This week we are bringing some classic Dickensian cheer with “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton.” With a similar arc to “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens tells us the story of a glum and grim sexton who delights in suffering, who through a long night with a band of goblins learns of the delights of nature in the world.

And just in time too, as we’ll be doing a live streamed reading of “A Christmas Carol” on Christmas Eve at 8pm EST. You can join us over at www.instagram.com/oldgrowthalchemy, www.facebook.com/oldgrowthalchemy, or www.youtube.com/channel/UCkvE-OrS0BZ9qj-Lr1t1Kng that evening for the live story by candlelight or pop back over for the recording later.

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Cozy up with a blanket for the chilling tale of “The Phantom Coach” by Amelia Edwards. An unfortunate man gets caught outdoors in the middle of a snowstorm after a day of lackluster hunting and, while in search of shelter, finds an old man with a lantern who reluctantly brings him back to his master’s farmhouse. There, he has some curious conversation with a recluse who upon realizing it has stopped snowing bids him goodnight with a warning of ghosts on the road to town. Unfortunately, the dark night will prove to lead our unfortunate wanderer into grimmer circumstances than he could have anticipated.

If you’ve been enjoying these, we’d love if you’d give us a review on Apple Podcasts and follow along on Spotify!

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“The Man and the Snake ” by Ambrose Bierce is a grim tale of an eccentric bachelor who goes to live for a short time with a doctor who has a peculiar fascination with reptiles. A chance encounter with one of the beasts leaves the man full of fear and trepidation and to an untimely fate, but upon his discovery a twist turns in our tale. A slight deviation from our ghost stories of late, but a good deal of fun!

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A special pre-Halloween episode and two-parter!

This week we are focused on some classic grim and gruesome tales from literature and fairytale. Our first story is “Fitcher’s Bird” by The Brothers Grimm. A sorcerer disguises himself as a beggar to bring unsuspecting beautiful young women to his sumptuous home. They are able to live there with all their wants provided for, as long as they do not go into the one forbidden chamber opened by a small key which they are given with an egg for safekeeping. As the first sister falls prey to curiosity and drops her egg revealing the bloody betrayal, will her sisters fare any better?

Our second tale is “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe. While the Red Death ravages the world leaving its victims blood bespeckled and dead within the hour, Prince Propsero secludes his coutiers in his home of extravagant distraction. At a sumptuous masquerade, however, a mysterious and haunting guest and the somber and bleak tolling of the grand clock bring the fate of those hidden in the grand walls ever closer.

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“The Ebony Frame” by Edith Nesbit is a delicious ghost story with whispers of witchcraft and consorting with the devil. When our narrator inherits a comfortable fortune from his aunt, he discovers in the attic an old set of portraits that fit an ebony from which captivates his attention. Entranced by the gaze of the woman in the frame, it soon is all he thinks. When pleading for her to come out of the frame one day, he has a thrilling encounter which leaves him changed forever.

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“The Death of Halpin Frayser” by Ambrose Bierce is a gothic ghost story set in a disjointed narrative following the ordeals and life of one Halpin Frayser. At the ripe age of 32, we enter the story with Halpin Frayser dead. Over the course of the narrative, we begin to unravel his life and what led to his untimely demise with a brief drift into a dream or perhaps the afterlife. Scenes and sounds of unearthly horrors beg the question of what precisely happened to our man Halpin Frayser?

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In this episode we bring you two short stories of macabre horror and madness. In our first tale, “August Heat” by W.F. Harvey, we find an artist in a fit of creative inspiration drawing a man he has never seen before but feels compelled to keep the illustration by him while he wanders in a daze through the oppressive August heat. Stumbling into the yard of a marble worker, he is shocked to find the man he drew finishing a tombstone with his name on it. Both men fumble through an awkward evening together as the heat draws them closer together to see if they will both make it through midnight.

Our second story, “The Adventures of the German Student” by Washington Irving, is a tale of a melancholic recluse student who upon a walk through a rainy night in revolutionary Paris finds a young woman who has been haunting his dreams. Bringing her back to his room to take shelter from the storm, they declare their unusual passions for one another. But upon the morning, our student returns to discover the dreadful secret of the mysterious woman.

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“The Body Snatcher” by Robert Louis Stevenson is a tale based in history. Inspired by the murders of Burke and Hare in 19th century Scotland, this tale tells us of those lowly beings: the body snatchers. We begin with old friends round a fire in a pub when one finds himself face to face with an old colleague. Through deduction and prodding, we learn of their relationship. While in school together learning of the anatomist’s work, they maintained the stock of materials: corpses for dissection. As they begin to deduce where the freshest of their stock is coming from, they start on their path towards midnight atrocities.

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A classic from Edgar Allan Poe and a fear we all know, this week we bring you “The Premature Burial.” Our author begins with a recollection of the fear and terror that deep down strikes us all: the fear of being buried alive. He recounts many instances historically of such cases and how the subjects were found trying to escape, or alas, found in death’s grip too late. We then hear the chilling recollection of our author reliving his own moments in the grave for a much feared almost untimely fate.

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Written as a recollection from age to youth, Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Old Nurse’s Story” is a chilling tale of a child growing up in her care. Upon the death of the parent’s they go to the next of familial line: a manor house with cold and regal relations with covered up family history. As mysterious music is played more and more as the seasons turn to winter, our nurse learns of a great family secret that nobody wishes to talk about until the day young Rosamond is lured out into the snow almost to her death.

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