothy 4:1
In all of these passages Paul equates idolatry/pagan religions with demonic (fallen angels like “Satan”) worship.
Supposably hahahaha
Inkvizicija
"We murdered several people, oh how embarrassing." Wow?
Im confused.. what are you referring to?
@@TheEldritchArchives they way you speak about the Salem peoples' reaction to the trials. Honestly, I found that part and the way you speak about the witch trials overall insensitive.. Almost 100,000 people (mostly women) died through horrific means and inhuman torture in society and church-sanctioned mass murder, I don't think the subject matter should be presented so lightly.
@@TheEldritchArchives I'm sorry, I don't want to seem like I'm accusing you of something you did not intend, it just did not sit well with me while I watched the video and that saddens me because I find your videos great.
Thaaaat definitely is the wrong takeaway from what was actually being discussed in this video…
Aradia. Pronounce it the way it's spelled. (It's not Ereidia.)
inspired by your series, i have found many articles on crypsis of Christians, Jews, and Pagans; considering their link to Hollywood, i think the crypto Jewish link is strongest w/r/t greenlighting folk horror in movie form.
What? Witchcraft is folk religion. It doesn't have doctrine or dogma. Its tradition and varies from village to village. Modern organized religion never quite "gets" that. Kind of like how they think that there are rules applying to Satanism that must be followed. How funny.
@D G in a manner of speaking, yes. I am an anthropologist and focused heavily on culture and religious tradition in my graduate studies.
@D G all cool mate. I can be snippy and mean-spirited at times without meaning to. We all come from different backgrounds and situations. Of course, we sometimes disagree, but if we don't debate, don't talk about our whys and wherefores, we get nowhere. If nothing else it promotes some understanding and leads to a more unified humanity. I try to give only facts as much as possible but sometimes mybiwn prejudices can hinder my arguement. Take care, and happy new year! ✌️☮️
If there are no agreed-upon doctrines, how can any practitioner know if any of it is valid?
@Malachi White it comes from the rules and knowledge of the past. Herbalism, for example. Look at modern holistic medicine. Basically that. Its all in your perspective.
@@GredelsRage Then it does indeed have something akin to doctrine or dogma, yes?
"At the time"
So, have you heard of Qanon?
Here we see a group of people who basically believe in the kind of "witches" people believed in during the many witch-trials - and believe me, if they had the power to do so, they would happily replicate the trials of old times!
The video series “A History of Witches” by @inpraiseofshadows is excellent supplementary material to this series