Procession of the dead

This article is about the term as it relates to myths. For the novel of the same name, see Procession of the Dead (novel).

Procession of the dead is a motif present in the folkloric traditions around the world. It mostly refers to a march of ghosts, phantoms or souls, sometimes commanded by a creature related to the Otherworld, the Underworld or the Afterlife. The concept is taken to be of considerable antiquity,[1] and is classified in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature as Motif E491, "Procession of the dead".[2]

Overview

According to Carlo Ginzburg, the procession of the dead, as described by Orderic Vitalis,[3][failed verification] comprised a march of sinners and damned people, being punished for their wrongdoings in life.[4]

Professor Christian Abry listed several alternate names for the phenomenon in Alpine, Southern France and North Italy tradition: curs dj’ànime; La processione dei morti; Tòtòprossenziò (from German Totenprozession); kór di trapacha (trépassés); procession des revenants; cours di mort; lou cours de i anime (Occitan language); Lou cours d’li mouòrt (in Balme); il corso delle anime (in Traversella); il corteo dei morti.[5]

Professors Fabio Armand, Marie-Agnès Cathiard and Christian Abry suggest that "the procession of the dead", as described in Christian mediaeval literature, is a "remythification" of the Wild Hunt phenomenon.[6]

Europe

Continental Europe

There are various myths of processions of the dead, most related to the Wild Hunt.

A Croatian storyteller provided a tale with the motif of the "procesija mrtvih" ("procession of the dead") in the 1970s.[7]

In a Raeto-Romance tale, a man sees a procession of the dead and the last person is the soul of someone about to die.[8]

Iberian Peninsula

In Galicia and Asturias, it is known as Santa Compaña.

In Portuguese tradition there exists tales about one's double that take part in this procession. There are also tales about incomplete baptized individuals that join this cursed retinue.[9][10]

Italy

The Benandanti in the Friuli are said to participate in these processions. Female benandanti were seen as connected to the processions of the dead,[11] as beneficient protectors against the malandanti.[12]

Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, the festival of Anthesteria was performed to honor and placate the dead, who were thought to walk freely among the streets.

Pacific Ocean Islands

Hawai'i

The Nightmarchers of Hawaiian mythology are also considered to be a version of the "procession of the dead".[13]

Asia

Nepal

Professors Fabio Armand, Marie-Agnès Cathiard and Christian Abry state they have found an occurrence of the theme of the procession of the dead "in the rural areas outside the Kathmandu Valley of Central Nepal". This retinue, called panchabhāya (from pancha 'five', and bhāya 'younger brother') manifest as "five or more spirits" riding on horses and dressed in white.[14]

Americas

Brazil

The motif is also present in cultural traditions of Brazil.[15]

References

  1. ^ Milne, Louise. “Pieter Bruegel and Carlo Ginzburg: The Debatable Land of Renaissance Dreams”. In: Cosmos 29 (2013): 93.
  2. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 257. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  3. ^ Joynes, Andrew, ed. (2001). "The Fragmentary Tales of the Monk of Byland". Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 166–174. ISBN 978-0-85115-817-4. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt169wfv4.31.
  4. ^ Ginsburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventh Centuries. Translated by John and Anne Tedeschi. Routledge. 2011. pp. 67-68.
  5. ^ Abry, Christian. “Sur les traces des sentiers des âmes dans les outre-monts: in memoriam Gaston Tuaillon”. In: Nouvelles du Centre d’Etudes Francoprovençales. Saint-Nicolas (Aoste, Italie), vol. 64, 2011. pp. 58-62, 67-68.
  6. ^ Armand, Fabio; Cathiard, Marie-Agnès; Abry, Christian (13 June 2016). "Death Divination within a non-Delusional Myth: The Procession of the Dead from the Alps to Himalayas… When a Theoria of 'Phantom-Bodies' meets its neural veridiction Theory". Trictrac. 9. doi:10.25159/1996-7330/1211.
  7. ^ Zečević, Divna (15 May 1970). "Usmena Kazivanja U Okolici Daruvara" [Oral Narrative in the Surrounding of Daruvar]. Narodna Umjetnost (in Croatian). 7 (1): 27–68.
  8. ^ Pult, Jon (September 1947). "126. A Centre of Raeto-Romanic Culture in the Engadine". Man. 47: 117–119. doi:10.2307/2791488. JSTOR 2791488.
  9. ^ Da Silva, Francisco Vaz (2008). "Extraordinary Children, Werewolves, and Witches in Portuguese Folk Tradition". In Csonka-Takács, Eszter (ed.). Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions. Central European University Press. pp. 255–268. ISBN 978-963-7326-87-5. JSTOR 10.7829/j.ctv10tq58g.15.
  10. ^ Vaz da Silva, Francisco (2003). "Iberian Seventh-Born Children, Werewolves, and the Dragon Slayer: A Case Study in the Comparative Interpretation of Symbolic Praxis and Fairytales". Folklore. 114 (3): 335–353. doi:10.1080/0015587032000145379. hdl:10071/614. JSTOR 30035123.
  11. ^ Milne, Louise (2013). "Pieter Bruegel and Carlo Ginzburg: The Debatable Land of Renaissance Dreams". Cosmos (29): 59–126.
  12. ^ Eason, Cassandra. Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols: A Handbook. Greenwood Press. 2008. p. 108. ISBN 978-02-75994-25-9.
  13. ^ Kirtley, Bacil F. (1971). "The Dead". A Motif-Index of Traditional Polynesian Narratives. University of Hawai'i Press. pp. 236–268. doi:10.2307/j.ctvp2n3hb.12. ISBN 978-0-87022-416-4. JSTOR j.ctvp2n3hb.12. S2CID 240935243.
  14. ^ Armand, Fabio & Cathiard, Marie-Agnes & Abry, Christian. (2016). "Death Divination within a non-Delusional Myth: The Procession of the Dead from the Alps to Himalayas… When a Theoria of "Phantom-Bodies" meets its neural veridiction Theory". In: TricTrac: Journal of World Mythology and Folklore Vol. 9, No. 1. pp. 11-12, 14-17. 10.25159/1996-7330/1211.
  15. ^ "Procissão cultural encena lendas do folclore popular nas ruas de Mariana". 26 March 0312.

Further reading