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Ghosts Along the Cumberland: Deathlore in the Kentucky Foothills
A fascinating collection of ghost stories, tales of the supernatural, death beliefs and death sayings that remain as a vestige of the part in south central Kentucky's "Pennyrile" region.
"This unique and extremely valuable book adds considerably to the area of folklore studies in the United States. The material which Montell obtained in his field work is superb."
--Don Yoder.
"This book is to be recommended to both folklorists and those non-folklorists who read folklore for enjoyment alone. It makes an important contribution to the study of deathlore and, it is to be hoped, will draw added attention to this multi-generic subject area."
--David J. Hufford, Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin.
"Professor Montell's book can well be viewed as a standard of a direct, articulate and cataloged approach for future study and implementation in the fields of folklore and oral history."
--Joan Perkal, Oral History Association Newsletter.
"The book gives fascinating accounts of death beliefs, death omens, folk beliefs associated with the dead, and in the major section, ghosts narratives. A fine combination of scholarship and chilling narration to be relished by firelight in an old deserted house in the hills."
--Book Forum.
"Professor Montell has arranged beliefs and experiences about death of a particular group of people in such a way that a whole new aspect of the people's lives comes to focus."
--Loyal Jones, The Filson Club HIstory Quarterly.
"This unique and extremely valuable book adds considerably to the area of folklore studies in the United States. The material which Montell obtained in his field work is superb."
--Don Yoder.
"This book is to be recommended to both folklorists and those non-folklorists who read folklore for enjoyment alone. It makes an important contribution to the study of deathlore and, it is to be hoped, will draw added attention to this multi-generic subject area."
--David J. Hufford, Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin.
"Professor Montell's book can well be viewed as a standard of a direct, articulate and cataloged approach for future study and implementation in the fields of folklore and oral history."
--Joan Perkal, Oral History Association Newsletter.
"The book gives fascinating accounts of death beliefs, death omens, folk beliefs associated with the dead, and in the major section, ghosts narratives. A fine combination of scholarship and chilling narration to be relished by firelight in an old deserted house in the hills."
--Book Forum.
"Professor Montell has arranged beliefs and experiences about death of a particular group of people in such a way that a whole new aspect of the people's lives comes to focus."
--Loyal Jones, The Filson Club HIstory Quarterly.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 2, 2025
This is two books in one. Death customs for parts one and two, and then ghost stories for part three. If you're me, part one was the highlight, and was well presented, but like any collection of motif-based stories, part three got a little redundant.
Fair warning that these stories and lore are based on oral history from the 50s/60s, from informants born as early as 1880, verbatim when possible, so there are definitely a few n-bombs and other offensive terms in here.
Fair warning that these stories and lore are based on oral history from the 50s/60s, from informants born as early as 1880, verbatim when possible, so there are definitely a few n-bombs and other offensive terms in here.
May 22, 2023
Even though the book is named Ghosts along the Cumberland you won’t reach the “ghost stories” till page 95 in part 3 of the book. Up till then you get death beliefs and death omens, they are interesting but ghost stories are why I went for the book. The actual ghost stories are very short but still interesting and the old pictures are enjoyable.
December 12, 2008
This book compiles "deathlore" in the isolated Pennyroyal region in south central Kentucky. It covers death omens, funeral customs and ghost stories and interactions with the spirit world. These stories are all first hand accounts compiled by the author and students of his at Western Kentucky University that were taken in the mostly taken down in the 1960's although most of these stories go much farther back than that. As an academic study on folk beliefs this was worth reading although as far as pure entertainment value I was disappointed.
I believe in omens. They are a carry over from the pagan beliefs of the British Isles but they are very personal and can often seem silly when being recounted to an outside party.
I believe in the supernatural, hauntings, ghosts or whatever you want to call this phenomenom but I also accept that in most cases people are just wrong and there is a "logical" explanation for what is happening. Also people exagerate to make the story sound better. Which is often made even worse when these stories are often told in second, third, fourth, etc person on down the line form and each person telling the story just adds more to make the story a little more entertaining. Besides that the stories are often lies from the very beginning.
I believe in omens. They are a carry over from the pagan beliefs of the British Isles but they are very personal and can often seem silly when being recounted to an outside party.
I believe in the supernatural, hauntings, ghosts or whatever you want to call this phenomenom but I also accept that in most cases people are just wrong and there is a "logical" explanation for what is happening. Also people exagerate to make the story sound better. Which is often made even worse when these stories are often told in second, third, fourth, etc person on down the line form and each person telling the story just adds more to make the story a little more entertaining. Besides that the stories are often lies from the very beginning.
March 24, 2009
Read it in a day. Not bad. Offers fifty different varieties of "death tokens".
October 8, 2008
According to the signs, everyone I know should have died several times already!
July 21, 2009
If you live in Kentucky, near it, or plan to visit this is a great book. It has ghost stories from every county in Kentucky. A great read if you can find it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews