Mavens of Misdeeds

Norse Mythology/Raw Headed Bloody Bones

August 02, 2022 Jennifer Blair
Transcript
Jen:

Welcome everyone. This is mavens of where we discuss folklore, the paranormal historical, true crime and all things that most would find terrifying and or strange. And I'm Jen,

Yasmine:

Hi

Jen:

Yasmine and I have been talking a little bit off mic. We our audio sagas continue but while we've been trying to work on that she was doing me embroidery and I was telling her. That is just freaking aweme. It's it's skill. I wish I It's

Yasmine:

been fun to learn. I, I taught myself over the pandemic. I think I mentioned that already, but I did bring my bag and this is actually what I'm working on right now. It's a 365 day embroidery journal. Every day I've embroidered a different icon. Let's look at like January. Yeah. February

Jen:

in June

Yasmine:

microphone. Let me see, where did I put it? Little microphone for us?

Jen:

Can you, yeah. Nice.

Yasmine:

The different stuff. I'll upload me pictures and me descriptions of stuff on our page, but it's just a really nice like creative outlet and a really nice way to commemorate the year. which who knows what's gonna happen. But I think I've been able to find mething a little bit special about every day and put it down. It's been fun.

Jen:

Mm-hmm that's really cool. Almost like a gratitude kind of thing well,

Yasmine:

in a, what was even today, especially right now during the summer, not much is going on. Kids are home from school every day kind of seems like kind of bleeds into each other, but really trying to look for mething special every day has been a nice challenge, but for sure. Yeah.

Jen:

Right. Aweme. All right. You will have to forgive us a little bit, we're having to do a redo if we're like, did I talk about that already? Yeah, Jasmine, Jasmine. Good Lord. Yes. Yasmine she's gonna start us

Yasmine:

off this time. Today, yes, I am going to be talking about the Norse God Odin rry. I'm flipping through my notebook because mehow I lost my pen. Okay. The Norse got,

Jen:

and while she does that, you might remember that from a previous where we rt of talked about this a little bit and I expressed that I don't know didly or squat, I was actually very, but the whole

Yasmine:

super, just really interested in the, the amount that I didn't know. I don't claim to know a lot. I know me of the main names or, things like that, but there's much about these guys that. And I say these guys, Norse God's, Norse mythology. That is just interesting. And and yeah, I'm gonna talk about Oden today, who he was, what he did who he was related to. lots of relative. maybe definitely all of that. I'll probably talk about me of them later. Maybe do like a epide on meone else or a certain event because there's lots of events that happen in Norse mythology to explain things. Anywho, the, the origins of Odin come from Germanic, polytheistic people. I like it. Polytheistic is, multiple gods. They were Norse mytho mythology. It really wasn't called that back then. It was just what they believed and that really didn't start to die down until the 15th century. You can trace the beginnings of writing down Norse mythology, which, I mean, as I'm sure a lot of you guys know that a lot of it was oral history. The writings you can trace back to two BCE and all the way through the migration period and the Viking age. But it did start to die down with Christian Christianization which they tended to do a lot of that in the area with any beliefs outside of Christianity. Yeah, we. They believed that there were nine realms. Exactly. And the tree of life, which I have the name of it written down here. I'll come back to it. When I, when I come to it, the tree of life held up the nine realms of the world inhabited by gods. This tree just kind of held everything together. They're inhabited by humans gods, the Joe tune, which were giants and warfs, and most of their stories tell about the trials and the wars of the gods. They have creation a creation story ancient

Jen:

war

Yasmine:

SVE, our and Ragner rock, which was basically doomsday. Their RA it's called Ragner rock and is their dooms day. Now I'm sure if you have seen any of the Marvel movie that, yeah, that's one. I'm not, I'm not gonna try to talk. Oh, no. But like, please mention it one that I haven't seen RA rock. I'm gonna have to go back and circle back to it. But anyways I'm gonna try not to mention Marvel at all, because really they take their own artistic licenses and things like that. There's just sprinkles of whatever it would be in the movies. Anyway. Who was Oden? Who was that guy? He right was considered the all father, the thrown ruler not, and I wouldn't really even say it goes far as to say ruler. He had people that.

Jen:

Did

Yasmine:

his, did his bidding and, and listen to him or whatever, but he did have parents. He wasn't just, outta nowhere, he was the oldest n of Bo, who was a giant and the goddess best left in the Chronicles or the, the myths. He al has two younger brothers named VI and Vay. He had multiple wives. But the first one that is spoken about is frig. She's like the main one. And then J now there's another spelling of her name that I wrote down mewhere. If I come to it, I'll mention it again. But those two women, especially they had the ns. A lot of the other myths talk about, mainly and balder, where were frigs ns and then Thor, Viola, and VO. And I'm rry if I'm messing up the pronunciations. But that's just my California, whatever Those guys were George's ns. Based on the poems and ancient writings, Oden had a total of 15 children. And I thought, I thought those was funny, cuz I saw it in a couple different places. It lists 15 and then it says possibly eight more according to me manuscripts. As little as the five. Yeah. Right. Or it's 15 plus eight.

Jen:

Lost count's one more. No.

Yasmine:

He goes by many what's one more, and this is on like the language, cuz there were a few different languages going on then, and then al the accent. Things like that. I'm gonna go through and read them the best that I can. Because we kind of, there's a point at the end. All right. Woden den wo Woden Weta, WK and wo, and as, that word especially wo on does means Lord of frenzy, leader of possessed. And it's where we get the word Wednesday from. When this day, Wednesday And that's in honor of the God OIN. That's an interesting, yeah. I, I just find it really, especially considering Christianization wow. That we kept many of these names yeah. To name our week to name. I, I just, it's very interesting to

Jen:

me. My n's at the door right here.

Yasmine:

All right. No, my n is trying to get my attention. I don't know what he wants. oh, yeah. I'm it's gonna go away. Oh, anyways, okay. Oden is asciated with me specific things. All of the gods and goddesses represented specific things, and me of them had multiple things that they represented or handled in the. I, I wanna quit saying mythology much in their belief system, certain gods handled multiple things, and then those people, the people that believed in them would prey to them offer sacrifices to those specific odds for those specific things. That's kind of how that worked a little bit. Exactly. Yeah. Which was you would speak directly to that God sacrifice,

Jen:

like if they needed brain or mething like that. If they were in a drought, his

Yasmine:

right things that he was asciated with were wisdom, healing, death, royalty the galls. Very specific knowledge war, battle, and victory, rcery, poetry frenzy, and. The Brunick alphabet and that's specifically the ancient Brunick alphabet. He was said to be able to have translated it and passed it

Jen:

along. That was interesting.

Yasmine:

Lots of stuff and, and it all, when I explain a little bit more, it all kind of makes sense, I guess. Oh, wow.

Jen:

And I

Yasmine:

know exactly, exactly.

Jen:

I was gonna say it's like he was doing a lot. What was everybody else doing? What is,

Yasmine:

yeah. There's there's always, but yeah. He what's the last said earlier here, I think I said that already, your appears in recorded history as early as two BCE. Right. Okay. When you think about Oden, what is the image that comes to your head?

Jen:

Yeah. Yeah. Like just purely a physical image of what he would look like. Yeah. I got a, yeah, it went away and I think that's what it, whatever it was. Did you okay. Anyway, I didn't do anything and it went away oh immediately I think about the fact that his father was a giant, I'm imagining he's got to be, I mean, he's gotta have me rt of size to him, I would think. But then then I al, I don't know, it's weird how I'm equating his responsibilities to okay. What I think now he has to look like. I mean, if I'm being honest, maybe an older of a giant version of four. Okay. In

Yasmine:

his description he's described as a one eyed long bearded. He was old and he could be like misconstrued metimes for like just any old guy, because he would go around in like a cloak and broad hat. He kind of had a. Like general appearance when he was like traveling or whatever. which is interesting that he would have that different appearance and be kinda fit in with normal people. Heed a spear named gun gir.

Jen:

Yeah.

Yasmine:

Garden, ER, mething like that. That's what they

Jen:

named

Yasmine:

they named their weapons. Thor has meal names.

Jen:

Hey, I, you could say however you want. I would've no

Yasmine:

idea God gir. Oh, that, I guess that makes sense. Right near that's probably mething anyways. He al went around with me animals. He had.

Jen:

Wolves

Yasmine:

named Gerie Andrey they were al metimes considered as familiars, which familiars and would be mething that mebody is like an extension of themselves. And then he had huggin and Mulin, which were Ravens. I believe their names mean knowledge and wisdom. I'm gonna have to double check that, but they basically brought him knowledge, other places they would bring.

Jen:

Yeah,

Yasmine:

gotta have me way of, knowing what's going on. If you're the leader of

Jen:

the right. Yeah. Toward that. Yeah, most certainly. and that's interesting. Because as you're, talking about, about this stuff, like the, the Rav and having mention witchcraft it just makes you realize how one of his stories, me of these thoughts about which crap he was sent learn as they get later on where all of this, kind of starts me magic

Yasmine:

and with his big hat and his cloak and doing magic and for them, it was considered more feminine, I guess, in one of his myths or one of the, the stories he said to kind of been made. Persecuted a little bit for doing this feminine practice of practicing the, with the, with witchcraft. That's really interesting that you mentioned that because, right. Yeah. Like definitely the connection running all the way through, down to the, from the animals down to the hat, like all of it. Right, right. Yeah,

Jen:

yeah, yeah. Dad. And that it's a female. Okay.

Yasmine:

Then he

Jen:

wrote they're asciating already right off the bat. Like that's interesting. I didn't expect that part of it to be that early. But that's yeah. Slept

Yasmine:

near sleep near, not sleep slight near Oh, yeah,

Jen:

he wrote, I say

Yasmine:

that all the time.

Jen:

I've heard, it's funny. Doesn't a little, a little nod to psych there.

Yasmine:

okay. He's ed of the,

Jen:

oh, what? I'm just gonna get these flashbacks of epides. and I just, can't rry. Oh, I had to lay off the psych. Oh yeah. Like I had to let it cool. that can like go back and watch him again was really big, big thing. I dunno. He's watched every epide multiple times. I think, think marathon in my future,

Yasmine:

favorite thing is what is his name? The main guy. What's his name now it's leaving me. Mm-hmm Sean is always giving Gus new names when he introduces him to people.

Jen:

It's it's like

Yasmine:

little digs or like little jokes,

Jen:

like the, oh yeah. Oh yes. Silly. And they are like, it. Yes. And yeah. And they are ablutely. Yeah. Over the top. Oh yeah. I think Tuesday, Tuesday, the 17th is my ablute favorite epide. That's the one that, that got me watching it in the first place. My mom, I think called me and she was like, you've gotta see this new show I was like, what? And then it's like, I had to watch it like the second time to get like all the little, nuances and, and stuff. Yeah. Accredited with the creation of the world. Love it. He, I'm rry to take us down that side path there, but yeah.

Yasmine:

Why am IR your mirror? when I was slated, they used his body parts as different parts of the earth. or as. Different parts, the galaxy? No, not the galaxy, the universe. Like I, I forget the breakdown and I didn't write it down, but I remember his eyebrows are the land, that's why

Jen:

Like you live on me eyebrows. I just like

Yasmine:

what the eyebrows really we don't even get like

Jen:

a knuckle, I don't know

Yasmine:

but like, apparently all the different main body parts were used for other stuff. They had the eyebrows left for us. That's fine. in part of that, Creation, I guess. They gave life to the first humans. They found these human shaped. And when I say they, I believe it was Oden and his brothers human shaped objects on the beach that owed and breathed life into. And I believe that is the first mention of breathing life into mething in recorded history. That's interesting to me is that whole breath of life thing.

Jen:

He,

Yasmine:

He al, like I mentioned before, he is in charge of Ruic writing poetry. We get poetry, any poetry for him, I guess, overseas VAHA. Oh, wow. Yeah. And he receives, okay. I thought this was interesting too. I always thought that. Because I we've watched Vikings. We've watched everything that, all kinds of different stuff. They always say that everyone's going to Valla like, oh, we're all gonna die and go to Valla. Right. He only gets half. I shouldn't say only he gets half and he'll only gets the best fighters. I didn't, I didn't realize that only the best fighters go to VAHA because that's where they're having like Fe and that's where they're training for dooms day for Ragner rock. That's the whole, like he's getting the best fighters to be able to defend or fight against coming on. Ragner, rock the other people that die go to FYA, to folk NG folk, vendor. That's a different place. Okay. Maybe all talked about that place later, but the rest of everybody that dies goes to Fraya. When broken down into bullet points, OIN can seem kind of straightforward. But looking at all the things that he's in charge of, we can see that he's very okay. Kind of like a Renaissance man. Like he does a little bit of everything and in, in his origin story that is very obvious that he's interested he's he wants all the knowledge. He can have, he views knowledge as the ultimate. You, you can sacrifice anything, but if you are learning more and you're understanding more, then it's worth it, which I thought was really, really kind of cool. What are thought ultimate knowledge and understanding of everything. that was his, his big thing. His quest for wisdom led him to MI MI was a God. He drank from right Mims Bruner, which literally means Mier as well. This is well, and it was magical and it gave MI incredible knowledge. Not just knowledge, but not just like scholarly knowledge, but understanding al. When OD asked to drink, cuz like they knew they're both gods, Hey buddy, can I drink from your well and mayor told him. You can't just come over here and have a drink of this stuff. You need to make a sacrifice. And the SAC, the, the price to drink from this well is not cheap. Okay. You would have to sacrifice your eye and ODed without hesitation, gouge to die out and tossed it in the well, just, okay, fine. Whatever you need. And that's what I mean by like, he was able, he was willing to do whatever to have this knowledge and this understanding of the world

Jen:

or of the, all of it.

Yasmine:

Where was I? He tos tossed the eyeball into the water. And everything that I read made this act seem very casual. Like he was just whoop done. I'm over it. Like. Let's move on. Like no big deal. just like casual, just a casual eye.

Jen:

Yeah. Right.

Yasmine:

Once he drank from the, well, he became the wisest of all Norcos. He just wisest all the way up to the top. Immediately, the knowledge he gained was enlightenment and illumination rather

Jen:

than what else

Yasmine:

you need me to do. That I thought was very interesting in Norse Norse myth, mythology, Oden sacrifice, symbolized how valuable the quest for enlightenment is. They view enlighten and knowledge with the utmost, like respect and reverence. The people that had more experience that had more knowledge. They in turn would respect because of Oden's, Oden's passing that down. Knowledge was always no pursuit, no sacrifice is too great for enlightenment earthly site for divine site is what was traded basically. And one aspect was ancestral traditions, ancient histories in invaluable teachings. That was mething else that he got in this exchange were the ancient teachings even before him. And that's how the religion was created basically. He did mething else that was pretty. It's, it's a little graphic. They call it Oden's greatest suffering. I talked about that tree of life. Okay. In this tree of life, it was called. Let's see if I could say this. I practiced it earlier. Y Brazil, the Norse tree of life, yo drizzle contained the secrets of the ruins. With these ruins, he's able to translate ancient teachings and pass them along. He wanted to, and ruins were al magical, connected things, stuff like that. He wanted to understand the rooms and Y Brazil holds the nine realms of the Viking universe. Can you mention that before? What he did was he took gir and he entailed himself. and then he hung himself from young Brazil for nine days and nights. And he did not allow anyone to help him at all. He didn't eat. He didn't probably, he probably slept, but I don't know. He suffered greatly, did not allow anyone to help him. And his account of his self-sacrifice was written in what's called the poetic ATAR. This is a quote from Oden. Apparently I, we, that I hung in the windy tree hung there for nine nights nine with the spear. I was wounded and offered. I was to Oden myself to myself

Jen:

in.

Yasmine:

That was very interesting that he's offering himself as a sacrifice to know more, to be changed, basically. And to understand and to have wisdom beyond anyone else.

Jen:

Wow.

Yasmine:

Yeah, he did that it immediately gave him knowledge to read the ancient ruins. Me of his powers that are believed to be included are shape shifting influence over combat and warfare. He's able to speak in riles. He is able to say things that mean other things, which I don't. I was trying to think about how that would work in conversation. I don't know if he always spoke in riles after that or if it was just metimes I I don't know. That unds hard.

Jen:

this this is what always interests me and why. I al metimes wonder if this is the rean that many what, what Christianity would call pagan. Belief systems are still very much in practice. Even today Christmas has quite a few origin, and holdovers from, from pagan. But this is why I always, say as a Christian that I think a lot of people are gonna be SU more surprised by, right? Who is in their version of heaven than who isn't, because you look back at even, listening to, to this, the Norse belief system. It's interesting. You have the tree of life. You have the willing to sacrifice oneself and suffer and not let anyone, come to their aid, which, Christians are gonna equate that with Jesus suffering on the cross. Not a whole lot different there. Even if you go back to the, the oratory that they have, in breathing life, there's many, and you you'll find. Find it in this you'll find it heavily in American. If you study pretty much anything I've heard of, you, these parallels, no matter how far back you go you'll start to realize that just about everybody, that, that has that belief in a, in a higher power. I ablutely agree. It's really amazing and remarkable that it blows my mind doing that consistent people developed in different areas of, and get the word that I want. But travel

Yasmine:

long, far travel

Jen:

was not really, I mean, it's, it's really, and these beliefs. Yeah. Which is just, like you said, really amazing to me.

Yasmine:

I love it. I mean, we do know that the Vikings traveled, but like I said, like it was after the migration period after What's considered ancient times. This was much later other people were already other places making their own having their own ideas. Why aren't we're all here, mm-hmm that is interesting to me. Yeah, I could, I could read about it and talk about it all day. Really? It's I just it's

Jen:

okay. Mm-hmm right, exactly. Mm-hmm yeah, same. Yeah. Right. That's why I get I'm like, I just believe everybody, should Really taken interest in learning about others, others because you truly will start to find that you have a lot more in common than yeah. You think, once you, you really dive in and it really will start to blow your mind. the religion is just one thing, but I mean, it really starts to blow your mind that, like you said, how people spread out the Inuit all the way, right. In, God, for sake, Antarctica and whatever to single continent, how all of these people, little bit. Modern having that, that higher power and power close, like I mentioned, his imagery and their understanding of that is, was able to

Yasmine:

shift really. He had influence, overcome that and warfare. And that's why like in movies and depictions of the and I'm thinking literally that show Vikings, but I know there's others. I cannot think of any others right now. Well you'll always see them like to Oden, to, to Bahala, and, and that's because he was the, he influenced or they thought he could influence combat warfare speaking in middles the healing. There is a story about him bringing MiiR back from the dead. That's interesting.

Jen:

Mm-hmm Yes. Oh, interesting. And I'm rry. It reminded me when I went off on my religion side crack there, it was when you sang speaking in riles, I was thinking about how in the Bible you have, terribles and no, it's interesting. And how, I mean,

Yasmine:

Mair

Jen:

was a God, words have multiple meetings and apply to multiple situations throughout different periods of time from the dead. Rry, said that again, reminded me get back on track of what I

Yasmine:

say he had the power of mind control. and he held the power of life and death. Obviously he could bring people back from the dead, but he influenced the beginning of life as well. Mm-hmm yeah, I mean, there's lots and lots and lots of stories about his adventures. Lots of stories about his children, his wives, his just different people that were influencers on the Norse religion. If you guys are interested in more, there's plenty out there. Plenty, plenty out there. Lots of stuff. Nowadays I think I already mentioned it a little bit. It's the. Religion is called the Nordic religious ciety. And I, I mentioned there's about 500 to a thousand of those guys in Scandinavia and they, oh, try to, or they do worship in the old ways. Mm-hmm, pre Christianization. They have a lot of like nature influences. They meet outside, they acknowledge the, the moon the lstices and, and the moon cycles. And then they have their in, in Iceland. There's thousands of people that it's called the us, us aro a S a T R. A sat movement and that's in Iceland. Like I mentioned before, there's thousands of people that are still practicing the Norse religion in other parts of the world. Yeah, that is Oden.

Jen:

Thank I

Yasmine:

think, yeah, interesting. I mean his little stories about like how he became who he was there's variations and things like that. Metimes things get lost in relation or they're told by other people, but I think I hit the main points. Wow. For, for that stuff, it's just

Jen:

interesting. There's much to it. You're gonna have to do me more and there's much still

Yasmine:

to learn because it's a lot,

Jen:

it's a lot mm-hmm right. You get. Yes. Yes, it is. It is. Well, that was aweme. Thank you. Hi, I think it was last week's epide. I'm not sure if either that one or the one before that, but I mentioned that I got to go to a arts and crafts festival and talk with an author who writes books about folklore in the Appalachian mountain region. And I could not remember his name, which was just ridiculous, but his name is Thomas, the Perry, and one, just one of the four or five books of his that I bought. Is this one and it is called raw headed bloody bones. Oh, cool. And I don't know how well you could see, I'm trying to show you the picture, right. It's, I'll just tell you that. And this is part, historical, true crime and part folklore. As most, a lot, well, not most, well, no. Yeah. I'm gonna stay with most folklore is there always starts with a little bit of at least a little. And that's what kind of gets things started. And then of course, you've got oral tradition, things get changed. As times change people start to add things in and take away things. It gets, a little convoluted, but you can still oftentimes, figure out the the org, the whole thing. And al just wanna do, a little bit of a brag. I got my autograph copy, that was cool. Yeah, this this is really interesting. This is going to be taking place in Patrick county, Virginia, which I'll have to say not that far from me. Okay. Never been there. But I imagine it to be a lot like the culture and things that we, we have around here. And I think that I discussed at me point. That we are mostly Irish and Scottish ancestry in the Appalachian mountain region. Just bear that in mind, sure. I'm trying to decide how I wanna even get started. Think I'm gonna skip that part for now and come back to it. This raw head and bloody bones my goodness can actually be traced back way before that it actually people came to this region. It actually starts with an English nursery rhyme and it says raw head and bloody bones steals, naughty children from their. Takes them to his dirty den and they are never seen again. I see. Creative back then. Gotta love those English, wholeme nursery rhyme, get you right in the fields for sure. But the, that brings you to rt of the other with folklore and these legends and stories. Many of them are at the root are designed to terrify children and get them to obey their parents by pure fear. Yeah, exactly. Essentially the, the author Thomas Perry, he grows up in, in this area in the sixties and seventies. And he has a typical childhood that we would imagine. He'd be a little bit more on the tail end of it. I think. His family harvested tobacco. And as a kid, he would definitely have a job sean as would probably all of his friends in that area. They would work very, very hard you know, sun up to almost sun down. And then they rt of have the idyllic, childhood that we, we think about in, in those times. They spend a lot of time outside and playing together. Fishing is a big thing, riding their bikes. But al they ablutely love to talk with the older folks in their community to hear these stories. And these are passed down and this is gonna be one. That was passed down to Mr. Par. And I will say that he in writing this book the gentleman that told him this story was still alive. He was able to go back and kind of get a refresher in his mind of the story. And he al talked to friends of his that were there for this storytelling to get their recollections al. I'm gonna quote quite a bit from this, cuz I can't say it, any better than, than Mr. Perry's done, but the gentleman's name is gray and he is the father of one of Thomas's good. After a day of working hard and, hauling the tobacco out to dry and all that, imagine they have ridden their bikes and they end up back at his friend's house and his dad, they ask him to tell a story and apparently gray is a wonderful storyteller. And the author says, that he would always tell a stories in the tradition of all great Appalachian people living in the uth, which basically means long winded. And with a lot of interesting terms of phrase, we'll say basically this story has a very local and a very real connection to their town that they're living in. And of course, and good storytelling style he made sure that he's about to become dark as he tells this story. And the author says, we did not know this would leave us scarred for life with a tell, frightening, but as a 60 year old man, a am still afraid of this boogeyman known as raw headed bloody bones. Basically, yeah, this is, I have, I've never heard of this ever, this is very unique to their, to their area, but gray starts his story off. He says, I was looking for information yeah. On life, around here during the civil. And he's given a book by another Townsman that's called, I just had to interestingly 39 lashes all laid on crime and punishment in uth side, Virginia 1750 to 1950 and I'm like, wow, that's a, that's a title. It stands out. I'll give'em that. In this book obviously they've, chronicled all these different primes and things, that have happened that have made their way through the legal system or what would pass as the legal system as we'll find out. Basically in September of 1897, there was a 22 year old guy named Henry Walls. And he is I gather a rt of drifter. He doesn't have steady employment. We'll say that. He's hired to work a local family. But after a period of time, they feel that he has stolen a saddle from them. And there is an a heated argument about said stolen saddle and walls. Henry Walls ends up threatening the family and says basically that he's gonna run them out of town. And even if it meant he had to burn their house down to do it. That happens. And then within a few weeks to short period of time, who knows what these stories the towns, people believe that he comes back to that family's home in order to do just that for, he does mething. Maybe far worse. The theory is that he goes to do what he says makes make good on this threat and burn their house down. However, there was one member of the family that was home and that was the family's daughter named Sadie hook. Pretty sure. Yeah. She had just been out to the spring to get water was coming back. This is theorized and they can see that there are a lot of, and stuff outside the, footprints I'm imagining signs of a, a scuffle, maybe the dirt's all, ju ever. They're able to figure out ablutely that they think that Sadie tried to, like, she came back from the spring, saw mething she shouldn't have seen and tries to run, but ultimately She is killed and they determine that she was struck heavy blow to the head with Ahoe. Her throat was slapped and she had several other severe wounds to her body. We're assuming knife type, slashes, whatever. They say that she she survived this just long enough to be able to mewhat communicate who had done this to her. She wasn't able to talk cuz her throat is slashed. The method that they, they used was a, I'm sure a sweet, sweet ul of Mrs. Margie EPON was naming off names which I imagine. Henry Walls was probably the first one she named off in light of the the threat before. Oh my gosh. But she said that Sadie squeezed her hand when she said his name. Therefore he is the killer. The next day he is arrested and he is but they have to make a responsible has to make a 20 mile trip to Stewart, which would be the county seat in order for him to actually go through the justice system. Essentially this involved, me overnight camping, we'll say for, for them in route to getting there and, and keep in mind, with me that we're in, we're in folklore land. They, oh, my goodness are doing that. However a mob comes and without any resistance from the Constable and his his n, the, they drag him away. And this is like, they forced Uhhuh Henry Walls to beat his own toenails off with a hammer and then hung him behind Hunter's chapel church, which still stands today. And they al, determined that there was evidence that Sadie was sexually assaulted as well. And that's reported by the Lynchburg news. But the Lynchburg news al points out that there is practically no evidence to convict Henry Walls of this crime. And they make a public statement that basically it's starting, people should think he could have been innocent. Yeah. BA now the leader of the vigilante mob was a guy he's 35. His name was Charles Walter Taylor, and now he was the n of the sheriff Yep. He realizes that he is in big trouble for what he's done, especially now if public opinion is gonna return and, say, wait a minute, we don't even know if he, yeah. Actually did it. He flees goes to California. Eventually it says he sends for his wife and children and it starts a new life. And that's, but people the local folks said that for the rest of his life, he complained about throat trouble and they believed that was because he had put the rope around Henry wall's neck Just as an interesting aside Sadie and Henry were buried on the same day at the same hunters, chapel church. And both in unmarked graves. Why I for I can understand more, but for her, I don't know why I did. Didn't say. Let's see. You're probably wondering as I was, as I was reading this, where are we going with any of this and raw headed, bloody bones. Oh yeah, I did wanna just read this. This this quote direct quote from the book while Taylor escaped this part of the world for the west coast, the people left behind would come face to face with the scariest thing they ever encountered a monster named raw headed bloody bones who taught them a hard lesn in taking justice into their own hands. Yes. Now we meet Betty. She lives in what? Oh. And they now is where, hang on. It's called Lynch hollow. That's another rt of, well, I'm gonna ruin the magic if I do that, I was gonna say folklore slip up. But anyway because, you know, why would it be Lynch hollow then when they just had the lynching? whatever, it's fine. Forget. I said that. Betty was locally known and accepted as a Coner. And she decides that I have the power to figure out if Henry was in fact guilty or innocent. She decides from him back to life. She needs a full moon to do that. Oh my goodness. And the next full moon that happens, she is ready. She says her spell and it has said that a storm began to brew over the blue Ridge mountains. Keep going. The clouds came over the hollow, which I know that he would want me to pronounce his holler and rain began to fall in sheets. It was remembered as one of the worst storms that ever came through this part of Virginia, suddenly lightning. Oh yeah. Suddenly lightning struck the grave of Henry Walls releasing his body. Henry of course rises. Huh? Okay. Henry rises from the dead and he starts to walk towards Betty's cabin. Oh what, she starts to notice that we've got a bit of a pet cemetery situation happening here. She notices that Henry is not looking hot, not looking the same, not looking as she would expect him to look. And he walks past her and doesn't seem to acknowledge her. He walks past her and falls straight into a deserted, well, Henry cannot catch. Okay. Yeah. And I thought, where are we going with this? Oh, yes. Despite that. As the days are going by people in this community are starting to notice me very strange things happening. Oh my goodness. As in livestock being just butchered in ways that they had never seen a wild animal or, do before that kind of thing. And men that me of the men that formed up the, the, posse that lynched Henry started to go out to investigate strange noises on their property or pairing these animals. But they're going out at night to investigate these things and they are never seen again. Yes. Betty though continues to work with Henry. And but she still has to use the full moon. She gets a full moon, goes back out to the well where he has fallen head first in what? And she summons him out with her magic and the weight that she gets him out this time is she sends the bucket down and brings up the skull, lays it on the ground, dries it off, sends the bucket back down up the rest of the bones, lays them out to dry. And then the skull would attach to all the bones and it would shake to put itself together. Are you with right? Yeah. Are you, yeah. Yeah, that's all I can. He stands there before Betty and he does still have me muscle on the skeleton. He has big yellow eyes and he releases a hellish scream that show Frazer sharp teeth. I don't know where he got the, I don't know. Well, well, I said it's a pet, nevermind before. Explain that. All right. Keep up, Jen, keep up with yourself. Okay. He smells like sulfur. Just a good touch, I guess. I Yeah. Well true. you've fallen in a, had a rough couple of weeks. I'm gonna say like, what is that? Raw headed? Bloody bones makes a very distinct and strange und when he moves and people describe it. Doesn't und like thatty and a thump,

Yasmine:

what is that?

Jen:

The und that und would get louder the closer he was. Yeah. Or if he was irritated because you got away from him when he was trying to do whatever he was gonna do. Yeah. Oh, we're gonna, oh, we're gonna talk about that. I'm not sure it's gonna give you the answers you want, but I am gonna talk about Yeah. I've, I've read it and said it aloud many times and I'm still no closer to that. oh, I mentioned the clause that he has, and people would start to see claw marks against their house or their grounded, their wooden gates surrounding their proper. However they were safe because in the uth, everybody knew that your porch, your stuff, where had to be painted in paint blue because spirits cannot pass through that particular paint color. Have I blown your mind? Paint? Okay. H a I N T blue. It is a light blue. It's a very distinct color. People will paint the ribs of porches. Yeah, the tail they're inside of foot porches were very common. The roof or mething. Oh yeah. You you'll come from, it's a thing. It's a, yeah. And if people restore the houses, they'll, they'll do that anyway. A pern, because like I said, everybody knows you, you can't pass through if mething's painted Hank blue. He we're all headed. Bloody bones now has a ho handle. never thought I say that for a tale. A yeah, maybe it was it. Okay. Okay. Outta control. Ugh. Okay. Anyway, I dunno what in the heck. And he would though his home was the abandoned. Well, although I'm very unclear on how he is getting back up it, especially when now Betty has disappeared al. Okay. Right. Yeah. Okay. I'm glad you're with this is I love holes. It's just hilarious. 19th century turns into the 20th century and this story had staying power in this community. Y at that, because I will certainly never forget this. It is now 1940. One telling these kids, his n and his friends about this legend, this cautionary tale, whatever you wanna call it. Now his family, he's bringing this back to you pernal level. Now his family in 1940 has moved to a property where now they are across from Hunter's chapel church where Sadie and now I've forgotten his real name. Henry were both buried and he hung near that church as well. Now gray, the storyteller here is is now living. Okay. He gray says, he loved to go fishing with his dad, but I had to just include this into ed could not go on this particular day because. He had a job to deliver the mail via mule every day. And in 1940, that was, I was shocked. And then I looked around at my surroundings and I wasn't. His father tells him, make sure you are home before dark. Right. And he says, his dad says, there's rumors of strange activities, happening in the neighborhood, whatever. He is a good boy, but he is having a really good day fishing apparently not my jam fishing, but he is nailing it. And he is having much fun and is amazed that he just keeps on keeping on. And now, before he knows it, it's getting, it's getting late. Yeah. And he's probably not gonna make it home before dark. Right. He is now he's got many fish he's slowed down from his normal childhood eight year old pace. Yeah. But he decides, he's gotta go. He thinks, oh, I can make a shortcut through Lynch follow and I can probably beat my dad home or at least get there before the whole dark thing. He does that now by this point, of course, the sun is going down and now holler, which basically means you are just in trees, you're in a, the woods and there might be a road of me rt there. And now it's looking creepy, trees are casting shadows, you're, you're, you're in a mess. Right. And he thinks he hears mething and sees stuff out of the corner of his eye, but let's, be real. We would all yeah, do that. But he's like, eh, he turns around, he doesn't see anything. But he starts to hear a und, mething he has never heard before, and he could barely hear it at first Shiffy Shiffy Ty. I forget the name you. He starts to pick up to pace. The und gets and as, just as on as he finally reaches the edge of the hollow and he can see his home raw headed, bloody bones, picks up speed and almost gets him, but he makes it to his wraparound porch where the ceiling was painted in a light blue color called you. Oh, my starts paint blue. In the house. Yeah. He raw headed bloody bones is very unhappy. Right? And he lets out a scream like a ban chief because he is forced upset that he did not catch. The boy. The boy is the boy gray is hiding in his room. All that, and as the moon is now fully rising he can still hear the Schiffy Schiffy thumpety thumpety on the other side of the house. On the other side, just like, like outside. Yeah. He can't come in cause we got the porch covered. Oh my God. He actually, up to this point, he hasn't really seen. like in all his glory seen this, this dude. He can still hear this though and starts to hear his father riding up to the house. I guess he gets a little bit of courage based off of that. And he looks out the window and the direction of the noise and he sees raw headed bloody bones. Well, he describes him as skeleton covered in bones and muscle. His head had a knot on it and a ho here, I am saying it again, a ho handle for a tale. And here's your explanation? The wind rattling through the bones made the und Shiffy Shiffy and when the ho handle hit the ground, they made the und thumpety thumpety. He says, yeah, great to the boys. he never forgot what he saw and he never ever dibeyed his father again and was always home before dark. Okay. And avoided Lynch holler. Like it was the literal plague. Let me see, we've got a section about the real story that is not, not that far off from what I pretty much told you the real story I kind of skipped. Okay. Other stuff, but a little bit of detail about the murder of Sadie cook. That is definitely actual fact. It is believed that he probably, there was a very high probability that he could have been innocent that, and she was found unconscious with 14 gashes on her body and had a fractured skull. It really kind of caused into question the entire veracity of her being able to hand squeezing or otherwise, communicate at all. And let's see the mob. Yeah. I told, I told you the actual truth on that part. Oh, and the Constable they didn't even report that he had been taken by this mob until the next day metime. Okay. Didn't tell anybody. And I think that's about the highlights of that. Yeah. Everything else that I talked through was ablutely factual. Now talking a little bit about going back to the earlier places that good Lord said, thumpety, thumpety much, we're all headed. Bloody bones can be found in outside of this community. Oh, more thing. Okay. Just to the, you know, makes mention of, you know, it's you know, it's interesting, it's funny. It's cool. It's whatever that, folk tale can rise from the murder and lynching and turns into a tale used to scare children into coming home before dark. Like you said, suddenly he's got a tail. And I mean, of course the the ho was because they thought that's what he had used to inflict all of the injuries on her. But how that all ha I don't know. But again, you gotta go back to Betty, the Coner who had a pet cemetery thing happen, that could explain why the extra, just extra Henry That's all I know to say about that. He al, the author says that this folk tell al undoubtedly comes from a combination of the name of a local family. Uh, The Moores, M O O R E S, whose patriarch was roam, R O D E H a M al known as raw head. And I just said the ho handle comes from the tradition that a ho was used to kill Sadie. That's just one possible you know, thing, however the he can actually find, mention mentioning of this, which is weird, and this is such a specific, name, phrase, what headed bloody bones. He was able to find a mention in 1548 in England, Yorkshire, England, and Let's see, oh, in the Oxford English dictionary. They mention it as the, a boogeyman who was a water Demonn and again, the Oxford English dictionary. And in 1566, there is notation of a sermon that spoke of hell and the devil needs to be taken as seriously as granny stories about raw headed, bloody bones. I'm not gonna go to that one. Ah, and there was a gentleman John Locke who wrote about what, but he wrote a book. It was just too boring for me to even talk about. But in 1693, Basically he influenced a lot of Thomas Jeffern's writings and that kind of thing. That's his, the only part of that connection I'm gonna go into, but anyway, yeah. Thomas Jeffern has a couple mentions of raw headed, bloody bones in letters that he wrote. One is, there are fanatics, both and religion and politics who without knowing pernally have long been taught to consider me as a raw head and bloody bones. What this term actually exactly. it's kind of like when you look up, these Victorian, slang and stuff like that, you're just like, even though you're explaining it to me, I'm still not quite with you on that. I'm, I'm curious. I,

Yasmine:

I have never heard of that one where

Jen:

wow. That. Yeah, I, yeah. And, and of Samuel Johnn and he wrote the dictionary of the English language, wrote of a Spector called bra head used to frighten children. You don't know like it, that's 1755

Yasmine:

say what happened to the

Jen:

lady that brought him back? You have

Yasmine:

it now I forget

Jen:

her name. no, yeah, same here. That was a totally new one for me. But I ablutely loved the tie in of, a. Time that happened and how that particular community that and made it mething together, different do

Yasmine:

you think, did he have a

Jen:

or mething like that? Huh? Oh she, she disappeared along with all of the men eventually that participated in the lynching kind of a one by one thing. Yeah. I don't know. They, and, and that's the the fun part of that yeah. Of these stories. You've got, that, that lady, that older lady, who is just known and accepted as the, the town con, I'm struggling to think of my town conjure right now, we had to have a, a way to explain the existence. How did why is, is Henry not just, resting, impede and forgotten about, we have to have an origin story for our local boogieman. And I'm guessing that, of course, since this, starts, that is interesting in the late 18 hundreds That I, I can only assume. And that book was just entertaining enough that I did not go on a, a deep dive to see, but I can only guess that there is me form of Victorian or even before Victorian flying or mething that term or pieces and parts of it. At least it was really loud. meant mething derogatory. I imagine. Well, that was really interesting. Yeah. And it's just carried on and changed, as time goes. That's my guess. Completely. Yeah. yeah. Uhhuh. No. Yeah. That's okay. it's alright, yeah, I know, I thought that was really fun. I don't know. Yeah. I really enjoyed that. It makes me really excited to finish me of his other books. He's really, I mean, I he's written like over that's cool. 40 me different, books about local history, folklore. He's actually kinda, I didn't realize that and I was reading his his biography and he's been in charge of me very, very cool and very major historic projects preservation things. He's written all of the plaques. The historical plaques at me, at me places you know, which the history nerd like me, I'm like, that's, that's up there. You have arrived. Annie's just a really nice guy. yeah. yeah, we I really hope to, I wanna finish his a really big book and it's a completely 100% true. About me past historical crimes in in his, his neck of the woods. That he's written an aweme book about. I'm hoping to get through that and, and have him on to, to talk with us kind of about that book. that would be cool. Yeah. That's what I've got. Oh, okay. I actually wrote down the cial media stuff. That I could not stumble through it like a weirdo. If we're good, thank everybody for listening. And please, please give us a boost. Like a serotonin boost stars on iTunes. I, like I said, it drives apparently everything in the world. And, but al would still very much appreciate it. If you're listening app does allow you to leave reviews. I know the one I listen to does not good job still, but if it does, please do that. Or you can just say nice things to us on our cial media, which with the exception of Twitter, literally you can just do mavens of miss deeds and I've tested it. You will find us. That's TikTok. Facebook Instagram Twitter, you just have to do MA's miss deeds. You lose the of, if you would like to email, if you're more introverted, like me then can send us an email once again, very easy mavens of miss deeds, gmail.com. And I don't think I forgot anything that time. Did I get it? Okay, aweme. thanks again, guys. We'll see you next time. Totally forgot. It was me that had to stop it.