Ghosts along the Cumberland: Deathlore in the Kentucky Foothills

"This unique and extremely valuable book adds considerably to the area of folklore studies in the United States. The material which Montell obtained in his field work is superb." --Don Yoder.

"This book is to be recommended to both folklorists and those non-folklorists who read folklore for enjoyment alone. It makes an important contribution to the study of deathlore and, it is to be hoped, will draw added attention to this multi-generic subject area." --David J. Hufford, Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin.

"Professor Montell's book can well be viewed as a standard of excellence: a direct, articulate and cataloged approach for future study and implementation in the fields of folklore and oral history." --Joan Perkal, Oral History Association Newsletter.

"The book gives fascinating accounts of death beliefs, death omens, folk beliefs associated with the dead, and in the major section, ghosts narratives. A fine combination of scholarship and chilling narration to be relished by firelight in an old deserted house in the hills." --Book Forum.

"Professor Montell has arranged beliefs and experiences about death of a particular group of people in such a way that a whole new aspect of the people's lives comes to focus." --Loyal Jones, The Filson Club HIstory Quarterly.

The lore of death and ghosts persists as a great vestige of the past in the eastern section of an area known as the Kentucky "Pennyroyal"—or, as longtime residents sometimes call it, the "Pennyrile." Located in the foothills of southcentral Kentucky near the Tennessee line, the Eastern Pennyroyal has produced a genuine folklore, handed down by generation after generation, that even today is manifested by beliefs in death omens and the recital of tales of the supernatural. This fascinating collection of ghost stories, tales of the supernatural, death beliefs and death sayings that remain as a vestige in this area were collected by Lynwood Montell and his students over the course of a decade.

© 2025 University of Tennessee Press (Ebook): 9798895270677

Release date

Ebook: 14 March 2025