Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Haunting
Tagged: Theme.
Haunting has links with memory, the power of place and ultimately Possession. It is very focal: haunts are locations which have the power to lure, attract and entrap – such as the haunts of the Wendigo or other nature spirits. The music and presence of Pan in "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908) exercise a powerful haunting over Mole, Ratty and the baby Portly. The term has much wider connotations than the obvious links with Ghosts, Revenants and Haunted Dwellings. [MA]