In this episode, the storyteller, Kathy Shimpock, shares the story of "The Vampire Skeleton Corpse." This is a frightening tale from the Iroquois tradition. Although there is never a single meaning for any story, this one has an important teaching for the days ahead.
Story: This story is a conflation of early Iroquois variants and my version of the story as told by Joseph Bruchac. Iroquois Stories: Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic as told by Joseph Bruchac (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1985).
Illustration: Birch bark longhouse. Fungus Guy, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. "The Subject and his Skeleton" in Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, 1897 (public domain worldwide).
This podcast is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Sound effects from my finch "Tweedles."
Copyright 2025 Kathy Shimpock.
For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).
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