Haunted Cosmos - The Dusty Tome, Chapter 19: Castle Houska

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Please enjoy this Haunted Cosmos special preview of our patron-exclusive show: The Dusty Tome.Love Haunted Cosmos? Get access to our exclusive show, The Dusty Tome, early ad-free access to main episodes, monthly AMA's, and livestreams with Ben and Brian by becoming a patron of the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/HauntedCosmosBuy the Haunted Cosmos book: https://www.newchristendompress.com/cosmos PS: It's also available as an audiobook!During this period between Season 1 and 2 in the month of August, we will be releasing one episode of The Dusty Tome per week until Season 2 begins on September 6th. That's five episodes! We hope you enjoy it; and we do hope you consider becoming a patron to gain access to 20+ episodes of The Dusty Tome, and so much more.We are pleased to share our sponsor for this episode: White Tree Solutions. Business Owners and IT Leaders, this is your trusted partner from strategy to implementation, harnessing the power of data and AI for your success.Visit their website or send them an email, [e-mail] our Patreon today by clicking this link!Support the show

During this liminal time, that seemingly interminable threshold between seasons one and two of Haunted Cosmos, we didn't want to leave you empty-eared. But how do we accomplish this, faithful listener? Well, Brian and I decided that we would do this by inviting you all into the inner circle, the sanctum, the walled garden of haunted cosmos, something that we call the Dusty Tome. The Dusty Tome is our weekly patron exclusive show, full of listener stories, historical oddities, and much more. We've released actually more than 20 of them so far, once a week,

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So, sign up today at patreon.com slash haunted cosmos or tap the link in the description of this episode. That's about enough rambling for now. Let's get on with the show. We're glad that you're here. Today's episode of The Dusty Tome is going to be another example of one of those historical oddities, the kind of thing that I personally just can't get quite enough of. And maybe you've heard of this thing before, but maybe you just haven't heard quite how the whole thing actually played out. We hope to provide that for you tonight with historical context as well as plenty of weird

strangeness. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy this dusty tome episode on Hoska Castle. Have you ever seen the show Twin Peaks? It's one of those classic drama shows that sort of paved the way for the modern TV series where one overarching story occurs over many episodes and seasons. Shows like Lost, Breaking Bad, The Worm. wire, all of them owe a debt of gratitude to their great predecessor, Twin Peaks. Now, by the way, I'm not really endorsing any of these shows. In fact, I myself have only ever

seen Lost and Twin Peaks. I wouldn't recommend Lost because it's garbage after a short while, and I wouldn't recommend Twin Peaks because it quickly becomes a bit more R-rated than I think is healthy. Having said that, though, the foundational story of Twin Peaks is very compelling. It's very good, and it's very well told. There's a murder of a young woman in a small Pacific Northwest town, and an eclectic and weird FBI agent is tasked with coming in to investigate since the local police are not equipped to handle such a case, and from there, well, drama ensues. And if you're familiar at all with the story, you know exactly what I mean. There's this thing that happens as you watch it, where you feel like at any moment some jump scare might happen

and send you, but it never does. You're just stressed from start to finish, but in one of those entertaining ways, a fun way, a way that makes you sit back at the end and say, man, how did they do that? But I digress. The reason I'm talking about this show at all is because of one really iconic thing that happens in the middle of the first season. The father figure of this young woman who was killed, and the anguish and stress and tension of it all, no spoilers, wakes up one morning to find that his hair, previously black, had turned white overnight. It's one of those things that you see it, and it seems ridiculous, almost comedic, and it shoved into this piece of dramatic art dealing with heavy themes, it seems out of place,

so much so that it leaves you thinking, wait a minute, do they know something I don't? Does this actually happen to people? Well, shockingly, the answer seems to be yes. On very rare and specifically, though admittedly, subjectively, stressful occasions, the person experiencing high stress may wake up one morning to find their hair completely turned to a stark white. Its technical name is Canitius Subita syndrome, though it's colloquially referred to, referred to as Mary Antoinette or Thomas Moore syndrome. During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette suffered this very thing as a result of her capture

following a failed flight from Versailles. Thomas Moore, on the other hand, well, he was a criminal on death row, and he woke up to the morning of his scheduled beheading to find that his hair was bleached, snow white. I'm sure many of you have heard similar stories of this happening to, you know, maybe soldiers in World War I and World War II. Maybe they're suffering shell shock or a bombing from the German Blitz. But the oldest recorded case of this is from the Jewish Talmud. And as the story goes, a young Jewish scholar, only 17 years old, developed all white hairs overnight due to overwork. On the flip side, the most recent recorded case of this is from the medical journal, Archives of Dermatology,

and it was in 2009. Business owners and IT leaders, turning your data into a tool for growing your business can be overwhelming. Unlock the power of your data with White Tree Solutions. White Tree Solutions is your trusted partner for data and analytics solutions. They're dedicated to serving your organization

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Take the first step towards unleashing your data's potential. Get in touch with White Tree Solutions to start empowering data for your data. your organization by visiting WTSData.com or by emailing info at WTSData.com. Or better yet, just check the links in this episode's description. White Tree Solutions, your trusted partner from strategy to implementation, harnessing the power of data and AI for your success. There is another story of this happening though, a truly fearful one. One laced in legend and folklore. in doubt, fear, and despair. But to really appreciate it,

we have to lay some historic groundwork first. In 827 AD, a young prince named Slavabor was born into the royal Sorbian family, and he grew and eventually took the throne in 859, and he proved himself to be a leader loved by his people. He frequently deforested and burned regions so that farmers might come in and begin tilling the rich land. He defended his people well and instituted political reforms that overall were very popular,

and he founded many new villages throughout the Sorbian region. He was a good king. Most notable among his accomplishments were the birth and well-remembered life of his daughter, the Czech saint Ludmila. Ludmila grew to be an adored princess in her own right and eventually married Borjav I of Bohemia. And through the efforts of the Byzantine missionary Methodius, Borajav became the first Christian Duke of Bohemia, and Ludmila followed him in a zealous conversion herself.

Together, they sought to convert all of Bohemia, but the pagan habits of the people there proved hard to overcome. The faithful couple were driven from their home for a time by the peoples, but they eventually did return. They were just too adored by the majority, despite the religious difference. Her fate was a tragic one. You see, her daughter-in-law, driven by jealousy over Ludmila's influence over her son, hired two assassins to kill the Duchess.

She was strangled and killed while she lived in retirement, far from the political games of her youth. But I'm digressing. We aren't exactly here for Ludmila. Her story is just too good to ignore. We're actually here for her brother, Hulsik. Unfortunately, little is known about Hosek outside of the Czech history books focusing on that early medieval period. But one piece of infamy survives.

You see, Prince Slavabor was not just a good prince. He was a good father, too. He loved his children in his own way and sought to show them honor where he could. One day, as he sat in his study taking counsel with himself, he decided to give a royal gift to his son. He would build Hosek a wooden castle, a marvelous palace for him to live with ground for him to rule over. Construction began immediately at a prominent, prism-shaped piece of limestone punching out from the earth, about 16 miles away from where the royal family primarily resided.

Castle HOSca, he christened it, but the celebration was short-lived. Hosek never got to take up residency in this castle, For mere days after construction was completed, the groundskeepers reported a massive fissure that opened up in the limestone, just outside the palace walls. It was far too close to the foundation to be trusted. The limestone was volatile, and so the castle was claimed as a well-intentioned loss

for both Slavabor and Hossack. Now, as you can judge from the details I shared of Ludmila's story, Slavabor was not a Christian. In fact, it would take many more years for the Bohemian region to be honestly characterized as such. Instead, the pagan Celts were the prominent ones here at that time. And they spoke of an old legend, of old and deep magic, that had placed a curse on the limestone prism. Slava bore heeded the warning, and so he let the castle fall into disrepair and neglect for the rest of his life. as the structure sat empty, just feet away from a dark crack in the earth,

people dwelling in the local village began to claim sightings of human-animal hybrid chimeras, dark beings with wings that carried cold and terror with them as they flew up from the hole. In the coming years, plague on the people and blight on the crops would follow one another in a seemingly endless attack on the long-standing peace of the region. that hole it was said is evil. Hoska and the surrounding land was abandoned for the next 400 years. Over the course of that time, power changed hands, the land became Christian, and the Celtic curse on Castle Hoska was gradually forgotten by all,

except for it being written down in the lore of the land. And it was in this forgotten and destitute condition that the limestone feature was noticed once more in the mid-13th century by a bohemian knight named Duke Heinek Birka, a loyal servant of the then-reigning monarch, Odecar II, the Iron and Golden King. Any fans of Dante's Divine Comedy may notice Odecar II as one of the souls waiting outside of purgatory

in friendly conversation with his lifetime political rival, Rudolph. Back to the point, though, Duke Birka thought that Hoska was the perfect play to build a new stone castle in honor of the king. So with Otakar's permission, he began construction immediately. As you might expect, one of the first things he noticed was the gaping hole that stood at the center of this limestone dagger from the earth. As he asked around, he peeled back the years until he finally arrived at what they thought was the truth. The people still dreaded this place. The stories of monsters emerging had never stopped. Any and all

misfortune and woe that these people had suffered was attributed to this hole, this gateway to hell, as they said. It had gotten so bad that the people, on multiple occasions, had desperately tried to fill the hole with rocks and dirt, but to no avail. It seemed bottomless, malicious in its darkness and hunger, and always ready for what might venture into it to close its grip and its void. The Duke, sympathetic to these stories to one degree or another, decided to try his hand at getting to the bottom of the mystery. Pun very much intended. He recruited workers from the local prison and offered them the deal of a lifetime. If they would agree to be lowered by rope into this hole and then report back what they had seen, they could go free. What? That was it? Just observe

and report back? Well, as you might expect, the roster was quickly filled with prison. eager to win their freedom. The scene was set on a sunny morning. A wench had been fashioned, manned by a team of strong men who could lower the first prisoner in and haul him out quickly if needed. The man was younger, but he was no child, and he looked supremely confident as he stepped up to be tied in. But as he inched closer to the rim of the pit, his courage wavered with shaky knees and cracking voice. Yet still he remained determined, and so he pressed on. The descent began normal. He was lowered a few feet at a time, and eventually he became very difficult for the surface observers to see. The place was just so dark. But the quiet anticipation of the whole thing

was broken suddenly, when horrifying screams began emanating from the hole. The cries of a desperate man who's utterly afraid, begging to be pulled back out. Jolted to action as if wakened from a dream, the men yanked at the rope until the prisoner was back in the light of the day. Half expecting to find him faking it, everyone looked on in horror to instead discover that whoever was tied to that rope was not the same man. No way.

He must have aged 30 years. His skin previously taught with youth was cracked wrinkled as if cured in an oven. His hair dark and full before was now a stark white that almost burned the eyes when you looked at it. The man could no longer speak intelligibly, and his eyes were devoid of life. Two days later, this man, whose name is lost to history, died. Some say it was a heart attack, some say it was a seizure. But everyone agrees that it was because of fear. And actually, his case was not a unique one. Many other prisoners would suffer the same fate, each thinking that the others were weak or scared of heights or somehow or other

tricked by the traces of light in the dark hole. But all of them were wrong. They were all so very wrong. Upon this happening, the plans of the castle changed. Where most castles would have their battlements facing out, this one would face them inward upon itself. It was an inverse castle, or upside down or inside out, built for one purpose, to keep whatever was in that hole, in that hole. There was no kitchen in the castle. There was no well dug, nor any aqueducts made to give the castle a source of water. It was a cage, pure and simple. Massive stone slabs were placed on top of the dark pit surrounded by this new stone fortress. Eventually a small chapel was built on top of these slabs in an effort to further subdue the corruption found there, whatever it was.

And that really is the question, isn't it? What, if anything, is hiding there? What secret of shadow and flame lurks beneath the stone? We don't know. But the ancient frescoes that pepper the walls of the Huska Chapel may provide some clues. Many of them depict winged demons rising from the castle to terrorize the local villages. Some show a chimera of a lion's body with a woman's torso whose left hand has drawn the bow, arrow aimed at the neck of a peasant farmer.

Just so you know, the left-handed bow is the sign of deceit of evil, cunning, of betrayal and lies. Yet more of these pictures show what appears to be depictions of the Archangel Michael, running through the devil himself with a spear at the end of days, a reminder for all who stepped foot in this historically dark place to not forsake hope. But while these pictures provide some options, how could we imagine anything they depict actually being there? whether it be a wicked serpent reigning fire down on the land or a lion-woman witch thing can we have any reason to suspect any of these things may actually be true well maybe yes it's no secret that brian and i both believe in the existence of literal dragons throughout history and though we

may not have any roaming around today there are plenty of accounts from the ancients that should at least give us pause. And if a terrifying and massive flying lizard that can spit fire from its mouth existed, while perhaps some other monstrous things have walked the earth too. Who's to say? I'll leave you with this short story of just such a monstrous encounter. And it should leave us wondering what, if anything, could be hiding under Hoska Castle? The 4th century BC was a world under a massive regime change. The great Macedonian king Alexander was pushing his way further and further east from Greece,

conquering everywhere he went. As he dealt with the, quote, usual speed bumps of world domination that included opposing forces and minor uprisings, even some mutinous soldiers, he also stumbled upon some things that even for him were too crazy to believe. As Alexander the Great moved into the region of modern-day India, he was stopped by a great cave guarding the lands of Indian king Abbasaris.

It was said that Abisarius kept large serpents in his land that were worshipped by the people as gods. And by the way, there are certainly no more layers to that. Nothing more to say. We can just move on. Well, in this cave, this cave that Alexander found, if he and his lieutenants are to be believed, they found one of these serpents. The locals had gone to great lengths to convince the Greek king not to attack the beast.

Alexander, certainly driven by some level of curiosity, agreed to their demands. As they passed by the cavern, making the usual noises of a marching army, the serpent awoke and stuck out its head with a violently loud hiss. According to Aylianus, in his work on the nature of animals,

Book 15, chapters 19 through 23, everyone was, quote, terrified and confounded. The visible part of the serpent, quote, was reported to measure 70 cubits. That's about 105 feet. And that's just the part that was revealed to the men. Ileonis concludes, at any rate, its eyes are said to have been the size of a large, round, Macedonian shield. Haunted Cosmos, then make your way over to Patreon, where you can get early access to our content as well as exclusive content in regular dusty tomes and monthly live streams with Brian and myself. So go to patreon.com slash hauntedcosmos and sign up now.