As with many other aspects of our modern Halloween celebrations, we owe the ubiquitous jack-o’-lantern to the Irish immigrants who brought their traditions with them to the United States. In the January 16, 1836, issue of The Dublin Penny Journal we find the tale of “Jack o’ the Lantern.” Here the author relates how he … Continue reading An Irish Story Produces a Halloween Icon
This year’s Halloween tale comes to you from Jeremiah Curtin’s Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World (London: D. Nutt, 1895). Curtin, a linguist, translator, and folklorist, was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Irish immigrant parents, and grew up in Milwaukee county, Wisconsin. With the aid of interpreters, he collected folklore in the … Continue reading A Halloween Tale: “John Reardon and the Sister Ghosts”
While Halloween has its origins in the Western Christian feast of All Hallows (or All Saints), it has since spread to various other cultures. So too, the Special Collections holdings that relate to celebrations on or around Halloween are to be found in a variety of subject areas. This year, we bring you materials from … Continue reading A Halloween trip to Mexico
“It is always Christmas Eve, in a ghost story…” Told after Supper by Jerome K. Jerome is an anthology of short, humorous ghost stories. The copy in Special Collections, shown here, is the first edition, published 1891 by Leadenhall Press in London and illustrated “With 96 or 97 Illustrations” by Kenneth M. Skeaping. The four primary … Continue reading A story for Halloween: “Johnson and Emily; or, The Faithful Ghost”
Ancient Japan, samurai warriors, and your casual spider—casual, that is, until nightfall. According to ancient Japanese legend, these ordinary spiders would morph as dark night enveloped the landscape. Menacing pincers, bulging eyes, and even taking on human form to deceive unsuspecting victims—like the samurai in the tale below—these goblin spiders wreaked terror. Lafcadio Hearn brings … Continue reading A spooky story for Halloween: The Goblin Spider
Since July 2015, when we first welcomed readers to the Rare Books and Special Collections blog, we have enjoyed using this forum to tell readers about recently acquired and newly described items, as well as well-known materials and hidden gems. We publish posts to help you—our readers—better know who we are and what we do, … Continue reading Five More Years of RBSC Blog Posts
Merriam-Webster defines a vampire as, “the reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep.” The Oxford English dictionary gives the middle of the eighteenth century as their earliest evidence for the word vampire, but the concept far predates that in the folklore … Continue reading A Closer Look at the Gorey-est of Vampires
This year’s Halloween post brings you tales of the Pooka: “an avil sper’t that does be always in mischief, but sure it niver does sarious harrum axceptin’ to thim that deserves it, or thim that shpakes av it disrespictful.” Broadly speaking, the Pooka (also referred to as a púca or puca) is a mischievous creature … Continue reading Demon Horses and How to Tame Them
“There is hardly any Traveller in Wales, who has not heard, at least, of the titles of some of those ancient traditionary tales, which every grandmother, on a cold winter evening, repeats to her grandchildren, sitting round the blazing hearth.” Thus does the anonymous author or editor of Welsh Legends: a Collection of Popular Oral … Continue reading A Welsh Witch in the Woods
by Sara Weber, Special Collections Digital Project Specialist, and Aedín Ní Bhróithe Clements, Irish Studies Librarian 2019-2020 marks the two hundred years anniversary of Washington Irving’s first publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., which includes the perennial Halloween favorite “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow”. In the time since its publication, the story has found its … Continue reading Headless Horsemen in American and Irish Legend
