British folklore is full of examples of odd occurrences warning of impending doom
By Richard Holland
Phenomena closely allied to ghosts are the fearful range of death omens that appear in the folklore of Britain. In past times life expectancies were much shorter, so it’s no wonder people took notice of odd happenings which might be taken as a warning of a coming tragedy. These warnings included such diverse occurrences as a dog howling outside a window, a cock crowing at night or a bird flying down the chimney. These are natural events and might take place by chance at any time (I recently had two jackdaws fall down my chimney, so I’m really in trouble!) but some death portents are inarguably supernatural.
Most people are familiar with the Irish Banshee. This was a spirit, often attached to a particular family or household, that would wail mournfully in the days leading up to a family member’s death. On the rare occasions a Banshee was seen, it appeared as a grim old hag dressed in rags. The Welsh had a version of the banshee, too – or rather, two versions. If the wailing warning of misfortune was no more than a disembodied voice, it was known as the Cyhiraeth. Sometimes an apparition was seen, however – in the form of a hag even more ghastly to look upon than her Irish equivalent. This spirit was known as the Gwrach y Rhibyn, or (roughly translated) ‘Hag of the Mists’.
More commonly, the death warning manifested more mundanely, as mysterious knocks or raps. Christina Hole, in her ‘Haunted England’, refers to a story that was published in the ‘Folklore’ journal, of a bedridden man in Knaphill, Buckinghamshire, who, for three nights running, heard someone lifting the latch of his bedroom door. ‘Each time,’ writes Hole, ‘he waited with his stick in his hand for the intruder to come in, but no-one did. Very soon afterwards, his father died.’
A similar occurrence took place on the death in Oswestry, Shropshire, of a celebrated astrologer and exorcist, Richard Morris, who was better known by the wonderful nickname of Dick Spot the Conjurer. According to a pamphlet published in 1798, Dick Spot’s death on March 4, 1792, was accompanied by strange occurrences: ‘There certainly was heard a very extraordinary rapping against the wainscot of the room he died in and of which he seemed sensible but not affected by it; for when his attendants asked him if he heard the noise … he faintly answered, “Yes,” and a little while after he said, “My continuance will be determined by the light of the lamp which will go out before morning”, which assuredly came to pass as he said.’
A similar phenomenon is that of the sound of sawing and nailing heard in carpenters’ shops the night before a coffin is ordered. Any weird experience might be feared as an omen of death. Once upon a time, anyone who saw a ghost might be concerned that its appearance was not down to chance, but meant as a personal warning of misfortune to the observer. This was doubly the case when the ghost was that of oneself! But more on that subject next time.
[SOURCES: Haunted England by Christina Hole, pp13-14; Bye-gones by Richard Holland, p. 36. Plus various works of Welsh folklore.]
© Richard Holland 2008 / The illustration of a Banshee – which shared many characteristics with the Welsh Cyhiraeth and Gwrach-y-rhibyn – comes from’Fairy Legends and Traditions’ by Thomas Croker, 1828.
