I remain boggled by the vast wealth of weirdness that exists or has existed in every culture throughout the world.

This issue I have been introduced to the extraordinary ‘draugr’ of medieval Norse belief. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a gently drifting lady in white or a spectral chanting monk wouldn’t be enough to spook a Viking. Oh no. It’s not enough to go ‘boo’ to Eric Bloodaxe or Snarrl the Mighty (who I’ve just made up). They’d just chortle through their beards – before getting very, very angry.

The idea of a Viking ghost is a much more visceral and vastly more terrifying entity than the rather self-effacing spooks we’re used to today: an animated corpse grown to twice human size, with super strength and a violent, vengeance-fuelled temper. Imagine the Incredible Hulk but with blue skin, wielding an axe and clawing its way out of a tomb and you get some idea of how a draugr would appear. (Now have a nice cup of tea to calm yourself down).

These horrors feature in more than a few Norse sagas, mainly from those of ancient Iceland. They make their startling debut in Paranormal thanks to a new writer for the magazine, Thomas Polkinghorne, to whom we are most grateful for scaring us silly.

Meanwhile, several of our established writers are planning to outdo themselves in uncovering the most bizarre entities from other cultures around the world today. Richard Freeman, who has already done a good job in suggesting that the Philippines harbour the strangest spooks (see last issue) is now preparing an article encouraging us to think the same of Brazil. Richard’s colleague, Jon Downes, is planning to highlight the nightmarish beings said to haunt Puerto Rico, an island he knows well through carrying out several long-term investigations there.

But I’m pleased to say the Dr Karl Shuker is taking up the cudgels on behalf of good old Blighty by seeking to come up with his personal Top Ten of the weirdest entities ever seen on these shores.

Karl’s current article on the Witchie Wolf and other mystery canines of the Americas is also full of fascinating material, while Nick Redfern helps to underline the high strangeness to be encountered in the USA with his article highlighting that most paranormal of states, Texas. We also journey to Italy for a tour of surely one of the most mystical cities in the world, Turin, a place where the forces of good and evil are said to meet.

The UK holds its own as ever this issue, with ghosts reported from Cornwall, Hampshire, the Scottish borders and elsewhere, to say nothing of Janet Bord’s review of her favourite fairy-haunted sites.

And looking down on all of us, the world over, is the Moon – a place that may not be so lifeless and barren after all, but the possible centre of the entire UFO enigma.

All in all, this issue would tempt me to say ‘It’s a funny old world’, if that cliché were not so hopelessly inadequate.

Richard Holland

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