So this intro may be a very mainstream news source.
It's the fun one, right?
Yes, this is the fun one.
Okay, good.
This article, I'm sure everybody missed
and we just need to go over it.
Okay.
It is from Fox News, posted on November 1st, 2022
and is written by Ashley Carnahan.
Texas homeowner says,
hooker ghosts have taken over rental property.
They're trying to stir up business.
So here's the article, it's super short.
So I'm just gonna read the whole thing.
From Foxy.
Yeah, on Fox.
A Texas woman made a spooky discovery
about her rental home in Gainesville
after several renters claimed it was haunted.
Linda Hill, owner of the Hill House Manor,
told Jessie Waters prime time on Monday,
she was taking a shower
when she heard someone say, looking good.
I thought it was my husband.
I mean, he and I were the only ones in the house, she said.
However, it was not her husband making the comments.
It was a ghost, she added.
It spoke to him, you know?
He told me I was looking good.
I said thank you and I asked him
what he had been doing that day.
And we had a conversation and he left.
Hill explained.
She added that she believes the home
has many different types of ghosts.
We've got kids and we've got old people,
old guys and we've got hookers.
That's what she told Jessie Waters,
the most common type of ghosts
that come around are hookers, Hill claimed.
Male renters, she said,
have told her that they have felt somebody
stroking their face, stroking their arm
or touching their shoulder.
That sounds to me more like a masseuse
than a ghost over the butt.
Host Jessie Waters quipped that the good thing
about hooker ghosts was that you do not have to pay it.
That's right, Hill responded.
They try to stir up business,
but they can't figure out a way to conclude
the transaction so nothing ever happens.
The Hill House Manor owner said a ghost
did follow a renter home one time,
but eventually got tired.
She said that she told the man
to tell the ghost to come home.
And they did, she came back up here.
The rental home reportedly has been a popular spot
in recent months for paranormal investigators
staying the night to figure out the alleged phenomena.
And that's the article.
What an article.
There's a video version of it that's three minutes long too,
but I think you got the gist,
but my God, just yes, listen to her say these things.
Don't listen to Jessie Waters.
There's no more snugness in the world out there
than Jessie Waters.
But yeah, that's enough about that.
Let's talk about other things.
Cue music.
Okay.
["Journey to the Fringe"]
From the unexplained to the mundane,
come join us on a journey to the fringe.
Hello and welcome to Journey to the Fringe,
where Santa and his slave labor go to relax
after the Christmas season.
We are your relaxing hosts, Taylor and Chelsea,
here today to bring in the jolly season
with technically only one Christmas episode this year.
That's right, we have kept it to just one.
Legally speaking, those elves episodes
are not Christmas episodes.
And today, Chelsea is going to adorn us
with tales of Krampus.
And I think that's at least enough of an introduction
that you can take over from here, Chelsea.
Yeah, I think that was good,
unless you're gonna do the episode.
I don't frankly have enough information.
I know the term and I know it rhymes with campus.
So I could do a little song,
but I'm not prepared enough for it.
Okay.
I would like to hear that one day though.
Okay.
It's that time of year again,
and there's nothing more annoying
than a naughty little boy or girl
who's misbehaving any time of year.
Sound familiar?
Boy, do I ever have a solution for you.
Enter Krampus.
Half man, half goat.
No, not the poplick monster.
This is another more seasonal goat man.
Does he have a bad lax at least?
Is he after the urine?
He's not, no, not this one.
Those are the cute goats from Washington's.
Now I'm just thinking about hooker ghosts.
Get your mind out of the paranormal gutter, Chelsea.
I can't.
Especially after laughing.
Now let me think about it.
My intro and my opening lines
actually make a lot of sense together
where Santa's relaxing.
Yeah.
Oh man.
So go ahead.
So Krampus hails from the European region.
So the Austria Alpine region,
as well as Germany, Bavaria.
He comes around every year
to chase those naughty little bastards around,
and occasionally he even drags them to hell.
They should be, some of them.
Some of them really do, I'm gonna be honest.
He also appears in folklore in Croatia,
the Czech Republic, Hungary, Northern Italy,
Autonomous province of Trento.
Never heard of that.
And South Tyrol, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
There's a lot of places.
There's a lot of folklore.
So I'm just going on the general consensus.
This is not necessarily gonna fit
what you've heard about Krampus.
What I am doing focuses mostly on the Austria Alpine region
and Bavaria.
If you have any other Krampus stories,
we'd be happy to hear them.
If you've seen Krampus,
if you're from the Autonomous province of Trento,
and Krampus is totally different there,
we wanna hear from you.
So-
Oh, it's one of those damn Italian tax havens.
What is?
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Well, that's disappointing.
Looks beautiful.
It's an Italian tax haven.
Okay, makes sense.
I don't know why they wouldn't just say also Italy.
Okay, he's the right-hand man everyone needs,
but sadly he's already spoken for
by good old St. Nicholas.
Who doesn't do shit to the bad kids?
Yeah, he can't touch them.
He gives them coal.
Coal's a useful item.
Yeah.
Especially back when they were saying
coal's through the bad kids.
Like, I don't know if they still say that anymore, but like,
yeah. Well, coal is through the bad kids
and it's from Krampus, actually.
Oh. Yeah.
He is as synonymous with the Jolly Red Bastard
as Thelma and Louise, Bonnie and Clyde, Rick and Morty,
Wayne and Garth, Bert and Ernie.
And just add this one to your repertoire,
if you ever need to name them. Kelsey and Taylor.
Yeah.
Yeah. Kelsey and Taylor.
If you ever need to say like infamous duos,
Santi Claus and Krampus.
There you go.
Krampus has many variations,
but some common characteristics,
and I'm not sure about South Tyrol.
I never looked at it,
but here's a couple of characteristics of Krampus,
two of which I've already spoiled for you, man and goat,
but he's also hairy, usually brown or black,
oven hooves, touches a goat.
Quick question.
Is he hairy all over or hairy on the goat parts?
Either or.
It depends.
Okay.
Depends on the legend, person, region.
Just depends, really.
Both, none, some.
Okay.
I at least hope the goat half is covered,
or at least it's not anatomically correct.
Right.
Cause that's just gonna give me nightmares.
I'm sorry, this episode's already that way.
Cloven hooves, such as a goat, goat horns,
also that of a goat.
He also has a long pointed tongue, such as a demon,
and fangs, such as a vampire.
And those such as are from me.
They, we don't really,
there was no comparison to a vampire or a demon.
I mean, he looks like a demon,
if you were to see a picture of him.
He carries chains thought to symbolize the binding
of the devil by the Christian church.
Sometimes there are also bells of different sizes
that he's carrying.
He also carries a root of pagan origins,
and this is a bundle of birch branches
that he whips the children with.
Sometimes it's replaced with an actual whip.
He really wants to get the point across.
Maybe some children were confused
about what the beautiful branches were for.
Yeah.
Oh, the branch is hitting me.
That must mean I'm gaining favor with some pagan god.
Yeah.
No, you need to know you're being whipped.
Exactly.
Sometimes he carries a basket on his back or a sack,
store the children before he drowns,
eats or transports them to hell.
You gotta keep the hands free.
It's just common sense.
While St. Nicholas would visit the children
rewarding the well-behaved children with modest gifts,
such as oranges, dried fruits, walnuts and chocolate,
modest indeed,
Krampus would punish the badly behaved children
with birch rods and coal and et cetera.
Breaking to hell.
No, you get the drift now.
Jift.
Huh. Jift.
What is the word?
I just saw this gist.
Gist.
South Tyrol is in Italy,
but according to their last census,
96.89% of the population speaks German.
Also it'd be like Northern Italy.
It's in very Northern Italy.
Yeah, South Tyrol in Northern Italy.
Well, it just...
As a population of 2,500.
It's named a bunch of Italian places.
Oh, I should have looked more into this before I said it.
I would have just said Italy.
Okay.
Now let's talk about Krampus not.
Yes, that sounds right.
The feast of St. Nicholas is slash was celebrated December 6th.
On the evening before, that would be December 5th.
For those of you who don't want to think about math right now
cause you're relaxing.
After our last episode, always be doing math
or you're insane.
Just saying you know.
Always.
Or else you're insane.
Krampus would appear on the streets
and visit the badly behaved ones
who received punishment in the form of birch rods.
Sometimes he would accompany St. Nicholas
and sometimes he would just go out vigilante style on his own.
Children might have also seen Krampus
running through the street during a Krampuslof.
Literally Krampus run.
And this is where adults would dress up
and wear animal skins and carved wooden masks.
They had bells tied onto their costumes
so that people could hear the clanking
coming through the darkness.
And they carried long sticks.
Sometimes they would wear change
that they would sometimes wear are thought
to be related to the idea of the creatures
being bound to their place in the underworld.
All the sacks that they carry are to take
very bad children away from them.
Thankfully so, the children were seriously afraid of Krampus
and I don't imagine many would love to attend
this Krampus run because they'd be tossed into the sack
and dragged through the snow.
So this was a harmless way for regular human adults
to blow off steam.
I'm not sure how many kids actually attended
and scare the shit out of the kids
we've all put up with year round.
So just like a fun thing to do.
In these towns they did sell masks.
I believe they still do, but there was like this onslaught
of drunken like shenanigans going on around town
and they just had like a really big problem
with it for a while for the Krampus run.
Fun fact, in the aftermath of the 1932 election in Austria
Krampus tradition was prohibited by the Dolphus regime.
That's totally right the way I said it.
You're the clerical fascist fatherlands front
and the Christian social party.
In the 1950s the government distributed pamphlets
titled Krampus is an evil man.
Towards the end of the century a population-
Wait, were there questions about whether or not
Krampus was evil before that?
There obviously were.
I thought that was the whole point of him.
There obviously were and it just needed
further clarification.
Like I feel like the rebuttal is,
yeah that's the point of the character.
Yeah, everyone was like, yeah he is.
Yeah, we get it.
Let's continue with the Krampus run.
Yeah, no let's go put those kids in the sack and drag them.
Yeah, or there's a person who reads it
and they're like, he is?
This is shocking news.
I had no idea.
As an adult it has no impact on my life whatsoever.
I guess when you think about it, hindsight.
Yeah, a few of those things, it makes sense.
So towards the end of the century
a popular resurgence of Krampus celebrations occurred
and they do continue to this day in these areas.
As of today many of the larger cities and towns
have formal processions which tend to be fairly orderly
so nothing like the Krampus run
that I was talking about above.
I mean, those aren't the ones you probably wanna go to.
You wanna go to the small towns where everybody's drinking
and there's a lot of like shenanigans and rests
I guess going on.
Probably don't bring your small child along
unless you don't like them.
Then bring the small child.
Yeah, unless they're being really naughty
and then you should bring them.
Since the people inside the Krampus costumes
are usually young men,
many of the more organized clubs who keep this tradition
alive delegate some older members
to keep an eye on what's going on.
See, no fun.
Some locations even order the Krampus costumes
to be numbered so that onlookers have evidence
of who may have stepped over the line in case of dispute.
Where's the fun in that?
And I mean, this also speaks for things
probably getting out of hand in Krampus runs in the past.
Now they have to number the suits
so they know which Krampus exactly overstepped.
Oh yeah.
My kid's got broken ribs.
It was Krampus 42.
Yeah.
In Styria, the route is presented by Krampus to families.
Twigs are painted gold and displayed year round in the house.
Reminder to any child who has temporarily forgotten Krampus.
In smaller, more isolated villages,
the figure has other beastly companions
such as the antlered wild man figures
and St. Nicholas is nowhere to be seen.
So I would eat that.
Simply like demons, no Santa Claus.
It's the way to creep the Christmas spirit all year round.
No, and-
By hanging a root that will whip your child
if they're bad.
I was just gonna say,
could you imagine like a golden whip like above the door
just as a reminder?
Oh my God.
These Styrian companions of Krampus are called
Shabman or Rahen.
I don't know what Styria is.
Isn't it one of the autonomous states?
Southeast of Austria.
It's a state.
Yeah, it's in Austria.
In many parts of Croatia,
Krampus is described as a devil wearing a cloth sack
around his waist and chains around his neck,
ankles, and wrists.
As a part of tradition,
when a child receives a gift from St. Nicholas,
he is given a golden branch
to represent his good deeds throughout the year.
However, if the child has misbehaved,
Krampus will take the gifts for himself
and leave only a silver branch
to represent the child's bad acts.
I mean, this Krampus seems better than the other Krampus.
Yeah, yeah, he doesn't beat the shit out of you.
Way better.
He just gives you silver,
which is a good command.
And he's not throwing you in a sack to drown you.
So there's that.
Though the origins are not totally clear.
It's originally thought to have come
from the old pre-Christian pagan myths
involving beasts from the forest
and creatures such as satyrs.
And the Krampus became linked
with St. Nicholas in the Middle Ages.
We did a really good episode last Christmas.
You may want to check out
on some pagan Christmas traditions.
I highly recommend.
I learned a lot doing the research for this one.
So Krampus could potentially come from back there.
Celebrations date back to at least the sixth
or seventh century.
However, there's no written sources for Krampus
before the end of the 16th century.
Anyhow, like a lot of pagan traditions
we know and love today,
Krampus was absorbed into the Christian calendar of sorts
and Saint tradition in some places, not all places.
So then there's the Krampus curtain.
German and these languages are crazy.
I just think they're the craziest languages.
The Krampus postcards.
So if you're traveling to Germany or Austria
make sure you pick up one of these bad boys
cause this is a whole other Krampus craze.
One's marked Gruss vom Krampus,
which means greetings from Krampus,
showed Krampus stuffing a distressed child into a satchel
or preparing to hit one with his bundle of birch sticks.
Many of these postcards depicted Krampus
going after children with his sticks,
leading them away in chains or carrying them off in his bag.
The cards usually have humorous rhymes or poems.
I'm gonna post some of these on social media.
They're super creepy.
Like he straight up looks like a demon
and they're super popular.
The older ones, if you can find like vintage ones,
they're pretty risque.
They're still a really popular thing in Christmas markets now
along with masks, mugs and stuff like that.
They brand him all over the place in these regions.
And he's recently gained popularity as well,
more in North America with the horror movie Krampus.
And it's just a lot more popular culture
he's coming in again.
I really liked the legend.
I think it's kind of good.
I love it that it's the good with the bad.
Like you get rewarded, but we don't have the like,
you get on the naughty list.
Like what's gonna happen?
I don't get a toy.
Like this is just taking it to another,
a whole other level.
Krampus.
Oh God.
Can you imagine just switching to that one day?
Oh no, it's not just naughty list anymore.
Like you might get drowned in the sack.
Yeah.
Like I quite enjoy it.
It's not just like you're on the naughty list.
There is actual punishment for it.
Like you're gonna reap the opposite of rewards
for you being here. Yeah.
Yeah.
It's karma.
And I like that.
Who doesn't like karma for all those misbehaving kids?
And that is a super short episode.
That's what I got on Krampus.
I take it there's no actual,
there's no actual Krampus sightings out there.
Unfortunately are there.
You know what?
I've heard a few.
I wasn't really a big fan of the sightings.
So I didn't include them
cause it was more kind of like,
I got a weird feeling.
So I looked outside and no, I didn't like them.
I didn't want to include them.
None that I could find that seemed to be any fun at all.
Okay.
Yeah.
It does really fill a void that is out there
with regards to kids who just say,
okay, I just, I guess I won't get a present.
What do you do to those children?
Of course you threaten them with being beaten and drowned.
Yeah. I mean, the threat right now
is that you don't get a present,
which is generally thought of as good enough.
Yeah. Cause let's face it,
who knows actually where to get coal
for their kids these days if they're misbehaving.
Like- If you get coal, it's like candy coal.
Yeah. Like who actually has the audacity as a parent
to say like, no, I'm going to hunt down
and find some coal to give.
Like that's going to take a lot of effort
and you might as well just get them a toy.
Honestly, if you're going to spend that much time
and effort getting it, get them a fucking toy.
And I love how much it seems
this cultural thing was like the adults took so much pleasure
and being like, I'm getting my just desserts
from these little bastards.
Yeah. It's truly the Christmas for adults.
Yes it is.
The gift that keeps on giving for adults only.
And with that, we wish you adults who are listening now
a very happy holiday season.
We will return next week with another episode.
Thank you all for listening and we will see you next week.
Bye.
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For now, I'll see you in the next episode.
THEEND