Curses in Literature 2: 'The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral'

'Hello! My name is Buffy. Ask me about curses.'

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer,  episode 1, Season 6


Welcome to Buddha's Black Dog, my blog on curses and spells: for what it's about  (and my other blogs) see

http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/

Buddha's Black Dog is  organised thematically, and older posts will be linked to  after each post.

M R James - author of many classic ghost stories - has a rather good curse  in  'The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral'.


When I grew in the Wood
I was water'd wth Blood
Now in the Church I stand
Who that touches me with his Hand
If a Bloody hand he bear
I councell him to be ware
Lest he be fetcht away
Whether by night or day,
But chiefly when the wind blows high
In a night of February.
This I drempt, 26 Febr. AD 1699. John Austin.



The curse is found in an old carving in the church. The reference to 'water'd with blood' indicates that the tree from which the carving was made was a site of sacrifice - probably human as well as animal.


The complete text of this rather disturbing story can be found here.

http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/barchester.html

See also


Introduction
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html


Ancient Curses 1: the Curse of Akkad
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ancient-curses-1-curse-of-akkad.html

Ancient Curses 2: Otzi the Ice Man
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/07/ancient-curses-2-otzi-ice-man.html

Ancient Curses  3: Egyptian Curses
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/07/ancient-curses-3-egyptian-curses.html
Ancient Curses 4: a professional's counter-spell
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/10/ancient-curses-4-professionals-counter.html

Curses and Music 1: The 27 Curse and Amy Winehouse
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/07/curses-and-music-1-27-curse-and-amy.html

Curses in Literature 1: the Jackdaw of Rheims
http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6404009094692616159#editor/target=post;postID=8036703344964600731

Curses that Worked 1: the Curse of Shakespeare's Tomb
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/06/curses-that-worked-1-curse-of.html

Proverbial Curses 1
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/09/proverbial-curses-1.html
Theatre Curses 1: Macbeth
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/09/theatre-curses-1-macbeth.html
Historical Curses 1: the Monition of Cursing Against the Border Reivers
http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/2011/09/historical-curses-1-monition-of-cursing.html
 
My other blogs are

A Glasgow Album - a photoblog drifting in a melancholy manner around the city

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com

and photographs of dogs tied up outside shops and other places (not too melancholy)

http://parkeddogs.blogspot.com/