It’s nearly Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. But before you tie the knot with your beloved, you might want to make absolutely sure they are still among the living. For centuries, ghostly brides and bridegrooms have been common figures in folklore across cultures and have since worked their way into ghost stories and Gothic literature. From folk ballads of the eighteenth century to YA novels of the twenty-first, here are a few of my favorite nuptial specters:
“Sweet William’s Ghost”
This classic English folk ballad was recorded in Allan Ramsay’s The Tea-Table Miscellany in 1740 and Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1765. Many variations on the lyrics exist, but you can read Percy’s version here. In the narrative, a young woman named Margaret is home alone when the ghost of her true love William comes to the door, pleading with Margaret to give him her “faith and troth” and thus relieve him of his vow to marry her. Margaret refuses, insisting instead that they go to the church and get married, despite William’s protests that he is dead. In some versions of the song, she insists upon a kiss—which William warns would kill her—or upon receiving some knowledge of the afterlife. Margaret follows her spectral love around until the sun comes up, whereupon William vanishes and Margaret drops dead (in some versions, upon his grave). The song is considered to be part of an entire genre of “Specter Bridegroom” narratives in folk ballads, which generally serve as warnings against either being tricked by spirits or letting one’s grief lead to one’s own death.
“Lenore” by Gottfried August Bürger
This 1774 poetic ballad by the German poet Gottfried August Bürger elaborates on the simple tale of the earlier folk song. You can read Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s translation of the poem here. As in the folk ballad, the ghost’s name is William, though his lover’s name is now Lenore. When Lenore discovers that her love has not returned with the rest of the king’s army, she is so distraught that she blasphemes against God and wishes for death. That night, William arrives on horseback and tells Lenore he means to carry her off to be married before the break of day. Eagerly, Lenore jumps up behind him on the horse and they ride at a terrifying pace through the night. Willam proclaims “die Todten reiten schnell” (“the dead travel fast”), a line that Bram Stoker would later quote in his vampire novel Dracula. The lovers reach the churchyard just as the sun comes up, and the horse’s rider is revealed to be not William but skeletal Death with his scythe. Lenore dies surrounded by the churchyard’s ghosts, in punishment for her blasphemy and her reckless devotion to the dead. But the final line gives hope that her soul may go to heaven.
“The Skeleton Priest” by Charlotte Dacre
Charlotte Dacre is perhaps best known (when known at all) for her 1806 Gothic novel Zofloya, but a year previously she published a collection of poems titled Hours of Solitude. In this collection is the poem “The Skeleton Priest,” yet another incarnation of the ghostly bridegroom as cautionary tale. In the poem, which you can read online here, a woman named Irene has set out in the middle of a stormy night to elope with her lover Orlando. As Irene rushes along, another woman appears to her, covered in blood and holding a skull. This ominous figure warns Irene that if she continues on her journey, it may end in her death—adding that Orlando was actually already married and has committed a grave sin. Irene dismisses the specter’s words and hurries to Orlando, who brings her by boat to a cavern for the wedding ceremony. Upon their arrival, the priest performing their nuptials reveals himself to be a skeleton and announces that Irene has married not Orlando but Death himself.
The Dybbuk by S. Ansky
We’ve seen English and German examples so far, but how about Yiddish? The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds is a famous play written for the Yiddish theater by Jewish playwright S. Ansky. It premiered at the Elyseum Theatre in Warsaw in 1920 and has since been adapted into opera, ballet, and film, most notably the 1937 classic Yiddish film by Michał Waszyński. The story draws on legends of the dybbuk, a malicious spirit from Jewish folklore that possesses the living. In this tale, a young woman named Leah was betrothed before her birth to the son of her father’s close friend, Khanan. But when Leah’s father announces that he intends to marry Leah to another man, Khanan drops dead. On her wedding day, the ceremony is disrupted when Leah shoves her groom away and shouts out in a man’s voice: “You buried me!” Leah has been possessed by Khanan’s dybbuk, and he cannot be exorcized until justice has been restored. Ultimately, a rabbinic court absolves Leah’s father of his vow and exorcizes the dybbuk in a dramatic ceremony. But Leah acknowledges that Khanan is the man she truly loves and leaves her living bridegroom behind to join Khanan in death.
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
There are plenty of modern examples of this trope, as well. One of my favorites is a historical fantasy novel I reviewed on this blog several years ago: The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. This novel draws on the real-life cultural practice of ghost marriages—a Chinese custom in which one or both parties in the marriage are deceased, usually for the purpose of continuing the lineage of someone who died without children, creating symbolic ties between two families, or placating an unhappy spirit. In the novel, the son of the wealthy Lim family dies a sudden and mysterious death and the Lims reach out to the genteel but impoverished Li family about providing their daughter as a ghost bride for the deceased. Though the position would mean financial stability for life, Li Tan is understandably reluctant to marry a dead man. Then her ghostly would-be groom begins to haunt Li Tan in her dreams, and she realizes she may not be given a choice.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
We’ve talked a lot about ghostly grooms who tempt or entrap their living brides, but what are the ghostly brides up to? Well there’s one in Cassandra Khaw’s 2021 horror novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth. The specter that haunts the Heian-era manor that serves as this story’s setting is a type of spirit from traditional Japanese folklore called ohaguro-bettari, which literally means “full of blackened teeth.” The moniker refers to the fashion in Heian-era Japan for married women to blacken their teeth with an ink made from vinegar and iron filings, beginning on their wedding day. The ohaguro-bettari traditionally appears as a faceless ghost in a bridal kimono, whose only feature is that distinctive black smile. In Khaw’s novella, the titular ghost has a tragic backstory: when her groom died on the way to the wedding, she asked to be buried alive in the foundations of the new house that was to be their home. Her sacrifice would keep the house standing for as long as it took for him to return to her. But the young woman gets lonely down in the dark, and seeks out other victims to keep her company.
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
Lastly, there’s another ghostly bride in the upcoming debut YA horror novel by Trang Thanh Tran, She Is a Haunting, which comes out February 28. The novel is set in Vietnam, where Jade’s father is fixing up a French colonial house whose complicated past is entangled with their family’s. Jade resents having to spend the summer helping make the broken-down house fit to become a fashionable bed & breakfast; she resents how out of place she feels in the country where her parents were born; but most of all, she resents the father who abandoned her and her siblings and mother several years ago. But that resentment gives way to genuine fear as Jade starts having encounters in the house with a ghostly bride who wears traditional Vietnamese garments and utters ominous warnings like “Don’t eat.” I’ve only just started reading my review copy, so I can’t tell you much more about that ghostly bride now, but keep an eye out for future posts about the book!
Where else have you encountered ghostly brides and bridegrooms in literature? Is there a particular type of ghost bride/bridegroom folklore in your culture? Let me know in the comments! And feel free to share what you’re reading for Valentine’s Day.