tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post8784965645947354736..comments2024-03-29T05:36:34.996-04:00Comments on NEW ENGLAND FOLKLORE: Weird Marblehead, Part One: Ghosts, Tunnels, and H.P. LovecraftPeter Muisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-7488875173748291082017-12-09T14:48:14.606-05:002017-12-09T14:48:14.606-05:00Great post, thanks for the shout out! Love good o...Great post, thanks for the shout out! Love good old Fort Sewall! -Nick Smith Crypto Paranormal Investigations Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-76511197969661002352017-07-11T15:58:23.476-04:002017-07-11T15:58:23.476-04:00Many places are connected by tunnels in Salem. The...Many places are connected by tunnels in Salem. The old Crowninshield lot on Peach's Point still has a cave on the water leading under the house. Many other homes are connected to the tunnels. Then in Salem there is 3 miles of tunnels used to avoid paying customs and smuggle booze. Read "Salem Secret Underground:The History of the Tunnels in the City" and "Sub Rosa" to find out more info.Salem House Presshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07098478644213676380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-49113596963316198822017-07-11T02:40:12.995-04:002017-07-11T02:40:12.995-04:00I know a guy who said he and his friends found an ...I know a guy who said he and his friends found an entrance to the tunnels in the basement of the old Middle School.Marbleheadernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-51475112845739174572016-08-02T14:25:32.081-04:002016-08-02T14:25:32.081-04:00Hi Wade! Thanks as always for the comment!
There ...Hi Wade! Thanks as always for the comment!<br /><br />There are also supposed to be tunnels under Boston's North End. I have read the old newspaper accounts of workmen uncovering one while renovating a street (it was already partially filled in with rubble when they found it) and an architectual guide to Boston refers to a tunnel entrance underneath an old brick house near the Old North Church. According to local tradition these tunnels were part of a vast network used by smugglers, but I am not sure in reality how extensive the tunnels really were. But it has been a densely settled area for about 400 years, and it might not take that much work to tunnel between the cellars of closely packed houses. Of course Lovecraft portrayed these tunnels as part of a vast network that ran underneath all of Boston in "Pickman's Model", and perhaps even went as far as the Dreamlands?<br /><br />I am sure there is some psychology of tunnels at work in these stories. Have you read any of Alan Moore's recent comic PROVIDENCE? One character hypothesizes that the historical past and our subconscious are both physically located in the ground beneath our feet. <br /><br />Have you ever visited Dungeon Rock in Lynn? It is the most impressive and atmospheric tunnel I have ever visited. Corkscrew-shaped and descending about 300 feet down through solid rock, it was carved by a man named Hiram Marble under the direction of a dead pirate's spirit who told him there was treasure at the bottom. Marble never found the treasure but the tunnel remains. The park rangers seal it at night with an iron door. To keep people out or keep something in? <br />Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-11489795411779961392016-07-26T11:45:35.319-04:002016-07-26T11:45:35.319-04:00My friend and I sometimes took Cape Ann HPL trips,...My friend and I sometimes took Cape Ann HPL trips, and Marblehead was much fun, especially the hilltop cemetery where we searched in vain for signs of ghoul-doors. Both of us knew the topography was nothing like that as portrayed in "The Strange High House in the Mist" -- which gave Kingsport a steep sea-side cliff at least hundreds of feet high -- and we were disappointed to find that Marblehead was even flatter than we could imagine :-) . It was easier making Essex into Innsmouth. <br /><br />On tunnels: the human mind certainly likes to imagine tunnels whenever possible. I would like to read a psychological essay on the subject. During my folklore collections in Ireland I often came across this belief (or motif, in folklore-speak), usually when there was a prominent ancient ruin around. In Ireland there actually were tunnels on occasion, short ones, built under early medieval ring-forts (fortified farmsteads) for hiding people and valuables, and maybe to keep milk cool. They were sometimes found long after the dirt ditch eroded away, a tunnel of stones in a field, usually filled up by the annoyed farmer, but also making its way into folk tradition. Irish folk tradition often posited extraordinary tunnels, though, going for miles, or thousands of feet, under rivers, bedrock, etc. At this point the human need for tunnels has overpowered hsitorical fact, and folk-psychology comes into play. <br /><br />Here is a more common example from Howley's Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland: "The castle [MacDermot’s Castle] was used for dances and parties, and local legend claims there was once a tunnel linking the island to the shore. Such a feat of engineering would have presented an almost impossible challenge in rural Ireland during the nineteenth century. it is more likely that the rumors were stimulated by the surviving extensive network of tunnels and storage chambers built near to the house. These accommodated the delivery and storage of fuel and provisions, all discreetly hidden to avoid despoiling fine views from the house." (Howley 1993: 99). The motif also extends to English folklore: "Near every ancient castle, cathedral, abbey, or hall, the common people have tales of underground (vaulted) roads, sometimes to great distances." (Balfour 1894, 160 -- sorry, lost the title citation; probably an early folklore journal). Seldom is early American architecture this complex, though.<br /><br />I have wanted to speculate on a psychology of the cthonic, but I don't have the machinery for that right now! <br /><br /><br /><br />Wade Tarziahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02876387351164907807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-44444671654696789992016-07-24T20:08:37.555-04:002016-07-24T20:08:37.555-04:00Hi Sue! Read on for more weird Marblehead in this ...Hi Sue! Read on for more weird Marblehead in this week's post. Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-77934231098650300142016-07-18T07:06:36.425-04:002016-07-18T07:06:36.425-04:00Sounds like an amazing place! And so much history....Sounds like an amazing place! And so much history. Maybe the ghostly voice is of someone trapped in those caves long ago? ;-)Sue Bursztynskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09362273418897882971noreply@blogger.com