KADIN BRIDGE: Klearchos Kapoutsis from Paleo Faliro, Athens, Greece, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

When I was a child, I was fascinated by stories my grandmother told me about people or animals embedded into walls or foundations. I also found the thought of it barbaric. Every time I passed by a bridge or church, I wondered who had been embedded there. The reason for doing such a thing was to make the building strong.

Although animals such as roosters have served this purpose in new constructions, physically walling in a human is believed to have occurred only in legends. In real life, it was believed that a person’s shadow could be captured to be built into the wall. The spirit, called a talasum, would remain there for eternity to protect the building.

My grandmother never allowed me to approach a place where a house or other structure was being built. She waited until the walls were as high as us. If we came too near any sooner than that, she told me that the builder could capture our shadow and brick us in.

A scary thought. I had no desire to become a talasum.

Are you wondering how a shadow was embedded?

The process wasn’t that difficult. The builder waited until a healthy, young person passed by. This was often a woman, for reason I’ll tell you about below. The builder then measured the person’s shadow using a white piece of twine. Since a shadow is part of a person when the sun shines, the shadow could be used as a substitute for that person.

Using white may be due to a custom of measuring a dead person for a casket. In this instance, two threads of the material were used, a white one and a black one. The black one was buried with the deceased. The white one, however, was placed somewhere secure in the home, often under the eaves. The belief is that the deceased couldn’t take the luck of the house with him when he was buried. So, in the case of building in a shadow, the white one kept the luck in the building that was being built.

After rolling the measuring material into a ball, the builder buried it into the building’s foundation or wall. Within forty days, the measured person became ill and died. His or her spirit then became the building’s talasum.

Even today, you’ll find people in Bulgaria who believe that every major building has one of these talasums protecting it. If you go out between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m., you may run into the spirit. You will know the spirit is there because it’ll make some noise. If it’s a woman, she may be singing or weeping. A man’s spirit is likely to be playing a kaval, a shepherd’s pipe. The talasum may also appear as an animal, often a dog, bear, or wolf.

Don’t venture too close to the building, because the spirit will attack you.

Women were often those whose shadows were built into walls, at least in legends, particularly if she were nursing at the time. The woman’s fertility was symbolic of sustaining life. In addition, the woman was considered the keystone of the family, the one who kept the family strong. And so, builders believed that a woman’s shadow would be a stronger talasum than a man’s.

The most famous of these talasums in Bulgarian lore is for the Kadin Bridge, built in 1470. It spans the Struma River in a small village called Nevestino. The word “Kadin” comes from a Turkish word that means “of a bride,” making it “The Bride Bridge.” It is the sacrificed bride from which the river earns its name.

The story is one of deceit. When the river waters kept washing away the work Manol and his brothers achieved each day, they decided that they would sacrifice the first wife who came to the construction site the next day. Manol’s brothers warned their wives not to come, but Manol honored their agreement. The next morning his wife appeared and they built her into the bridge. She asked that that leave a hole so she could continue to nurse her son. People claim they can still hear the moans of a weeping woman around the bridge.

This legend inspired me. You will meet the spirit of Struma in our Dragon Village series.  In our story, however, Struma gets her revenge on those deceived her husband, Manol.

Kickstarter Campaign

We’ll be launching the complete Dragon Village series in the September/October timeframe. Here’s a preview of our campaign story.

Dangers lurk in Dragon Village, but also secrets. Can Theo solve the mysteries before an evil creature conquers the magical and human worlds?

Do you have an adventurous soul, ready to encounter strange magical creatures?Have you ever wished you could travel through a portal to another world?Do you love the reluctant hero, strong female friends, and quirky sidekicks?

If this sounds like you, then step through the gate into the magical world of Dragon Village.

Campaign link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ronesa-aveela/dragon-village

You can also find out more about talasums and other spirits in our book A Study of Household Spirits of Eastern Europe.