Telling stories with Peter Pan - July 28th at Bowring Park

This Sunday, July 28th, at 2pm, Bowring Park park is hosting “Neverland stories with Peter Pan: Fairytales for Young and Old.” Families are invited to bring a blanket or lawn chair, and join us for an hour of free, family-friendly fairytales, told by the Peter Pan statue.

The idea for the program started back in February when I got an email from Gayna Rowe, who is the Office Administrator for the Bowring Park Foundation. Bowring Park is celebrating its Centennial in 2014 and the Bowring Park Foundation has a committee in place to plan events for this special birthday. One of the suggestions of the committee was to have storytelling sessions in Bowring Park during the summer of 2014, and Gayna asked if I could meet with them to explore this possibility.

I, perhaps unsurprisingly, said yes!

We had a great first meeting, and out of that and other conversations grew this Sunday’s “Neverland Stories” event. The event is a pilot of sorts, to see what the public’s reaction will be. If it works, we will hopefully be back next summer with a regular series of storytelling at the Peter Pan statue, in time for the Park’s 100th anniversary.

Bowring Park's beloved Peter Pan, unveiled in 1925, is one of the park's most prominent and popular attractions. The Peter Pan monument was donated to Bowring Park by Sir Edgar R. Bowring, in memory of his little granddaughter, Betty Munn, who was lost in the S.S. Florizel disaster in February, 1918.

My idea to centre the stories around the Peter Pan statue was based on a project of the late storyteller Diane Wolkstein, who helped solidify a Saturday morning tradition of storytelling at the Hans Christian Andersen statue in New York’s Central Park. Over the last 50 years, generations of children have gathered there to hear stories from all around the world. The Peter Pan statue is our version of that iconic monument, and I’m excited to help start what will hopefully be a new tradition of storytelling in Bowring Park.

Performing alongside me for the first show will be my friend Mary Fearon, a much-loved Newfoundland storyteller who has been performing professionally since 1997. During that time, she has performed and run workshops at a variety of festivals, schools and other events both here in Newfoundland & Labrador and in Australia. Her interest in traditional Newfoundland material inspired her to co-develop the book, "Over The Big Fat Waves; A Collection Of Newfoundland & Labrador Rhymes, Songs and Language Games." Mary and I have told stories together in schools and festivals around the province, and, according to The Independent, she is one of the most interesting people in Newfoundland!

Mary and I will be telling fairytales from Newfoundland and around the globe, full of foolish heroes, magic and adventure. Admission is free, and we hope to see you there!

• Facebook event listing

Ghosts return to Signal Hill

Ghosts of Signal Hill
Opens Friday, July 5, 2013
8pm

Daring escapes, murdered pirates, ghost ships, buried treasure, tragic drownings, and headless phantoms: it is all in a night’s work at Signal Hill National Historic Site. From the creator of the award-winning St. John’s Haunted Hike comes an evening of ghost stories, historical tales and strange adventures. Join the dashing Lieutenant Ranslaer Schuyler by lamplight inside the historic Queen’s Battery, and find out what happens on Newfoundland’s most historic hill, after the lights go out.

$15 ($10 for kids 12 and under) – cash sale only
(Price includes admission to Signal Hill National Historic Site Visitor Centre)
Buy your tickets and meet your guide at the Visitor Centre.
Every Friday and Saturday Night in July and August at 8pm

For more info visit www.hauntedhike.com

Sunday June 16th - Sinners & Spirits go Steampunk!

Calling all steampunks, Victorian explorers, mad scientists, Tesla aficionados, and lovers of a bit of Gothic entertainment!

This Sunday, the St. John's Haunted Hike is pairing up with Steampunk Newfoundland for our regular Sinners and Spirits Tour, hosted that night by the ever-debonair Dave Walsh.

Listen in terror to tales of murder, intrigue, duels to the death, false love, prostitution, torture and more! Descend into the dark underbelly of St. John’s and explore its sordid past. This tour highlights the murderous history of the capital city, and its paranormal legacy.


The Tour starts at 9:30 pm and costs a mere $10 per soul ($5 for kids 12 and under), with tickets cash sale only. There is no need to book in advance, just show up and pay as you go. The hike starts from the stone steps at the west entrance of the Anglican Cathedral on Church Hill.

Members of Steampunk Newfoundland are meeting in advance of the tour,  at 9:00pm at the Cathedral, with have enough time for a chat before the event.

If you have any steampunk, Victorian, or Gothic attire, feel free to come in costume, to add to the atmosphere of the event. The tour is open to all, so even if you don't feel like dressing up, come along anyway! It promises to be the best-dressed Haunted Hike in St. John's history.

Check out the Facebook event listing here.

Goggles on, adventurers!

Charis Cotter and the Ghosts of Baccalieu

Students at Tricon Elementary in Bay de Verde can brag that they live in one of the most haunted places in Newfoundland. While some some might be frightened of dead fishermen seeking revenge, shipwrecked sailors, or mysterious figures appearing on the highway at midnight, for the kids at Tricon, they are old friends.

This is because every student from Kindergarten to Grade 6 at the school have contributed either drawings or ghost stories to a new book called The Ghosts of Baccalieu. The book is part of an ArtsSmarts project led by local children’s author Charis Cotter, which pays tribute to the rich tradition of ghost stories in the province.

Cotter is an award-winning children’s writer, editor and storyteller based in Western Bay. She has a very particular interest in ghosts and makes an annual “Ghost Tour” of Newfoundland schools every fall with her book about international spooks, A World Full of Ghosts. In 2010, she was the celebrity judge for the St. John’s Ghost Story Writing Contest, sponsored by the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Library.

Cotter conceived the project and worked with the students to produce the book with help from the staff at Tricon Elementary. Work began last fall when students were asked to collect ghost stories from their families and friends. The community responded, sharing traditional ghost stories which had been passed down through the generations.

“One of my favourite stories is Ghost on the Gander by Brianna Barrett,” says Cotter. “It's about a young man who goes away to work in a lumber camp near Gander in the 1940s to help support his family. His father is dead and his mother has other children at home. One night he saw his mother standing at the foot of his bunk, just looking at him. The next day he got a telegram that she was sick. By the time he got home she was dead.”

“I like it because it reflects so much about what was hard back then about growing up in Newfoundland,” says Cotter, “and it's also really spooky the way she just appeared to him.”

Students were able to experience the entire process of bookmaking, from storytelling, to writing, editing, proofreading, design and publishing.

“I felt it was important for the students to experience everything that goes into making a real book—the fun, the creativity, the hard work—in order to better understand its value,” says Cotter. “I hope that this process will encourage a love of books and reading, by making it all very personal.”

The book will be presented to the community on Thursday, June 13. Appropriately, a special guest “ghost” will make an appearance from beyond the grave to greet visitors. Student artwork will be on display and selected authors will read excerpts from some of the scariest stories.

“Another favourite is The Longboat by Zander Doyle, about fishermen who heard men rowing a ghostly longboat in the fog in Baccalieu Tickle,” describes Cotter. “They heard them clearly, talking and calling and rowing, but no boat was there.This phenomenon reoccurs often before a big storm. I like it because there is something very creepy about ghosts forever rowing a boat, trying to get to shore and never getting there. And what could be more ghostly than a ghost boat in the fog?”

As a writer, Cotter likes ghost stories because they have an immediate appeal to kids.

“Ghost stories are fun to listen to and fun to write,” she states. “Ghosts blur the boundaries between what is seen and unseen, and children are accustomed to crossing back and forth between those two worlds.”

Copies of the book are available for sale at www.theghostsofbaccalieu.com.

Announcing the 2015 World Storytelling Day Theme: Wishes

Every year, storytellers from around the world get together electronically to select themes for World Storytelling Day, a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling. It is celebrated every year on the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, the first day of autumn equinox in the southern.

For the past little while, we've tried to plan two years in advance. Following conversations on the World Storytelling Day listserv and Facebook page, Dutch storyteller Melanie Plag and I compiled a list of all the suggestions for 2015, and I set up an online poll where people could vote.

And now, the votes are in! The theme for 2015 is "Wishes."

Let the ideas for stories and events begin!

A ghostly knocking at the door

Recently, I had the opportunity to share ghost stories with a visiting group of Grade 7 and 8 students from St Michaels Elementary School, Stephenville Crossing. One of the students had done a heritage fair project on a ghostly legend from St. John’s, the story of the Foran’s Hotel. She asked me if I was familiar with the story, and I said that I was.

It is an interesting tale, and the story of the ghostly knockings of the Foran's Hotel is one of the oldest, and continuously repeated, ghost stories in St. John's.

I use the word legend to describe the story, because while it is often presented as a true story, its origins are a little vague, and there is some historical debate over the exact location of the hotel itself. In 1883 an elaborate four storey hotel named the Atlantic Hotel was established by John Foran on Water Street across from King's Beach. The building was at the time one of the grandest in the community, and it remained that way until the Great Fire of 1892 destroyed most of St. John's and gutted the hotel.

Oral tradition on the other hand firmly places the building known as "Foran's Hotel" at the intersection of Water Street and Queen Street, a good six blocks to the west. Folklorist and writer R.J. Kinsella wrote in 1919 that the Foran's Hotel was "situated where the General Post Office now is", which would place it at the second location.

One night after all the hotel guests were asleep, a violent knocking noise was heard coming from a vacant room at the top of the building. So persistent was the noise that soon everyone in the building was woken, but an investigation of the room revealed nothing to account for the clamour. The noise was not repeated that night, but the next night at the exact same time, the hotel was wracked with the same violent knocking. Nothing was found, and the third night, the knocking was renewed, causing great turmoil amidst the guests and lodgers.

With the reputation of the hotel close to ruin, the guests were persuaded to stay, and a party was organized to stand watch, with a double guard placed at the room door. That night, mysteriously, the knocking ceased, and was not heard again. The room was closed to the public, memory of the incident faded, and life and business returned to normal.

Several months after the disturbance, and unknown stranger arrived in St. John’s, and made his way to the Foran’s Hotel, where he demanded lodging for the evening. At that point the establishment was full, with every room occupied except one. Rather than send the mysterious gentleman to a rival hotel, the staff gave the man the room which had been the centre of the psychic disturbance months before. The stranger retired to the room, and later that night, the entire hotel was aroused by the old knocking, this time in a long and insistent outburst of wrath.

Guests and staff rushed to the bedchamber, and upon breaking in found the new lodger, lying on the bed, fully clothed, and cold in death. As the corpse was removed for burial the next day, a distinct rapping noise could be heard throughout the apartment, which persisted until the very instant the body was removed from the premises. The man was never identified, and his body was buried quietly.

The room was boarded up, and never used again, but the legend survived. Stories were in circulation in the late 1990s that the Canada Post building was haunted. In 1998, it was reported that strange, unexplained knocking noises were heard by postal workers on one of the upper stories.

Ghostly knockings are a theme repeated many times in Newfoundland stories of supernatural belief. Often, knocks at a door are seen as a token, a foreshadowing of someone’s death. One example of this was said to have happened in Buchans in 1949. A miner by the name of John Mullowney perished when an accident occurred underground in the Oriental mine.

Topside, back at the family home, no one yet knew of the disaster that had transpired beneath them. Suddenly, there were three knocks on the door of the family's house. Someone answered the door, but there was no one standing on the step.

Shortly after that, a worker from the mine came to the door, and asked for Mrs. Mullowney. He informed her that her husband had been killed in the mine.

If you have a story of strange knocking noises, let me know by email at info@hauntedhike.com.

Help pick the World Storytelling Day theme for 2015

World Storytelling Day is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling. It is celebrated every year on the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, the first day of autumn equinox in the southern. On World Storytelling Day, as many people as possible tell and listen to stories in as many languages and at as many places as possible, during the same day and night. Participants tell each other about their events in order to share stories and inspiration, to learn from each other and create international contacts.

Each year, many of the individual storytelling events that take place around the globe are linked by a common theme. Each year, the theme is identified by and agreed upon by storytellers from around the world.

Past themes, and the theme for 2014, are listed here:

2004 - Birds
2005 - Bridges
2006 - The Moon
2007 - The Wanderer
2008 - Dreams
2009 - Neighbours
2010 - Light and Shadow
2011 - Water
2012 - Trees
2013 - Fortune and Fate
2014 - Monsters and Dragons

For the past few years, we've tried to select the theme two years in advance, and there have been a lot of suggestions from all around the world for the theme for 2015.  Now is the time to vote!

Follow the link to vote for your favourite 2015 theme. Spread the word to other storytellers!  Voting closes June 1st, 2013.

Vote here:

http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=51955961e4b0df6bcbc79462

Four favourite haunted spots in Newfoundland

A while back, I was asked by a student working on a heritage fair project to pick my favourite haunted place in Newfoundland. It was not the first time I have been asked it, but it remains a hard question. I’m not certain that I truly do have a favourite, but I do have a couple spots with stories that I love. So here, in no particular order, are four of my top haunted locations.

1. Victoria Street, St. John's

First up is Victoria Street, St. John’s. While one of the shorter streets in downtown St. John’s at a mere three blocks long, Victoria Street has more than its fair share of ghosts and phantoms. It is probably the single street I’ve heard more ghost stories about than another in the province. One older St. Johnsman spoke of how he had been surprised by the ghost of an elderly woman. This phantom woman had appeared before him standing on the landing halfway up the stairs of the house.

Other houses along the sinister street are haunted by mysterious orbs, phantom cigarette smokers, ghostly knockings, and ghosts who open doors and run up stairs. The eeriest haunting involved a screaming ghost who has been known to appear in a bedroom, being dragged by her hair through the room by a second ghost.

2. Mockbeggar, Bonavista

My second pick would be Mockbeggar, in Bonavista. The area known as Mockbegger is the home to a number of strange tales. Several of them revolve around what is known as Bradley House on the Mockbeggar Property. One resident heard phantom visitors walking about, talking, singing and having a party, complete with slamming doors. After a while, the phantom party‑goers had settled down, and the woman had been able to get some sleep. Local folklore maintains they are friendly ghosts, and that if you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.

The hauntings of the Bradley house may be somehow linked to another mystery of the Mockbeggar property. In the 1920s, under the direction of William Coaker, a canal was dug in the area. As the canal was being dug a number of coffins were excavated. Then, years later, some more coffins were unearthed during the construction of the new bridge across the canal in 1946. The graves were believed to predate the earliest cemetery in Bonavista, which dated to 1725.

3. Isle of Demons, Quirpon Island

An island once populated by so many devils that French sailors would not go ashore without a crucifix in hand hardly sounds like an ideal tourist destination. But it is certainly enough to make it my third pick.

The "Isle of Demons" is thought to be Quirpon Island, at the top of the Great Northern Peninsula, though a few other places vie with it for the title. It is associated with one of the most dramatic stories of love, loss, and terror ever told in Newfoundland. The saga involves a woman by the name of Marguerite de Roberval, niece of the harsh Sieur de Roberval. While sailing from France to the New World, Marguerite raised the wrath of her uncle by becoming romantically involved with one of the men on the ship. The Sieur de Roberval insisted that the girl be removed from his ship, and left on an island along their route.

Once stranded, Marguerite found she was not alone. Imps and spirits walked over the island, peered out of the mist, whispered in the night, and called and whistled in the gale. Marguerite was marooned for three years, before being rescued and returned to France. Modern visitors not concerned about imps and demons can still land on Quirpon Island, now home to the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn. I’ve stayed there, but no imps made themselves known.

4. Hampden, White Bay

My final pick is Hampden, White Bay, which wins the award for the most unusual ghost in Newfoundland. Stories of Hampden’s famous phantom have been in circulation at least since the early 1970s, though the legend may even be older. The majority of the ghostly happenings have been reported along a section of road near the site of the old camp called Faulkner’s Flat. More than a few people have witnessed the figure of a woman walking along Faulkner’s Flat, dressed all in white.

What is most intriguing is that the old woman would walk across the road, carrying an old cast iron Waterloo stove on her back! Locals claim that a woman was killed by a Waterloo stove in a car accident on that section of road, and at certain times of the year, you can see her cross the road with the stove on her back. Others say the woman is old Mrs. Faulkner herself, after whom the Flat is named.

If you have a haunted spot you feel should have made the list, email me at dale@dalejarvis.ca



Dale Jarvis is an author, storyteller, and professional folklorist who splits his time between St. John’s and Clarke’s Beach, Newfoundland, Canada. 

Photo Credit: Victoria Street, NL. Wikimedia Commons

Shakespeare Off The Page Workshop with Danielle Irvine

Sweet Line Theatre Company Presents:

Shakespeare Off The Page Workshop

Weekend Workshop

Saturday and Sunday, May 11-12, 2013.

12-5 pm

Arts and Culture Centre

St. John’s, NL

“Words, words, words”  Hamlet 2, ii  Sometimes people think that Shakespeare is just a pile of words. This fun and interactive workshop with Shakespeare theatre director Danielle Irvine will give participants the tools to approach any Shakespeare text and mine it for understanding. Beginning with a monologue provided by the instructor and working with written and performance tools, participants will develop a step-by-step process to lift the words off the page and develop an appreciation for the language.   Instruction will be given both individually, and in group exercises.

For:  Actors, theatre and English teachers, directors, and anyone with a love for the Bard. Recommended for ages 18+.  Maximum 12 participants. Participants will be required to bring pencil, eraser and thesaurus and to dress comfortably for movement work. Sensible shoes are a must!

About the Instructor:

Danielle Irvine’s love of Shakespeare inspired her to co-found the Shakespeare By The Sea Festival in 1993.  Her career highlights include teaching at the National Theatre School of Canada for 6 years; two seasons at the Stratford Festival of Canada; a participant in the World Stage Festival 2000’s Master Class for Directors and winning two national awards for her directing.

Cost: $125 ($100 for students)

Payment by cheque or by email money transfer. Receipts provided.

Pre-registration is required.

To register, contact Danielle Irvine at:

irvinedanielle@gmail.com

On the dreamy silence broke the beating of a drum...

Recently, I wrote about a ghostly drummer story, versions of which appear in Turk’s Gut (today’s Marysvale) and Brigus, in Conception Bay. Since that article was printed, I have come across another version of the legend, though without a location.

This “new” version of the legend was included in an article entitled “What About Ghosts?” which was printed in the September-December issue of The Feildian for 1905.

The Feildian was the magazine of Bishop Feild College, a Church of England academy for boys. The magazine ran from 1893 to 1960, and was created to foster school feeling, and to chronicle the College affairs. It was the first publication of its kind on the island, and included news, letters, sports and reports from school alumni.

The author of the piece was identified only as “H.” and in the article, H claimed to have put to rest a story about a ghost. Sadly, the mysterious author did not mention the location of the ghost story, only that it was at the mouth of a bay, “on the bank of a river close to a mountain gorge containing a lagoon.”

“The lagoon was reported to be haunted by a deserter from a French war ship,” writes H, “who had died in a fisherman’s cottage in the bay, after several years spent in the woods, in fear of recapture. He had been a drummer on the ship, and he swore to the woman who had nursed him on his death bed, that he would haunt the lagoon, a weird and lonely spot. For years his drum was heard beating at certain periods, as his spirit marched through the woods, and many a time parties visiting the place fled in terror from its supernatural roll.”

One evening, the author was sitting in the twilight after supper, camped on the reportedly haunted spot.

“My guide was that the brook washing up, and I was placidly smoking, seated on a stone,” writes H, “with my back against a telegraph pole, the line of which ran through this country for many miles. Suddenly on the dreamy silence broke the beating of a drum, and my man came running back with a scared face. I at once recognized the sound, but could see no ghost, so... I kept my head, and began to look for the spectre.”

“I soon noticed that angry gusts of wind were coming down through the gorge,” he notes, “and as these passed,the drum rolled out, I observed a tremor in the telegraph pole. This gave me a clue, and immediately afterwards I saw the ghost in the wire. In short, the drum was the wind playing on a mile of telegraph wire, and reverberating in the cliffs as the ‘spouts’ came down the gorge from the North East.”

I suspect that the story, regardless of where it took place in the province geographically, is what folklorists would call a “migratory legend” - story supposedly based in historical fact, but which is which is found repeatedly at different places, having a similar plot but with place names or topographical information changed. Locals might believe their version to be “true,” but very similar versions, equally “true,” pop up a little bit further down the road, or in the next bay, or even in a different country.

The ghostly drummer legend is probably related to other local legends, like the famous story of Piper’s Hole, near Swift Current on the Burin Peninsula. There, a ghostly piper has been playing his instrument for centuries, possibly giving the location its name.

According to some, the phantom musician was a piper in the French army in the eighteenth century. In this version of the legend, the French and English clashed in battle at spot nearby called Garden Cove. Supposedly, the spirit of the French soldier lingers in the river valley, mournfully playing a tune. In other versions from the same area, the musician was a Scottish bagpiper, killed in a hunting accident by an Englishman.

If you know of another ghostly piper or phantom drummer story, email me at dale@dalejarvis.ca.