Today is Saint Nicholas's Day. Which means it is the day of Santa Claus, of course. Saint Nicholas is not only the protector of children, he is also at the basis of a sinister legend that has fascinated me since I first heard it as a child. It is the story of three little children murdered by a psychotic, crypto serial killer butcher, but who get resurrected by then bishop Saint Nicholas. It was the subject of a song which you can find translated here and here, in different versions. You can find many translations over the internet anyway, tell me what you think of the story. I blogged about the story a year ago. So people might have an impression of déjà vu reading this. I don't want to repeat myself, even after a year, but it made a big impression over my niece when I told her the story, after she insisted that I tell her the scariest story I ever knew. She said straight after "that was NOT scary!" and asked for another one. I complied with the story of Rose Latulippe. She was equally unimpressed, or so she claimed. The next morning, she admitted to her aunt that "that butcher story" gave her nightmares. Since then, I refer to The Legend of Nicholas as "That Butcher Story".
Here is the song:
It's amazing that such a lovely tradition arises from so macabre a story, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt is. As a child, I used to prefer scary stories, they fascinated me. They still do and I try to preserve them here.
ReplyDelete