Ozark Magic and Folklore

by Vance Randolph

The Ozark region of Missouri and Arkansas has long been an enclave of resistance to innovation and "newfangled" ideas. Many of the old-time superstitions and customs have been nurtured and kept alive through the area's relative isolation and the strong attachment of the hillfolk to these old attitudes. Though modern science and education have been making important inroads in the last few decades, the region is still a fertile source of quaint ideas, observances, and traditions.
People are normally reticent about their deepest beliefs, especially with outsiders. The author, however, has lived in the Ozarks since 1920 and has long since been a student of Ozark life—and a writer of a number of books and articles on various aspects of the subject. Through casual conversations rather than by direct questioning, he has been able gradually to compile a singularly authentic record of Ozark superstition. His book contains a vast amount of folkloristic material, including legends, beliefs, ritual verses and sayings and odd practices of the hillpeople, plus a wealth of general cultural data. Mr. Randolph discusses weather signs; beliefs about auspicious times for planting crops, butchering hogs, etc.; prenatal influence in "marking" babies; backwoods beauty treatments; lucky charms, omens and auguries; courtship jinxes, love potions, etc.; dummy suppers; and numerous other customs and convictions—many racy and amusing, others somewhat grisly or spooky.
Here you'll meet and learn about the yarb doctor who prepared curious remedies of herbs and odd concoctions; power doctors who use charms, spells, and exorcism to effect cures; granny-women (mountain midwives); "doodlebuggers" and witch wigglers who find water with the aid of divining rods; "conjurefolk" and Holy Rollers; witches and goomer doctors; clairvoyants and fortune-tellers; plus the ordinary finger-crossing, wish-making citizens of the area. The general reader as well as the specialist in particular fields of cultural anthropology, etc. will truly enjoy this lively survey of lore and practice—a little-known but fascinating slice of American life.
Its gentle humor takes the reader into the hills with the author. The book deserves a place in any general collection of Americana and in all collections of folklore," U.S. QUARTERLY BOOKLIST. "A veritable treasury of backwoods custom and belief… [ a ] wealth of circumstantial detail and cultural background," Carl Withers, N.Y. TIMES.

Genres: History, Folklore, Nonfiction, Witchcraft, Anthropology, Occult, American History

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It was sent to me by a friend who found it "too creepy" to continue reading. My mother's family are from the Ozarks, and have been there for ages. So, I started out with an interest before I even cracked the cover. The stories are told by a man who seems to have married an Ozark girl, but was still considered an outsider. Many of the stories are quite humorous, some are sad, and some are a little shocking. Quite a few are creepy, too. Awesome book. Would never part with my copy of it.

[Granny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this book very much. It is so information dense that I have to take breaks from it to digest it all (but that's a good thing).

The author is an outsider to the culture, and he is candid about the occasions when the people of the area would refuse to go further in discussing a topic with him. I appreciate it so much that he chose not to embellish when those gaps came up. The main area where his status as an outsider interferes with his ability to receive information from the people who live there is when the topic of witchcraft came up. No one in a culture such as this will openly admit seeking out a witch; nor speak well of witchcraft, to an outsider. So this chapter was disappointing but not surprising.

Otherwise, the book was an excellent look at traditional beliefs of the area. It is remarkable that he was able to build a level of trust with the locals to get as much information as he did, clearly he was not judgmental with them, for the fear is always that "city people" will see you as ignorant and superstitious, rather than understand that much of this lore is respected as a link between you and your ancestors.

This book reaffirms my belief in the continuity of magical practice between "back hills" cultures within the United States despite their isolated circumstances prior to about 1950. It is definitely worth reading, if you are interested in folk magic.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb collection written by a master of language and customs. I came to the Ozarks and the University of Arkansas fifteen years after the author passed away, but his stories and his reputation live on.

If you're interested in the way language travels and stories are preserved for generations, this is the book for you. Whether your interest is scholarly (dialect studies, for example) or popular reading, you'll find much to appreciate here.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ran across Vance Randolph while looking for an old book on Appalachian witchcraft that I had once upon a time. Vance ditched out on school as a kiddo and wrote for several newspapers, eventually returning to get some sort of fancy degree from somewhere or whatever. But who cares about that--the important thing about Vance Randolph is he moved deep into the Ozarks and devoted the better portion of his life to documenting Ozarks culture and belief, which was quickly vanishing in the face of highways, radio and the homogenizing and consumerizing force of "modernization."

Vance records with wit, humor and compassion hundreds of beliefs and superstitions about the details of life and death (and beyond). The book is separated into rough categories ("ghost stories" "courtship and marriage" "power doctors" etc), each containing a jumble of aphorisms, spells, beliefs and folklore.

As much as possible, Vance lets his sources speak for themselves--the book is almost entirely anecdotally based, with a few sources, mostly from newspaper articles in the Ozarks, thrown in for good measure.

The only thing keeping this book from four stars is the lack of any anthropological or systemic approach to the folklore and belief--patterns appear readily enough throughout the book's spells, beliefs and superstitions that one could easily paint a fantastic, rich and accurate metaphysical portrait of the early 20th century Ozarker (Ozarkian? Ozarkite?).

However, the book is an excellent primer on a sadly-vanished aspect of Ozarks culture and a repository for still-useful folklore and wisdom.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vance Randolph meticulously documented the customs and practices of Ozarkers, both their dialect and, in this book, their superstitions and magical practices. It's an interesting read to get a glimpse of a culture that's now mostly gone, as modernization was beginning to take hold in the Ozarks even during the time Randolph was writing this.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's funny - while I appreciate the trove he's collected, Vance doesn't seem (or won't admit) that he believes any of it. And I think that part of the time, the Ozark folks are just screwing around with him!

[Brook Olsen]

Very interesting!

[Dex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting look into what may be a disappearing culture in the U.S., the isolated country of the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri. This book details the folk beliefs and traditions of an impoverished people with strong tendencies to the preternatural who are also the keepers of a generations-long tradition of folk medicine. The chapters I found most fascinating were the chapters on weather signs, courtship and marriage, animals and plants, herbal remedies, and death and burial customs. Tip of the hat to Vance Randolph, the author, who selflessly lived among the Ozarks for months as an outsider and recorded an oral tradition onto paper so this knowledge doesn't disappear with the culture and its people, the "hillfolk" as the author describes them. This is a good anthropological portrait.

[Russ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic! I got it in Arizona almost as a joke, but it's really grown on me the more I've read it. There is no filler, just tale after tale, superstition after superstition... Being written in the 1940s, it is much closer to the sources than anything written today could hope to be (lots of the superstitions and stories come from folks who lived during the Civil War era).

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had potential, but the format smothered it. It’s not very exciting to read whole paragraphs of superstitions that take one sentence to explain each. If you do this, this will happen. If you have this problem, doing this will fix it. One old-timer says this can cure a stomachache, but this other one says that’s horseshit and you have to do this other thing. Ex: « if your wife has bad kidneys, you need to have sex with her ASAP. If a cucumber is shrimpy it was probably planted by someone who’s infertile. ». It did not help that I kind of felt like this dude was making fun of these people half the time.

[Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've really only read part's of this, its not much for straight reading but its got a lot of interesting superstitions for the area like one where a girl takes a stone from the bottom of a stream wraps a lock of her hair around it and puts it back in the water to make her hair glossy, and if your right elbow aches on a thursday it means two weeks of rain starting tuesday. The weirdest part are the ghost stories from this region, they're kind of "wacky" and anti-climatic. And I use the word wacky in the sense that people who consider themselves to be "wacky" use it to describe themselves, if that makes any sense.

[Oakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an extensive laundry list of all the superstitions and practices of the hill-people from the Ozark region in 1947. It has many different remedies, directions on how to divine water, ways to put spells on lovers, predict the weather and how to put a soul at rest. It even has some local ghost stories. Most of these beliefs are mystifying, i.e. "The woman who throws an eggshell into a fire on May 1st and sees a drop of blood on that shell will not live to see another may day." Downsides are the author's condescending and monotonous, dry tone. Still, it let's you in on a mentality that's lost in time.

[Verity Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing collection of folk superstitions from the Ozarks. In many cases, the British/Scottish ancestry of the hillfolk is clear in the superstitions that have been passed down from generation to generation in America. This book was written in the 1940s, based on information collected for years previous to that, and consequently the "living memory" of the contributors reaches all the way back to the Civil War. A fascinating look at human nature.

[Shana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't expect a thorough academic examination of the whys and the wherefores of Ozark Folklore. However, it is an extremely valuable compilation of the beliefs of the region on the verge of modernity. Randolph believed that these superstitions were at risk of extinction and many I have never heard before. But I gotta say, more than a few still survive. This was an extremely enjoyable read that I intended to dip into throughout the summer; I ended up reading the whole dang thing.

[Rod Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got interested in this because my paternal grandparents were from the Ozarks. I had several dollars of credits from Amazon that were about to expire so I got the Kindle download. I came across a few things that I had heard from them when I was a child. It is a glimpse into another time and place.

[A.R. Beckert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a fan of anything interesting, unusual, and well-credited. I heard enough good things to get this on the list and I'm very glad I did. Hoping I'll get to use some of these for inspiration. Took me right back to my time spent in the South!

[Trinette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This caught my eye on a library display. Turns out I had read this before, so I just skimmed through it. Mildly amusing, especially since I grew up on the edge of the Ozarks.

[Madly Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good.

[Stephanie Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love local folklore and this book is packed with it. It's great!

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my most favorite books on american folklore that includes folk magic, medicine, and tales of witchcraft, shapeshifters and ghosts in the Ozarks. Awesome resource, genuine, authentic stuff.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want to learn about Ozark magic and folklore don’t read this book. This book is outdated and not informational. This book tells you more about the people who live in the Ozarks more than anything. This book is just an author going from house to house talking to white, ignorant, and uneducated Christians, just small towns people scapegoating and making shit up the entire book. I was hoping to learn about the folklore, cryptids, and general magic/energy of the land I inhabit but got none of that out of this book.

[Ricky Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story and we'll written

Since my mother grew up in the Ozarks before moving to VA. Her relatives was living in Casville and Shell Knob MO where we visited every year when I was younger . So reading this book was interesting and considered we live close to the Blue Ridge mountain and some of the stories was also told here.

[Amy Landkrohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great resource for those interested in Ozark folk magic and folklore beliefs. The author seems to have gone to great lengths to obtain his information as well. I came across several things my own great grandmother used to talk about when she was alive. And I still look for rocks with holes in them because she taught me they were lucky.

[The Irreverent Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dry. A little hard to read, but interesting if you are interested in the Ozarks, witchcraft, or folklore.

[Viki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories, some were downright funny. Intriguing history for this area.

[Ilena Holder · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating and spooky book!

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

lots of lore

[Sonora Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Hex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is filled with wonderful and interesting information. However, the author's writing skills leave much to be desired. This book reads like an Elementary school student's first essay, disjointed, rambling, and massive information dumping. The subject matter is divided into chapters by topic, but that appears to be the only cohesion within. So much potential lost. What a shame.

[Gwnhwyfer]

From the bibliographies of Ellen Dugan's Garden Witchery (2003) and Green Witch's Herbal (2009)