Lore - Legends 30: Death Omens

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Few things are as terrifying as the mystery of our own deaths. Thankfully, folklore has stepped in with legends that hint at early answers, giving hope and chills in equal measure. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Harry Marks and research by Cassandra de Alba. ———————— Lore Resources:  Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music  Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources  All the shows from Grim & Mild: www.grimandmild.com Sponsors: Acorns: Acorns helps you automatically save & invest for your future. Head to acorns.com/lore to sign up for Acorns to start saving and investing for your future today! Squarespace: Head to Squarespace.com/lore to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using the code LORE. SimpliSafe: Secure your home with 24/7 professional monitoring. Sign up today at SimpliSafe.com/Lore to get 20% off any new SimpliSafe system with Fast Protect Monitoring. To report a concern regarding a radio-style, non-Aaron ad in this episode, reach out to [e-mail] with the name of the company or organization so we can look into it. ———————— To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [e-mail], or visit our listing here. ———————— ©2024 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales we whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books. So if you're ready, let's begin. Jeffrey was on his way home to Kentucky when he read an article about a woman's incredible story. She'd been on vacation in Hawaii, getting ready to fly home the next day, when her mother called and told her not to get on the plane. I have a really bad feeling about it, she said. And so the daughter listened and took a different flight.

And the one she was supposed to be on, it crashed. Jeffrey Reddick never forgot this story. In fact, later as a screenwriter, he went on to incorporate it into one of his next scripts about a group of teens who narrowly cheat death only to be killed off one by one throughout the film. And it was called Final Destination. The portent of death is a popular trope in horror and fantasy, among others, whether it's the clinking sound of a death watch beetle, a precognitive vision, or a three-eyed

raven. But the death omen itself is not a fictional concept. It has actual roots in our world, a product of our natural curiosity and our predilection toward divine intervention. History tells us that we've always been looking towards the end. Religions have risen, civilizations have fallen, and grifters have made a lot of money claiming that they can see something the rest of us can't. We are all going to die, of course. but as to when, where, and how, well, that's a mystery

for most of us. And so we live our lives unaware of what awaits us. It might be a distracted driver or a too late diagnosis that does us in. But where some might find solace in knowing that their time is near, others see that knowledge as a burden, one that's often too heavy to bear. Knowledge isn't always empowering. In fact, sometimes it can actually be a curse. I'm Aaron Manke, and this is Lore Legends.

Funerals are a normal part of everyday life. When thinking of them, you might picture a church with weeping relatives in the pews or the graveyard with mourners huddled around the casket. But sometimes these ceremonies require a second look because that dead body in the casket, well, it might just be you they are crying over. According to one Welsh legend, a farmer riding home from the market noticed a funeral procession leading in the same direction he was. Even the horse stopped to let the mourners go by.

As they stood watching, the farmer took a closer look at the people in the crowd. Following right behind the coffin was a woman dressed in black and leaning on a young man for support. That young man was her eldest son. It was their eldest son. The woman in mourning was the farmer's wife. Once the procession disappeared down the road, the man's horse carried him at breakneck speed to his house, stopping abruptly at the garden gate. Bounding through the front door into the yard were the farmer's wife and son. They had heard the commotion and come to see what had happened.

But the farmer didn't say a word. He kept what he had seen a secret, at least for the next few weeks. A short time later, he fell ill. His family stayed by his bedside, hopeful that he would recover and, in a manner of speaking, get back on the horse. But the farmer knew what was going to happen. He finally told his family about the vision he had seen on the road that day, about the funeral procession and his wife weeping behind the coffin.

He told them, I shall never get up again. And he was right. Three days later, the farmer died. In Wales, this strange incident is called the Taillie. In other places, it's called the goblin funeral or a fairy funeral. It was believed that these spectacles were put on by fairies to alert the locals that someone was going to die. But as fun as the idea of fairies is, most people refer to them by another name.

Phantom funerals. Now, a phantom funeral is just that, a spectral procession of ghost-like figures. And it's been said that they happen right where actual funerals will one day occur. Some say that witnesses are seeing a death omen for a loved one, while others claim the person who glimpses a phantom funeral is actually seeing their own. Now phantom funerals were common in Europe, but they also appeared stateside as well. Sometime in the 1800s, a group of young children in Georgia were returning home from school. They happened to pass by a graveyard along the way, where, among the trees and headstones, they watched as a caravan of mourners followed a blue wagon to an

open gravesite. According to one of the children, the people moved as silent as the moonlight. Some were dressed in black, while others wore all kinds of colors. And the kids recognized them, too. The mourners happened to be members of their own community, but the person in the casket was someone special. It was a young girl, a cousin, actually, of one of those children, and that couldn't be right because to their knowledge, she was very much alive and healthy. Still, the crowd carried on, lowering the coffin into the grave and covering it with soil.

And then they left, evaporating into the air without a sound. The children raced home to tell their mother what they had seen, but she forbade them from saying a word about it to anyone else. Silence, though, was not going to stop death from claiming another soul. Within a day, the little girl had died, and the solemn walk to her final resting place looked exactly like what her cousin had seen the day before. Phantom funerals seem to be more than just apparitions. They are messages from the great beyond, warning people that their time was up.

But these messages didn't just come in the form of ghostly processions. And in Scotland, we can find a different kind of messenger, and this one is much less subtle. Like they always say, the third time's the charm. Except whoever came up with that phrase clearly didn't have the Bodok Glass in mind. He appears out of nowhere, a spirit with one purpose, to let you know that you are about to die. His name, Bodok, comes from the Saxon word bod meaning messenger, while glass is the

Gaelic word for gray. The details of his origin vary. Some say that he's a ghost of an actual person, someone who once committed a theft along with a member of the Dunstafnidge family. The pair were found out and were hunted by the authorities. Not wanting to get caught, the man tried to leave his spoils behind. Dunstafnidge, though, called his partner a coward and stabbed him. With his last breath, this man told the murderer that his time was coming and that he, the

Bodak Glass, would appear and exult over the death of the rest of the family forever. Now, although he's known as the Grey Man, the color doesn't actually refer to his complexion. Rather, it describes the hue of his clothes. This entity has been described as especially tall and adorned in gray plaid. Seeing him once is scary enough, but if you glimpse him three times, then you have bigger problems to worry about. On October 4th of 1861, one unlucky fellow learned just how dangerous the Bodoc Glass could really be.

His name was Archibald William Montgomery, the 13th Earl of Eglinton and the first Earl of Winton. In other words, he was very rich and very powerful. Fun fact, one of his claims to fame was resurrecting the medieval sport of jousting, complete with traditional armor. He even planned a big fancy event to showcase it all. But on the day of the tournament, the weather turned very rainy. The large banquet tents couldn't handle the downpour and the guests abandoned him.

Ridiculed by his political opponents, Montgomery was left to lick his proverbial wounds. But in October of 1861, the Earl faced a much darker problem than a rained out historical reenactment. And it practically scared him to death. He was golfing on Scotland's famous St. Andrew's course when he was struck with a deep sense of dread. Golf club in hand, he stopped and told his companions, I can play no longer. There is the Bodoc glass. I have seen it for the third time. Something fearful is going to befall me.

Now it's unclear when the other two occasions might have occurred, but Montgomery was certainly rattled. That night, still reeling from the sight on the golf course, he assisted a woman in the house as she was getting ready for bed. He handed her a candlestick to light her way, and that's when his body gave out. The earl was dead. Some say it was caused by a stroke, but others think that the reason was not so natural. You see, Montgomery had been plagued with visions before.

Shortly after the birth of his child with his second wife, he left them at home while he traveled out of town to attend a wedding. It was on this trip when he had a strange dream, in which an article had been written about his wife's untimely death. It was enough to shake him for the rest of the day, and it ruined his time at the wedding. When he finally returned home, he was relieved to see her standing there, seemingly no worse for wear. She was as healthy as she'd been before his departure. Unfortunately, though, her condition would soon change. His wife moved into what she called a

damp room, which led to her catching a cold. She stayed in bed, resting and recovering until early one morning when Montgomery was woken with terrible news. His wife's condition had worsened. It was at that moment when he realized that the article from his dream had been dated for that very same day. His wife died several hours later, exactly as it had been foretold. As far as we know, the Bodak glass had nothing to do with his wife's passing.

It was simply a different way for Montgomery to glimpse the inevitable. But it was one more indication that death omens can strike from anywhere, whether it's on the golf course, or even, as we shall see in a moment, from above. It was far from a local happening. You see, Great Britain wasn't the only place in the world where people were seeing ominous signs of what was to come. From the 1860s through the 1940s, America had its own omen to worry about, and this one usually showed up with bells on. Reports of the creature date back to a June 1869 article published in the Memphis Daily Appeal. According to the piece, several people in Tennessee claimed to have seen a buzzard or

a turkey vulture with a small bell tied around its neck. The first man who saw it, a farmer, heard the tinkling of a bell in his field. When he went to investigate the noise, he happened upon the massive bird, which flew away as soon as it spotted him. And sightings continued to roll in for the next two decades, and the animal eventually took on a new name. People started to call it the belled buzzard. Creative, right?

Its presence took on a much deeper meaning among the people who saw it, though. They believed that the belled buzzard was a harbinger of death, destruction, and even the end of the world. It was often spotted near a dead body, unsurprisingly given its nature as a scavenger. It also was said to fly directly to the house of someone at death's door. But not all beliefs about the buzzard were centered around death. If it flew over a house, sure, it could mean that death was coming, or it could mean that a baby was on the way. In fact, those who believed in it would tell their children that the buzzard would be delivering the family's new bundle of joy, not, as we were told, the stork. And it sometimes showed up to warn everyone of bad weather on the horizon.

There were claims that many people had heard the peal of its bell just before tornadoes struck. Weirdly, at least one Pennsylvania community believed it to be a sign of good luck. Just as there are countless tales of the belled buzzard as an omen of death or births or storms, there are just as many stories about its origin. One popular account claims that in 1882, a farmer's child in Palding County, Georgia either owned a buzzard as a pet or caught one on his own. The child made the strange decision to fasten a sheepbell around its leg, maybe as a joke.

But the bird didn't find it funny. Instead, it flew off, with the bell still attached. Other stories go back a bit further. There are reports dating back as far as 1863 in Alabama, or 1874 in Maryland, all of which suggest that someone tied a bell around a buzzard and set it loose. But one unusual explanation stands out above the others. During one summer in Arkansas, a cholera outbreak was running rampant through the farms of the

Ozark Mountains. Hogs that died from the disease would become food for the buzzards, which would then fly off to spread it to another farm. Now, I know what you're thinking. Wouldn't it just be easier to kill the buzzards before they could spread the disease? But this is where superstition gets in the way of the growth of new superstition. You see, it was believed that the farmers couldn't kill the birds under any condition. Doing so would result in the loss of crops for the next seven years, and the person responsible

would be shunned by the community. So instead, the farmers decided to catch one of the buzzards and tie a sheetbell around its neck, hoping the sound would make the other birds want to leave. And for a while, it seems to have worked. When the belled buzzard flew near the others, they would find somewhere else to perch, and then it would fly away too. But after a short while, the belled buzzard returned, and it brought something back. The first time its bells were heard overhead, an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out.

Other times, different disasters and diseases befell the community. According to a 1998 article in the Arkansas Times, the people thought this bird possessed an evil spirit. Other buzzards with bells around their necks appeared over the next several decades, but after a while, reports of sightings dried up. One was caught in 1898 by a Texas farmer who put the bell on display at a local drugstore. Another was found in North Carolina in 1900. Its bell had been inscribed with the words H.B. Havana, Cuba, January 6, 1878.

An Indiana man apparently hit one with his car in 1931. He claimed that the bell around its neck was heavy and had even hindered its ability to fly. And while it's easy to see why people thought these creatures could predict someone's death, it's possible that the only deaths they weren't able to see ahead of time were their own. But even if the creature didn't predict deaths, diseases, or even births, there was one superstition that still held sway. In some cases, you see, the bell-buzzard also knew when a criminal was guilty.

And sometimes, it became the executioner as well. Death is a mysterious promise. We all know that it's coming for us. That much is guaranteed. But as to when and how, well, those are questions that few of us will ever get the answers to ahead of time. So like many other corners of society, people all over the world for a very long time have looked for ways to plug the holes in our questions with something, anything that might give us a handhold, something to cling to in the face of the unknown, and all that grasping has given us a rich tapestry of folklore. Which brings us back to this idea of the belled buzzard as an executioner, and one last example from North Carolina.

In the town of Oxford, it seems that the Granville County Courthouse had become a popular spot for the belled buzzard, which could be seen perched on the bell tower above. Of course, this could have just been a good vantage point for the bird to spot its next meal, or it could have meant something more. During one of the cases inside the courthouse, a man named Wilcox was on trial for murder. He had claimed his innocence from the start,

testifying that he had been possum hunting in Virginia with a man named Ed Bird at the time of the murder. Except no one could find Bird to collect his statement, and now Wilcox was at the mercy of the court. When the twelve members of the jury left the courtroom to deliberate, the buzzard landed on the tower, as if a decision had already been made. Its presence caused a stir, both on the ground and inside the courthouse. The jury soon returned after with their verdict.

Wilcox was guilty and the announcement was met with an uproar. People in the gallery said that the buzzard had influenced the decision, and so someone tried scaring it away by ringing the bell. And it was in this chaos that Wilcox saw his chance. He bolted through the courthouse to a second floor window where he made a leap of faith.

Sadly, his jump toward freedom would wind up becoming the biggest mistake of his life. He landed head-first on the pavement below, instantly breaking his neck. Furious at the meddlesome buzzard, Wilcox's brother apparently took matters into his own hands. He showed up with a shotgun, took aim, and fired at the waiting bird. It barely noticed, though. It simply stood and flew away, as if it were going off to find something more interesting to do. But as it did, some of its tail feathers fell to the ground, leaving Wilcox's brother with

what looked like a lasting reminder of its power. Perhaps the belled buzzard had shown up to signal the man's guilt, or maybe it was there as a harbinger of even worse news to come. Whatever the reason, though, it certainly was an omen, and one that could not be ignored. Death omens seem to be a part of every culture and tradition. They give us a way to make sense of the senseless or to claim knowledge of the unknowable. And in the process, they have left us with so many chilling stories. I hope you enjoy this brief, limited tour of a few of them. But we're not done just yet. There's more to explore in the world of Death Omens, and we have one last story set aside

to thrill you with. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This episode of Lore was made possible by Acorns. I know that I should be investing. You're probably thinking the same thing right now. But if you're like me, then you're not sure if you have enough money to start. Spoiler alert, you actually do. That's because Acorns makes it easy to invest with what you have right now.

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Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors, LLC, and SEC Registered Investments Advisor view important disclosures at acorns.com slash lore. This episode of lore was also made possible by Squarespace. I am a tool guy. I love finding that perfect tool that helps me do a task better or faster or even better both and Since I'm always busy working on podcast projects. That means I don't have a lot of time for building websites Thankfully Squarespace has been here to help

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Okay, funny story. SimpliSafe came in handy a while back when I was alerted to motion outside the office. I was able to open up their app and view the camera remotely, and thankfully it turned out to be nothing more than an angry turkey attacking the window, which, yes, is a thing here in New England, but having SimpliSafe keep me in the loop the entire time was a huge relief. SimpliSafe blankets your whole home in protection. It has sensors to detect break-ins, fires, floods, and more, plus a variety of indoor and outdoor cameras to keep watch over your property day and night. It's backed by 24-7 professional monitoring for less than a dollar a day, and with no contract

and a 60-day money-back guarantee, you can try SimpliSafe risk-free. By partnering with SimpliSafe, I've gotten real peace of mind. I want you to get it too. Get an exclusive 20% off any new SimplySafe system when you sign up for FastProtect monitoring. Just visit simplysafe.com slash lore. That's simplysafe.com slash lore. There's no safe like SimplySafe. They say that Nanny was precocious, especially when it came to religion. Born in 1926, it was said that she learned to walk, talk and read by the time she was nine months old. And by the time of three, she was reading from the Bible and leading revival meetings

in her Virginia community. She had a strong connection to her faith, stronger than anyone else she knew. Nanny understood God's signals when they came to her. And that's why when she was seven years old, she announced to her parents, My mission has been brief, but it is finished, and I must go home to the Father. They barely had time to prepare. She passed away two weeks later. She left such an impression on her friends and neighbors that 2,000 people were believed to have attended

her funeral. Several weeks passed by, with her family still mourning the tragic loss of their daughter. Until one month and one day after her passing, Nanny's mother ventured into the girl's bedroom. Opening her pillow, the mother reached in and pulled out two objects, a cross and a crown, both of which had been made from brown and white feathers. They were quite small, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, and they were held together by what one article described as a network of fine silky thread-like substance. Nanny's mother carefully placed both items in a shoebox and tucked it out of sight.

A few weeks later, she took the box out to examine the cross and crown again and discovered that both objects had grown. According to the legend, as the days went on, the cross and crown kept increasing in size. It was nothing short of a miracle and drew thousands of visitors to the home to see them in person.

Within a year, they were two feet long. People started calling the cross the Claypool Cross after Nanny's hometown of Claypool Hill. It eventually got so big, Nanny's mother had to hang it on a wall. But just like her daughter, the cross she had left behind was not long for this world. Once it had grown as tall as Nanny had been at the time of her death, the cross simply fell to the floor. Nothing but a pile of feathers. And I understand that the story can be confusing to some, but there is an explanation.

You see, Nanny was raised in Appalachia, and the folklore of her culture there is rich and deep. So much so that unless you've grown up around it, you might not be familiar with all of its intricacies and deep. So much so that unless you've grown up around it, you might not be familiar with all of its intricacies and details. For example, one relatively obscure piece of Appalachian lore is the feather crown. They're found inside a person's pillow and are nothing more than a clump of feathers that take the shape of a crown, although appearances do vary. Some say that they're deliberately woven, with the quills pointing toward the center. Others claim that they're just a loose pile of feathers that look more like

a bird's nest than an actual crown. And depending on whose pillow they're found inside, a feather crown can either be a pleasant surprise or a horrifying discovery. It's said that if you find one inside your own pillow, your life will soon be cut short. Some people believe a feather crown is a sign that you've been hexed by a witch or even visited by the devil himself. And should you find one where you rest your head at night, you should take it and toss it in a fire. But like I said, feather crowns aren't always a sign of impending death.

If they're found in the pillow of a dead or dying person, it means that person has ascended to heaven. Think of it like a plumed halo. People would often search the pillows of recently deceased loved ones, hoping to find their one-way ticket to the pearly gates. Nanny Ruth Lowe may not have been on Earth for a very long time, but she left behind a bit of hope, a clue that she had gone to heaven and that she and her loved ones would be reunited again someday.

This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Harry Marks and research by Cassandra de Alba, with editing by Alex Robinson and Robin Minnitor. Don't like hearing the ads? I've got a solution for you. There is a paid version of Lore on Apple Podcasts and Patreon that is 100% ad-free. Plus, subscribers also get weekly mini-episodes called Lore Bites. It's a bargain for all of that ad-free storytelling and a great way to support this show and the team behind it.

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