Coraline and the Beldam

I watched the movie “Coraline” this weekend and I was intrigued that the ghost children referred to the “Other Mother” as the “Beldam,” a Middle English word meaning “Grandmother,” “ugly, old woman,” or “hag.”  I found that the author of Coraline, Neil Gaiman, may also have been making a reference to a poem from John Keats, called “La Belle Dam Sans Merci” (The Beautiful Lady without Pity).

The poem is about a knight who is seduced and trapped by a fairy. Here is the full text.

La Belle Dam Sans Merci

O what can ail thee knight at arms
alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has witherd from the lake
and no birds sing

O what can ail thee knight at arms
so haggard and woebegone?
The squirrel’s granary is full
and the harvests done

I see a lily on thy brow
with anguish moist and fever dew
and on thy cheeks a fading rose
fast withereth too

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful – a faery’s child
her hair was long, her foot was light
and her eyes were wild

I made a garland for her head
and bracelets too and fragrant zone
she looked at me as she did love
and made sweet moan

I sat her on my pacing steed
and nothing else saw all day long
For sidelong would she bend and sing
A faery’s song

She found me roots of relish sweet
And honey wild, and manna dew
And sure in language strange she said
‘I love thee true’

She took me to her elfin grot
and there she wept and sighed full sore
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
with kisses four

And there she lulled me asleep
and there I dreamed Ah woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dreamt
on the cold hillside

I saw pale kings and princes too
Pale warriors, death pale were they all
They cried ‘La Belle Dam Sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’

I saw their starv’d lips in the gloam
with horrid warning gaped wide
And I awoke and found me here
on the cold hillside

And this is why I soujourn here
alone and palely loitering
Though the sedge has withered from the lake
and no birds sing.

John Keats

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Halloween 2011

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

I’ve been looking for this film on DVD, but I haven’t been able to find it locally. I’ll have to turn to Amazon.

In the meantime, I found that someone had posted the full film on YouTube. The story makes much more sense to me now than it did when I first saw it back in the 80s. Jonathan Price is really creepy in this film.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a prime candidate for a remake, but with a little less…Disney. Guillermo del Toro? Peter Jackson? I’d be happy to offer some advice. ;-)







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Stories from the October Country

Here’s a good article on Russell Kirk’s collections of ghostly tales.

The October Country: A Place for Ghostly Tales

“…that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain…” From The October Country (1955) by Ray Bradbury.

 

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20 Best Cities for Trick-or-Treating

Zillow Trick-or-Treat Index

Zillow Trick-or-Treat Index

Zillowhas a list of the 20 best cities for Trick-or-Treating. According to their Trick-or-Treat index, the best place for gathering halloween goodies is determined by a combination of median home value, crime rates (i.e. how safe people feel lettings their little monsters go door-to-door, how much walking is required for the haunted harvest, and population density. The home value factor is most likely why none of Utah’s big cities is in the top 20.

In the list below, the top 20 cities are also broken down by the best neighborhoods to visit. Note: these links will take you to a map of the city, with an overlay of the neighborhoods. The list of the top 5 neighborhoods is in the right hand navigation column.

  1. San Francisco
  2. Boston
  3. Honolulu
  4. Seattle
  5. Chicago
  6. San Jose
  7. Washington
  8. Los Angeles
  9. Philadelphia
  10. Portland
  11. Minneapolis
  12. Pittsburgh
  13. San Diego
  14. Cleveland
  15. Miami
  16. Denver
  17. Milwaukee
  18. Virginia Beach
  19. Baltimore
  20. Albuquerque
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The Ghost of John

Here’s a newer, fuller rendition of a traditional American folk song, The Ghost of John.

Have you seen the ghost of John?
Long white bones and the rest all gone,
Ooh, ooh, wouldn’t it be chilly with no skin on?

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The Woman In Black

Here’s the trailer for Daniel Radcliffe’s new film, The Woman In Black.

This film looks like it’ll be really creepy, just the kind of thing for Halloween–except it won’t be released until February 2012. Duh, guys.

In an upcoming post, I’ll share a couple of true stories about the Woman in Black from my family history. Stay tuned.

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Tricked Treaters

Here’s a funny video. These guys made a four-foot tall dummy dressed like a trick-or-treater and put him on the doorstep.

Watch how nervous people get when the tot doesn’t respond. As my 2-year old says, it’s “kinda creepy.”

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The Mewlips by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Mewlips, from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

The shadows where the Mewlips dwell
Are dark and wet as ink,
And slow and softly rings their bell,
As in the slime you sink.

You sink into the slime, who dare
To knock upon their door,
While down the grinning gargoyles stare
And noisome waters pour.

Beside the rotting river-strand
The drooping willows weep,
And gloomily the gorcrows stand
Croaking in their sleep.

Over the Merlock Mountains a long and weary way,
In a mouldy valley where the trees are grey,
By a dark pool’s borders without wind or tide,
Moonless and sunless, the Mewlips hide.

The cellars where the Mewlips sit
Are deep and dank and cold
With single sickly candle lit;
And there they count their gold.

Their walls are wet, their ceilings drip;
Their feet upon the floor
Go softly with a squish-flap-flip,
As they sidle to the door.

They peep out slyly; through a crack
Their feeling fingers creep,
And when they’ve finished, in a sack
Your bones they take to keep.

Beyond the Merlock Mountains, a long and lonely road,
Through the spider-shadows and the marsh of Tode,
And through the wood of hanging tees and the gallows-weed,
You go to find the Mewlips–and the Mewlips feed.

-JRR Tolkien

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Camouflage: A Ghost Story Sung By Stan Ridgway

I was a PFC on a search patrol, huntin’ Charlie down.
It was in the jungle wars of ’65.
My weapon jammed and I got stuck way out and all alone
and I could hear the enemy moving in close outside.

Just then I heard a twig snap and I grabbed my empty gun
and I dug in scared while I counted down my fate.
And then a big marine, a giant with a pair of friendly eyes,
appeared there at my shoulder and said: “Wait.”

When he came in close beside me he said, “Don’t worry son, I’m here.
If Charlie wants to tangle, now he’ll have two to dodge.”
I said: “Well, thanks a lot.” I told him my name and asked him his.
And he said “The boys just call me Camouflage.”

Well I was gonna ask him where he came from
when we heard the bullets fly,
coming through the brush and all around our ears.
It was then I saw this big marine, light a fire in his eyes.
And it was strange, but suddenly I forgot my fears.

Well we fought all night, and side by side we took our battle stance.
And I wondered how the bullets missed this man.
‘Cause they seemed to go right through him, just as if he wasn’t there
and the morning we both took a chance and ran.

And it was near the riverbank when the ambush came on top of us
and I thought it was the end, we were had.
Then a bullet with my name on it came buzzing through a bush
and that big marine, he just swatted it with his hands…
just like it was a fly.

And I knew there was something weird about him
’cause when I turned around he was pulling a big palm tree
right up out of the ground and swatting those Charlies with it
from here to Kingdom Come.

When he lead me out of danger, I saw my camp and waved good-bye,
he just winked at me from the jungle and then was gone.
When I got back to my H.Q. I told them about my night,
and the battle I’d spent with a big marine named Camouflage.

When I said his name, a soldier gulped, and a medic took my arm
and lead me to a green tent on the right.
He said, “You may be telling true boy, but this here is Camouflage.
And he’s been right here since he passed away last night.
In fact, he’s been here all week long.”

“But before he went he said ‘Semper Fi’ and said his only wish
was to save a young marine caught in a barrage.
So here, take his dog tag, son. I know he’d want you to have it now.”
And we both said a prayer for a big marine named Camouflage.

So next time you’re in a jungle fight, and you feel a presence near
or hear a voice that in your mind will lodge,
just be thankful that you’re not alone; you’ve got some company
from a big marine the boys call Camouflage.

Watch the video:

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