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| ] and ] invoking the spirit of a deceased person (engraving from the ''Astrology'' by ], 1806).]] | |||
| {{R to section}} | |||
| Belief in '''Ghosts in European folklore''' is characterized by the recurring fear of "returning" or '']'' deceased which may harm the living. This includes the Scandinavian '']'', the Romanian '']'', the Serbian '']'', the Greek '']'', etc. | |||
| ], ], ] and ] folklores are | |||
| particularly notable for their numerous ]. | |||
| ]s are called by many different names, which often describe they way which they are thought to behave. The beliefs date back to antiquity, and are described in Greek and Roman literature. During the ], belief in ghosts was widespread. As European culture became more sophisticated during the ] and in later periods, a more romantic view of ghosts emerged. | |||
| == Terminology == | |||
| {{See|spirit|soul|anima|genius (mythology)|Geist}} | |||
| The English word '']'' continues ] '']'', from a hypothetical ] ''*gaistoz''. It is common to ], but lacking in North and East Germanic (the equivalent word in ] is ''ahma'', ] has ''andi'' m., ''önd'' f.). | |||
| The pre-Germanic form would have been ''{{PIE|*ghoisdo-s}}'', apparently from a root denoting "fury, anger", cognate to ] ''hedas'' "anger", reflected in Old Norse ''geisa'' "to rage". The Germanic word is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter ''s''-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been an animating principle of the ], in particular capable of excitation and fury (compare '']''). In ], "]", and the later ], was at the same time the ] and the "lord of fury" leading the ]. | |||
| Besides denoting the human spirit or soul, both of the living and the deceased, the Old English word is used as a synonym of Latin '']us'' also in the meaning of "breath, blast" from the earliest (9th century) attestations. It could also denote any good or evil spirit, i.e. angels and demons; the ] gospel refers to the ] of Matthew 12:43 as ''se unclæna gast''. Also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the "]". | |||
| The now prevailing sense of "the soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form" only emerges in ] (14th century). | |||
| The modern noun does, however, retain a wider field of application, extending on one hand to soul, spirit", ], ] or psyche, the seat of feeling, thought and moral judgement; on the other hand used figuratively of any shadowy outline, fuzzy or unsubstantial image, in optics, photography and cinematography especially a flare, secondary image or spurious signal.<ref>]</ref> | |||
| The synonym '']'' is a ] loanword, akin to ] ''spôk'' (of uncertain etymology); it entered the English language via the ] in the 19th century.<ref>. Retrieved 2009-05-12.</ref><ref>Mencken, H. L. (1936, repr. 1980). The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States (4th edition). New York: Knopf, p. 108.</ref><ref>''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'', Merriam-Webster, ''spook''.</ref><ref>''Webster's New World College Dictionary'' (4th edition), Wiley, ''spook''.</ref> Alternate words in modern usage include ''spectre'' (from Latin '']''), the Scottish ''wraith'' (of obscure origin), ''phantom'' (via French ultimately from Greek ''phantasma'', compare '']'') and ''apparition''. The term '']'' in classical ] and ] translates Greek σκιά,<ref></ref> or Latin ''umbra'',<ref></ref> in reference to the notion of spirits in the ]. "Haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States<ref>''Dictionary of American Regional English'', Belknap Press, 1985</ref>, and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition.<ref>Joseph M. Flora, Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan, Todd W. Taylor, ''The Companion to Southern Literature'', ], 2001, pg. 304.</ref> The term '']'' is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects.<ref>Daniel Cohen (1994) ''Encyclopedia of Ghosts''. London, Michael O' Mara Books: 137-56</ref> | |||
| '']'' is a ] dialectal word for "ghost, spectre, apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent, ]". In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; ] notes "of obscure origin" only. | |||
| An association with the verb '']'' was the etymology favored by ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_shippey_tolkien.html|title=Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001)|author=Liz Milner|work=greenmanreview.com|accessdate=2009-01-04}}</ref> Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the ] has influenced later usage in ] literature. | |||
| A ] is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("]") corpse. Also related is the concept of a ], the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive. | |||
| == Antiquity == | |||
| {{See|Shade (mythology)}} | |||
| Ghosts appeared in ]'s '']'' and '']'', in which they were described as vanishing "as a vapor, gibbering and whining into the earth." Homer’s ghosts had little interaction with the world of the living. Periodically they were called upon to provide advice or prophecy, but they do not appear to be particularly feared. Ghosts in the classical world often appeared in the form of vapor or smoke, but at other times they were described as being substantial, appearing as they had been at the time of death, complete with the wounds that killed them.<ref>Finucane, pp. 4, 16</ref> | |||
| By the 5th century BC, ] ghosts had become haunting, frightening creatures who could work to either good or evil purposes. The spirit of the dead was believed to hover near the resting place of the corpse, and cemeteries were places the living avoided. The dead were to be ritually mourned through public ceremony, sacrifice and libations, or they might return to haunt their families. The ancient Greeks held annual feasts to honor and placate the spirits of the dead, to which the family ghosts were invited, and after which they were “firmly invited to leave until the same time next year”.<ref>Finucane, pp. 8-11</ref> | |||
| The 5th century BC play '']'' contains one of the first ghosts to appear in a work of fiction. | |||
| The ] believed a ghost could be used to exact revenge on an enemy by scratching a curse on a piece of lead or pottery and placing it into a grave.<ref>Finucane, pg 12</ref> | |||
| ], in the 1st century AD, described the haunting of the baths at ] by the ghost of a murdered man. The ghost’s loud and frightful groans caused the people of the town to seal up the doors of the building.<ref>Finucane, pg 13</ref> Another celebrated account of a haunted house from the ancient classical world is given by ] (] 50 AD).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.siu.edu/news/ghosts.html |title=Classical ghost stories |accessdate=2007-09-19 |last=Jaehnig |first=K.C. |date=1999-03-11 |publisher= Southern Illinois University }}</ref> Pliny describes the haunting of a house in ] by a ghost bound in chains. The hauntings ceased when the ghost's shackled skeleton was unearthed, and given a proper reburial.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/9/4/1083.html |title=LXXXIII. To Sura |accessdate=2007-09-19 |first=Pliny the Younger |work=bartleby.com }}</ref> The writers ] and ] also wrote stories about haunted houses. | |||
| One of the first persons to express disbelief in ghosts was ] in the 2nd century AD. In his tale "The Doubter" (circa 150 AD) he relates how ] "the learned man from ] in ]" lived in a tomb outside the ]s in order to prove that cemeteries were not haunted by the spirits of the departed. Lucian relates how he persisted in his disbelief despite ]s perpetrated by "some young men of Abdera" who dressed up in black robes with skull masks in order to give him a fright.<ref>"The Doubter" by Lucian in Roger Lancelyn Green (1970) ''Thirteen Uncanny Tales''. London, Dent: 14-21; and Finucane, pg 26</ref> This account by Lucian notes something about the popular classical expectation of how a ghost should look. | |||
| In the 5th century AD, the Christian priest ] recorded an instance of the recurring theme of the improperly buried dead who come back to haunt the living, and who can only cease their haunting when their bones have been discovered and properly reburied.<ref>F. R. Hoare, ''The Western Fathers'', Sheed & Ward: New York, 1954, pp. 294-5.</ref> | |||
| == Middle Ages == | |||
| ] and his father's ghost" by ] (1780s drawing). The ghost is wearing stylized ] in 17th century style, including a ] type helmet and ]. Depicting ghosts as wearing armour, to suggest a sense of antiquity, was common in ].]] | |||
| Ghosts reported in ] tended to fall into two categories: the souls of the dead, or demons. The souls of the dead returned for a specific purpose. Demonic ghosts were those which existed only to torment or tempt the living. The living could tell them apart by demanding their purpose in the name of Jesus Christ. The soul of a dead person would | |||
| divulge their mission, while a demonic ghost would be banished at the sound of the Holy Name.<ref>Finucane, Ch. 3</ref> | |||
| Most ghosts were souls assigned to Purgatory, condemned for a specific period to atone for their transgressions in life. Their penance was generally related to their sin. For example, the ghost of a man who had been abusive to his servants was condemned to tear off and swallow bits of his own tongue; the ghost of another man, who had neglected to leave | |||
| his cloak to the poor, was condemned to wear the cloak, now "heavy as a church tower". These ghosts appeared to the living to ask for prayers to end their suffering. Other dead souls returned to urge the living to confess their sins before their own deaths.<ref>Fincucane, pp. 70-77.</ref> | |||
| Medieval European ghosts were more substantial than ghosts described in the ], and there are accounts of ghosts being wrestled with and physically restrained until a priest could arrive to hear its confession. Some were less solid, and could move through walls. Often they were described as paler and sadder versions of the person they had | |||
| been while alive, and dressed in tattered gray rags. The vast majority of reported sightings were male.<ref>Finucane, pp. 83-84.</ref> | |||
| There were some reported cases of ghostly armies, fighting battles at night in the forest, or in the remains of an ] hillfort, as at ], near Cambridge, England. Living knights were sometimes challenged to single combat by phantom knights, which vanished when defeated.<ref>Finucane, pg. 79.</ref> | |||
| From the medieval period an apparition of a ghost is recorded from 1211, at the time of the ].<ref>] (2008) ''A Most Holy War''. ], New York: 3-5, 116-117. ISBN 978-0-19-517131-0</ref> ], Marshal of ], wrote that the image of Guilhem, a boy recently murdered in the forest, appeared in his cousin's home in ], near ]. This series of "visits" lasted all of the summer. Through his cousin, who spoke for him, the boy allegedly held conversations with anyone who wished, until the local priest requested to speak to the boy directly, leading to an extended disquisition on theology. The boy narrated the trauma of death and the unhappiness of his fellow souls in ], and reported that God was most pleased with the ongoing Crusade against the ] heretics, launched three years earlier. The time of the Albigensian Crusade in southern France was marked by intense and prolonged warfare, this constant bloodshed and dislocation of populations being the context for these reported visits by the murdered boy. | |||
| == Renaissance to Romanticism == | |||
| ] took a revived interest in the ], including ]. The ] '']'' (1868) recounts the story of a ghost returning to beg a woman to free him from his promise to marry her, as he obviously cannot being dead; her refusal would mean his damnation. This reflects a popular British belief that the dead would haunt their lovers if they took up with a new love without some formal release.<ref>], ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 2, p 227, Dover Publications, New York 1965</ref> '']'' expresses a belief even more widespread, found in various locations over Europe: ghosts can stem from the excessive grief of the living, whose mourning interferes with the dead's peaceful rest.<ref>Francis James Child, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 2, p 234, Dover Publications, New York 1965</ref> In many folktales from around the world, the hero arranges for the burial of a dead man. Soon after, he gains a companion who aids him and, in the end, the hero's companion reveals that he is in fact the ].<ref name="encybrit">{{Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037771/grateful-dead#23476.hook|title=Grateful dead|accessdate=2007-12-14|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|year=2007|work=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Instances of this include the Italian ] '']'' and the Swedish '']''. | |||
| == See also == | |||
| {{Commons category|Ghosts}} | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| == References == | |||
| {{reflist|2}} | |||
| == Further reading == | |||
| {{refbegin}} | |||
| * Finucane, R. C., ''Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of Ghosts'', Prometheus Books, 1984. | |||
| * Hole, Christina, ''Haunted England'', Batsford: London, 1950. | |||
| * Newman, Kim, ed, ''BFI Companion to Horror'', Cassell: London, 1996. | |||
| {{refend}} | |||
| ] | |||
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