There is a dark conspiracy afoot.
Strange and powerful forces are attempting to pull me from my studies, plotting to lure me into a dark tanglewood and relieve me of my money. There I was at Paulina Springs, innocently looking at some imported German writing journals, cuz I need a new one for my notes on Pontiac’s War. (Marilyn would tell you there is no such thing as an innocent visit to Paulina Springs. Be that as it may). This most excellent of independent bookstores has a nice little display of seasonal spooky stuff. There on the shelf, whispering in an archaic form of the King’s English, was this:
Here’s the caper:
Connecticut, 1666.
An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector.
The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil.
To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help.
Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake.
“If it is a devil you seek, then it is a devil you shall have!”
Brom is the feller who served up Shawnee Belsnickles in his dark Christmas fable Krampus: The Yule Lord, so he’s working in folkloric Frontier Partisans territory.
He says that he was inspired by the classic writer’s question — what if? What if the Salem Witches really were witches, and had a powerful spirit ally? He also said he deliberately sought to pick up the vibe of Robert Eggers’ The Witch. Puritan New England is pretty damn spooky to me no matter what, so you don’t have to turn up the dial much before the hair starts standing up on the back of my neck…
My taste for “fantasy” per se — especially secondary-world creations — is pretty limited. That said, I have become increasingly enamored of folkloric elements in historical frontier settings, from the Scottish Highlands to the American backcountry. Some of my favorite writers of contemporary Western mysteries — like Craig Johnson of Longmire fame — incorporate a whiff of the uncanny into their work. Some folks don’t like that, but I do. You can feel the uncanny sometimes, out in the woods or on the desert. It’s a real part of the landscape, or at least of our response to it…
*
I admit, when I first saw the title, I assumed that Brom had given us a yarn about a bear, Ol’ Slewfoot being the most famous bear of ’em all. Which just gives me an excuse to post a version by the amazing Billy Strings:
Matthew says
Folklore is fascinating. Manly Wade Wellman, as you well know, made good use of folklore in his stories about Silver John and elsewhere. Mike Mignola’s comic Hellboy (which was influenced by Wellman) had two types of stories: multi-issue pulp epics, and short stories. The latter were often heavily influenced by folklore. There was a particular one called The Corpse which was based I believe on an Irish folktale which was real good. Some of the shorts were just folktales with Hellboy inserted as the main character.
Anyway folklore is a very rich mine. Many writers have found gold there.
Aaron says
Looks like there’s a wendigo movie coming soon called Antlers
JimC says
Thanks for the heads up on that.
Quixotic Mainer says
I’m glad you had the same thought, I was immediately thrown back to the Chris Ledoux song.
A couple of Louis L’Amour’s books get really weird, which I have long held as evidence that he wasn’t really just a pulp western writer. The Californios is one of my favorites, and it mashes up a fantastically researched pre gold rush California with interdimensional walls and the disappearance of advanced North American civilizations.
JimC says
Yes! L’Amour is a perfect example. He did a Anasazi novel that was a “weird tale.”
Matthew says
I never knew L’Amour wrote a lot of what we would call Weird Tales. I’ve read a few of his straight westerns, but none of the books you talk about.
It’s interesting that the Weird Tale and the Western mesh together so well. I’ve mention (repeatedly) that I’ve been rereading Blood Meridian which, if you take the position that the Judge is supernatural, is the ultimate Weird Western. REH wrote a few Weird Westerns. A lot of old episodes of the Twilight Zone where set the old west. (Largely, because their were a lot of old west sets in the 50s Hollywood.)
JimC says
Yes, Blood Meridian is so otherworldly that it must be considered a “weird Western” — among other things. Don’t be tempting me into a re-read! I’ve got too much on me plate!
Matthew says
Rereading it, I actually think that the evidence is on the side of the supernatural explanation for the Judge. When one of Glanton’s men tells the Kid of the first meeting with the Judge, he talks about see cloven hoof prints in the ash of a volcano. He also mentions Glanton having a pact with the Judge i. e. is implied to have sold his soul to him.
Quixotic Mainer says
Haunted Mesa! I love that one. The protagonist earns the trust and help of a sasquatch in that one too.
I really want to see Chaco Canyon and the Cliff houses at some point, probably will have to wait til the kids are of road tripping age.
JimC says
That’s the one.
lane.batot says
Yup, my first impression on reading the name “Slewfoot” was the outlaw bear in “The Yearling”. Then, on viewing the feller with the deer’s head–complete with a trophy rack–all I could think of is buddy, you dress like that around these here parts, and you WILL git shot! Sooner rather than later!
JimC says
Hah!
J.F. Bell says
Folklore tends to get the short end of the stick in serious discussions of human history. Part and parcel of that whole ‘advanced species’ bit that says we’re all too big to believe in ghosts anymore and that science alone may save us from ourselves.
Sounds like a boring world. I guess some go for that.
But myth – or legend, or the supernatural, or the otherworldly, or whatever else you want to call it – is one of the fundamental underpinnings of community, and often enough has some kernel of truth down at the root; there may not actually be a demon that lives by the waterfall, but there IS a wicked undertow, and either way you cut it people do tend to go missing in the vicinity. It probably doesn’t matter how you believe provided you stay out of the water and don’t go out alone.
Whereas science and objective truth are part of your world, folklore is part of your blood. It’s the collected wisdom of ancestors whose names you will never know, whispering at night in a language you never learned that bypasses your ears to be known in heart and gut and bone.
There are things in this wilderness unknown to us as they were unknown to our forebears and will be unknown to our descendants. We find their stories in the dancing of the campfire and the whistling of the night winds. Here before us, probably. Almost certain to be here after we’ve gone. Lords of that one last frontier.
JimC says
You and I think so much alike…
J.F. Bell says
Well…when you start hearing messages on your frequency, you gotta follow it down and see where it goes.
Worst case it goes nowhere.
Best case…it takes you to your people.
lane+batot says
Rereading my copy of THE BEST account out there(that I’ve encountered anyway) of the Beast of the Gevaudan, in 1760’s France(inspired to pull it out again by none other than a recent post on the “Frontier Partisans”! Just about finished ripping through it again!), titled “Monsters of the Gevaudan; The Making of a Beast”–which shows how much the politics of the time influenced some of the uproar caused by the killings, but even more influential, this was when mass media was just beginning(in France, anyway), to be available to commoners as well as upper class folk(and you didn’t have to be able to read yerself–public readings of favorite newspapers and gazettes was a popular pastime then), and how–imagine this!(ahem!), the “news” tended to exaggerate stories all out of proportion to reality to sell papers! A very thorough, interesting account that we can still relate very well with even now…..
Matthew says
Great post!
Folklore is very important. I imagine it is not going away in the future. (I once wrote a ghost story set in space that played with the theme. It’s been rejected once.)