Last month, I started wondering how Santa Claus got a hold
of those reindeer and the willful indentured servants we call elves. Then I got
to reflecting on the similarity of “Santa” to “Satan” (despite that I know
Santa means Saint in Spanish – and perhaps other languages – a far cry from
the devil). So I began outlining an idea than Santa stole the reindeer from the
elves and eventually enslaved them as well. It’s a bit of a dark spin on a legend meant for children,
but it wouldn’t leave me alone.
As I started the first few pages, I knew I wanted to
describe the elves’ home in detail. I looked for what kind of trees grow in
Norway, hoping to find a large variety for their “home tree.” I failed to find one
suitable, but I did decide their forested home would consist of elms.
As I was looking at pictures, I found this.
What was this strange obelisk? Who was Bella? What was a ‘witch
elm’? I clicked the link.
During World War II, there were obviously thousands of
deaths, but not all were on the battlefront. Disturbed people at home still
murdered. Because of the sheer number of dying and missing persons, not everyone could be
identified.
In 1943, four boys trespassed in Hagley Woods (U.K.) to
poach birds. They came across a large Wych elm (witch elm). One boy thought it
would be a good place to find a bird’s nest and began to climb. But when he
looked down in the hollow trunk…
They immediately left the forest and agreed not to tell
anyone for fear they would get into huge trouble for their illegal presence on
the land.
The youngest boy, Tommy, told his parents anyway. He
probably felt the ghost would haunt him if he didn’t at least try to put its
remains on the path to eternal rest.
Police found a complete skeleton, a shoe, hair, a gold ring,
and a severed hand buried a few feet away. Forensic examination determined the
body was female and had been dead for 18 months (placing the date of death around
October of 1941). Asphyxiation was likely the cause, as the examiner found
taffeta stuffed in her mouth.
The graffiti first appeared in 1944 in Birmingham on a wall in Upper Dean Street. The picture above was in 1999 on the Wychbury Obelisk in Hagley, graffiti that has been repeated through the years until as recently as 2013. The identity of the artist(s) is as much of a mystery as the woman. Did the original artist know who the corpse was? Was Bella just an epithet or her real name?
The graffiti first appeared in 1944 in Birmingham on a wall in Upper Dean Street. The picture above was in 1999 on the Wychbury Obelisk in Hagley, graffiti that has been repeated through the years until as recently as 2013. The identity of the artist(s) is as much of a mystery as the woman. Did the original artist know who the corpse was? Was Bella just an epithet or her real name?
No one knows her identity for certain. If the artist knew, s/he wasn't saying. A prostitute came
forward after the graffiti appeared, saying she knew a “Bella” that
worked Hagley Road and had disappeared three years prior (in 1941). But there were no reported missing persons from the area that matched the description of "Bella's" corpse – petite, middle-aged, dark hair, irregular teeth. Police suspected she was foreign, perhaps German or Dutch.
Another explanation was produced in 1953 – questionable, as
the witness did not come forward until ten years later, but it supported police suspicions. "Anna" wrote to the Midlands newspaper The Wolverhampton Express and Star that in 1941, a spy ring was operating in the West Midlands, involving a British officer who passed information on the locations of munitions factories to a Dutch contact, who passed it to a spy – a foreign trapeze artist – who passed it to the Germans. "Bella" was a Dutch woman who arrived in the U.K. illegally and became involved in the spy ring. She learned too much and was killed by the Dutchman and the trapeze artist in a car, then dumped in the tree. Although the British officer was revealed to be a relation to Anna, he had died insane in 1942. Some of Anna's claims were later verified, but the trapeze artist was never found.
And then there's the legend that a witch's soul can be imprisoned if she is placed in a hollow tree – the severed hand could have been part of a black magic ritual.
This mystery inspired composer Simon Holt to write a musical
theatre piece. A play, Bella in the
Wych-Elm, was developed in 2007 by Stourbridge Theatre Company.
Sources and Further Information:
Today’s deviant ditty:
“She and Her Darkness” by Diary of Dreams
“She and Her Darkness” by Diary of Dreams
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