Ghost Literature · 19. April 2021

About Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) one of the greatest ghost story writers of all time

Ghost Stories · 07. February 2021

It was in the spring of 1516 that the scholar Gerrit Gerritszoon arrived in Amsterdam. He had travelled all the way from the city of Leuven where he taught at the university. It was curiosity that brought him to Amsterdam. Gerrit had heard of this new metropole of the north with its busy harbour and ambitious merchants. And although Amsterdam did not yet have the power and wealth of the great Flemish and Brabantian cities of the south, its reputation was on the rise and he wanted to see it with...

Tales of the Devil · 01. February 2021

It was the heart of winter. Amsterdam’s IJ harbour was completely frozen over. As far as the eye could see it was a mirror-smooth plain, shrouded in cold: water frozen in all shades of white and grey and black. With evening a light fog, the harbinger of snow, came over the ice and dimmed the light of the first stars. The seagulls had already left for the city days ago and were now gliding past the windows of tall canal houses, screeching with hunger. On the IJ there were only a few skaters...

Tales of the Devil · 22. July 2020

The next story is a folk tale from the area of the Waterland, an ancient rural district just north of Amsterdam. Reclaimed a thousand years ago from swamp and sea and dotted with small farming and fishing villages the Waterland is just as haunted, if not more so, as the great city to its south. “If it’s gambling you hold dear, it’s the devil you should fear.” That’s what the old folks said in the village of Uitdam. Johan Hook did not care. He was young, he did not listen and every...

Witchcraft · 27. March 2020

All of a sudden Meyns her legs give way and for a moment it seems as if she's going to stumble off the scaffold and into the crowd. But one of the soldiers leaps forward and catches her, puts his arm around her waist and keeps her upright. She's only half conscious now. Still, she's answering the priest's prayer, mumbling her responses while the man frantically waves his crucifix in front of her face. As if there's any evil left in this woman to drive out. Apparently the mayor feels the same...

Witchcraft · 04. February 2020

It is Sunday, the 27th of November in the year 1555. In spite of the cold many Amsterdammers have gone to the market place at Dam Square today to see the spectacle. It'll start soon, when the bells of the New Church will ring for the none, the fourth hour in the afternoon. In front of city hall the sheriff's men have raised a scaffold made up of wooden beams stacked in a square with the inner space filled with sand and rubble. On top of that they've laid a plank floor with a wooden stake in the...

Ghost Stories · 18. December 2019

It was in the year 1638 that the merchant Willem Gerardszoon Spieghel returned home to Amsterdam after many years away. Years that he had spent in the lands of the Meuse where he had made his fortune in the wine trade. And had fallen in love. Her name was Alys, she had freckles and the soft accent of the south and every time she smiled Willem felt his beard itch. She thought him nervously scratching his beard rather charming and when one day she playfully let her hand caress his face he was...

Ghost Stories · 19. November 2019

Dear Reader, Some houses have a troubled history. Not because something happened in the house itself but because the site on which it stands is cursed by events from the past. And even though the last witness has died long ago, some experiences can attach themselves to certain locations in such a way that they can survive death as well as time. The following text is part of a story I’ve recently been working on. I’ve already performed it several times on the Ghost Walk in an abbreviated...

09. November 2019

Dear Reader, My name is ... not important. But I can tell you that I am a storyteller, a ghost storyteller to be more precise. And for more than fifteen years I’ve been running The Ghost Walk of Amsterdam, conducting guided tours through the old centre of Amsterdam and telling people of its haunted past. Some of my stories I’ve told more than a thousand times yet they still fascinate me. And on some nights, the good nights that is, I can still manage to even scare myself, the narrator, and...