The Somnambulist

I've often thought that the hills are a good hideout for ghosts - by night, the peaks behind Dove Cottage seem to guard their own secrets. One of the paintings in the Wordsworth Trust's current exhibition, 'Savage Grandeur and Noblest Thoughts' depicts a passage through Langdale; glowering mountains on either side, a woman riding alone through the desolate landscape... walking alone in the hills towards nightfall isn't for the faint hearted, particularly if you're partial to a supernatural tale.

It's no surprise that the Lake District, with its sombre peaks and deceptive, tranquil waters, is home to some legends similar to the ghost stories from my native Peak District: there are tales of phantom armies marching over Hellvellyn, a drowned village at Thirlmere much like the one at Derwent reservoirs in Derbyshire, and countless tales of miners run amok. In Whitehaven, the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould was moved to report in the 1800s:

"I know a man who is haunted by two spectres. He has shaking fits, during which his eyes wander around the room; then he sees the ghosts. He was a miner, and is said to have half cut through the rope when some men against whom he bore a grudge were going down the pit; the rope broke and they were dashed to pieces. Their ghosts haunt him night and day, and he can never remain long in one house, or endure to be alone night or day."

Neither is it surprising that some of these legends stirred Wordsworth's poetic imagination. Wordsworth is credited with inventing the fateful tale of Emma and Sir Eglamour at Aira Force, near Ullswater, detailed in his piece 'The Somnambulist'. Emma was the promised bride of a knight, Sir Eglamour, who sailed abroad and was gone for months without any word. Half mad with worry, Emma would sleepwalk every night, down to a bower beside the waterfall of Aira Force (part of Aira Beck) where she had last seen her lover. She never met a soul in her sleep and would return to bed.

One night, however, Sir Eglamour returned and, passing through the ravine, saw his bride's white-robed figure in the moonlight there. He rushed towards her on the precarious ridge where she stood. His touch woke her immediately and in her terror she tumbled into the torrent and was swept onto the rocks below. The finale to this tale of lost love is predictably bleak, with Emma's body retrieved, and a whispered 'assurance of love and fidelity' to Sir Eglamour before she died in his arms and he in turn died in mourning.

Though the story is reputed to be one of Wordsworth's own rather than a tale inspired by legend, there have been various reports in the years that followed of visitors becoming lost of trapped in the rocks and chasms around Aira Force, only to be led back towards the light by a white-robed figure. It seems ghosts who die for love are usually not malevolent...

Banshees, of course, are not reputed for their good tempers, and next week sees 'A Pint For The Ghost' heading to the terrifyingly-named Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh to perform at the Free Fringe. The show will run between Saturday 7th and Tuesday 17th August, with a night off on the 11th. Do come and have a pint if you're in town for the festival....