Tag Archives: woman

“The Water Fountain Ghost”

Genre: Folk Narrative – Ghost Story

Text:

“At the summer camp I went to as a child, we were told a ghost story about a woman who roamed the grounds at night. The director of the camp sat down all the campers on the evening of the first day and told us that long ago, back in the earliest days of the camp, there was a camper who decided to leave their cabin in the middle of the night to explore. They decided to go to the water fountain by the pool, but because it was so dark outside, the camper couldn’t see where they were going and they tripped and fell into the water and drowned. The ghost of this camper, now a grown woman, is seen haunting the camp grounds at night, particularly in the area near the old water fountain. If she sees any campers wandering around outside where they are not allowed after dark, she will drag them into the pool so they can join her as a ghost.”

Context:

“I first heard this story when I was six or seven years old, and I was terrified! I totally believed it, and every night, I would look out my cabin window and look for the ghost lady. It took a few years for me to stop believing it, and it was really only when I had to go to the nurse’s office during the night and I was too scared to go because of the ghost, and the counselor told me that it wasn’t a true story and just something they told to scare the campers into staying inside the cabins. Later on, when the directors of the camp changed, they stopped telling the story which made me kind of sad, because I felt like it was part of the camp lore and kind of another rite of passage in growing up there as a camper.”

Analysis:

I agree with the informant’s realization that the story was something made up in order to scare the campers into staying inside their cabins during the night. In such a rural location, it would be likely that campers leaving their cabins during the night would get them hurt, either by their own actions or by a wild animal. It also discourages campers from engaging in misbehavior that wouldn’t be appropriate in a children’s camp setting, like meeting up with other campers during the night. I think, as the informant experienced, that this is probably a fairly successful method for the younger campers who believe the story, as scaring them into obedience probably has a higher success rate than telling them a seemingly arbitrary rule.

This ghost story reminded me of the story of La Llorona, who is a character from Mexican folklore who also takes the form of a wandering woman. La Llorona is found near bodies of water (just as this ghost is found near the water fountain/pool area) and is said to drown unfaithful men (while this ghost drowns disobedient children).

Be Careful in the PetSmart Elevator

Background: The informant is now doing marketing for a wine company in the bay area. However, at the time of the encounter she was working in Arizona in a corporate office of PetSmart. She has never had an encounter like this before the one she describes and she has not had any other encounters since. 

BW: So it was 2013 and I worked at PetSmart in Phoenix in the corporate office. And It was not an old building, it was just your average boring corporate office that looked like anything else, not like haunted or anything. My friend and I were just chatting. We were on our way to a meeting. Everyone worked on the main floor and there’s like an elevator and we are going up to a conference room up to another level. So, she and I were just we were walking probably carrying notebooks or whatever and just walking through the lobby until like this little elevator Lobby and in the elevator bank there were three elevators and so we’re walking and there’s always people standing there you know waiting for the elevator, it was right by the cafeteria as well and so tons of people around. you know probably like 2000 people worked in the buildings, there were a couple of buildings kind of like a complex. And so just always people around and you don’t really pay much attention and you don’t know everyone. 

Me: Oh so not the normal place people would think of seeing ghosts. So where did you actually feel like the encounter happened? 

BW: Well, we’re just talking, walking to the elevator we see this woman standing there and she’s waiting for the elevator and you know she had something in her arm like she had a binder in her arm and she just looked like anybody else.

Me: Do you remember more about her physical appearance? Like why didn’t she stand out much? 

BW:  She was probably maybe late 20s early 30s so not like way older or anything you know. There was nothing unusual about her whatsoever; she looked like anyone, she wasn’t like see through anything. She just looked like anyone waiting for the elevator in the building that works at PetSmart.

Me: Okay, then why did you think there was something off with her? 

BW: Well, we were just walking and the elevator doors open, she walks in and then the doors shut and like we had hit the button and they just they like popped back open again so like they were closed for like 2 seconds maybe like they were close and then they popped back open and my friend and I we both walked in and at the same time we both said ‘oh sorry’ because it’s rude. We were rude. She was on her way up in the elevator and we kind of delayed her and so we both walked in and both said “oh sorry” and we walked in and there was no one in the elevator, there was no one there.

Me: Do you think there could have been some other explanation? Like a door to get out or some other exit to the elevator? 

BW: There was nowhere for her to go, there wasn’t like a back door or entrance, some elevators have two sides, but this one didn’t. There was only one way in and out of the elevator. 

Me: And you said you were with someone else right? So you must have both seen her? 

BW: Yes, we both obviously saw her because we both said sorry at the exact same time and then B and I looked at each other and we were both just looking around like did you just see what I saw did you see a woman walk in here and it’s like yes, we both saw her. She described her to me and it was the same person I saw and it’s like we thought we saw the same thing and so like we walked up to the meeting and we were like, my God I think you saw a ghost I mean we saw something we don’t know what we saw but we were just really both pretty shaken by it.

Me: Did you or anyone else ever encounter the same woman again? 

BW: I didn’t work there much longer. This was February 2013 and I moved to Northern California in May so I was only there for like a couple more months so I didn’t see her again. But since then B worked there for a long time after I did and she said that people would see this woman like they would see her occasionally. Someone would say hey B, somebody saw your ghost you know someone who saw the woman you saw in the elevator Lobby again.

Me: So do you have a theory or explanation for what it actually was? 

BW: Well, I mean that’s it I just there’s no I don’t know that she was a ghost obviously but all I know is that I can’t explain what it was. 

I discussed this with the informant in person while sitting across from her. 

My Thoughts: This is one of my favorite “ghost” stories because it is so void of any explanation. It is purely just a story of what she and her friend saw. I definitely believe that it happened; that they did see this woman go into the elevator and then somehow miraculously disappeared. Yet, like her, I have no explanation. 

Norwegian Tailed Woman (Huldra)

Main Content:

I:Informant, M:Me, R: Roommate

I: We had a lot of, another like woman kind of figure, which is I think its supposed to, I think traditionally she a beautiful woman but she has like a trolls tail. And like her sole mission is like to seduce man and trick them into marriage and I think she eats them.

R+M: *laughs*

M: So is she, is she beautiful and then and then she’s like really but on the like what she really is is ugly and so she tricking them or… how?

I: I think she’s  like all around just beautiful they only tell us that she has is this tail and she will like, I think there’s like some magic kind of supposed to be going on, like she will like um… um… um… oh you don’t have a word for that.. enchant? I suppose? Like The man and they will become lost in the magic that they don’t realize she has a tail because everyone knows to watch out for that tail. And then they be like too enchanted and then they’ll you know get eaten or whatever she does.    

   M: Oh okay that’s cool, a tailed lady

Context: The informant was taught this folklore as a child and was told to be weary of beautiful women and to always check for tail. This is a well known legend throughout Norway- one of the top two most known female figure legends.

Analysis: One hinderance we ran across was a slight language barrier in the last quote of the informant as there wasn’t an exact equivalent of a Norwegian word in English, so he chose the closest thing he could think of which was enchant. While this one word did not make an extreme impact on my collection, it definitely demonstrates how folklore can be lost in translation. Additionally, the woman figure is depicted here as alluring and trickery. The comment that men can be ‘tricked into marriage’ says a great deal about their views on marriage and to remember not to be hasty into big decisions. This is further displayed in their average marriage age which is just below 40 for both men and women. While America and Norway both have marriage ceremonies, they have very different meanings each country and that is expressed through the Norwegian warning of the Huldra.

For another version of Huldra, see

“Huldra – Mythical Creatures Guide.” Mythical Creatures Guide, www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/m/page/Huldra. 

A Ship Must be Christened

Main Story: 

The following is a conversation between the informant and myself. The informant will be CP and I will be MH. 

CP: Before a ship’s maiden voyage, a woman has to christen the ship. 

MH: What does that mean? 

CP: The tradition of christening or blessing a ship before its first voyage started centuries ago, when sailors would ask the gods for protections and make offerings of sorts. Eventually it evolved into a woman being named sponsor of a ship. And now it is tradition for her to break a bottle of champagne in the stern of the ship before it goes off. 

MH: Why a woman though? 

CP: The sea is often compared to women. The sea is beautiful and mysterious but also dangerous and fickle. The stereotypes of women being beautiful yet difficult transferred to the seas. Yet they are so engaging you always find yourself back with her no matter what. 

Background: 

The informant was a yacht captain for his whole life, like his grandfather. He grew up on the water and he says it is the only way of life he can accept. He maintains that the sea is his first love and will always have his heart in a way that nothing would be able to, except for his children. 

Context: 

The informant is a family member of mine, and we had the conversation over dinner while I asked him about odd nautical traditions.  

My thoughts: 

The sea being gendered as a female seems extremely antiquated to me and misogynistic in nature. However, there is also the narrative of the earth being a mother and the sea is tied into that. The Earth gives to the world and the seas give a lot. The ocean gave food to people, learning how to sail the seas meant new lands could be explored and new goods and foods could be found. It allowed for a strategy of escape incase of attack or incase of famine. But I also kind of like the fear and reverence for a strong female is so great amongst men that they made the sea female. 

Krasue in South Asian Folklore

NC: So there’s this story about crossaway or crosu (Krasue) I don’t know exactly how to pronounce the name but in southeast asian folklore she is supposed to be a very beautiful woman and she’s only a head, so she’s a decapitated head and her entails are hanging out and she’s supposed to float around uh a building- a haunted building or something um she’s- I think she’s searching for something and she might also kill anyone who comes into the building. That’s all I’ve heard about it.

 

Background:

Location of Story – Southeast Asia

Location of Performance – Dormitory room, Los Angeles, CA, night

 

Context: This performance took place in a group setting – about 2-3 people – in a college dormitory room. This performance was prompted by the call for stories about beliefs, ghosts, or superstitions as examples of folklore via a group message. NC approached me in person in response to the text and had just discovered this creature herself. 

 

Analysis: Krasue is physically unlike any other “monster” or creature I have heard of before. I was particularly interested in the dichotomy between the woman’s beauty and the grotesqueness of her lower half. For me, this hints at a commentary about how women are viewed around the world globally: her head is attached but her body has been ripped apart by what exactly? If women often fall victim to objectification, then it makes sense that this lore would depict her “body” has being completely consumed by something else or at least lost to something or someone besides herself. Additionally, the fact that she is bound by a building, confirms the archetypical “domestic” woman, but the threat she poses to anyone else trying to reside in her household disrupts this stereotype and protects the space as her own.