DOOM INVOKERS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 7

DOOM INVOKERS

POWER QF CURSES

FAMOUS CASES RECALLED

THE INFAMOUS ELFRIDA

: While ignorance and superstition ; persisted there was a fixed and pathetic \ belief in the power of curses.. The belief was encouraged by the medieval Church, and used extensively for the protection of its properties and the ' comfort of its prelates. But the authority to pronounce a doom-invoking ; curse was not restricted to monks and bishops; anybody possessing a grievance or suffering an injury was entitled to-put air individual or a family under tho ban, and some characters in ■ history, notably Thomas the Rhymer, made a speciality „f the practice, says a writer in the. Melbourne "Age." It is remarkable that for many centuries tho masses of the people firmly believed- in the efficacy of these curses. Those pronouncing them had all the advantage. They were not restricted as to time for the fulfilment of their grisly prophecies,, and. if their predictions were unfulfilled there was nobody to scoff at them. If, however, soon or late, the. family concerned suffered misfortune, its troubles were regarded as conclusive proof of the working of the curse. As in days of continuous warfare and "frequent epidemics, of avarice . and cruelty and brigandage family fortunes fluctuated sharply, and life was short and perilous, there seemed to be abundant circumstantial confirmation. Some of the famous curses' are assembled in a volume recently published by Skefrington and Son, London. The author, Mr. Elliott O'Donnell, seems intent on showing that the curses were in due course, fulfilled, but belief on the part of the reader is contingent upon acceptance of ghosts on horseback, skulls that scream, and horned spirits that i;ise out of the waters, to say nothing of worms who .dispose of. the problem of accommodation1 by wind-* ing themselves around hills and speechmaking phantoms. This is asking rather too much of the modern sceptic, and it is too severe a strain of the imagination, besides an outrage on one's sense of justice, to'suggest-'that;-be-cause one of the Erskines of Mar seized the Abbey of Gambuskenneth in 1571, and thereby incurred the wrath of the Abbot, a curse uttered by him should not have spent itself'until 1822. CURSE OF ST. DUNSTAN. The book, nevertheless, is interesting in the historical sense, and. as a further illustration of the manners and customs of our forbears in the dark and nearly dark ages. . One of the most arresting of the stories revolves around the curse of St. Duustan, and that castle of shuddering repute, Uife, associated with the infamous Elfnda, who lived her evil life in the tenth century. ' . - 'Elfrida was daughter of Orgarius, iarl of Devon, who commenced to .build Tavistoek Abbey. ' She was of such surpassing beauty" that, despite the difficulty of communications in those days, all England rang with her praises, and knights came in droves to seek her.-hand in marriage. ■ Edgar the Peaceable was on the throne, and he was a widower. Having heard of the wondrous beauty of Elfrida he dispatched 'his favorite, Earl AtheV wood, to investigate "with a view to matrimony." Athelwood was 'staggered by the beauty .of the damsel, and he became infatuated. Before he had completed his errand, the two had plighted their troth. It was now necessary to deceive the King. The young. Ear! therefore reported .to his monarch that the stories of Elfrida'a beauty were grossly exaggerated, and, pretending that he wished to marry her for the sake of her vast fortune, sought Edgar's approval of the union. The. King consented; and Athelwood and Elfrida were marired. But His Majesty's suspicions were aroused; and he determined to see Elfrida himself. Athelwood and Elfrida arranged that when he arrived the bride should make herself as ugly as possible. The prospect of a King as suitor was, however, too much for her bhe broke her promise, and when the King arrived, clothed in her most magnificent robes. She looked what the modern young man would call "stunning. It was not long before Elfrida and Edgar, in conspiracy, arranged for the murder of Athelwood, and, thore being no detectives in those days to make inconvenient inquiries, the King rode off with his beauty to make her Queen. CURSE PRONOUNCED. It is not certain whether Athelwood cursed his murderers before he died or whether the monks of Tavistock acted on his behalf. But a curse was duly pronounced, and disaster followed ending in the extinction of the Royal house. Edgar died aged.32 years, leaving Edward, the son of his earlier marwage, and Ethelred, Elfrida's son. The widow commenced immediately to plot for the deposition of Edward for-the benefit of Ethelred, but found herself opposed by the, powerful Dunstan. Corfe Castle, where she lived, became tne centre of crime, capped by the murder of Edward, a youth of 29, when he came to visit Ethelrea. Elfrida herself is strongly suspected of " having plunged the dagger into the younf King's back, and when' Ethelred u£ braided her, she stripped him arid flayed him with wax-tapers. He became King however, and when Dunstan placed the Royal diadem on his head, instead of blessing the monarch, he pronounced on him and his people a terrifying curse. Not content with that •Uunstan cursed also the infamous Elfrida ana Corfe Castle. c, y™?a :>**« the Danes'invaded England, plundering and murdering, and the people had no difficulty in re- ■ garding the visitation as part of the fulfilment of Dunstan's curse: Elfrida atter increasing her catalogue of crimes retired to a convent and aied But the ban on Corfe Castle remained. Centuries later King John, the "devil incarnate," committed some of his diabohcal outrages there, and later still the deposed Edward 11, was imprisonti, a* fOUI place hy oraer of another demon woman, Isabella. Until the time of the civil war, the effects of the curse can be traced by the patient and imaginative historian. Then following a final act of treachery,' the castle was reduced to ruins, and has never been rebuilt. HEAVEN'S WRATH. survived for hundreds of years was that imposed in the ninth century Ty King Edmund after Lis defeat by the invading Danes. When his army scat over thrfv EdmUnd Md Before his captors drag ned couples' who should venture to £e°d S «£ h™S*- EQmund was canonised and to his memory King Canute KrfnT 11"*61 * hOpiDg t0 atone ?or trv™T n S 6?\ trated b? Canute's counl7n?" ? U* the pe °Ple o£HHeo =™c firmand until a hundred years ago no newly-mamed couples could be prevailed upon to cross Gold Bridge,