The Roan Mountain Choir

Members Editorial

The Roan Mountain Choir

Members editorials are the expressed personal opinions of the members who wrote them and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the Haunt Masters Club as a whole.

By: Justin

The Scot-Irish immigrants to the rocky Southern Appalachian Mountains brought with them folklore and legends from the own native countries and over the years they became ingrained in the unique mountain heritage.

One of these tales is the “Roan Mountain Choir,” a terrible wind that carries on it noises that chill the spine. Locals in this Tennessee town say that it is usually heard on top of the mountains and it is something people never forget, even though they themselves have never heard it.

Perhaps this tale comes from Ireland where the Unseelie Court is believed to be heard. This nocturnal wind carries on it the cries of the dead, evil fairies and witches. This “unholy court” can abduct evening walkers and carry them on a wild ride for hours on end.

This myth also appears in the Norse culture as the Wild Hunt. It is lead by the horrible pagan father-god of the dead, Odin. He leads a procession of things that go bump in the night to collect the souls of the recently deceased. However, this mad rush of wind is also thought to pick up the living if they are unfortunate enough to hear it. The only way anyone can survive is by grabbing on to something, even if it’s a bush or a branch from a tree.

However, like the elusive circular rainbow, Jennifer Bauer Laughlin sites in her book, Roan Mountain: A Passage In Time (1999), this may not be completely mythological. In Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina (1988), authors Randy Russell and Janet Barnett tell the story of a guest at the Cloudland Hotel summer resort that once attracted people from all across the county. Already familiar with the folklore, he hid in a nearby cave while the horrible wind whipped over the grassy bald mountains and ripped rhododendrons up by the roots.