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Chapter 5
Omens, Lights, Phantom Ships, Ghosts,
the "Good Wake" and Tales of Magic
The folk traditions held in Newfoundland roughly umil the aftem1alh of Confederation
reveal a coherent code of prescriptive behaviour ensuring the successful resolution of Ihe
death crisis on the "traditional" pattern. The lasting prevalence of "lamed death" up until
Ihe fifties and sixties in the province is borne out by its reflection through the largest pan of
the data gathered for this study. This chapler takes a hird's eye view of the various "folk
ideas" making up the ideological framework of "tamed de.lIh" across a wide range of
cultural expressions. The "traditional" idea of "hard death" provides Ihe whole subject of
the following one, and receives specific expression in personal experience narratives.
broadside ballads and locally-composed sea disaster songs. Accounts of misadventures at
sea, both narrated and sung. remain living traditions locally, and as such testify to the
persistence of "tradilional" altitudes towards dealh in modern Newfoundland.
Funhennore. the even brief consideration of contemporary ways of death and dying on the
island, including the capital, reveals striking continuity with "tamed death."!
Aries comments that while the "traditional" altitude has not completely dis'lppeared yet,
it has become exceptional in our days, and confesses his surprise at tracing even .. single
example of it in contemporary literature. 2 This is a passage in which the author. Lily
Pincus. reports the last moments of her mother-in-law, an elderly Victorian lady suffering
from cancer. Her state had caused this perfect lady to become totally dependenl except for
one thing: the orchestration of her death. On her seventieth birthday she gets a stroke.
which leaves her unconscious for a few hours. When she comes round, she asks with a
blissful smile and beaming eyes to be sat up in bed and see everyone in the house. She
says good-bye to each of them individually as if leaving for a long journey, and leaves
thank-yoll messages for all her relatives, friends and those who have looked after her.
Finally,