SOURCE: Tangherlini, Timothy R. “‘Who ya gonna call?’: Ministers and the Mediation of Ghostly Threat in Danish Legend Tradition.¹” Western Folklore 57, no. 2-3 (spring-summer 1998): 153-78.

In the following essay, Tangherlini surveys the use of ghosts and the supernatural in late nineteenth-century Danish legends.

Few cultures conceive of ghosts as a predominantly positive force and, quite to the contrary, legends about ghosts usually emphasize the threat that the return of the dead poses to the community (Klintberg 1968; Thomas 1971; Pentikäinen 1968 and 1969). In most communities, while the dead are mourned, there is still an underlying hope that, once dead, they will not only remain dead but also in the grave. When the dead do reappear, people usually call on the services of a particular community member to mediate this intrusion. If legend tradition is any indication, in late nineteenth-century Denmark, the appearance of ghosts and revenants frequently sent people running...