the day had arrived she had finally married him after years of careful scheming and seduction anne boleyn had finally married henry the eighth of course those years hadn't been without their challenges henry had even been forced to defy the most powerful religious entity in the world to make it happen but finally they were together now if you were to travel back in time to anne boleyn's wedding i'm fairly certain that she would tell you that in that moment it was the happiest day of her life sadly as we all know today her story didn't end as happily as it began unable to produce a male heir she was forced to endure years of her husband's anger and abuse with each passing month his affection faded until finally the king decided that it was time to move on so he accused her of horrible crimes and then he chopped off her head it said that your wedding day is the start of that fairy tale goal of happily ever after but it doesn't always work out that way in fact according to some tales the bride never even makes it down the aisle so grab a tissue and take your seat because the ceremony is about to begin i'm erin mankey and this is lore legends the year was 1911 and the gran galvez or simply hotel galvez as it was known then had just opened its glittering doors for the first time and trust me this is no ordinary hotel perched off the coast of the gulf of mexico on the island of galveston texas the spectacle is a sprawling castle like goliath fit for royalty over the years its opulence has attracted such visitors as fdr dwight d eisenhower frank sinatra and more in fact it was even nicknamed and i quote the playground of the southwest for the american elite and yet one of the hotel's most famous guests is a young woman you've probably never even heard of her name was audra as the legend goes audra checked into the hotel galvez sometime in the mid-1950s but she wasn't one of the vacationing wealthy eager to hobnob with fellow one percenters no audra was drawn to this particular hotel for a different reason that is love her fiance you see was a mariner who had sailed out of galveston not long before and would eventually return there to port and for audra well every moment apart from him was agony she took comfort though in knowing that he'd have to come back to land at some point and when he did she would be waiting there for him refusing to miss even a moment of her sweetheart's return she decided to rent a room at the hotel right there overlooking the port room 501 to be exact if the stories are true she burrowed in and made the hotel her new home every day audra would take the elevator up to the eighth floor and then she would scramble up a narrow ladder to the tippy top of the hotel sneaking inside one of the tourists there was a small window in the tower and it's through this glass hidden away from the world that audra would watch the sea hoping to spy her beloved ship she watched and she waited but the boat didn't come not after a day not after a week not after a month finally audra received horrible news her fiance's ship had sunk all her worst nightmares it seems had come true her sweetheart had been lost at sea at first she refused to believe it she continued to visit the turrets keeping vigil over the cruel sea searching for the ship but after a few days of this she couldn't lie to herself any longer it was real he was gone with her hope lost despair to cold after all she had shaped her entire life around this man and without him well she simply couldn't see a way forward according to the legend audra hanged herself right there in the west turret it's a tragic story and unfortunately it only gets worse you see a few short days after audra's death her fiance appeared on the doorstep of the hotel in search of his bride it turns out he'd been rescued at sea and the first thing he had done when he got home was rushed to galveston eager to be reunited with his true love it's like a seafaring version of romeo and juliet young lovers mistaken deaths tragic conclusions but there's a major difference between shakespeare's classic and that's of the lovelorn bride as the story has come to be known because you see in this tragedy death is not where the story ends it's said that to this day audra still haunts the hotel particularly her former room 501 employees and guests alike have reported all sorts of strange inexplicable things sometimes the key card is said to stop working and when the desk clerk scans it for the room code the display chillingly reads expired 1955 the room's phone will ring and ring even when the switchboard reports that no calls were received and no one is on the other line paranormal investigators have stopped by to pay audra a visit too they've allegedly seen mysterious orbs felt cold spots and heard disembodied footsteps and voices not only that but the distinct fragrance of gardenia supposedly audra's favorite scent was smelled wafting through the air and of course no haunted hotel would be complete without a good old classic ghost sighting the lovelorn bride has been spotted wandering the halls racked with sobs she often appears near the same elevator she would take daily to reach her turret and children staying in the hotel have been said to scream and point at well nothing some guests have even experienced the overwhelming sensation of something invisible sitting with them on their beds which as someone who often has to travel for live shows and festivals i would just like to say no thank you now okay i will admit our researchers were not able to find any evidence of an actual woman named audra dying at the hotel or any death even vaguely fitting the story at all but facts rarely get in the way of a good yarn or in this case in the way of an advertising opportunity now who knows when the grand gal this hotel realized that they had something valuable on their hands i bet that it was around the time the first paranormal investigators showed up that at any rate the hotel is a business and they weren't going to let a resource like this go to waste it was time it seems for a publicity stunt so in october of 2022 they decided that their saddest guest deserved a little pick-me-up they were going to give her something that she never got to receive in life a proper wedding and all of the travelers staying at the hotel oh yes they were invited guests were encouraged to arrive in full costume as if they were part of audra's official wedding party prizes were doled out for the best outfits and full reception was had all in honor of audra and i'm not sure if the lovelorn bride has stopped haunting the hotel after she finally got to have the wedding she'd been deprived of when alive but one thing is certain it sure didn't put an end to the stories desperate times call for desperate measures and in 1927 john stabled was desperate the 71 year old farmer had outlived not just one wife but two and had lost his beloved son as well and so overcome with grief and loneliness john had reached his limit he needed a change today he probably would have called a therapist but this was a century ago so instead john called a spiritualist medium her name was nelly more and she claimed she could reunite john with his deceased son for a fee of course but the guy as i said was desperate and he was more than willing to pay nelly brought john into a dark room and dimmed the lights it had to be dark she insisted or the seance wouldn't work oh and he better not even think about turning the lights on or god forbid touching the spirits because if he did well he'd die and so would nelly a little convenience if you ask me but hey well go with it with that the seance began and amazingly it wasn't long before a spirit arrived it talked through nelly and john stabled was elated to learn that the visitor was none other than his lost son not only that but the young man had a message for his father he told john that he wished to guide him through the rest of his life which he would do through nelly more as long as he kept paying her for her services that is another spirit named greer popped up next who claimed to be a sort of managing director of the other world this ghostly bureaucrat counseled john to do whatever his son said as long as he kept employing more he would never have to say goodbye to his son and that was that john was hooked now look it might be easy for us to dismiss john stabled as a bit well gullible but i want you to put yourself in his position this is a man who had lost everyone that he loved and suddenly he was being handed an opportunity to have those people back it would surely be tempting even to the most skeptical person and john he was not the most skeptical person in fact he was a true believer in spiritualism and had been for over 30 years and he wasn't about to stop now when he wasn't dabbling in the dead stabled was a rather successful farmer he owned multiple farms in kansas and oklahoma and made a good chunk of change from them too which was lucky because the ghost demanded a lot of money through nelly more the ghost commanded that stabled use three thousand dollars to move to wichita where he was to rent a home for nelly more and her family to live in and he did it but apparently the ghost thought that this home was too small so they demanded a bigger one and he did that too he bought them furniture he paid for her kids education all at the ghost's behest and still they asked for more which okay would have made me a little suspicious but poor john was in too deep to turn back now reconnecting with his son was all well and good but john stabled was still a widower remember and he had grown tired of the single life surprise surprised though more had a plan to help with that too apparently she wasn't just a medium but a matchmaker as well and so one day nelly excitedly told john that she had found him a perfect bride there was just one teeny tiny caveat this lovely lady just so happened to be dead that's right nelly more had arranged a marriage between john and a ghost this ghost name was sarah by the way had he ever met her in life oh no did he know her age or what she looked like no but john didn't care about these details as long as sarah agreed to have and to hold as well as a dead woman can i suppose then he was satisfied and so the date was set the wedding actually had a heck of a turnout spiritualists traveled from all over to help celebrate the happy couple and the bride's side allegedly turned up as well although they were all invisible to the naked eye during the ceremony itself sable placed the ring on the ghost's finger being careful not to touch her skin of course lest he be struck dead and if you're wondering yes the ghost apparently did have fingers sable letter testified that he could vaguely discern her outline in the dark seance room occasionally her illuminated hands would materialize and grab something and there you go the couple were wed and that would have been the end of it except of course it wasn't as of a turnout having a ghost bride and a psychic on retainer was rather expensive before long sable's money ran out he was flat broke and not only that but he started to reflect on his new marriage and realized that despite more's promises it really hadn't improved his life in any way this is when the guy finally i mean finally began to suspect that more had been playing him for a chump and so in the true american way he took her to court john sable sued nelly more for a whopping seven thousand five hundred dollars the equivalent of about 125 thousand dollars a day as you can imagine the whole thing caused a media frenzy ghost rides con artists seances what's not to love the story shot across the nation and then the world shockingly though sable's case didn't hold up in court the judge told him that he could not recover his money unless he could prove that the contract he had entered into with more was illegal at the time of its making and while it might have been a very very ill-advised arrangement to enter into he did consent to everything and nothing about more's dealings were technically against the law in the end she walked away unscathed with all of sable's money still lining her pockets now you would think that john sable would have tossed spiritualism out the window after that but you'd be wrong it turns out that this entire experience only shook his belief in one thing nelly more in fact he even continued to believe himself to be married to the ghost bride sarah that said there seemed to be some trouble in paradise in short the marriage was on the rocks she was quite an absent partner to put it mildly and so eventually john began pursuing a new course of legal action not a lawsuit mind you no he wanted a divorce which okay legally speaking seemed a bit tricky but he did formally denounce the marriage and for all intents and purposes the couple had separated the marriage between john the human and sarah the ghost formally met its conclusion i guess at the end of the day all john sable wanted was a wife with a little more substance on june 27th of 1868 the warm saturday sun was setting on alexandria virginia it was a peaceful summer evening the crickets were chirping a humid breeze was blowing in from the potomac river and the town was settling in for the night over on north fairfax street though the energy in the shaffer household was a little more electric located right above a candy shop the building was bursting with laughter and celebration it was a big night after all the last night before the family's youngest daughter would be getting married a wedding is a big deal in any family but a shaffer wedding was an event for the whole community the shaffer patriarch christian was the town's best confectioner and like any town worth its salt alexandria held its candy man in high regard he was well respected and so were his children his youngest laura was described as one of the city's and i quote prettiest ornaments but pretty or not she would soon be off the market the local beauty was engaged to the charming charles tennyson it said that he had been her constant companion for years she simply wouldn't let any man but charles near her and he wouldn't let any woman but laura near him they were truly desperately in love and so the night before their wedding was a happy one well for a while anyway around half past seven the glowing bride went into her bedroom on the third floor to change clothes for dinner her grandmother was with her at some point she went to go fetch something from her father's room it must have been dark by then because laura carried a kerosene lamp with her to light the way now these lamps didn't have bulbs inside them instead they had little flames those flames were powered by a type of fuel called kerosene and as poor laura was about to learn kerosene is extremely combustible she was halfway through her father's room when the lamp cracked and once the lamp cracked the kerosene spilled out the fuel touched the flame and it instantly caught fire as it cascaded onto laura's skirts in a matter of seconds she was engulfed in flames throwing the lamp down she screamed she ran down two flights of stairs wailing as she went the fire only spread as it found more material to devour laura was being burned alive i can't even imagine how terrible it was for her family to hear her screams or even worse to see her run toward them completely ablaze her brother-in-law later said that her head was completely covered in fire through her screams laura begged her family to save her thanks to some quick thinking from her brother-in-law she was soon enveloped in his coat the flames were smothered but not before they had taken their toll the family called the doctor but there was little he could do her beautiful face was unrecognizable her entire body covered in severe burns laura suffered through the night until she finally passed away the next morning her fiance charles was by her side when she died remaining steadfast in the final hours of his bride-to-be's life it's a tragic story and one that i wish i could simply end here but i'm afraid there was one more casualty on this ill-fated wedding day charles you see could not bear to go on without the love of his life laura passed away at 11 a.m the morning of her wedding and at 2 p.m that very same day charles put a pistol to his temple by the next day he too had passed on finally with his bride once again and it might make this terrible story more palatable to believe that these two lovers so cruelly torn apart in life were then reunited in death there are many who claim that their spirits never moved on and that they may still be stuck in the very building where laura lost her life both proprietors and visitors have claimed to have experienced their presence laura is said to be a friendly ghost offering the occasional soft hello and not causing much mischief aside from maybe shaking a lamp or two charles though is a different story people acclaim to feel a man's energy in the basement of the house and it's not a happy presence either and that makes sense his spirit may still be dealing with the trauma of watching his fiancee die in the most gruesome way possible after all one witness claims that he shouted at her to leave while the owner of a christmas shop that briefly lived at that address has said that he knocked ornaments around the most common incident recorded though is the smell of something burning the scent has hovered around the house for generations now lingering in the air like smoke but nothing puts out a fire like something cold and their spirits may have finally been giving a soothing balm of ice cream that's right today the building has been turned into an ice cream shop a fitting homage to what was once a confectioner's old memories are slowly being replaced with happier ones and if i had to guess that burning smell may be hard to pick out over the sweet smell of sugar a bride according to many traditions is meant to be the very picture of youthful innocence it's a well-known trope even if it doesn't mesh with reality in the real world we know that anyone can get married no matter how old they are or how much life might have hardened them but if we're just going off of eurocentric literary examples a bride almost always fits a certain image most of the time she is described as young, dressed in white, and with her entire life ahead of her. If we want to be poetic about it, we could say that she's like a lamb, sweet, docile, and completely ignorant of how cruel the world can be, which is what makes it all the more heartbreaking when the lamb is led to the slaughter. In that way, a bride will always be the perfect victim. Here they are with their new life about to begin beside the person they love the most in the entire world, until the floor is ripped out from under them.
It can even make the most cynical hearts ache, but that's the whole point of telling stories like these. They trigger emotions. Perhaps that's why almost every old hotel or historic church contains their own version of the ghost bride legend. Not because there's an epidemic of brides dropping dead on their wedding days, but because, for better or for worse, a dead bride will pull on more heartstrings than some random victim elsewhere ever And a great example of this would be the Burning Bride of Alexandria.
That was a real incident reported in local newspapers all over the D.C. area, but she's one of the few actual tragic bride stories out there. The rest can typically be chalked up to overactive imaginations and urban legends hoping for a bit of shock value. All of them, though, are powered by the same underlying heartbeat, which is that few legends are more powerful than the ones that show us beauty and hope and promise, and then take it all away.
I hope you've enjoyed crashing a few legendary weddings with me today. These unions were not always blessed, as you might have noticed, but they sure provided a few chills as compensation. Brides, of course, come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and can present vastly differently depending on the culture and the era they're from. In fact, as one last story will reveal, some can even look a little green around the gills.
Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. It was, by all accounts, a beautiful wedding. The entire village showed up to celebrate, singing and feasting as they lifted a happy couple up on their shoulders. The bride and groom were anointed with oils and cleansing waters and turmeric.
They were joined in a hand-fasting ritual, and finally, to everyone's delight, they were announced married. Now, sure, it was the villagers themselves who had made the match, but there in India, arranged marriages weren't uncommon. What was uncommon, however, was the couple's species, because they weren't exactly human. No, these blissful sweethearts just so happened to be frogs.
It's known as bakulibia, or frog marriage, and it's an ancient tradition practiced among Hindus in the Asan region of India and parts of Bangladesh. Now, while specifics differ from village to village, it usually goes a little something like this. First, participants catch a male frog and a female frog, which are tied together upon a woven fan. Then, a sort of amphibious trick-or-treating situation takes place, where kids put the frog fan on their heads and go door-to-door throughout the town.
At each location, the children get a snack of rice, while the frogs get a bit of water poured on them. And during this procession, special songs and poems are sung aloud, until eventually the rounds have all been made, and the duo are set free into the water, officially pronounced frog and wife. And, I know what you're thinking, why exactly are people marrying frogs? Well, here, just take a listen to the lyrics of one of those aforementioned ritual songs, as one Bangladeshi anthropologist recalled from their childhood.
It goes something like this. Cloud King, you are my brother. Our doorsteps are drying up due to no rain. Although it is raining, it is not enough.
Our profit is true. Please, Allah, give us rain. The marriage of frog's daughter is arranged with a medal made of gold, so the female frog gives some rain. That's right, frog marriages are performed to help bring the rain during times of drought.
In fact, believe it or not, this is far from the only frog-related rain ritual native to the area. In Nepal, for example, frogs are bribed with milk, rice, incense, and ghee to bring on rain, and wandering the town singing, and I quote, lady frog must have her bath, which, now that I think about it, is a phrase I might just have to start whispering to myself before my daily shower. Not all of these traditions are quite so adorable, though. In the Kumao district of northwest India, a frog is hanged from a tree to bring on rain.
Meanwhile, in the particularly gruesome example from the Ganges Valley, women will attempt to break a drought by putting a frog in a rice press and slowly crushing them with a lever. The more the tortured animal screams, the better the rain spell is supposed to work. Now, I will admit, it's not hard to see why people would choose to use frogs in a rain spell. After all, they're an animal that thrives in the rainy season, and they come out croaking whenever the skies open up.
It's easy to imagine the post-hoc fallacy that led to these traditions. When it rains, frogs croak. Therefore, the frogs must be causing the rain. And the thing is, while these practices stretch back to ancient times, they're still hopping to this day.
In fact, as recently as the spring of 2024, the Assam town of Biswanath performed a frog marriage ritual during one particularly devastating drought. Oh, and by the way, if the marriage goes a little too well, and your drought becomes a deluge, don't worry, there's a solution for that as well. Just ask the folks who, during India's 2019 floods, gathered together to perform another than a frog divorce. This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Mankey, with writing and research by Jenner Rose Nethercott and Alex Robinson.
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