Screaming skull
Shot from the 1958 film The Screaming Skull
GroupingSupernatural
Sub groupingObject
FolkloreEnglish folklore
First attestedc. 1600s
CountryEngland
HabitatHomes

A screaming skull is a paranormal object, a human skull which per legend speaks, screams, or otherwise haunts its environs. The legend is most found in England and other English-speaking regions.

The Bettiscombe screaming skull of Dorset, England, is attested at least as early as 1897 in the book The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain. That book details an alleged visit to Bettiscombe in 1883 by curiosity-seekers to investigate a skull which, according to legend, was of an African slave once owned by the owner of the house. The slave had supposedly died determined to be buried in his homeland, and any attempt to bury his skull elsewhere would cause the skull to scream aloud.[1]

Known skulls

In fiction

References

  1. John Henry Ingram (1897). The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain. Gibbings & Company, Limited. p. 342.
  2. "Legend of the Screaming Skull – Bettiscombe Manor". Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  3. Ingram, John Henry (1897). "Bettiscombe House". The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain. pp. 341–344.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Parkinson, Daniel. "Screaming Skulls – An Introduction". Mysterious Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  5. Frith, J. B. (John Benjamin) (1905). "Dick O' Tunstead". Highways and Byways in Derbyshire. Macmillan and Co., limited. p. 182.
  6. "Legend of the Screaming Skull". Real British Ghosts. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  7. "Calgarth Hall". Mysterious Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
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