Bell witch
The Bell Witch ( English Bell Witch ) is a folkloric legendary figure from the US state of Tennessee .
Content of the saga
According to legend , supernatural events took place in the home of the family of John Bell, who settled in what is now Adams in 1804 , caused by a poltergeist-like figure, the Bell Witch. A good spirit at first, but over time it turned into evil. The Bell Witch was invisible, had a woman's voice and shook hands with some people. She could steal sugar from vessels, spill milk, slap and pinch children, and laugh at the discomfort of her victims.
Transmission and processing
The first known mention of the saga is in Goodspeed's History of Tennessee ; she reports that some people travel far and wide to the haunted place to see the witch. In 1894, Martin Van Buren Ingram published a novel-like version of the legend, which he himself described as a truthful description of the events. The existence of the legend in numerous versions suggests that it was often and gladly passed on and embellished. The legend of the Bell Witch can be classified into a number of similar stories from Poltergeistern .
The story has also been picked up in more recent times, for example in the horror thriller The Curse of Betsy Bell (2005).
literature
- Tom Peete Cross: Witchcraft in North Carolina. Studies in Philology 16, 3 (Jul. 1919): 217-287, ISSN 0039-3738
- Arthur Palmer Hudson, Pete Kyle McCarter: The Bell Witch of Tennessee and Mississippi: a folk legend. The Journal of American Folklore 47, 183 (Jan-March 1934): 45-63, ISSN 0021-8715
- James T. Pearce: Folk tales of the Southern poor-white, 1820-1860. The Journal of American Folklore 63, 250 (Oct-Dec 1950): 398-412
Web links
- The Bell Witch , with biographies and other literature