Season 5, Episode 2
Title: The Future Imperfect: Ghosts, Premonitions and Newfoundland Folklore
Time: 16 minutes
Locations: Holyrood, Moreton’s Harbour, Proctor’s Cove
Stories: The Isle of Skye Comes Home, The Fetch of Proctor’s Cove
Listen:
About The Episode:
In this Halloween episode of Strange Truths and Tall Tales, we explore two Newfoundland ghost stories about unsettling glimpses of the future.
First, we explore the legend of the Isle of Skye, a schooner whose phantom crew was said to have appeared on a stormy night, calling out a warning that would take on a horrible significance in the days that followed. The story has been told and retold for more than a century, with details that vary from one storyteller to the next. But at its heart lies an intriguing question: what if horrible details of the future occasionally find a way of announcing themselves?
Then we move on to Proctor’s Cove, where a young woman walking home on a November night encounters a familiar figure on the road ahead. What first seems to be an ordinary meeting takes on a much darker significance when viewed in retrospect.
From phantom voices on the water to a mysterious apparition on a moonlight road, these two tales explore the unsettling idea that some people might catch a glimpse of horros yet to come.
Are these accounts of genuine premonitions, or simply good Newfoundland ghost stories? As always, the strange truths and the tall tales have a habit of walking hand-in-hand.
Settle in for The Future Imperfect — two eerie tales for the Halloween season from an island with no shortage of unexplained stories.
Listening Options
You can listen to the episode here or on your favourite platform.
CREDITS
Thunder (bajko) from freesound.com, Creative Commons 0
Heartbeat-60bpm.wav, loudernoises, Freesound.com, Creative Commons 0
StormAtSea.mp3, KevinT1001, Freesound.com, Creative Commons 0
Sources & Further Reading
Are There Such Things As Tokens, Charles Jamieson, Newfoundland Quarterly, Vol. 28, no. 3, December, 1928
Fetch, Dictionary of Newfoundland English
Token, Dictionary of Newfoundland English
Fireside Stories, H.F. Shortis, Newfoundland Weekly, December 20, 1930
A Phantom Ship, The Right Honourable Lord Morris, Privy Councillor, The Newfoundland Illustrated Tribune, Christmas Number, 1918
Offbeat History, Evening Telegram, Nov 13, 1959
Loss of the Isle of Skye, Evening Advocate, December 29, 1921
