Appalachia Mountain Folklore


Book Description

The mountains of the Appalachia abound with tales of ghosts and mysterious places. Covering 16 counties, 40 spine-tingling stories will have you traveling the roads and paths of those who have walked before you and listening to their sorrowful tales. Along the way, visit The Hanging Tree in Cabarrus County, Battle Mansion in Buncombe County, Green River Plantation in Rutherford County, and the House on the Hill in Jackson County. Sit around the campfire and hear stories of lore about the legend of the Bald, the warning of the Hunter's Moon, and the disappearance of an entire hunting party. Superstition, folklore, and the paranormal keep the spirits alive in the Appalachian region. Will you be the next one to visit with the ghosts of Cherohala?




Witches, Ghosts, and Signs


Book Description

Witches, Ghosts, and Signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachians by the renowned West Virginia folklorist and former West Virginia University English professor Patrick W. Gainer not only highlights stories that both amuse and raise goosebumps, but also begins with a description of the people and culture of the state. Based on material Gainer collected from over fifty years of field research in West Virginia and the region, Witches, Ghosts, and Signs presents the rich heritage of the southern Appalachians in a way that has never been equaled. Strange and supernatural tales of ghosts, witches, hauntings, disappearances, and unexplained murders that have been passed down from generation to generation from as far back as the earliest settlers in the region are included in this collection that will send chills down the spine.




Signs, Cures, & Witchery


Book Description

The persecution of Old World German Protestants and Anabaptists in the seventeenth century--following debilitating wars, the Reformation, and the Inquisition-- brought about significant immigration to America. Many of the immigrants, and their progeny, settled in the Appalachian frontier. Here they established a particularly old set of religious beliefs and traditions based on a strong sense of folk spirituality. They practiced astrology, numerology, and other aspects of esoteric thinking and left a legacy that may still be found in Appalachian folklore today. Based in part on the author's extensive collection of oral histories from the remote highlands of West Virginia, Signs, Cures, and Witchery; German Appalachian Folklore describes these various occult practices, symbols, and beliefs; how they evolved within New World religious contexts; how they arrived on the Appalachian frontier; and the prospects of those beliefs continuing in the contemporary world. By concentrating on these inheritances, Gerald C. Milnes draws a larger picture of the German influence on Appalachia. Much has been written about the Anglo-Celtic, Scots-Irish, and English folkways of the Appalachian people, but few studies have addressed their German cultural attributes and sensibilities. Signs, Cures, and Witchery sheds startling light on folk influences from Germany, making it a volume of tremendous value to Appalachian scholars, folklorists, and readers with an interest in Appalachian folklife and German American studies.




Appalachian Folk Tales


Book Description

Folk Tales delighted and instructed children five hundred years ago. We believe that they can still delight and inform the children of today.







Haunted Valley, and More Folk Tales


Book Description

A collection of intriguing ghost stories & delightful folktales & legends of southern Appalachia. Most of these tales have authentic historical settings dating from the early days of settlement of this region to recent times.




Mountain Magick


Book Description

The Appalachian Mountain range is more than 2,400 miles long, stretching from Quebec to Alabama. Now, the rich folklore of southern Appalachia, with all of its unique magicks, is revealed in Mountain Magick (previously titled In a Graveyard at Midnight) by Edain McCoy. As a descendent of the famous feuding McCoy family (of the Kentucky-based Hatfield-McCoy rivalry), she is the ideal person to share the folk wisdom of these people. The Appalachian folk used omens, portents, curses, cures, and protections. Mountain Magick focuses on some of these magickal techniques, including ones for family and home, romance and children, health and healing. In this book you will learn the traditional Appalachian way to: - Do remote healings - Cast spells for love and romance - Cure warts with beans and a potato - Break a curse - End a headache with a cool vinegar compress - Wash away dandruff with an after-shampoo rinse of hops and sage - Stir up a windstorm by whistling - Use an old shoe to increase your good fortune In today's magickal community, Anglo-Celtic religions seem to be the most popular. Even if you are following a British or Irish tradition, you should not overlook the rich folk magick as revealed in Mountain Magick. Many of the people (and their traditions) in this area come from the Scottish and English immigrants who settled there as long ago as the mid-1700s. That is why you will find information on how to integrate the Appalachian folkways with your magickal lifestyle. The folk wisdom of the Appalachian people described in Mountain Magick is sure to intrigue you with its power and usability. Get your copy today.




Selling Tradition


Book Description

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a growing interest in America's folk heritage, as Americans began to enthusiastically collect, present, market, and consume the nation's folk traditions. Examining one of this century's most prominent "folk revivals--the reemergence of Southern Appalachian handicraft traditions in the 1930s--Jane Becker unravels the cultural politics that bound together a complex network of producers, reformers, government officials, industries, museums, urban markets, and consumers, all of whom helped to redefine Appalachian craft production in the context of a national cultural identity. Becker uses this craft revival as a way of exploring the construction of the cultural categories "folk" and "tradition." She also addresses the consequences such labels have had on the people to whom they have been assigned. Though the revival of domestic arts in the Southern Appalachians reflected an attempt to aid the people of an impoverished region, she says, as well as a desire to recapture an important part of the nation's folk heritage, in reality the new craft production owed less to tradition than to middle-class tastes and consumer culture--forces that obscured the techniques used by mountain laborers and the conditions in which they worked.




Ghosts of the Southern Mountains and Appalachia


Book Description

Nancy Roberts has often been described to as the "First Lady of American Folklore" and the title is well deserved. Throughout her decades-long career, Roberts documented supernatural experiences and interviewed hundreds of people about their recollections of encounters with the supernatural. This nationally renowned writer began her undertaking in this ghostly realm as a freelance writer for the Charlotte Observer. Encouraged by Carl Sandburg, who enjoyed her stories and articles, Roberts wrote her first book in 1958. Aptly called a "custodian of the twilight zone" by Southern Living magazine, Roberts based her suspenseful stories on interviews and her rich knowledge of American folklore. Her stories were always rooted in history, which earned her a certificate of commendation from the American Association of State and Local History for her books on the Carolinas and Appalachia.




Ghost Stories of the Appalachians


Book Description

In the mysterious shadows of the Appalachian Mountains, ghosts linger long after their bodies have been put to rest. This old, eroded mountain chain stretches from northern Alabama in the south all the way to Maine in the northeast. Veteran ghost writer Susan Smitten has written a spine-tingling collection of tales to thrill and entertain: - in Tryon, North Carolina, a woman's great-grandmother continues to watch over her family from beyond the grave - East Tennessee State University has been called the most haunted campus in the southern United States the old lunatic asylum in Weston, West Virginia, is a ghost hunter's paradise - old habits die hard--or don't die at all--for the founder of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia ...and more, from all over the Appalachians.