Halloween special: Three Medieval Ghost Stories and My One Encounter with a Ghost

About this episode

In this Halloween special, Richard Abels shares his personal encounter with a ghost and recounts three ghost stories from the Middle Ages.

Send us Fan Mail To celebrate my birthday—yes I was a Halloween baby—I decided to do a short episode recounting my one up-close and personal experience with a ghost. No, it was not a ghost of some one who died in the Middle Ages. In fact, I don’t know who it was. But since ‘Tis But A Scratch” is a medieval podcast, I start with three ghost stories from the Middle Ages. It probably comes as no surprise that medieval people believed in ghosts, and ghost stories are scattered t...

People in this episode

Host: Richard Abels

Topics covered

• ghost stories
• Middle Ages
• Halloween
• personal experience
• medieval beliefs

Keywords

• Halloween
• ghost stories
• Middle Ages
• medieval ghosts
• personal ghost encounter

More episodes of 'tis but a scratch: fact and fiction about the Middle Ages

• A Model Pre-Gregorian Reform Bishop: St. Ulrich of Augsburg · May 27, 2026 · 21 min
• Offa of Mercia: Laying the Foundations of a Kingdom of England (with Prof. Rory Naismith) · May 21, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Sieges, Chivalry, and Medieval Warfare: Dr. Larissa Tracy's podcast, "Medieval Mischief and Mayhem" (with Dr. Richard Abels) (E23 2026)) · May 13, 2026 · 1h 21m
• The Knights Templar, Part 3: From History to Legend (with Steve Tibble) · April 30, 2026 · 51 min
• The Knights Templar: The Trial and Suppression of the Order (with Steve Tibble) · April 16, 2026 · 1h 8m
• The Knights Templar, Part 1: the Templars in History (with Steve Tibble) · March 15, 2026 · 1h 7m