Multo — the Tagalog word for ghost.
This started as a blog about ghosts — literal, fictional, and metaphorical. It’s become more generally a blog about aspects of the supernatural in literature and in folk culture. I write about folklore, ghost stories, weird fiction, and on occasion about movies or music. And sometimes I just write about reading and writing, or anything else that I feel like.
I hope when you come here that you find something new that you didn’t know about before. Enjoy.
Either ghosts are a metaphor for history, or history is a metaphor for ghosts.
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Check Out my Other Blogs:
Dark Tales Sleuth: Every so often I get an urge for literary sleuthing. Here’s where I post about my progress. My most recent project (completed!) to track down the original sources of the stories in the 1856 anthology of supernatural tales, Evening Tales for the Winter.
Ephemera: Translations of public domain Spanish language short stories, Punjabi folktales, some short stories I’ve written and other random stuff.
Follow @MultoGhost at Micro.blog to see a feed where I announce my latest blog posts across all my blogs.
Alternately, subscribe to my microblogging site Short Thoughts via RSS.
Guest Posts on other Sites:
Folklore articles I’ve written for the #FolkloreThursday blog.
Some articles originally written for the Non Stop Bhangra and Dholrhythms blogs: pieces about Punjabi music, culture and folklore, especially as they relate to Dholrhythms Dance Company and San Francisco’s Non Stop Bhangra monthly party. These articles are now on my other blog, Ephemera.
Image: Vasilisa at Baba Yaga’s hut, Ivan Bilibin, 1899. From the folktale Vasilisa the Beautiful. Source: Wikipedia
Multo (Ghost) 
I absolutely love your blog! My first novel was tangled up with a re-imagined versions of Scottish folk tales (and minor histories), and included visitations from ‘fairies’ – sith or ‘schie’, which in Scotland aren’t exactly the same as the little creatures with wings, but are something like ghosts or spirits of place. I was quite unacademic in this area, so it’s very inspiring to read all of the various myths you recount here.
Thanks! It’s so nice to know that I am reaching other people with similar interests. I like your blog too, and I definitely plan to find your first novel. Good luck with the work on your next one!
The first novel isn’t published yet – my lovely agent is in negotiations with a small press at the moment, though details will be up whenever I have them.
Keep up the good work here!
Good luck getting the first novel out, then — and please let us know when you do!
I’ll have to add a ghost story/novel to the winter break reading list. Any suggestions??
I read mostly short stories, so my first thought is Ghost Stories of An Antiquary, by M. R. James. It’s in Project Gutenberg.
Turn of the Screw, Henry James. That’s a classic, and when he wrote it his style hadn’t gotten quite as roundabout and elliptical as it eventually got. I don’t think it’s in Gutenberg, but I have an e-copy of it, so there must be e-versions available (free). Also, a new annotated print edition came out last year, I think. I’ve been meaning to go pick it up.
Speaking of Henry James, “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes” is my favorite short story of his — and it’s a ghost story. Etext available (free).
“Afterward” by Edith Wharton. Short story — my favorite of her ghost stories. Etext available, free. There is a print collection of her ghost stories out, as well: “The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton”
H.P. Lovecraft himself recommends House of Seven Gables, by Hawthorne. I picked up the Gutenberg edition (or maybe the Feedbooks one), but I haven’t started it. Lovecraft’s taste isn’t necessarily mine, but I like the Hawthorne that I’ve read…
And incidentally, Lovecraft’s criticism of the field, Supernatural Horror in Literature, is in Gutenberg, too…
Ghost Stories of Chapelizod is a short collection by Sheridan Le Fanu that’s pretty good. Most Le Fanu is pretty good, actually. In Gutenberg or Feedbooks.
If you can find Jack Cady collections, check him out. And I really liked Elwin Cotman’s Jack Daniels Sessions — those are two authors I wrote about in my post “Ghosts, History, Tradition”.
Ok. That should get you started 🙂
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have read Turn of the Screw before but not any of the others you have suggested, so I’ll get right on that in January. Hawthorne has written one of my favorite short stories of all time so perhaps I will start with him.
I’m so happy I found your blog via Freshly Pressed– it gives me the same shivery feeling I used to have when I was a kid reading the _Black Water_ anthologies that Alberto Manguel put together. As an adult I’ve found that feeling a lot harder to get, so it’s cool to find a place I can come back to when I need to feel… strange….
You are quite welcome. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you visit often 🙂
Congratulations on being freshly pressed! I loved that post. And your photos are beautiful. I miss that old scent. Sigh.
Thank you! Yes, old books have a wonderful fragrance. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
All those stories on your old comment tells me this is the kind of blog I was looking for. I hope you get plenty of followers from freshly pressed.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy the blog.
Congrats on being freshly pressed! Your writing is so deserving!
Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.
I found your blog via freshly pressed! It was nice to read your blog entry. I can sense that you’re a Filipino. I am one, too! And like you, growing up, my lolo and lola told me almost all kinds of stories ranging from ghost stories/aswang to their war experiences. 🙂
Welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed your reading. Yes, I am Filipina, though I was born in the U.S. …
I certainly found something I didn’t know before. Please keep posting more – your blog is interesting! Cheers
Thank you! I’m glad you like it. Cheers!
Hi I’m a storyteller. I would like to tell Hummingbird and Condor and will base it on your version. How can I acknowledge you? Multoghost? nzumel? your own name?
Hi David — Thank you for consulting my version of the story! Please acknowledge me as Nina Zumel, and if appropriate, please also mention my blog! Cheers, Nina
Thanks Nina I’m telling it as part of my project https://rammuseum.org.uk/around-the-world-in-88-tales/ – I think you’ll like it. I will acknowledge you and your blog.
Would you tell me about the source(s) you drew on for this story?
thanks for these writings, Nina. communication and interaction in modern times brings togather, like in a fun way.