| "Count Magnus" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by M.R. James | |
 | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Publication | |
| Publication date | 1904 |
"Count Magnus" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, first published in 1904. It was included in his first collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary .
A traveller in Sweden stumbles upon the history of a mysterious and ominous figure, Count Magnus. [1]
Mr. Wraxall is an author of several travelogues, having previously published one about Brittany. During his travels in Sweden, he comes across an ancient manor house (herrgård) in Vestergothland and decides to do some research there. He is offered to lodge there, but declines and stays at the local village inn. The local church has a mausoleum nearby, built by Count Magnus for himself and his family, de la Gardie. He inquires of his landlord about local traditions surrounding Count Magnus.
The Count is known locally for being a harsh landowner, who severely punished his tenants if they were late with their rent. Houses built too near his lands often burned down. He had also been on the Black Pilgrimage and brought something "otherworldy" back. Later, in doing research among the family papers, Wraxall discovers an explanation for the Pilgrimage in a book of alchemical tracts, entitled Latin : Liber nigræ peregrinationis, lit. 'Book of the Black Pilgrimage'. The pilgrimage is to Chorazin and involves a salute to the Prince of the Air. Walking home, Wraxall finds himself at the mausoleum and expresses a desire to see Count Magnus. Later on, he meets with the Deacon and queries him about Chorazin. However, he is evasive towards Wraxall's subject. He presses the landlord of the inn about what Count Magnus brought back from Chorazin and is told a tale about two men who went poaching one night on the Count's lands. One of the men is found catatonic, while the other was dead; his face having been pulled off his skull.
The next day, along with the Deacon, he visits the mausoleum. The Count's copper sarcophagus is ornate and contains scenes from his life, as well as a depiction of the Count on its top. One of the scenes shows a man being pursued by a cloaked and hooded figure with tentacles, while the Count watches from a hill. The lid is secured with three padlocks, one of which is already unlocked. Later, on his way back to the mausoleum, Wraxall's mind wanders and he finds himself chanting. Soon, he realizes that the two remaining padlocks are now unfastened.
The following day, he makes preparation to finish his researches and return to England. He stops at the mausoleum to bid farewell to Count Magnus and again expresses a desire to see him. As he does so, the third padlock detaches and the lid begins to rise. Quickly, he leaves, but is unable to lock the mausoleum behind him.
He returns to England safely by canal-boat, but feels that among his fellow passengers are two strange figures who fail to appear at mealtimes. He arrives at Harwich and takes a carriage to Belchamp St. Paul. Along the way, he sees the two strange figures once more. He finds lodgings there and spends the next day awaiting the two figures' arrival.
The next day, he is found dead in a terrible condition and a jury rules it to be a visitation by God. The house where he died is abandoned and eventually acquired by the narrator, who has it torn down since nobody will stay there.
The story was not included in the original 1970s run of A Ghost Story for Christmas for budgetary reasons. Director Lawrence Gordon Clark wanted to make the story in 1978, later acknowledging; “I wanted to make Count Magnus by M.R. James but they wouldn’t put up the money for it, which I felt was pretty shortsighted considering the success we’d had with the series.” [2]
The story was eventually adapted over forty years later in 2022 for the same strand as Count Magnus . It was written and directed by Clark's successor Mark Gatiss. [3]
Horror podcast The Magnus Archives derived its name from James' "Count Magnus". [4]
Montague Rhodes James was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–1915). James's scholarly work is still highly regarded, but he is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered by many critics and authors as the finest in the English language and widely influential on modern horror.
Thomas Carnacki is a fictional occult detective created by English fantasy writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was the protagonist of a series of six short stories published between 1910 and 1912 in The Idler magazine and The New Magazine.
"The Tomb" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in June 1917 and first published in the March 1922 issue of The Vagrant. It tells the story of Jervas Dudley, who becomes obsessed with a mausoleum near his childhood home.
Maury Troy Travis was an American serial killer. Travis was named in a federal criminal complaint for the murders of two women. At the time of the murders, he was a hotel waiter, and on parole for a 1989 robbery. While Travis claimed in a letter to have murdered 17 women, some authorities were doubtful; others thought he may have murdered up to 20 women. He died by suicide by hanging in custody in St. Louis County, Missouri, after being arrested for murder.
Joel Stephen "Joey" Greco is an American television personality, best known as the long- time host of the reality TV show Cheaters, hosting for ten seasons.
Lawrence Gordon Clark is an English television director and producer, screenwriter, and author, best known for creating the supernatural anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas, which originally aired on BBC One from 1971–1978, with Clark directing all but the final instalment as well as writing and producing the first two, The Stalls of Barchester (1971) and A Warning to the Curious (1972). The first five of these were based on the ghost stories of M. R. James, as was Casting the Runes (1979) which he directed for the ITV drama anthology series Playhouse.
The Midnight Bell is a gothic novel by Francis Lathom. It was first published anonymously in 1798 and has, on occasion, been wrongly attributed to George Walker. It was one of the seven "horrid novels" lampooned by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.
Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.
Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?
I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.
Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?
—Northanger Abbey, ch. 6
A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.
"A Warning to the Curious" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his book A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories first published in 1925. The tale tells the story of Paxton, an antiquarian and archaeologist who holidays in "Seaburgh" and inadvertently stumbles across one of the three lost crowns of East Anglia, which legendarily protect the country from invasion. Upon digging up the crown, Paxton is stalked by its supernatural guardian. Written a few years after the end of the First World War, "A Warning to the Curious" ranks as one of M. R. James's bleakest stories.
“The Tractate Middoth” is a short ghost story by British author M. R. James. It was published in 1911 in More Ghost Stories, James's second collection of ghost stories.
Padlocked is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Allan Dwan and written by Rex Beach, Becky Gardiner, and James Shelley Hamilton. The film stars Lois Moran, Noah Beery Sr., Louise Dresser, Helen Jerome Eddy, Allan Simpson, Florence Turner, and Richard Arlen. The film was released on August 2, 1926, by Paramount Pictures.
"'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904). The story is named after a 1793 poem of the same name penned by Robert Burns.
Brownhill Inn, now just called Brownhill, was an inn approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) mile south of Closeburn, on the A76, which itself is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Thornhill, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built in approximately 1790, this old coaching inn has undergone extensive changes, and the south side of the original property appears little changed whilst part of the inn has been demolished. The inns facilities used to include the once-extensive 12 stall livery stables on the west side of the road, but these have been sold and converted to farm buildings after the inn closed. The inn was the first changing place for horses hauling coaches from Dumfries and closed in 1850. In 1789 an Act of Parliament had been passed that enabled the building of a Turnpike from Auldgirth Bridge to Sanquhar through Closeburn Parish and the inn was built to serve the patrons of this new road. The toll road supplanted the original post road that ran via Stepends, Gateside and Shaw that may have been of Roman origins.
Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids is a 1992 children's fantasy horror book of cautionary tales written by British author Jamie Rix and is the second book in the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids series. It was published by André Deutsch and contains 15 short stories.
The Magnus Archives is a horror fiction podcast written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall, and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims starred as the Head Archivist for the fictional Magnus Institute, a London-based paranormal research institution, originally making audio recordings of statements for the Institute's research before being ensnared in a paranormal conspiracy traced back to the Institute itself. Five seasons were released between 2016 and 2021 on various audio streaming services.
Edward Whigham (1750–1823) was the landlord of a coaching inn, a bailie, Provost of Sanquhar, bibliophile and one of Robert Burns's close friends during his Nithsdale and Dumfries days. Edward married Jane Osborne.
Count Magnus is a short film which is part of the British supernatural anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas. Produced by Isibeal Ballance and written and directed by Mark Gatiss, it is based on the ghost story of the same name by M. R. James, first published in the collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), and first aired on BBC Two on 23 December 2022.
Lost Hearts is a short film, the third of the British supernatural anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas. Written by Robin Chapman, produced by Rosemary Hill, and directed by the series' creator, Lawrence Gordon Clark, it is based on the 1895 ghost story of the same name by M. R. James and first aired on BBC1 on 25 December 1973. It is the first instalment to have been broadcast on Christmas Day itself, and one of only three in the series' history.
The author and medievalist M. R. James (1862-1936) wrote over 30 ghost stories, which have been widely adapted for television, radio, and theatre. The first adaptation of one of his stories was of A School Story for the BBC Midlands Regional Programme in 1932, the only one produced in James' lifetime. The only notable film adaptation is Night of the Demon (1957), directed by Jacques Tourneur and based on Casting the Runes, which is considered one of the greatest horror films of all time. The most celebrated adaptations of his works are those produced for British television in the 1960s and 1970s, which have made him, according to critic Jon Dear, “the go-to folk horror writer for television.”
A Wicked Voice by Vernon Lee is a short story about a 19th-century Scandinavian composer named Magnus who, haunted by the ghost of an 18th-century Italian singer named Zaffirino, loses his passion for decadent music and instead comes to realize his true love of classical music.
The full text of Count Magnus at Wikisource
Count Magnus public domain audiobook at LibriVox