Plants and Folktales

 Snuggled in beds of straw, wool, or feathers, medieval villagers hide from the darkness of night through the visage of sleep.  Beyond the comforting walls of wood and stone, darker shadows blanket a cold, bleak night. In the quiet ruins of the cemetery, deathly pale and white figures rise from their tombs. A staunch contrast to the evening around them. Floating from their mortal remains on Earth, towards the shadowy figure who summons them. Joined by specters of haggard, naked witches, their long noses dotted with warts, riding on broomsticks across the night sky. These rising spectral images are the phantoms of monarchs, noblemen, the sinful, and unrepentant. The latter two categories being those whose crimes brought them to the axe, the noose, or the stake. All beings fated to purgatory. The remaining creatures are the beings who yearn to join with dancing demons in fiery pits. For in the medieval time period there are three types of ghosts: the Holy dead (saints, monk...

In 2020, residents of Halifax, Pennsylvania, a small Appalachian Valley town, were buzzing about a potential sighting of a mountain lion. It was not the first time the subject was broached in the small community, nor will it the last. Mountain lions in Pennsylvania are believed to be non-existent; leading to speculation as to what animal is prowling through the forests of the Commonwealth. Everyone has their own opinion, an oversized housecat, a bobcat, an actual mountain lion. What if it is a Wampus Cat? Setting up the case for what this creature could possibly be, the initial inquiry is into whether or not or could be a mountain lion. A quote directly from the Pennsylvania Game Commission website reads: It is  not impossible  for a mountain lion to be living in the Commonwealth.  But it is unlikely … The Pennsylvania Game Commission periodically receives reports and photos of mountain lions. Our investigations have determined the overwhelming number of sight...

 Killy, Killy, Killy A Story of Peter’s Mountain, Halifax, Pennsylvania The original story is featured in the collection of Susquehanna Legends: Collected in Central Pennsylvania … (1913) By the folklorist Henry Wharton Shoemaker High up among the crags of Peter’s Mountain, crags as vivid and pink in color as his breast, circled the sparrow hawk, shrilly calling “Killy, killy, killy,” that cloudless autumn morning. As he flew hither and thither uttering his mournful cries, the clear blue of his wings seemed a part of the sun enameled sky. The story continues on, speaking of the ancient monsters and dragons that once walked the earth, and the gods of old. Before settling in on the tale of a man, Keow, who falls in love with the daughter of the chieftain Wulitehasu. The meeting happens in the midst of a plague. There was a pestilence raging among the tribes who wintered about the foot of Peter’s Mountain. Keow, whose home was far off among the headwaters of t...

     Summers in my childhood were often spent in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In my mid-teenage years, my family moved there permanently, viewing the small, local towns as being more conducive to raising a healthy, well-minded youth than the larger towns or cities. It was not until I moved there as a teenager, and established budding friendships, that I learned of the Cora tree. As a child, our summer house was within a five-minute walk of the tree, yet I never knew the tale of it. As my friends told it, the tree was the execution site of a witch named Cora. Cora lived in the area with a baby. In some of the stories, it was her child. Others leave out the details of the parentage. Both were considered strange by the local population, for they were not tied to any of the well-established families living on the island. For those who arrived on the island by other means, shipwrecks for one, there were beliefs on how to live there. Of those expectations, which were fi...

 The Haunting of Poppi Castle For believers in the supernatural, and for a few others that are undetermined on the legitimacy of ghosts, castles are unequivocally haunted. Castles are old, many with violent history that would make even a casual believe suspect that if a place was going to be haunted, that castle is it. Built overlooking the Arno River in Italy, Poppi Castle is an extraordinary example of Medieval Italian architecture. Caselli Toscani describes the castle as, “the most important medieval monument of the whole Casentino area. Unlike all the other castles and architectures of the zone it wasn’t wasted by the time or ruined by the men.” The date of its construction is listed as 1191, however, based on the architecture of the castle, it is believed that the foundation dates back two or three hundred years prior to that date. Poppi Castle boasts a high tower. One important note for medieval architecture enthusiasts, the tower is not the original one. It is n...

 The Plague Comes to Medieval Iceland Pieter Bruegel 's  The Triumph of Death (1562): Public Domain We see death coming into our midst like black smoke, a plague that cuts off the young, a rootless phantom that has no mercy for fair countenance. Woe is me of the shilling (bubo) in the armpit; it is seething, terrible, where ever it may come, a head that gives pain and causes a loud cry, a burden carried under the arms, a painful angry knob, a white lump. Jeuan Gethin, a Welsh poet and plague victim (1349) The "Black Death," a term synonymous with the pestilence that ravaged Europe for five years, from 1347-1351, coming in from the East by land and by sea following along the trade routes; was once in reference to a different pair of epidemics. Accounts from 16th century Sweden, and literature such as Swiss Family Robinson , used the phrase to mark two plagues that took place in 15th century Iceland. It was not until 1823 when historian Elizabeth Penrose...