Violin Spirit

Jess IvieFollow

Date Collected

11-2017

Place item was collected

Logan, Utah

Informant

RaeLee Yancey

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

RaeLee is a 20 year old female, she grew up in Stanwood, Washington, moved to West Jordan, Utah her sophomore year of high school and now lives in Logan, Utah. She earned her high school diploma from Copper Hills high in West Jordan, an associates degree from Salt Lake Community College (which she earned in high school), and is currently working towards her bachelors in exercise science and international studies at Utah State University. She grew up in an LDS family. She is an extremely close friend of mine that I met my sophomore year of high school, and she was my roommate freshman year of college. She is a fun loving individual that comes off as quiet at first, but loves deep talks. She loves the outdoors, and music. She has been playing the violin since she was little, and was involved in advanced orquestra in high school.

Context

This story was told at an impromptu game night in the public lounge at my apartment around 9:40 pm. A mutual friend was visiting from Salt Lake, and we decided to have a game night to catch up. RaeLee, the visiting friend, and I were halfway through a game of phase 10 when we got bored and I asked the visiting friend about recent adventures, and he told me a ghost story. RaeLee followed with this story of her own. It was pretty quiet, because it was late and there were only 3 of us in the room. The collection context and context of use are very similar, because the storytelling started naturally. It would be told in peer social setting, later at night, and she said that she wouldn’t normally tell this story until someone either told another story first, or asked her about it.

Text

“It was probably when I was practicing violin in the laundry room, and I felt something tug my shirt, and I turned around, and there’s nothing there right, and there’s no one, and I’m like looking at the door and I’m like ayy. And it’s in a kind’ve secluded room right, and so I go back to playing and I feel it like -again- and I was like, and it was like, colder? And I just feel something there, you know what I mean? That was probably really- (gets quiet) weird.”

Texture

You could tell that this recountance was somewhat sacred/important to her, because she used a very soft tone. It wasn’t spooky when she told it, and there wasn’t an intent to scare (you could tell because she told the story quickly and curtly). It was told somewhat less casually than the visiting friend’s story, you could tell that it meant something to her. She was reluctant at first to tell the story, and seemed like she was telling it because of the social expectation to share. It was told at a quiet volume, partially because it was after quiet hours in the lounge and partially because of the nature of the story. She told it with medium energy. She seemed as if she was terrified when the event happened, and only slightly less now.

Course

Introduction to Folklore/English 2210

Instructor

Dr. Lynne S. McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G7: Appearances or Manifestations of Supernatural Beings or Revenants

EAD Number

1.1.2.10.25

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