Latest / Sasquatch & Sourdough / Ep. 51 | Wuthering Heights Ghost Story, Tolkien & Biblical Love | Haunted Moor Mysteries

Transcript

Ep. 51 | Wuthering Heights Ghost Story, Tolkien & Biblical Love | Haunted Moor Mysteries · Sasquatch & Sourdough

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are stories we carry that don't fit neatly into the world we were told was real.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Moments that feel strange, unsettling, or unexplainable, yet somehow meaningful.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sasquatch and sourdough is a place to bring those stories.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here we explore the unexplained, the supernatural, folklore, history, and high strangeness through the lens of faith, scripture, and discernment.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not to sensationalize the unknown, but to examine it slowly, thoughtfully, and with the reminder that God is present even in the most unexpected places.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is weirdly encouraging content for curious minds, faithful hearts, and anyone who's ever felt like the world is weirder than they ever imagined.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Sasquatch and Sourdough.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Some stories wait for the right moment to find you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: They linger in the hush of winter woods, in the mist that rolls across moors, in the smell of rain on stone.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some stories follow you home like a quiet companion or a shadow that refuses to leave the edge of the firelight.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I began this Valentine's Day week, thinking I would walk the moors with Wuthering Heights for this episode.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: The wind whipping across the hills, the dark stone of Top Withens, the emptiness that echoes longing beyond the grave.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I would read the story of Catherine and Heathcliff and let it remind me of the fierce, restless power of love, the kind that doesn't rest even in death.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the paths twisted, as paths often do, and in the turning I found another story.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: A story by a river, where leaves glimmered like gold in sunlight, and water carried songs that did not belong to me, but felt like they had always belonged to the world.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: A story of love that does not haunt but delights.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: A story of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So tonight we will wander.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: We will wander between moor and river, between shadow and hearth, between the love that lingers like a ghost, and the love that rests quietly in the body and the heart.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere along the way, we might see something move in the corner of our vision: a figure on the moor, a whisper in the trees, a presence that feels both strange and familiar.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And scripture, as always, has something to say about the strange.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 19:1.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Even the wild, untamed places are not silent.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: They are singing, they are speaking, and sometimes they are telling stories that refuse to be contained.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So settle in.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sit by the fire if you can, pour a cup of something warm, and let's wander the moors and forest together, listening for the stories that wait just out of sight.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had no plan to do a Valentine's Day episode, but as I was working on the mystery episode for like the past couple weeks, I kind of put it on hold because I kept coming up with like, I just kept finding new things about mystery that I kind of wanted to talk to you guys about a little bit deeper.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of got off that trail and I felt so led to um I started reading this book a long time ago um about Tom Bombadil, and it's a fantastic book.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually reading it on um I just got I just finished it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it was on Audible, and it's called In the House of Tom Bombadil.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it's fantastic.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely highly recommend it.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's by C.R.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Wiley, and it's just great.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a Tolkien fan, you're gonna love it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he he kind of and also remember like Wuthering Heights is just now coming out too.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're they're revamping Wuthering Heights, and for some reason they're calling it um like the greatest romance of all.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So clearly they've never actually read, I guess the producers have never read Wuthering Heights because it is not lovely and romantic at all.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is terrifying and sad.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what they're thinking, but so I kind of got into this whole like you know, love theme and all that jazz, but I digress.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want this to be like a typical Valentine's Day episode.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let's go look at Cupid and where did his lore come from?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit definitely just derailed my all of my mystery plans, and now here I am doing a Valentine's Day episode.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're new here, I'm so glad that you've tuned in.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you were excited to see Wuthering Heights and uh, you know, Tolkien in the same title, because that's really that's what we do around here.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's just anything strange and and weird that the spirit leads to.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you are new here, uh you can definitely, I always like to tell people, please find me on Instagram.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best way to get an idea of what's happening outside of the podcast because I'm not at all consistent.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I do not produce things weekly or on a certain day.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's very inconsistent when I can actually get around to doing things and giving the time that it deserves to produce something, you know, that's actually nice and not rushed.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely find me there.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can send an email with feedback or maybe a prayer request or you know, anything, any thoughts or you know, kind of comments to sasquatch and sourdough at gmail.com.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we also have a really cool website with an encounter map, and you can put in your own encounters there, sasquatch and sourdough.com.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that is everything.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And also another thing, I can't remember if I told you guys in the last episode, but I'm doing something different with the YouTube channel.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's a playlist that is basically like um just kind of cool, like sacred ambient uh I'm kind of going that content-wise that direction.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like an ambient sort of chill uh playlist, and I really am enjoying creating that stuff, so definitely check out the YouTube channel.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: One final housekeeping update.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I did want to welcome my second listener from Motherwell Scotland.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in Scotland, in a place called Motherwell, there are at least two people listening.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just excited.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited about that.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that Motherwell Scotland, I'm not even gonna look it up and look at it.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like in my mind, it is just this beautiful country, rolling, lush countryside.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I really kind of hope also that it's like the dun dog of Scotland.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you guys have to email me and let me know because I'm just gonna keep referring to you as like my Scottish listeners, kind of like the the Scottish play, how we don't say what it is.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So from now on, you guys are my Scottish listeners.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome the second person from Motherwell.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so yeah, like I said, um I didn't um I didn't really plan this episode, but it just kind of happened and came together, and I'm really excited about it.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna dig into Wuthering Heights and uh and the and the love story of Tom Bombadil and Gold Goldberry.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just absolutely that book was amazing.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope it's like a good like palette cleanser.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous out on the internet and hopefully not in your world, but if you are at least spending any time on the internet, it's just it's a show.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want content.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to produce content that's not a part of that.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to be just kind of different.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully this will cleanse your palate um and get you feeling a little bit cozy and maybe a little scared.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, here we go.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: There are love stories that warm a home, and then there are love stories that haunt the land.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Emily Bronte's Wathering Heights belongs to the latter.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Catherine and Heathcliff do not love one another in a way that brings rest.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Their love is possession without peace, to say the least.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Longing without forgiveness, it consumes rather than it heals, and it does not die with the body.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so kind of like I said in the cold intro, um, they have decided to remake Wuthering Heights and make it a, you know, some sort of new movie.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I am very skeptical uh because of just the promotion that I've seen, where it's like, let's just make it like sort of the smuddy, I don't know, love story that is not at all Wuthering Heights.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Please read Wuthering Heights before you watch that movie.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: If if that is your jam, if that's something that you're interested in.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge like literary nerd because that was basically when you major in poetry in high school and college, that's what you that's what you do.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I love Gothic horror, I love Gothic literature, I love all that stuff.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I spent like pretty much months studying Wuthering Heights.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, definitely not a like love story romantic, you know, ooey gooey.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is terrifying, terrifyingly sad, and yet beautiful and haunting.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's beautiful imagery.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely encourage you to read Wuthering Heights.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I mean, if we're gonna talk about it for like a Valentine's Day episode, what better non-love story than that?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what I was interested in finding out is any, is of course, is there any weird strangeness, high strangeness happening in the area um, you know, that the Bronte's were from.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And wouldn't you know it, there is there's an amazing amount of lore surrounding Wuthering Heights, and it's not even just like Catherine's ghost, it's amazing.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here we go.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see here.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I found a website, it's called Haunted Hayworth in the UK, and this is called, they have a really good article called The Wild Hunt at Wuthering Heights.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Nestled amid the stark beauty of the Yorkshire moors, Top Withens stands as a testament to the enduring legacy of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: This desolate farmhouse, believed to be the inspiration for the novel's haunting setting, draws literary pilgrims from around the world.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, beyond its connection to Bronte's masterpiece, Top Withens harbors tales that veer into the realm of the supernatural, uh, intertwining folklore with the fabric of literary history.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's completely on brand for us.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then it questions, is it haunted?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if we go further down, and I'm gonna I'm gonna link this in the show notes, um, it says frequ frequently references to um it being haunted support themselves with a quote from a 1922 Yorkshire Evening Post article about an ex-soldier who occupied the farm building at the time.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: The quote as given runs, a man can't be lonely at Wuthering Heights, often with words describing the tone as ominous or such like.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: But the full quote goes on to say, uh, quote, a man can't be lonely at Wuthering Heights.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Scarce a day passes, but some Bronte's admirers visit it.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not quite the ominous tone implied, it goes on to say.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, when the ex-soldier is questioned by visitors to the site about possible um spectral encounters, he deflects these questions with a sense of humor to his companions.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jerry and Nelson, a dog and one and a one-eyed fowl, suggesting a light-hearted interaction with the supernatural curiosity of the visitors.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that guy had a good sense of humor.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, so then it but then there's also something that is a little bit more not so much sinister, but obviously like there's a tone of something lurking.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: It says the atmosphere, the atmosphere shifts when the conversation turns to the hunter's wind, a phenomenon distinct from the playful banter about phantoms.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: The soldier narrates a chilling experience.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: He get he says, one day, he recalls, I had my brother staying with me.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I brought Tommy, no, Tommy is the ex-soldier's horse, um, up from the village and let him loose in the field.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly, my brother, who was in the kitchen, shouted and asked what Tommy was doing.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I looked out the window and there was Tommy lying in the field.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then my brother exclaimed, Listen, and we heard the noise of horse hooves beating on the ground.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: This sound, linked to the ancient superstition of the hunter's wind, is believed to foretell death, a legend that the soldier admits having encountered multiple times.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's an also, like there's a really cool drawing, like portrayal that um when I when I link this, you'll see it.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it's tied to uh it says the account of Hunter's Wind at Top Withens often offers a fascinating connection to the broader tapestry of mythical lore, particularly the wild hunt and Gabriel's hounds.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: In various cultures, the wild hunt, led by figures such as Herla Odin, um and other fit like spectral figures, is a procession seen as an omen of misfortune or a harbinger of death.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: The legend of Gabriel's hounds associated with the sounds of the hunt's ghostly hunting dogs, similarly forebodes doom.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then it goes on to say the 1922 newspaper article thus paints Top Withens not just as a literary landmark, but as a confluence of folklore and spectral phenomenon.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: The hunter's wind was with its ominous port portance, adds a layer of mystique to the already enigmatic location.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I want to go there.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: I want to snoop around.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Topwithens.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Walkers on the paths between Hayworth Parsonage and Topwithens sometimes speak of seeing a lone figure, tall, live, and purposeful, moving through the mist toward the ruins, described by some as the gray lady, that location storyteller or that local storytellers associate with Emily Bronte's spirit.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Others report strange activity back in Hayworth itself, where an old inn seems to hold restless energy tied to the Bronte family's history.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So this is from the website spookyisles.com, and it goes on to question whether or not the Bronte's are actually haunting Hayworth.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: I hope Hallworth.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, that looks like Hayworth, but I'm probably saying it wrong.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a break, I'm from Baltimore.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: So this account is The Gray Lady of Hayworth.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, a little backstory.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: It says the Bronte sisters are most famous for the impact that they have on the literature world worldwide.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, we don't have to really from their quiet little West Yorkshire home, the windswept wuthering moorland village of Hayworth, they wrote books that changed the world.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: The one sister whose hauntings are most often associated with the village of Haworth, Hayworth, Haworth, Haworth is Emily.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: In 1974, a local newspaper reported that the Toby Jug Cafe, oh my gosh, that sounds so much fun, in on West Lane in Haworth was the site of an annual appearance of a gray lady haunting.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: The owner, Mr.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Keith Aykroyd, claimed that this was the spirit of Emily Bronte.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Mr.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Aykroyd had requested an exorcism from a local priest.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was selling the property, and he claimed he was worried that stories of a ghost might put off potential buyers.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, probably.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the priest's uh superiors refused permission to carry out the exorcism.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: He described the ghost as appearing in his living room, downstairs behind the cafe.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: She took the form of a young woman dressed in Victorian costume, wearing a bonnet and carrying a wicker basket.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: She smiled and giggled before ascending a staircase that no longer existed.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Having wandered around upstairs, she then came back downstairs, walked out into the street, and disappeared.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Was this the spirit of Emily Bronte?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then the writer goes on to say personally, if I was selling a property and it was haunted by the spirit of Emily Bronte, I wouldn't seek an exorcism.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Of course not, because you want to make money off of it.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm, you guys know how I feel about that.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, other reports of the gray lady describe the apparition as small and frail.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Emily was the tallest of the three sisters.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Further, Mr.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Acker's description of the smiling, giggling young woman does not match any description of Emily Bronte I have come across.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because she wrote Emily, she wrote Mothering Heights.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine her being like just skipping around with a basket.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the ghost lures surrounding death anniversaries, death anniversary hauntings would suggest that such a haunting would take place at a location of some importance to the spirit concerned.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: There is no evidence that this property held any significance to Emily Bronte.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this guy kind of debunks that.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then he goes on to talk about weathering weirdness.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, apart from anything else, it seems that Emily did not particularly like going into the village because she was a homebody.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: The place she was most at home was on the wild moors behind Haworth.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: It would appear that it is here that many folk have encountered her ghostly wanderings, a century and a half and more since her death.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Illustrated London News Christmas edition in 1959 wrote that the ghost of Emily Bronte has been seen more than once on the long, rough path from Haworth Parsonage to Withens, and that, quote, from time to time they see her as her friend Mary Robinson described her: a tall, long-armed girl, full grown, elastic as to tread, with a slight figure that looked queen queenly in her best dresses, but loose and boyish when she slouched over the moors, whistling the dogs and taking long strides over the rough earth.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: The river flows quietly.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sunlight filters through leaves like liquid gold.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bird song hangs in the air, and the smell of damp earth is warm in the lungs.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Tom Bombadil sings without need.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Goldberry laughs, her feet skimming the water.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Their love rests.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: It does not haunt, it delights.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Where Heathcliff clings to Catherine beyond death, Tom releases love into life.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect love casts out fear.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: 1 John 4 18.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Some love does not linger like a ghost.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: It blooms, in fact.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's free, it delights in presence rather than possession.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the forest itself becomes part of that story.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Shadows that move without explanation, a rustle of leaves with no wind blows, a feeling that you were being watched with curiosity rather than malice.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like I said in the cold open, I really fell in love with this book that I actually listened to.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't read it.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't really been reading a lot.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've been just kind of consuming content with my ears rather than my eyes.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: The book is called In the House of Tom Bombadil by C.R.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Wiley.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So Tom Bombadil is just a fantastic character, and this author really breaks it down in a thoughtful way.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he has a really interesting take on who Tom Bombadil could possibly be.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of it's kind of wild.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so the cool thing is in the book, he kind of he kind of while I was listening to the book, I was reminded of Tolkien's poetry, and um he kind of added snippets of you know the story of Goldberry and Tom Bombadil, and it's just so sweet.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to read some of it to you guys, and I'll link this to in the description as well.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it is um, it's really cool.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: So this it's the Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J.R.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Old Togan, originally published in the Oxford magazine in 1970.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: This poem was later included in a poetry collection of the same title in 1962.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Tolkien was inspired to create the character of Tom Bombadil by a Dutch doll belonging to his children long before the Merry Fellow's inclusion in The Lord of the Rings.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now that is actually kind of scholarly, a little nerd fact here.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of contested.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the origin of Tom Bombadil's character and kind of where he's from and the idea.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's a lot of theories and he's kind of a mystery, but in the book um that I was just talking about, he really kind of has a cool, a cool idea of who Tom Bombadil is.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely check it out.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: But okay, so here is some parts of that poem.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but I just kind of want to read the parts uh about Tom Bombadil and uh Goldberry.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Totally different, totally different type of love than Heathcliff and Catherine for sure.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wise old Bombadil, he was a wary fellow.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Bright blue his jacket was, and his boots were yellow.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: None ever caught old Tom in Upland or in Dingle, walking the forest paths or by the Withy Windle, or out on the lily pools in boat upon the water.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: But one day, Tom, he went and caught the river daughter.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: In green gown, flowing hair, sitting in the rushes, singing old water songs to birds upon the bushes.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: He caught her, held her fast, water rats went scuttering, reeds hissed, herons cried, and her heart was fluttering.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Said Tom Bombadil, here's my pretty maiden.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: You shall come home with me.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: The table is all laden.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yellow cream, honeycomb, white bread and butter, roses at the windowsill, and peeping round the shutter.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: You shall come under Hill, never mind your mother, in her deep weedy pool, there you'll find no lover.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Old Tom Bombadil had a merry wedding, crowned all with buttercups, hat and feather shedding.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: His bride were with forget me knots and flag lilies for garland, was robbed or was robed all in silver green, he sang like a starling, hummed like a honey bee.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Lilted to the fiddle, clasping his river maid round her slender middle.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Lamps gleamed within his house, and white was the bedding.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: In the bright honeymoon, badger folk came treading.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Dance down under hill, and old man willow tapped, tapped at windowpane, and they slept on the pillow.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: On the bank in the reeds, river woman sighing, heard old Barrow Y in his mound a crying.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Old Tom Bombadil heeded not the voices, taps, knocks, dancing feet, all the nightly noises, slept till the sun arose, then sang like a starling.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, come, dearie doe, Merry Doe, my darling, sitting on the doorstep chopping sticks of willow, while fair goldberry combed her tresses yellow.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, isn't that just lovely?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I can't not tie up this wonderful Valentine's Day than with classic Sasquatch and sourdough fashion and entry from the BFRO.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely want to um I it's funny, I was trying to go through and I went through a lot of different states.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: I went through a lot of different counties and I really couldn't find a lot.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I couldn't find any like February.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm sure there's a way to search, but I was like, after a while, I was like, okay, come on, there's gotta be some February here.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I couldn't comb through the entire archive.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you know of a February Bigfoot encounter or you have one, please send it in to me because I don't know.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: I guess there's not a lot of activity in the in the winter time.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a really cool um encounter.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, it's from so this is awesome.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's in New York, um, it's in Broome County, and it is the winter.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're not sure when, so it could possibly be February, but uh in either 1995 or 1998.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't pretend that it's definitely it was the blizzard of 96, but probably not.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, so like I said, New York Broome County, and so it says uh oh, so the witness removed the location details.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's interesting.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh, so this goes on to say this incident happened a couple years ago during a snowstorm.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was definitely a couple years ago.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I can say for sure that it was a Bigfoot.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, so this incident uh happened a couple years ago during a snowstorm.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say for sure that it was a Bigfoot, but here goes.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was winter, but I don't remember exactly what month, but it was 1995 or so.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm telling the story already.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we had a very big snowstorm that night, and it had been snowing for a very long time, and there was about a foot or two of snow on the ground at the time.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: I went out on my front porch to shovel off the snow, and it was about 11 p.m.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: or so.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: I had been doing this all night because if I don't shovel off the snow, you just can't open the door.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this time I went out, I distinctly felt I was being watched.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am used to I'm used to being in the country, but I definitely don't I definitely get creeped out.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: I kept shoveling and talking to my dog who was watching me through the door and tried to ignore my feelings.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Same bro.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was very dark, and truthfully, up to that point, I was too scared to look around because I just knew I was being watched.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: So my dog, who loves to go outside in the snow, started acting as if he had to go out now.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: He had been in the house for a long while, so I opened the door and he came flying out as usual when he's when he really has to go.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Started down the steps, then abruptly turned around as if scared and wanted to get back in.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't believe it.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: He never did that, and he certainly isn't afraid of any local animals or people.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he loves to chase deer and such.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: If he can't, if he can, so now I was really petrified.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: I worked up the nerve to look around the best I could with the limited lighting I had on the dark snowy night and could not believe what I saw.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: I looked straight ahead in the direction of my driveway and saw these eyes looking at me.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: They were glowing, you know, like an animal's.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were very high in the air, and I stood there for a moment just directly stare, just staring directly at them.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think I I was almost in shock, definitely scared.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: In that minute or so, many thoughts ran through my head, like, what is that?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: It can't be a deer because I certainly made plenty of noise to scare it off.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And why would a deer be out and about in the storm and not be bedded down somewhere?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's looking right at me, and it's not scared one bit.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it not leaving?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the scariest thing was my dog's reaction to it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: If it was a deer, my dog could have chased it gladly, but he was afraid.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: What is that?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Am I imagining this?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: I knew something was watching me, etc.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: As scared as I was, I wanted to be sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I blinked a few times and strained to get a better look at the outline of the body, but all I could see really was a diff definite big pair of glowing eyes on a tall thing.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then absolute terror overtook me, and I ran into the house in a panic and in desperation called my grandpa and told him, and he told me I was nuts and it had to be a deer.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that for a minute.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't see many deer.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're all over here, and I am almost certain it was not a deer.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I hadn't, I wish it hadn't snowed so much that night because I have no way to go out and check for any kind of prints.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I certainly wasn't gonna go do it.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly wasn't gonna go out then and walk right up to it, so I can't tell you what it was.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I should tell you the distance from where I was to where the thing was, approximately 25 feet or so.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have seen nothing since, but today I heard a strange knocking sound, as if someone was knocking a hollow tree or something.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: I have no near neighbors where the sounds were coming from, and it startled me enough to dash to the window.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Also, the same day, today, while out feeding the chickens, my son came running in saying he heard a horrible high-pitched screaming type sound.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: I thought we might go off in the direction of the scream, but then thought I wasn't brave enough to do that.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am not a nutcase, I assure you.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: We are Christians and would not make up such a story.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, okay.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I cannot tell you if any of these things have anything to do with each other, or if they are even a Bigfoot at all.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: But what I have reported to you is true to the best of my knowledge.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing I'm shaking on I'm shaky on is the date.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: I will never forget these those eyes.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Also, notice years after the snow incident, we heard strange knocking and screaming sounds.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he kind of goes back to that odd knocking and screaming.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he does say uh he didn't really go into this in the description, but it further down in it says, I live in a rural area.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: My house is surrounded by fields and woods.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have a creek down behind my house.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: At the time of the winter incident, everything was covered in about two to three feet of snow.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jeez Louise.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: These are wooded mountains around here, and I guess it's just your basic uh New York State countryside, wooded hilly mountains, etc.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of deer and squirrels, even the occasional black bear.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, I don't know if that could have been a bear, but who knows?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really interesting, and of course, that is from the BFRO.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you are new here and you've never heard me talk about them, uh please, it's the Bigfoot Field uh Researchers organization.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: They have an incredible amount of Bigfoot stories uh and encounters on their website.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely check them out.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: So this Valentine's Day episode, we sat with two kinds of love.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: The love that haunts, unresolved, wild, echoing across moors, the love that heals, playful, free, delighting in life.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Which one do we carry?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Which one do we leave behind?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Even in a world thick with strangeness, even in forests and moors where things move unseen, love can be a home, it can be a hearth, and it can be holy.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: As we leave the river and the moor behind tonight, consider the quiet things that follow, the memory of love unhealed, the echo of joy freely given, the rustle of leaves that are not ours, the feeling of being watched, not in fear, but in wonder.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture reminds us the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 19:1.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: And for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 1.20.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Creation, wild and strange, is still speaking.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: It carries memory, it carries presence, it carries love, both haunting and healing.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: So as you move through your day and your week, through your Valentine's, through forests, fields, or even the corners of your home, notice the traces of love and mystery around you.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the small wonders, the fleeting glimpses, the stories the world have carried longer than you've been aware.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, even when love haunts and when strangeness lingers, there is a love that frees, a joy that rests, and a God who walks near through river, forest, and more.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening, guys.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: I will talk to you next time and remember, the truth is out there, but God is with you, and everyone always ends up in the kitchen.