Hello again everyone! This is part of my massive blog update/overhaul, so you have already listened to this episode, feel free to scroll through the photos and move to the next post! If this is your first time here, welcome! Featured Image from Image by carolround from Pixabay.
TRANSCRIPT:
Break out the marshmallows and spooky stories for the campfire -It’s time for Architecture, Coffee, & Ink!
30 second Intro song
Hello, this is Hollywood C. and you’re listening to Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. A podcast dedicated to introducing concepts, detailing out designs, and tackling the architecture you might not realize the meaning behind. I’m your hostess and I am here today to start introducing you to the designs that make you wonder why.
tag line: So I ask you to brew your coffee, grab your sketch book and pen, and let’s begin.
Welcome to show, old, new, and in-between listeners. This is actually the last part of a 3 part mini-series. Each topic stands alone, but each episode is slightly shorter than my normal episodes, and each one has been released at the same time, three days in a row. This episode is by listener request, and is going to be similar to the BONUS Halloween episode I released in October. Today, I am going to tell you tales of Cryptid Architecture-I genuinely hope that this fulfills your request. Quick trigger warning, this is scary stories about sapient architecture, missing villages, and more, so people’s death and the paranormal will be discussed. If this bothers you or triggers you any way, please see my normal episodes where it’s just architecture. While I won’t go into graphic details at any point, I want to make sure that everyone is comfortable and has an enjoyably time.
Cryptids are any creature, animal, or now architecture, that is not confirmed. With that in mind, we are taking the last day of 3 episode week to discuss architecture where the buildings are alive, missing, or somewhere in-between. Because this isn’t my normal show, I will not be surprised to find that many may want to skip this episode and either listen to the others released this week, or wait until next week, when we release our regularly scheduled program. But, if you are still here, sit back, grab your blankets and hold your coffee cups with both hands, as we learn just what do you do when the house chases you?
Baba Yaga is a creature filled with old magicks, depending on the myth, the legend, and the country, she changes from wild one, to mistress, to creature, but most often is a witch. She is called by many names, and variations, but each comes with a warning and a tale; approach with caution traveler, for say the wrong thing, or bend your tongue falsely around a word, and vengeance will be delivered swiftly. She is able to be both a source of information and guidance, and also could be a dangerous hag, bringing death and trickery. Currently, she calls Eastern Europe home, and roams the countryside riding a mortar, sweeping the air with a broom of moon-colored birch, and navigating with the pestle. She will sometimes have legions, or host spirits, and sometimes is connected with 2 sisters. And with the two her temper is often smoothed, and she can operate as a guardian for the life waters. But regardless of which job she is performing, whether she guides the heroes or steals children, she is undeniably a grotesque figure, with protruding bones, and sagging skin showing sharp features. Her eyes, deep and unyielding, set so in her head that she can pierce you with a glance. All of the items she carries has use, the mortar and pestle to grind the bones of those she consumes, but, those who complete the tasks she puts forward, may be rewarded with knowledge and advise.
Make no mistake, you cannot run, for her house? Is balanced on a set of chicken legs, and as you run, the tempo of the house stalking behind you keeps pace. Alive, all on its own, the only way to enter her quarters, is through a single trap door in the center of floor. The things that it parades as windows, are only eyes, and seem to come and go as they please, depending on the story and the teller. But those same legs that can hunt you down if you cross the Baba Yaga, are more often used to flee, preventing both escape from the witch’s home, and also prohibiting entrance. Surrounding the house, is the skulls of humans, atop their own bones that create the fence. But the thing is, this might be real. A cabin on legs exists in the same region of the world. Used by the Sami people we spoke about in previous episodes, a cabin balanced on the remains of tree stumps, with the roots clawing into the ground, prevents those unwelcome from coming in. Other references and examples from history can be found, either as used for funerals, or as a place to pay homage to deities and spirits that litter the area. How hard would it be, for witch to capture a deity to merge with the home? As fickle as the weather she controls, who’s to say she’d stop at one? So, if you are smart and pure of heart, seek her out to answer your questions, after you have completed a task or two. But if you fail you have been warn, your skull will be torn and your bones left only to for fence to adorn.
What do you do if the village goes missing?
This next tale is even worse, as the idea of a missing village has occurred multiple times throughout history. Included in urban legend are villages reached only through a single tunnel in Japan, an entire colony lost in a country only starting to kick off, a village seemingly abandoned-the residents evacuated in the middle of the night in China, and even a village in Ireland along the bay, where its own residents buried it and removed all traces to be found. But of these, none creep down the spine, quite like the urban legend of the abandoned Village of Angikuni Lake in Canada. A tale that’s validity remains in question, but I will tell the tale regardless. In 1930, Angikuni Lake Village lies along the shores of the Lake, housed along the rocks, but ripe with natural resources, caribou, and the Lake itself seemed to provide for the people who called it home. Rumored to be both friendly and welcoming to those who hunt and travel along the lakes banks.
One day in the winter, a man named Joe Labelle, arrives in a flurry to an office to report that the villagers have gone missing and the Mounted Police must come at once. As he weaves his tale, he speaks of graves emptied, of pets left to die, and food to rot. And left to stay suspended in time, is the natural clutter of the everyday. Clothes in the process of being mended, chores half done, and dolls left never to finish an untold play. The thing is, the truth is even more bizarre than the half weaved tale of tragedy and woe. In 1930 and 1931, references were made, citing the story of Lebelle, and giving the village slightly more realistic details. But in 1959, a man name Frank Edwards wrote three pages, changing multiple details and including no references for these changes. Then again, in 1976, an article was published starting the debate. A man named Dwight Whalen wrote the article, that would bring the story back to the forefront of everyone’s minds. And from there, podcasts began sharing details, and people found witnesses, and legends became the whispered rumors discussed only in the dead of night, conveyed in hushed voices over campfires and under blankets.
But our last tale has no validation, no sources, no references. I will tell it as it was told to me.
The house has no tragic backdrop to explain, and no urban legends. It remains similar to many stories, and often in the depths of the internet when I cannot sleep and dare to search I can only find the bare hints of common elements. Even now, it plagues my sleep, and I fear the occasional quiet moments that leave me alone with my thoughts for entirely too long. I came upon a house, first in a dream, where the walls cracked with something worse than rain, and the bones jangled underneath, packed in crawl spaces too small to retrieve. And the windows were so caked with dirt, and held by the weight of a thousand days of hard weather that they stuck too much to replace. Nothing happened in the dream, nothing but the staining of the yellow streamers surrounding the yard staining my mind’s eye as the last thing I could see. But I was convinced once I woke, that the house itself was calling me. No entities, no creatures, just the house.
Then on one day, I made a new friend. A friend who lived in another part of town, opposite where I lived, with my noisy dogs, warm lights, and cascading plants taking entirely too much and too little space in the garden at the same time. I was going to spend the night, my first sleepover, and when we pulled up, my heart sank, for it was the house. The same house plaguing me. They were so excited to share, both my parents and I love fixing up and renovating homes. So we toured while I prayed and thanked whomever was listening that at least my little sister was with the sitters at home. And the more I walked in, the further it pressed on, the wordless voice, pushing against me. It was the same hallway, connected to the same kitchen, with the weird stains, and creaking floorboards and too tall stairs. And though we were told to run and play, unable to breath we remained close to listen. To listen to how my friend’s parents confessed that remains were found in the very crawl space I imaged, while they were working on the house, which is why the yellow streamers surrounded the yard. That same horrible yellow-after all, the police want to make sure the crime scene is visible. The part that taints the story the most? Every so many years, since the house was built, the same events occur, the family all dies, with no witnesses, no suspects. And I know that it’s only a matter of time, before the house reaches back out to me, and I can no longer fight the lure of the dreams. One day, I know, those yellow streamers will be for me.
But once again a big thank you to all my listeners! This was a great recommendation, and I was extremely appreciative of the opportunity to share to a spooky story, actually, now that I think about it, all of my stories this week have been spooky-next week I will do a totally happy cultural landscape to make up for it. I know I say this every week, but please: Please rate and review. If you liked it, loved it, hated it, let me know. I love feedback, and hearing from everyone, and more importantly, sparking conversation. We again have a Facebook page and private group, both of which are under the same name: Architecture, Coffee, & Ink, which is again, pretty young a podcast. https://architectureink.design.blog/, is the website, Everything will be linked in the show notes. Remember that these are all mini-episodes this week, so not what we normally do here on the show. But as always,
May your coffee mugs be full, and your ink wells never run dry.
60 secs end song re-looped.
SOURCES:
“Angikuni Lake.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, June 21, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angikuni_Lake.
“Baba Yaga.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed July 17, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baba-Yaga.
“Baba Yaga.” Visit the main page. Accessed July 17, 2022. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Baba_Yaga.
Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed July 17, 2022. https://kids.britannica.com/students/assembly/view/224991.
“An Entire Irish Village Vanished and No One Knows Why.” Mysterious Universe. Accessed July 17, 2022. https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/12/an-entire-irish-village-vanished-and-no-one-knows-why/.
H, Jim. “Baba Yaga: The Scary Witch of Slavic Folklore.” Historic Mysteries, February 18, 2022. https://www.historicmysteries.com/baba-yaga/.
iStock, GaijinPot/, Wikicommons/ Pontafon, Istock, Istock/ Hayakato, and Aaron Baggett GaijinPot editor and cat/bunny lover. . “7 Terrifying Japanese Urban Legends Based on True Stories.” GaijinPot Blog, August 23, 2021. https://blog.gaijinpot.com/7-terrifying-japanese-urban-legends-that-are-based-on-true-stories/.
“Lake Anjikuni Village.” Unsolved Mysteries Wiki. Accessed July 17, 2022. https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Lake_Anjikuni_Village.
“The Vanishing Village of Angikuni Lake.” Skeptoid. Accessed July 17, 2022. https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4371.
