Edward Mordrake

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Edward Mordrake (in some sources also Mordake ) is a fictional person and the subject of an urban legend , especially widespread in the United States , who is said to have had a second face on the back of his head after Mordrake.

Description and earliest known mentions

The earliest known description of Mordrake can be found in an 1895 article in the daily newspaper The Boston Post , in which the author Charles Lotin Hildreth described some allegedly real cases of "human freaks ", as he called them, including a woman with a tail fin Fischs, a man with the body of a spider and similar "curiosities". Hildreth claimed in the article to have discovered said cases in old reports of a "Royal Scientific Society", although it is unclear whether a society of this name ever existed.

The paper "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine" by George Gould and Walter Pyle, published the following year, also contained an entry on Mordrake that corresponded to Hildreth's description in the Boston Post . Mordrake is described as the heir of an English noble family who lived in complete seclusion to hide the man's face on the back of his head that mocked him, laughed at him and whispered things "of which one speaks only in hell". According to the explanations, Edward Mordrake committed suicide out of desperation at the age of 23.

Pop culture appearance

The legend of Edward Mordrake is taken up in various films, songs and texts, such as Tom Waits ' song Poor Edward , released in 2002, or the short film Edward the Damned , released in 2014 .

In the fourth season of the US television series American Horror Story , the character of Edward Mordrake (played by Wes Bentley ) also appears in a double episode titled with his name. Here the legend is expanded to include the superstition that the ghost of Mordrake takes actors from so-called " freak shows " who give performances on Halloween evening to hell that same night .

See also

  • Diprosopus - rare, innate occurrence of "two-headed" or two faces

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b George M. Gould, Walter L. Pyle: Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine . Blacksleet River, Blacksleet River 1956, ISBN 1-4499-7722-7 , pp. 124 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Edward the Damned. Internet Movie Database , accessed April 15, 2017 .
  3. ↑ American Horror Story - Freak Show. Episode list, season 4. Internet Movie Database, accessed April 15, 2017 .