Lore - Legends 7: Demon Lovers

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Folklore at the intersection of romance and danger is nearly universal, no matter where you go in this world. And more than that, they can be downright terrifying as well. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Harry Marks and research by GennaRose Nethercott. ———————— This episode of Lore was sponsored by: BetterHelp: Lore is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/LORE, and get on your way to being your best self. Mint Mobile: Get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, and get the plan shipped to your door for FREE, go to MintMobile.com/lore. ———————— Lore Resources:  Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music  Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources  All the shows from Grim & Mild: www.grimandmild.com  

Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales we whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books. So if you're ready, let's begin. There is a link between horror and sexuality that has persisted for generations. For example, in Brahms' classic novel Dracula, Jonathan Harker is beset upon by three lustful women while staying in the Counts Castle one night. In the book he says, there was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing, and at the same time some deadly fear. He was attracted to them, but it's clearly scared of engaging with them. He loves his fiancee, Meena, back in England, and he possessed a palpable fear of embracing

something frowned upon by the moral standards of the time. And in using words like uneasy, deadly, and fear, Stoker has planted a seat of doubt in the reader's mind, pairing sexuality with danger, that if they were to act on their urges, it might lead them down a path of pain and death. Throughout history, monsters have been used as cautionary tales to deter young people from engaging in ill-advised love affairs. Today those monsters can be found in the form of vampires, werewolves, or in some cases, succubi. But today, I have four different kinds of monsters to share, all drummed up by folklore from around the globe, and each of them are eager to lead our lustful youth, astray.

I'm Aaron Manke, and this is lore legends. They're not often thought of as particularly attractive, what with their hairy legs and clusters of eyes. But spiders have a number of tricks up their eight sleeves to entice and deceive others. In Native American folklore, spiders are often portrayed as tricksters, such as ectomo of the su, Lakota, and Dakota tribes, or vihu of the Cheyenne tribe. One moment they can be clever anti-heroes that push against social boundaries, and the next they can be quite violent, their stories meant to be taken as warnings.

Among the most well-known folkloric spiders is Anancy, who originated in Ghana and became ubiquitous throughout West African, African-American, and Caribbean cultures. Anancy, like the others mentioned before, is a trickster, but also a prolific storyteller. He doesn't just weave a pretty narrative like his intricate webs, he's known for his wit and wisdom, present in the stories he tells. But he doesn't always present himself as a spider, sometimes he's portrayed as a man with eight legs, the aura a spider with a man's head, or occasionally as a man with spider-like features. He's something of a shapeshifter, another common trope among spiders of ancient lore. But few are more feared or frightening than that of the shapeshifting spider of Japan, Jorogumo.

Jorogumo is a yokai, which is a class of legendary ghosts and monsters rooted in Japanese folklore. The first written accounts of the creature date back to the Edo period, though word of its exploits most likely existed in oral tradition even before that. The name Jorogumo originally translated to the unflattering moniker, Horr spider, but that was later altered to mean, intangible bride, which described not just its behavior, but its appearance as well. Joe Rogumo, like many mythological spiders, is said to be a shapeshifter and can change between a spider form and that of a beautiful, enticing woman, or sometimes a blend of

the two, with a woman's upper body and the legs of a giant spider. And what would enticing bride eat? Well, young men, of course. Men in need of companionship. The Joe Rogumo catches its prey by donning the appearance of a young attractive woman who lures a desperate hopeful to her lair where she entertains him with music. Although that's nothing more than a distraction, While he listens to her song, the spider woman wraps him in silken thread before injecting him with venom to weaken him.

Once he's been completely entrapped, she devours his body, slowly, over a number of days. According to some tellings, the Joe Rogumo will get the man's attention by begging him to hold her bundled baby. Except it's not a baby at all, it's a giant sack of spider eggs. And as if that wasn't bad enough, this yokai is capable of controlling other lesser spiders to do her bidding. All one needs to do to see if a woman is a Joe Rogumo is to place her in front of a mirror while she's in her human form.

The reflection will reveal her true self. One particular story about a Joe Rogumo dates back to the 17th century. It tells of a young samurai who takes shelter in an abandoned building. He notices that it's full of spider webs, but doesn't think much of it, just that it must have been vacant for a long time. And then suddenly, a young woman appears holding a small child. She approaches him, insisting that he is the child's father. The samurai, however, having never seen the woman before in his life, refuses her and

tells her that he is not the child's father. As she continues to press the issue, the child inches toward him and the samurai grows impatient. He unsheathes his sword and slashes at the woman, sending her scrambling away. The following morning, the samurai explores more of the building only to stumble upon a hidden attic where he's staying, and it's there where he sees the impossible. A giant spider dine from a gaping wound across its back, exactly like the one he had given to the strange woman the night before. Beside her is a stone grave marker for a child, and all around them dangling from the ceiling

are the Jorogumo's victims, hanging from spider webs. It's no wonder that the Japanese use the name Jorogumo for a very real arachnid, too, the Golden Orb Spider, which can grow large enough to actually eat small birds. It's been said that when a golden orb spider reaches the mythical age of 400 years old, it gains magical powers, along with a taste for human flesh. And that is how the Joe Rogumo of Legend is said to be born. Far away from Spider-Fill Japan is the Arctic, where one might think the only things to worry about are polar bears and frostbites, but the region is also home to numerous Inuit tribes who have passed down their own stories of creatures that use love for nefarious

means. Yet one of those mythical beasts doesn't lure men or women to their depths with promises of romance or illicit trists. Her fate was born of love, which she had misplaced in two important people in her life. She's known as Sedna, although she also goes by Sana or Siddna, from the root Sa, meaning its front side, and Na meaning One-Hoo. This results in a name that roughly translates to the one who is before. The tale of Sedna paints her as a beautiful young woman, one who has no shortage of

suitors knocking down her door for a chance to be with her, but she has no interest in any of them. Until one day, when a hunter wearing fine fur and carrying a great big spear enters the village, he's clearly rich and can offer her a good life. He invites Sedna to join him on the open sea, where he will shower her with riches such as ivory and furs and lamps that never run out of oil. She accepts and she leaves her father's home to accompany the stranger on his grand adventures. But quickly she realizes that something is wrong. As soon as her homeland is out of sight, the winds change, and Soda's sadness new husband. His arms become monstrous wings and feathers sprout from his skin. She soon discovers that this hunter is no man at all, but a great bird spirit.

He takes her back to a rocky island, the land of the birds. There are no jewels or fur waiting for her, only hard walrus skins for her to sleep on, and a diet of raw fish. Her new home is icy and harsh, with rough winds that cut against her skin. Sedna panics and begins to call out to her father, hoping her voice will carry over the waves back to him. And miraculously, her words reach him, and he sets out in his kayak to bring his little girl home. In another version of the story, however,

Sedna's father sets out on his own volition and comes to the land of the birds for a visit and finds her miserable begging to go home. Either way, upon reaching the island, she boards his vessel and the two sneak away, paddling far from the land of the birds. Sedna's husband awakens later, only to find his bride missing.

The other birds fill him in on what transpired while he was asleep and he becomes furious. He flies over the water, beating his great wings and diving beneath the surface, kicking up waves. The sea gods know what Sedna did and they are just as angry at her betrayal. Her father, terrified that the gods will kill him for helping her, does the only thing that he can think to do.

He throws his daughter overboard, but she doesn't go easily, she clings to the boat and begs him to pull her back in. Afraid that she'll capsize the vessel and drown him, he pulls out a blade and cuts off her fingertips. They tumble into the sea and become the first seals. Still, Sednut refuses to let go, so her father keeps cutting this time up to the first knuckle. As the segments of her flesh fall into the ocean,

they become the first walrus' and her blood turns into a school of fish. Finally, as he cuts her one last time, she releases her grip and falls into the water herself, drowning among her creations. And as she's surrounded by the beans she has just given birth to in her death, she is reborn into something new. She is now the goddess of all the creatures of the sea, a fierce and vengeful deity. At night, she sends her seals and whales and walruses up to her former home and tell

them to drag her father and her beloved dog back to her below the waves where they will live with her forever. And to this day, that's where all three of them live. Even today, fishermen believe that Sedna determines whether they will have a successful catch or not. Sometimes she can be generous while other times she can be withholding. On days when the fish just aren't jumping, the shaman will visit Sedna in her underwater home using a kind of astral projection.

He'll enter a trance and make the journey past her guard dog and her father, who have been given the job of greeting the dead. But once there, the shaman takes care of the things that Sedna cannot do for herself due to her lack of fingers. He will comb her hair, removing the crustaceans that have gotten lodged in her tangles. Finally, he'll wash her skin with sand. Only then will she grant the fisherman a bountiful catch." Sedna's story has been interpreted by anthropologists and scholars in a number of ways, such as

an explanation for the loss of the warmer months represented by the goddess in her human form, being taken over by the long harsh winters, the sea, in this story. But it's also reminiscent of the plight of Persephone in Greek mythology, who becomes Hades bride and straddles two worlds, her presence in either affecting the seasons above. Today, the Sedna myth has taken on new meaning due to climate change, and that our actions on this planet have very real and tragic consequences. Sedna's rage is not unlike the rage of mother earth against the people who would do her harm. But all of these analyses start with one foundation. That's a dangerous, shape-shifting lover. It's no wonder that a dwarf planet

discovered on the outer reaches of our solar system was named after her. Astronomers refer to it as number 90377 Sedna, and its cold, distant, and alone, just like the woman deceived by the men, who had sworn to love and protect her. Several tropes and clichés about artists have persisted over the years. There's of course the starving artist whose creativity is unburdened because he's not constrained by material needs, choosing the funnel whatever money he earns into his art. Or the artist who only feels inspired when on a controlled substance, playing into a commonly misunderstood quote, misattributed to Ernest Hemingway, that advises one to write drunk

at its sober. But perhaps the most morbid belief is that many artists just don't live that long. In fact, they tend to get cut down right when they're in their prime. There's even a name for it, the 27 Club, which boast members such as Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Hendrix, and Janice Joplin, all of whom died when they were only 27 years old. It seems that in America, there's something about being an artist that makes one less likely to reach old age. But the thing is, Ireland's artists are no different. Luke Kelly, for example, was a founding member of the Irish folk group The Dubliners.

He died of alcoholism and a brain tumor when he was only 42 years old. Author Oscar Wilde lived to be 46, passing away from meningitis in 1900. His brother Willie lived to be the same age and perished from alcoholism. And the novelist and playwright Gerald Griffin only made it to 36 when he died of Typhus fever in June of 1840. But what's notable about all of these creatives is not that they died so young, nor that they passed away from heart attacks or freak accidents. It's that they wasted away as if their life force had been slowly burned off.

Maybe those were the cards they'd been dealt by fate, or maybe there's a supernatural explanation, one by the name of Lan and Shi. Lan and Shi translates to fairy sweethearts or fairy lover, and as with the other legends discussed earlier, this one also takes the form of a beautiful young woman, although occasionally it may also appear as a man. The Lan and Shi selects one mortal to be her beloved, and she has a type, too, poets and musicians. When she finds one, she becomes the object of his obsession, and to everyone else, she is invisible.

But the artist is suddenly filled with a fiery passion that fuels his inspiration. To him, she's amused, breathing life into his work, making him burn with genius. But that love and intensity comes at a cost. The poet's desire for the fairy lover is so strong it literally burns him up from the inside out. She doesn't just inspire him. She consumes him, feeding off of his life force. Some stories say that the Lan and Shi deliberately causes this harm by vampirically feeding on the artist's vitality. Others claim it's an unfortunate side effect of the human-fairy relationship, and that the Lan and Shi will often leave her lover when she begins to fear for his safety,

sadly though he's in too deep, his longing tends to do him in, regardless. It makes one wonder if something like Ryder's block was once thought of as an artist losing their Lan and Shi. Meanwhile, on the Isle of Man, a very similar creature has been written about for generations. It's spelled differently, but pronounced the same. Lan and Shi, although this creature is far more dangerous than her Irish counterpart, once she finds a lover, she clings to them until they expire, draining their life from them, as she inspires their work.

But she doesn't develop feelings for him, or care for him in the same way as the Irish Muse. As William Butler Yates once wrote, the Galic poet's die young, for she is restless, and will not let them remain long on earth, this malignant phantom. They say that if the artist shuns her advances, she must become his slave. But if he accepts, then he belongs to her, and the only way out is to find another to take his place. Suffice to say, that doesn't happen often, and the artist is eventually sapped of the vim and vigor that had kept him going. To the writer, musician, or poet, life is about creation. It's about bringing something new into the world to enrich others.

For the Lan and Chi, creation is a means to an end. Because if the artist stars, then so does she. William Butler Yates wrote a lot about the Lanan she, but he was hardly the first or even the only one. The legends of the fairy lover predate Yates by years, possibly generations. Almost 20 years before Yates' book, Fairy in Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry was published another author by the name of John O'Hanlin wrote about the Lanan She in his own book, Irish Folklore, and she was even mentioned in the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1872. But despite Yates' extensive writing about Lanan She, he wasn't actually the person to

popularize the folklore. You see, in 1887 an Irish poet by the name of Sparanza also wrote about the fairy sweetheart. Sparanza was perhaps the first person to immortalize the being in print. They wrote, the Lanenshi, or the spirit of life, was supposed to be the inspirer of the poet and singer as the Banshi was the spirit of death, the to be the Inspirer of the poet and singer, as the Banshee was the spirit of death, the foreteller of doom. Spiranza not only conveyed the legend itself, but expanded its lore with the story of a great

king who vanquished his foes in battle thanks to the valor and strength his Lan and Shi had bestowed upon him. After the war was over, the king went off to Spain where he lived in the lap of luxury for almost a decade. He even married the king of Spain's daughter. He eventually returned to Ireland though, only to find his kingdom and shambles. Strange people were living in his castle and eating in his banquet hall and spending his kingdom's fortunes for their own gain while his people went hungry. His people hated him for leaving them, so when he finally tried to retake his throne, they refused to listen to him. Desperate, he turned to the land and she who would help him the first time. She gave him the power

to take back his kingdom, which he did, and he returned everything back to the way it was. But Sparanza was not this poet's true name. It was a pen name. The author's real identity was that of Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar and Willie Wilde. She had no idea that just over a decade after writing about the land and she, both her For as long as humans have been around, it seems we have been interested in the spirit world and romance, among our many passions as people. Knowing that there are whole worlds of folklore that combine the two is both eye-opening and it makes perfect sense. Lucky for you, we have one more tale to share. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month at MintMobile.com. Slash lore. Not all supernatural lovers are insidious. Some have been known to bring joy and contentment to those they are with, and perhaps none more so than Bessie Brown. This story appeared in a single newspaper article from October of 1900, and it was reprinted verbatim in newspapers all over North America, including Canada, which I think speaks to its popularity. Bessie Brown was a young Christian woman from a wealthy family in Oklahoma. She lived in the town of Cameron and was described as being

possessed of many natural charms, one of which included her great beauty. Her neighbors thought quite highly of her too, believing her to be honest and truthful in all of her endeavors. Sometime around 1898, Bessie fell in love with a man named John Allen, and the two were quickly engaged to be married. Bessie, assuming that she and her husband to be would have a long, fruitful life together, made a playful vow that if he were to die before her, then she would marry his ghost instead. Two weeks before they tied the knot, that macabre joke came true.

John Allen lost his life in a tragic railroad accident. Bessie was despondent to the point where her parents called a doctor to check on her. They were worried that her grief was so intense, it would cause her to lose her mind. The good news, according to the doctor, was that Bessie's mind was safe, but her physical health was flagging. She was consumed by her depression for almost a year, until one morning everything changed. Bessie awoke totally cured of her misery, and it wasn't just that she had stopped grieving. She was elated,

but nobody knew why. Once again, her parents got involved, assuming the worst. In fact, they started to think that she was taking drugs, but as it turned out, the only thing she was high on was love. Days after her miraculous turnaround, Bessie confessed to her parents the reason for her abrupt change of mind. John Allen's ghost had appeared to her, and that meant that she could finally honor her promise to him. She was going to marry his spirit,

and the couple would finally be together. As you can probably assume, this did not alleviate her parents' suspicions. Her mother sent her to a specialist to examine her brain. Not only did he give her a clean bill of health, but he suggested that her story was so strange, she must have actually seen the ghost of her lost love. Bessie assured her parents that while they couldn't see John, he was always there with her, and it didn't matter what they thought anyway, she was going to marry him no matter what.

A short time later, she rented a five-room cottage where she and her betrothed would live. Well, live might not be the right word. Cohabitate maybe? She then called the family minister and asked him to perform the ceremony. As you might imagine being a man of God, he refused, claiming that to do such a thing would be a sin. But somehow, over time, Bessie was able to convince him, and in early October of 1900, she and the minister met at midnight in the

cemetery where John Allen had been buried. And the pair were wed, two years after their original engagement. Bessie moved into the cottage, and ever since, witnesses claimed to hear the two talking, laughing, and sharing their life together as if John were still alive. People in town would often see Bessie talking to someone beside her that only she could see, but because she was so beloved by her friends and neighbors, they just assumed that her husband must really be there. Her parents, on the other hand, were less approving. According to a quote, given by her father, we are trying to do everything we can to make her forget her ghost, but it seems as if we are going to fail.

Which honestly makes sense. True love never dies, they say. Even it seems. If one of the lovers does. This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Erin Manke, with writing by Harry Marks and research by Jenaro's Nethercats. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video.

Check them both out if you want more lore in your life. The information about all of that's and more is available over at lorepodcast.com. And you can follow this show on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Just search for lorepodcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. Then as always, thanks for listening.