Christmas Ghost Stories Week Four
Story Review and Prompt
We have made it to the last week of stories from The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume Five, along with a prompt for me (and you as well) to write with. I know, I missed last week. Christmas and the end of the semester smacked me down a bit.
There are so many great stories in the back half of this collection that it was hard to choose just one more. However, I decided to land on “The Dead Hand” by James Skip Borlase (1903) because it really had it all. Borlase was known for bringing actual historical events and objects into his stories. So, the hand in this tale was an actual holy object “kept in the Catholic Church of St. Oswald and St. Edmund Arrowsmith at Ashton-in-Makerfield” (205).
Spoilers ahead! (Read the story first if you would don’t want it to be spoiled)
Borlase brings in a great historical discussion of the spells and beliefs around the use of a dead man’s hand. The holy relic and the supernatural idea of the hand of glory (the use of which is awesome in Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame).
Then, the story starts in earnest with the introduction of a maid who has fallen for the wrong man. The bandit gets her to steal a holy relic, the dead hand of Father Arrowsmith. He believes that the hand will open locks and wants to rob her workplace, Bryn Hall. Yet, he is mistaken in his idea that a holy relic will help him commit a sin.
His group of bandits and aspiring necromancers take the relic to make a hand of glory. However, the spell doesn’t work, and the scheme falls apart. Mary catches them trying to rob the house where she works. She wants to stop them but cannot move against the man she loves.
Just then, the men of the house step in, and the plan is foiled.
The story ends with the fact that the necromancy the men tried to perform on the holy hand created a ghost hand that haunted Bryn Hall for years to come.
I loved this one. So much great history. Borlase quotes from poems and other works that talk of the hand of glory and how to create one. The tragedy of Mary and the ending with the ghost hand still haunting Bryn Hall. This was a fun one to end with and well worth a read.
With “The Dead Hand” by James Skip Borlase in mind, write a story or poem that incorporates a haunted appendage.
I can’t help it! The idea of a haunted arm or leg. A partial ghost creeping through the house. It has to be explored. This is the one for you.
See my entry later in the week (or early next week) and comment or Cross-Post with your own story or poem. Check out The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume Five, and read along with me as we move into the spooky Christmas season.
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-red-rose-on-black-background-247122/