A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and the Supernatural

Reviewed by Jeanne

This is a DK production, so of course it’s packed with information and illustrations.  It's arranged chronologically, starting with the ancient world, antiquity to medieval, and then by centuries, ending with 1900 and beyond.  The coverage is world-wide; from Celtic mythology to Egyptian to Arabic to Mesoamerican and all points in between.  Ghosts, jinn, dybbuks, mermaids, the Wild Hunt, Ouija boards, urban legends, they’re all here in the pages of this book.  While I would be tempted to read the whole thing through, I have to confess I have skipped around a bit to read the sections I thought most intriguing. Most of the entries are fairly brief, just a page or two, but enough to give a good overview and to send readers in search of more in-depth information for those topics they find most appealing.

One section I read first deals with fairies, the “wee folk,” who appear in folklore all over the world.  There’s no set description—some are beautiful, some ugly; some have wings, some not—but they are all dangerous.  They may not be malevolent but they do live by their own rules and for those that break them, the consequences can be dire.  Of course, our images of fairies have changed over the centuries, and been influenced by literature, including Pinocchio and Peter Pan. There was also a reference to the (in)famous Cottingley Fairies of the 1920s.

The Wild Hunt also caught my eye, as I have come across many references to it over the years but many details seemed to differ.  Again, this is a concept which crosses many cultures, thought the article deals mainly with the European variants: the pack of hounds in Britain; Odin and Valkyries in Scandinavia; or the Sluda Sidhe, fairies who are out to get humans in Ireland.  A variant in Enlgand has the antlered Herne the Hunter leading the Wild Hunt. All are considered bad luck at best and downright dangerous at worst.

One I didn’t know about was the “waiting women” of Chinese folklore.  These can be ghosts or other supernatural women who die for love and wait for their beloved to either join them or else recognize them so they can be together.  Some stories have happy endings but others have the poor waiting woman forever waiting.

The later chapters deal with more modern manifestations of supernatural lore, including spiritualism (and the Fox sisters, who were famous mediums in the 1800s), ghost photography, paranormal romance novels (think Twilight), ghostly tours, paranormal investigations, and ghosts in popular culture. 

It’s a great book to browse and, wonder of wonders, it has an index so that you can look up, say, Krampus or Bloody Mary. I really enjoyed dipping into it.  While sometimes the information is a bit scant, it’s a great place to find things you want to investigate more thoroughly—or just enjoy the bits of information and move on.