Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: Megan L
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 02:52 PM

Lady Jean our local version had the roles reversed, with 2 wee boys gathering conkers over the high wall of our local kirkyard, and a pair ofdrunk men making their way home on the other side.

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 02:27 PM

I have this story in several books of folklore from the Appalachians and the Ozarks. I suspect that it's quite old.

The stories I have are of a girl at a party who is dared to go plunge a knife into a certain grave. She stabs it through her own skirt (it's always a long time ago when long skirts were common) and dies of fright.

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: Nerd
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 12:31 PM

Of course, I have used the term Urban Legends too loosely. I meant to say that they have done several episodes based on folk tales of various kinds.

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: Nerd
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 12:30 PM

I show the Twilight Zone episode to my folklore classes sometimes; they did a couple more based on Urban Legends too.

One is particularly interesting. A woman who is in the hospital after a nervous breakdown keeps seeing a nurse walk past her room in the night. When she follows the nurse down in the elevator, she winds up outside the morgue, and the nurse says "There's Room for one More, Honey!" This happens every night, and it's unclear if it's a dream or if it's real. When the woman finally gets out of the hospital, she is about to board the plane home and the stewardess turns out to be the nurse! She says, "there's room for one more, honey," and the woman runs away screaming and does not board the plane. Of course, the plane explodes.

This is an interesting episode because it's based on a legend in which a shadowy coachman keeps telling a woman "there's room for one more." In this older version of the tale, common in the 1910s and 1920s, the woman goes to a big London department store and they have a brand-new lift installed. The lift operator turns out to be the coachman, she avoids the lift, and she is saved when the lift falls down the shaft.

What I love about this is the way they've just updated the technology. In the original, the lift is the new technology, the coach is the older one. In the Zone version, the lift is the older technology, and the airplane is the newer one.

You can find the original of this tale in Briggs and Tongue's Folktales of England.

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 11:20 AM

Brunvand's been collecting, compiling, and publishing urban myths for decades. There's a CNN interview with him here.

This is musical, in a way, since several urban myths and examples of folklore apocrypha have made their way into song.

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: BigDaddy
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 02:32 AM

Thanks to help from the BCFS mentioned above, I've found this tale in the following books: John A. Burrison's "Storytellers: Folktales and Legends from the South," J. Brunvand's "Curses! Broiled Again!" and Aarne-Thompsons' "The Types of the Folktale." Oh yes, it's known as Folklore Motif # 1676B. I just like to give credit where it's due.

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: BigDaddy
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 02:49 AM

Thanks, you tw. I should have mentioned that I did query the British Columbia Folklore Society, which keeps records of this sort of thing, but haven't heard back from them yet. Cluin, your link to Snopes.com is a useful clue. Reading on beyond the initial story, I see that there is mention of similar legends which go "...back to the Middle Ages in Europe." I think we're on the right track. This is the sort of story which could be adapted to any culture or point in time. I'd be glad to hear whether there might be more variations. Also, I'm sorry that this ended up in the music section. Careless posting on my part.

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: LadyJean
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 12:45 AM

My mother told a story of two boys who were playing dice in a graveyard, when they heard a voice say. "You get those two over the fence." The two boys ran away, thinking it was a ghost? the devil? Of course the speaker was someone picking apples.

One of the few "Newfie" stories I will tell, is of someone who decided to take a shortcut home across the cemetery in St. Johns, and fell into an open grave.
The soil in St. Johns is clay, so the poor guy couldn't climb out, and realized he was stuck for the night.
An hour or so later, wouldn't you know it, someone else takes the same short cut, and falls into the same open grave. It was pitch dark, so he didn't see the other man. He tried to climb out, no success. Finally the first man touched his shoulder, and said, "You know you'll never get out of here."
At which point the struggling Newfoundlander rocketed out of the open grave.
Well, wouldn't you?

Subject: RE: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: Cluin
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 12:27 AM

Here's the closest thing to it mentioned on Snopes.

Not exactly the tale (scroll down the page a bit) but close enough to be related. It mentiones the twilight zone episode. It doesn't say whether it is an untrue story exactly, but it certainly places it in the realm of folklore. A good campfire story, any road.

Subject: Folklore: graveyard dare folk motif?
From: BigDaddy
Date: 08 Jan 04 - 09:03 PM

On October 30, 2003, I heard an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air." Author/Artist Maurice Sendak was telling about the stories his father told him when he was young. One of these involved a group of boys who played a game in which they would run into the graveyard and plant a stick in the ground to show how far they had dared to venture. One of these boys unknowingly pinned his own shirt to the ground, and when he tried to run away, it held him fast and he died of fright thinking that "something" had grabbed him. Sendak believed this tale came from his father's boyhood and was related as being a true story. It sounded familiar to me; and I finally remembered why. An old Twilight Zone episode, which originally aired on October 27, 1961 called "The Grave," featured Lee Marvin in an old west variant of this story. In this case it was a knife plunged into the ground "The Grave" was written by James Warren. My qustion is this: Does anyone know any other variants of this tale? Is this a possible folklore motif?