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Island of Whispers

A Penny for the Ferryman

Island of Whispers is the story of a voyage of the dead.

The island of Merlank has a ghost problem. Unless the right steps are taken, the souls of the dead linger and wander, their presence threatening the living. So on the right sort of night, under the right kind of moon, the Ferryman sets sail, taking with him a collection of spectral passengers. He crosses strange seas to the Island of the Broken Tower, where the ghosts can pass on to their hereafter…

People have been haunted by the same worries for centuries. How can we send the souls of the dead safely on their way? What happens if we don’t bury them correctly, or give them what they need? Will they be trapped in this realm, and come back to haunt us?

In Ancient Greece, it was believed that the deceased had to cross the swampy river Acheron before they could reach the land of the dead. If they couldn’t pay the ferryman Charon for passage across the swampy Acheron, their unhappy ghosts would be left wandering the earthside shore of the river. For this reason, the the dead were often buried with a single coin called an obol in their mouths, so that they could pay the ferryman.

Painting of Charon by Jose Benlliure y Gil, 1919

Charon sometimes looks like a demon with eyes of flame, sometimes a gaunt old man with a dirty beard. He’s often bad-tempered, and sometimes hits people round the head with an oar. Even when he appears human, however, he’s really a supernatural being.

But what if he wasn’t? I started to imagine a ferryman of the dead who was human. He would be in terrible danger on every voyage, sailing in the company of the dead across uncanny seas to places not meant for the living…