Spider Folklore: The Welsh Ghost That Became a Spider
Spiders are everywhere at Halloween – but long before that, they were a familiar part of our folklore and horror stories.
In this wander around my garage (hey, I have no location budget!), I look at spider folklore, including the belief that killing a spider is unlucky, and explore why spiders became such a familiar part of Gothic and Halloween imagery.
Then we get to a very strange Welsh ghost story from Denbighshire, in which a troublesome spirit eventually takes the form of a spider. The story comes from old folklore accounts and involves a rather unusual solution to a poltergeist problem.
Watch the video below, and check out all the other cultural adventures over on YouTube:
Along the way there’s a Welsh black cat (a real one!), a terrible Halloween spider prop (not a real one!), and even mentions of the Haunted Mansion, Robert the Bruce, and how I might have helped Guillermo del Toro win an Oscar* shoehorned in.
Until next time… nos da!
* For clarity, so there’s zero doubt, I had absolutely nothing to do with Del Toro winning an Oscar, it’s a joke, but the internet is so darn literal nowadays you have to quantify everything!
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