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Examining Shakespeare through a Cryptozoological Lens

Mackenzie Marrow

Introduction

To understand a culture, one must understand its spirituality, mythology, and folklore. Learning

of a society’s technological advances may reveal something about a few well-educated people, whereas

folklore and folktales reveal how the everyman operated in that past and even still today. According to

Haggerty Krappe in The Science of Folklore, the purpose of studying folktales is to “reconstruct a

spiritual history of Man, not as exemplified by the outstanding works of poets and thinkers but as

represented by the more or less inarticulate voices of the ‘folk” (xv). But because these are only stories of

the “folk,” many of their experiences are not recorded in official histories, and the every-man isn’t always

included in scholarly research. The study of the tales which permeate a culture can tell a more

comprehensive history of a region and the people than most studies because it focuses on the heart of the

culture. Looking specifically into folklore and applying it to literature presents an opportunity for new

thinking and interaction with texts that has not been previously explored.

A common thread in folklore throughout the world is the presence of creatures of whom we

cannot prove their existence or non-existence. These creatures are called cryptids. While they are present

in all cultures, the most “mainstream” cryptids include Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the

Chupacabra. The presence of cryptids is so much so that the Oxford English Dictionary has a definition

for these creatures of folklore: "an animal whose existence or survival to the present day is disputed or

unsubstantiated; any animal of interest to a cryptozoologist”. Because of the inability to prove the

existence of cryptids, the study of them is called cryptozoology and not considered a part of general

zoology, or the scientific study of animals. These folkloric cryptids often have symbolic meaning

attached to their stories. In many cultures, cryptids function as cautionary tales. The stories they appear in

are cautionary tales that tell of dangers which may be present in daily life such as the Japanese Kappa
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who is a warning for children of the dangers of water or the Native American Deer Woman who is a

cautionary tale against strangers and taking advantage of women.

For my research, I was drawn to bringing the study of cryptozoology into my understanding of

literature and its psychological significance in the modern world. Peter Dendle, in his book

Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds, explained this significance as a way to: “recapture a

sense of mysticism and danger in a world now perceived as fully charted and over-explored" (190).For

this research, I created and applied a new methodology of cryptozoological analysis which uses folkloric

characters of different cultures as a way of explaining motives and actions of literary figures. More

specifically, I analyzed the lamenting/cursing women and central villain of Shakespeare's Richard III

through an understanding of the Navajo Skinwalker and the Celtic Banshee. This unique analysis is a

way to look at the representation of the cause of evil in literature not based on a backstory riddled with

tragedy, or a mental diagnosis from the reader. Clinical Psychiatrist Dale Archer describes uneducated

diagnosis as “armchair psychology” in an article for Psychology Today saying, “the dangers of an

armchair psychiatrist trying to slap a label on someone they have never met” defining the act as

diagnosing others without possessing a degree in psychology. As neither a doctor nor a psychologist, I

have found the current trend of armchair psychology a harmful form of literary analysis that can

potentially hurt and stigmatize those who do suffer from these mental illnesses.

For my methodology of comparison, the process asks for a basic knowledge of many of these

cryptozoological creatures. After choosing a character from a literary work, I began to dive into more in-

depth research of the cryptids I am already aware of, and looked at their distinct characteristics.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of scholarly work and research done on these creatures, this can prove

difficult. In most cases, there is no lack of encounters and passed down stories of cryptids, but

unfortunately for this research, they are not present in many scholarly articles. Once I have done this

research, looked for at least three defining characteristics of the unique nature of this cryptid to proceed. I
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use these characteristics to then validate the comparison between the cryptid and the literary character.

The two cryptids most relevant to my study of Richard III are the Navjo Skinwalker, and the Celtic

Banshee.

A Skinwalker King: A Study of Shakespeare’s Richard III through a Cryptozoological Lens

[Skinwalkers] are supposed to gain their powers by ruining those of others.

--Barre Toelken, The Moccasin Telegraph and Other Improbabilities

Analyzing literary characters through assigning a mental illness to them is commonplace.

Attempting to find reasoning where there might be none is the rationale of human nature and is consistent

in the study of Shakespeare, particularly his villains. In Richard III, the main traits of the titular character

are reminiscent of the Native American folkloric creature, the Skinwalker. In the Navajo tradition,

Skinwalkers are a feared and sacred entity and are rarely discussed in public and figure highly in

cautionary tale aimed towards young children and adults alike. Because of this, their cultural importance

should not be taken lightly. However, the sacred nature of the Skinwalker is not one of reverence,

according to The Journey of Navajo Oshley: An Autobiography and Life History: “The word sacred has a

different meaning here than in the Judeo-Christian world. Many traditional Navajo people think of power

as merely existing; a person may choose to manipulate it for good or bad” (47). This is also the power the

Skinwalker uses for evil. Historically, according to the Sam Pack, author of Watching Navajos Watch

Themselves, a Skinwalker is someone who has reached the highest point in priesthood, and upon

murdering a close family member, gained an evil power along with the ability to take the form of an

animal for the sole purpose of committing horrifying acts. A Skinwalker can turn into any creature

(including another human) they desire via their pelt. As a way to help expand our understanding of the

character of Richard III, looking into Navajo tradition for his root of evil can illuminate his role and add

to the traditional readings of Richard III, which have been done mainly through a European lens. Before
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any further searching into what context a “Skinwalker King” would bring to Richard III, the argument of

its validity must be made. The case for the comparison can be found in Richard’s open pursuit of evil, the

cold murder of his family members before and after his rise to the highest power, and the constant

figurative representation of Richard as an animal, which all are suggestive of the Skinwalker and can

therefore enrichen the reading of the play's text by analogy to another culture's folklore.

Rarely found in the modern representation of evil are those who are evil for evil’s sake. The

expectation is there should be an authenticity of reasoning and more profound meaning behind

professional sinners. Richard, however, does not have a more profound meaning in his actions. He is

simply evil. His inability to feel remorse for these murders plays directly into the essential aspect of the

Skinwalker legend, because it fully emphasizes the transition from personhood to an immoral and ruthless

creature. Richard does not hide his meaningless evil from the audience, informing them that it is simply a

remedy to boredom: “To entertain these fair well-spoken days, /I am determined to prove a villain/ And

hate the idle pleasures of these days” (1.1.29-31). Another mark of his true evil is the lack of morality and

inability to connect emotionally with anyone, as most people are able to do at some level. When Queen

Elizabeth confronts Richard on sending his nephews, the princes, to death, his accountability doesn’t even

register to him: “You speak as if that I had slain my cousins” (4.4.223). In response to this, the Queen

remarks that although Richard might not have dealt the killing blow, his “stony heart” sharpened the

blade. He is unable to make this connection to his accountability, establishing him as inhuman and

monstrous (i.e., unnatural).

Richard’s murderous mind never takes a break from the task at hand. Planning and executing

these villainous plots seem to come as easy to Richard as breathing. As stated above, murder is the

signifying step to becoming a Skinwalker. According to Navajo legend, the Skinwalker’s murder cannot

be of just anyone, it must be a murder of a close family member. Killing family members comes off as no

matter to Richard; it is only a mere consequence of living: “All unavoided is the doom of destiny”
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(4.4.219). As an emphasis on his declaration of evil, Richard is already plotting the murder of his brother,

the Duke of Clarence, in his very first speech. Before the end of Act 1, Clarence is put to his early death.

What makes Richard and Clarence stand out from a standard fratricide is the lack of any aggression

between the two. Richard readily admits his love for his brother and prays he will be able to send him to

heaven. This abnormal behavior further cements Richard’s loss, or lack therefore, of personhood. He is

doing what must be done, and in the case of a Skinwalker, what must be done is this killing of close

family.

In historical context, Richard III is often represented as a ruthless, animalistic man both in and out

of the play. According to the Elizabethan culture at the time, “it was supposed that devils could at any

moment assume whatever form they please” (Dyer 52). Folk-lore, as well as Oshley and Pack, agree that

the primary defining factor of the Skinwalker, is their ability to manipulate their body shape, most often

into an animal whose pelt the creature is wearing. While Richard isn’t walking around with a pelt on, he

would be surrounded by his coat of arms which bear two murderous looking white boars. In J.B.

Lethbridge’s book, Shakespeare and Spenser: Attractive Opposites, Lethbridge looks closer into the

comparison of Richard and his symbol of the white boar. According to Lethbridge the white boar is used

as a symbol to convey, “A noble beast in older opinion but also allowing insult, for a boar is both

irascible and, if domesticated, a mere pig. Not that epithets for Richard were limited to swine; a number

of historians and writers had reached for their bestiaries in describing Richard” (np). Lethbridge then

provides examples of the historical Richard III being referred to as a scorpion, a tiger, a serpent, a “cur

dogge,” a wolf, and even a calf. But his connection to the boar was the most common allusion and used so

often, a poem written for the Tudor prince, referred to Richard III as a white boar. The most notable and

descriptive instance of this is in the monologue Mirror for Magistrates:

Frownyng he enters, with so chaunged cheare,

As for myld May had chopped fowle Januere.

And lowrying on me with the goggle ye,

The whetted tuske, and furrowed forhead hye,

His Crooked shoulder bristllyke set up,

With frothy Jawes, whose foame he chawed and suppd,

With angry lookes that flamed as the fyer:

Thys gan at last to grunt the grymest syre. (Qtd.in Lethbridge 179)

All description here is focused solely on the animalistic aspect of Richard and leaves no room to view him

as human at all. While Richard III is not presented as a true-to-life biography of Richard III, it is

reasonable that these prejudices and assumptions of Richard historically would translate into the play. In

comparison to the aforementioned description of Richard the Boar, he is also described similarly in the

play. In the fifth act, Richard and his fury are described as: “The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,

/That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines, / Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his

trough/ In your embowell'd bosoms” (5.2.8-11).

The animals connected to Richard III are not contained to boars and swine; there is a quick

reference to him as a hedgehog in his first encounter with Lady Anne: “Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then,

God grant me too/ Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed!” (1.2.106-107) In a text taken from

Mediaeval Preachers and Mediaeval Preaching: a Series of Extracts by Rev. J. M. Neale, hedgehogs are

symbolic for sinners:

Note that the hedgehog is altogether full of prickles; and if anyone tries to take it, it rolls itself up,

and becomes as it were a ball in the hand of the holder...The hedgehog is the obstinate sinner,

covered all over with the prickles of sins. (246- 247)

This could possibly be the image Shakespeare had in mind when he charged Richard III with this title,

literally or not. In the case of Richard III, he is constantly likened to animals to an extreme degree to

where this animal encapsulates who he is at any given point, very much as a Skinwalker literally becomes

the animal.
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Historically, Richard III has been represented in a horrible and dehumanizing manner. Whether

he is believed to be a villain or not, Richard III is one of the more intriguing monarchs and his History

works perfectly as a standalone production. His short-lived rule and short-lived life leave many questions

in his wake. While of course Richard was not actually a cryptozoological beast of Navajo legends, his

apparent lack of humanity leaves something to be desired in assessing his character. There is the

proverbial call to ask “why” --an answer must be found for every question, and it seems far from reality to

have this character be so malicious with no reasonable motivation. Maybe Shakespeare believed he was

mentally ill, maybe his actions were a subconscious rebellion from the world treating him as an “other.”

In part due to his physical deformity, Richard III was permanently “othered” and the Richard of the play

took this personally, lamenting: “Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, / Deformed, unfinished, sent

before my time/ Into this breathing world, scarce half made up” (1.1.19). As a “half-made” person,

Richard might have been searching for something to make him whole, where his deformity didn’t affect

his power over others. In Skinwalker legend, deformity is part of it all, as Skinwalkers are reported to

have unsettling gaits like the one Richard III had due to deformity.

Even though European culture is rich with its folklore and creatures, introducing the Navajo

tradition into the literary canon can assist in how we can interpret old texts with a fresh perspective.

While there is something to be gained in certain fields of study by assigning mental illnesses to villains,

approaching literary characters with a cryptozoological perspective isn’t common and could provide more

insight into Shakespeare’s Richard III’s open pursuit of evil, his intention behind the murder of family

members, and the obsessive comparison of the character to wild animals.

The Banshee Lady: A Study of Queen Anne through a Cryptozoological Lens

In her home, with bent head, homeless,

Clasping her knees she sits,

Keening, keening!

--John Todhunter “The Banshee”

In Shakespeare’s Richard III, Lady Anne is presented as a morally ambiguous character with

uncertain motives regarding the cause of her intense suffering. Because the history of women is the

history of suffering, to understand Lady Anne, we must first look at her pain as a whole and not as an

isolated instance. Women have been a symbol and model of suffering for all of history, and entire

professions have been built from this experience. Being a professional lamenter has roots in cultures all

across the world, and was, according to Katharine Goodland’s Female Mourning and Tragedy in

Medieval and Renaissance Drama, considered a rite for the dead until the Reformation Church banned

excessive wailing for the dead as a “lawless abomination that undermines civil authority and impedes the

progress of the reformed church” (145). This fear of women grieving has made its way into literature as

well. Goodland continues, “In Shakespeare’s Richard III, Gloucester and Buckingham similarly view

lamentation as a threat” (145). These men in history and literature alike firmly believed the raw emotional

power of women posed a significant threat to them. In the Irish tradition, this loud wail for the dead or a

“keen,” represented by the folkloric creature of the Banshee.

The Banshee is a haunting female figure which Lady Anne could be considered to embody due to

her excessive lamenting and her prophetic curses. A Banshee is a female entity who foretells the death of

certain Irish families by emitting a shrill scream which is reminiscent of the cry of a barn owl. Banshees

are said to often be women who have died during childbirth (Noetzel, np), signifying the despair
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associated with this. In the Celtic cryptozoological tradition, a Banshee does not serve as a cautionary

tale, but more as a direct result of the Reformation church taking away the livelihood of keeners and the

resulting mysticism surrounding them. Women are constantly told to quell their emotions because it

makes them emotionally weak, but the Banshee's whole existence and 'job' depends on her tapping into

this emotion to provide her prophetic death-warning. And these warnings were always taken seriously,

according to Dyer in The Folk-lore of Shakespeare: "As in Shakespeare's day, so, too, at the present time,

there is perhaps no superstition so deeply rooted in the minds of many people as the belief in what is

properly termed 'death-warnings'" (365). The origin of the Banshee is hard to pin down, but she is always

associated with particular, usually noble, families in Ireland. While Richard III’s family is not one of

these, it is not too far off to assume the Lord of Ireland, as Richard was known as when he was King,

would be considered part of a noble Irish family. Before any further searching into what can be gained by

portraying Lady Anne as a Banshee, the argument of its validity must be made. There is already a

precedent of the Banshee being used symbolically as a form of art or of extreme suffering which Lady

Anne does as she performs her keen which turns prophetic. This process signifies her transition into the

Banshee and the loss of her maternal role.

Keening, and by extension the Banshee, have a long history and tradition of being used as a

universal expression of grief and sorrow. Recently, in the 1980's, the woman of the Greenham Common

Women's Peace Camp dressed in black and marched around Parliament Square while keening as a form

of protest. The women were mourning for all the children lost due to nuclear weapons, stating: "We fear

for the future of all our children and for the future of the living world which is the basis of all life”

(Hipperson. np). In his 1925 piece entitled “The Banshee,” Henry Cowell composed a piano solo which

challenged comfort of the audience, keeping them on the edge of their seat and ready to run from some

unknown inevitable. This effect is created by the pianist, instead of playing the keys, reaching through the

crook and dragging their fingers down the strings in a haunting manner mimicking the Banshee’s

unearthly cry. As Maria Cizmic points out in her piece Embodied Experimentalism and Henry Cowell’s
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“The Banshee”, there is an unusual power dynamic created, because the damper pedal must be pressed

down for the piece to work, “The piano bench, whether occupied by a pianist or nonpianist, or left empty,

no longer supplies the primary site of performativity” (448). This creates the illusion of the Banshee (the

pianist) playing directly to someone to illustrate the power this wail can have over someone who is

rendered helpless.

In Ireland, women were hired as keeners for families to loudly and harrowingly express the grief

for those lost. According to Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, “[A keener’s] cry, variously

termed a wail, lament, or Olagón, is said to be plaintive in the extreme, and to represent family and

community grief” (189). This wail was historically viewed as a way to help drive those departed to their

rest. Over time, this tradition gave birth to the folkloric Banshee. Her legend grew specifically related to

Irish families with a higher standing, and instead of crying for the dead, she began to cry as a warning for

the soon-to-be-dead. Once the Banshee cries, the death of you or a family member has been decided by

fate, and there is no turning back from the finality of her wail.

Lady Anne’s first appearance is her grieving over the loss of her king and her husband, both of

whom were murdered by Richard III. Her sadness is deep and painful as she laments openly over the

casket as the only mourner: “Set down, set down your honorable load, / If honor may be shrouded in a

hearse, / Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament/ Th' untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster” (1.2.1-4). She

openly accepts and acknowledges the position of lamenter and from the text and her usage of

“obsequiously,” it is clear her suffering is substantial and she intends to lament loudly. With all of this, an

actor can choose to portray her obsequious lamenting as a form of keening, substituting cries for harsh

wails. As Lady Anne accepts this role of a keener and begins to prophesize upcoming deaths, she is

transitioning into the banshee-like entity, sealing her and Richard III’s fate.
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Lady Anne’s transformation into a banshee happens very early on in her lament, almost as if she

is eager to let go of her past and fully take on this new figure. Grabbing onto her thread of helplessness,

Lady Anne invokes some dark and unknown power, she directly talks to the King’s ghost and places a

curse on the one who killed them, and on his future wife and child as well.

Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes!

Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it!

Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!

More direful hap betide that hated wretch

That makes us wretched by the death of thee

Than I can wish to wolves, to spiders, toads,

Or any creeping venomed thing that lives.

If ever he have child, abortive be it,

Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,

Whose ugly and unnatural aspect

May fright the hopeful mother at the view,

And that be heir to his unhappiness. (1.2.18-26)

Here, during her keening, she is directly predicting Richard III's death. Unlike a number of folkloric

creatures, the Banshee only foretells of impending death and does not cause it. Women tend to prophesize

in Richard III, but Lady Anne’s happens as a direct result of her transformation through her keen.

In folklore, a Banshee can be born out of the death of a pregnant woman or a woman who died in

childbirth. While there may be no textual evidence to the degree of a possible pregnancy or child, this

ultimately is the death of the mother Anne will never be and her unknown future puts her forever at a

disadvantage. She speaks, “Hear the lamentations of Poor Anne” (1.2.8-9), relating her sorrow directly to

her murdered family, and her new role as a widow and as a mourner who is unable to assist the departed

in any way other than crying over their grave. For woman in this era, becoming a mother was one of the
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only things she could contribute to the world, and when motherhood is taken away, we see women lose

themselves trying to figure out their new identity. Being childless or unable to produce a child was a

taboo subject which many women still struggle with today. Lady Anne takes her suffering for what was

and what can never be and turns it into a powerful and impassioned resource, which in turn, drives the

play. What happens in this scene is the symbolic death of a mother, and here Lady Anne fulfills the role

of the Banshee’s origin.

Because of the long tradition of women sufferers, women like Lady Anne have had to take their

suffering and turn it into strength against their oppressors. Words have power, and while a Banshee may

not be an evil entity in itself, they are often viewed as the harbingers of pain and suffering. The history of

women suffering at the hands of men is Anne’s her blood and bones. The women of the play, share

similarities through their shared grievance for the dead and the ones they know are coming. Lady Anne,

Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Margaret feel the need to curse their enemies and turn the tides of their fate

themselves. Queen Margaret reassures Queen Elizabeth of her and other women’s innate power through

speech: "Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce like mine” (4.4.126). Throughout the play, Queen

Margaret curses and foretells death and the destruction of Richard’s reign, she may already have

transitioned into a Banshee-like-entity, or she is simply a woman who has learned to survive however she

can. Even if the women of Richard III are not Banshee’s, they fulfill the folkloric role of the Banshee,

being ever-present to pain and suffering without directly causing it themselves.

In her Keening scene, Lady Anne has called upon something bigger and darker than herself, and

she pays the price for her actions. But at the base of it all, she is a woman who has essentially lost

everything and finds herself powerless and wanting to remove herself from the label of victim. This is

why Lady Anne finds Richard III irresistible; he is someone who knows the feeling of being helpless, and

he is doing everything in his power to combat this powerlessness and becomes something bigger than

himself. In the case of Lady Anne, while performing the keening rights, she turns prophetic which
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signifies her transition into the realm of the Banshee, and this strikes as particularly crucial to the culture

she embodies due to the symbolism of the banshee used to express suffering, especially of women and

lost children.

Conclusion

Through my research, I have looked into folkloric cryptids of different cultures and applied them

to Shakespeare’s Richard III. This way of reading and analyzing the play opens up new opportunities for

how we look at the classic characters and their motivations in the text. Because I have applied a new

methodology, my study functions as setting the framework for a more in-depth study of what this can

potentially add to the literature and how we view cryptozoological creatures outside of their normal

realm. Other framing studies like this one, especially in Shakespeare, are possible. For example, an

argument could be made that the Macbeths belong in both of the courts of fairies. The Scottish play is

well documented as cursed, and it is not unusual to have specific traditions to ward off evil, much like the

precautions taken around the fairies.

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