“I Can Feel It In My Bones”: Skeletons in Folklore

Skeletons are a common costume choice at Halloween. But they’re the ultimate symbol of death. Let’s be honest, if I see a skeleton, then I know I’m looking at a dead body.

Finding lost or buried bones is common in Gothic stories. Revealing the bones brings forth a hidden secret.

There’s even a profession dedicated to understanding the secrets they conceal (forensic osteology). The skeleton bears witness to whatever cruel fate befell the individual. Despite its silence, the skeleton can still tell its story.

Even the Grim Reaper often chooses the guise of a skeleton, pointing a bony finger at his next victim.

So come, take my outstretched collection of bones wrapped in skin, and let’s explore the folklore of skeletons…

NB: Bones do appear in folklore and legends through their use in divination, but as these are often chicken bones, they fall outside of our scope here. We’re looking at human skeletons…

As I Am, So You Shall Be

One of the key functions of the skeleton, or skulls, in art is as a memento mori. The phrase memento mori simply means ‘Remember you must die’. Being confronted with a skeleton generally reminds you of death.

The skeleton’s appearance as such derives from the Dutch vanitas paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries. Here, the bones were specifically used to represent the memento mori. It’s cheerful stuff.

Skeletons become memento mori in unintentional ways. Overcrowding and outbreaks of disease prompted the Parisian authorities to close several city cemeteries in the 18th century. They relocated the bones to the abandoned lime quarries beneath the city, forming the infamous Catacombs. They opened to visitors in 1874, who still flock to see the enormity of the spectacle of twisting corridors of bones.

So famous is the short section of the Catacombs that houses the bones that many assume the Catacombs only contains bones.

Artistic bone displays also appear at the Chapel of Skulls in Czermna, Poland, and the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic, among other examples. Ossuaries are less common in the United Kingdom, though St Bride’s Church on Fleet Street has a charnel house you can visit. They also keep their collection of skeletons in archive boxes where they can be more easily studied by osteologists.

You often see the skull and crossbones on pre-20th century gravestones as a memento mori. I’ve heard people insist they mark the graves of pirates, but alas, that’s unlikely. Some believe it’s because the skull and femurs (the crossed bones) are the last part of a skeleton to decompose. The piles of bones in the Paris Catacombs would support that theory since all that’s left are skulls and femurs.

Skeletons are still creepy. Just look at the skeletons in Poltergeist (1982), erupting through the floor of the house and into the swimming pool. And yes, those were real skeletons. The production design team felt fake skeletons looked too uniform and sourced actual sets of bones from India.

But let’s look at skeletons in folklore, shall we?

Skeletons in Folklore

Some ghosts may take the form of skeletons, stalking the land in the hopes of finding their lost resting place. One such spirit appears in Superstition Mountains in Arizona. Described as being eight feet tall, this roaming skeleton carries a lantern; some tales say he carries the lantern before him, others say he bears a lantern light that shines through his ribs.

The skeleton doesn’t seem to go out of its way to scare people. When a prospector shot at it, it continued on its random wander without breaking its stride. Who, or what, is the ghost looking for? (Schlosser 1997-2030)

Meanwhile, in Lithuanian folklore, you can find the Žiburinis. This forest-dwelling spirit is a glow-in-the-dark skeleton. In some depictions, the skeleton carries a candle inside its ribcage. According to the legends, seeing one was bad luck; a sighting always meant someone was close to death nearby.

L’Ankou (harvester of the dead) often appears as a skeleton in Jersey. Sometimes he wears a shroud. He trudges around the countryside with a cart, collecting the dead. In some tales, skeleton servants accompany him and “he stands in his cart scything his harvest of the dead” (Bois, 2010). You can hear either the cartwheels creaking or the dead screaming, announcing his approach. If you feel yourself pushed into a ditch, beware; this omen foretells impending death. Feeling a shudder means he will return soon.

Skeletons and the Calavera

At this time of the year, skeletons have become synonymous with Mexico’s Día de los Muertos festivities. But where did the skeleton motif come from?

In 19th century Mexico, satirists wrote verses about the hypothetical death of prominent figures and even places. Publishers illustrated the verses with skeletons. Due to censorship laws, satire was the only way to discuss the political and social challenges facing the country (Agur 2010-2020a).

The most famous example, La Calavera Catrina, was a satire of Mexican women who wore heavy makeup to appear lighter in skin tone. Artist Jose Guadalupe Posada illustrated a leaflet, La Calavera Garbancera, in 1910 in which he criticised these women for trying to hide their Indigenous heritage. The skeleton woman appeared in the illustrations. In 1948, Diego Rivera included her in his mural depicting Mexican history, and named her La Catrina (Agur 2010-2020b).

When discussing Posada’s work, art critic Luis Cardoza y Aragon suggested that the image of the skeleton should be considered a national symbol of Mexico, since it had become so popular in Mexican popular culture (Lomnitz 2008: 23).

Naturally, you might also think of Santa Muerte, otherwise known as the ‘Bony Lady’ or Saint Death, if you thought of Mexico and skeletons. This popular folk saint attracts outright condemnation from the church, but she offers healing and hope to the marginalised people often ignored by the church. If you’d like to learn more about Santa Muerte, I recommend the 2007 documentary La Santa Muerte by director Eva Aridjis.

Skeletons and Superstitions

In Worthing, Sussex, skeletons are linked with a Midsummer tale. According to the legend, first recorded in 1868, skeletons emerged from an oak tree near Broadwater Green on Midsummer’s Eve. They danced until dawn and then sank back into the ground when the sun’s rays warmed the soil.

Perhaps the story isn’t so far-fetched. Daniel G. Brinton notes a belief that the word ‘bonfire’ comes from ‘bone-fire’ (1890: 18). In essence, a fire is used to burn bones as a sacrifice. He noted that, in 1890, remote parishes in Munster and Connaught in Ireland still burnt a bone in their St John’s Eve bonfires (1890: 18).

Brinton also notes the old belief that “the personality of the individual clung to his skeleton” (1898: 18). Perhaps it explains the superstition that if you remove a human bone from a cemetery and take it home, the corpse’s spirit will torment you until you return the bone.

He does also relate an old belief that human bones held medical virtues (1890: 20). Apothecaries might add ground-up bones to a range of concoctions. A popular 17th-century superstition claimed that ale was more intoxicating if you’d mixed the ashes of human bones into it. The custom was even officially forbidden in Ireland (1890: 21).

Weirdly, seeing a skeleton when you didn’t expect to meant you’d be invited to a ball or a wedding (Daniels 2003 [1903]: 906). I did the Highgate Cemetery tour that includes the Catacombs, and once saw a skeleton where one coffin had decayed. Although I saw a skeleton when I didn’t expect to, I received no invitations!

So what do we make of the skeleton in folklore?

We haven’t had the time or space to delve into the mysteries of religious relics (often bones), or the legends that cling to famous skeletons (see Richard III). But we have explored skeletons in art, in ossuaries, and superstitions that accompany the bony framework we all share.

While the folklore about them is scant, their appearance nearly always acts as a memento mori. And it’s a worthwhile reminder. After all, if you know your life is finite, you’re more likely to do something useful with it!

Question is…what do skeletons mean to you? Let me know below!

References

Agur, Dyana (2010-2020a), ‘Calaveras or Day of the Dead rhymes’, Copal Store, https://www.mexican-folk-art-guide.com/calaveras.html#.YzQPa1XTW9f

Agur, Dyana (2010-2020b), ‘La Catrina’, Copal Store, https://www.mexican-folk-art-guide.com/catrina.html#.YzQF9lXTW9e

Bois, G. J. C. (2010), Jersey Folklore & Superstitions Volume One, AuthorHouse.

Brinton, Daniel C. (1890) ‘The Folk-Lore of the Bones’, The Journal of American Folklore, 3: 8, pp. 17-22.

Daniels, Cora Linn, Stevans, C.M. (2003 [1903], Encyclopædia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, Volume 2, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Lomnitz, Claudio (2008), Death and the Idea of Mexico, New York: Zone Books.

Schlosser, S. E. (1997-2030), ‘The Skeleton’s Lantern’, American Folklore, https://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/the_skeletons_lantern.html.