West Virginia folklore

West Virginia has a rich tradition of folklore – including folktales, legends, and superstitions – resulting from the diverse ethnicities, religions, languages, and culture of migrants who moved there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This principality was already geographically similar to Appalachia, and when two zinc plants opened in Harrison County (north central WV), Spanish laborers began to flock to the area.

A small company town called Spelter was established in 1910, and just 10 years later, over a thousand Spanish immigrants inhabited it.

[citation needed] During this time, West Virginia also attracted migrants from Italy, Scandinavia, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Hungary, and the Levant region of the Middle East.

[2] A large Polish community established itself in Wheeling,[3] while many Levantine immigrants flocked to more southern areas near Charleston, WV.

[5] Many variations of a child-eating creature known as "Rawhead," "Bloody Bones," or a combination of the two have existed in North American folktales for centuries.

The Bloody Bones popular in West Virginian folklore, however, is a creature that inhabits the space under the stairs of a home and eats disobedient or misbehaving children.

Rawhead and the girl then exchange a series of interactions strongly reminiscent of the popular tale Little Red Riding Hood.

It was included in the first book of Alvin Schwartz's highly popular Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, originally published in 1981.

Instead of taking the toe into the house to eat for dinner, the woman acts in more disregard as she tosses it over the fence and continues going about her gardening.

The storylines become almost identical at this point as the women hears a menacing voice asking for its toe as she is drifting off to sleep.

[10] The “Angel of Mercy” is a folktale told to show that deceased loved ones watch over and take care of their living descendants.

One neighbor's wife had died, but the only way to get a coffin for her was to walk through the impassible roads to town and bring one back by yoked oxen.

[10] The story was told this way to get the audience to have the reaction of trying to hear the poor little baby crying, and to give them shivers.

They are to make the audience believe that the story is not a fiction one written for books, but that it is true, and the tale is being passed down generations.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the dominant ethnicity of immigrants in West Virginia was Irish, but a few Italians trickled in as well.

A popular tale stemming from Italy and passed down through the families of Italian immigrants was the legend of the evil eye.

An evil eye is a type of spell or curse that can be cast intentionally or unintentionally, usually by a jealous relative or member of the community.

However, there are rare instances where a third party can provide a successful cure through a series of prayers and rituals, often involving olive oil.

One reported story of the occurrence of an evil eye curse in West Virginia is a tale folklorist Ruth Ann Musick records as "The Beautiful Hair."

The friend asked if she could trim the girl's hair, and with persistence after an initial no, she was finally allowed to perform the task.

The next day, the mother paid a visit to the friend's home, where she found a pot of boiling water on the stove containing her daughter's hair.

Some stories are told with him as a dapper young man, more utilize the classic tail-and-horns image, and others take a different approach all together.

In a story native to Wetzel County of northern WV, a girl is confronted by a young man who prompts her to sign a book in her own blood.

Such is the case in a tale passed down the generations from Ruth Ann Musick's great grandfather, who, as a teenager, skipped church one Sunday to go riding on his horse.

Another example of magic being taught occurred in Monongah, a small mining town located in Marion County, WV.

He told her he could never see someone of the Cherokee tribe, but instead of parting ways, the young Shawnee girl ran to her lover and leaped into his arms.

A 1916 edition of the Martinsburg Herald wrote about the founding of the West Virginia Folklore Society, an organization which is still active today.

[19] Yet another testament to Appalachians' awareness of their own culture is seen in 1963 as an article in The Republican advertises a festival that will feature aspects of local folklore.

While many aspects of the original story as passed down in West Virginian folklore were changed by both Schwartz and André Øvredal (who directed the film), its central elements remain.