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Island of Whispers

Dead Men's Shoes

On the island of Merlank, dead spirits do not pass on to their rest the way they do elsewhere. So when somebody dies, it is very important to keep track of their shoes. If you do not, the dead person will claim them, and then their ghost will be free to wander the island, blighting the land and endangering the living. The dead person’s shoes must be taken to the Ferryman. Once he takes them aboard his boat, the dead soul will become his passenger, for they have no choice but to follow their shoes…

Which of the Dead owned these shoes? Picture by the brilliant Emily Gravett

The old Greek legends of the ferryman of the dead don’t involve shoes at all. So why did I make shoes so important in the story?

Superstitions seem to cluster around footwear. According to some old sayings, it’s bad luck to put new shoes on a table. Others believed that worn-out shoes hidden inside walls and roof spaces could act as protective talismans. Strange footwear crops up in folktale and fairytale as well – Puss’s boots, Cinderella’s slipper, seven-league-boots and the terrible, ever-dancing Red Shoes.

Cover of Contes de temps passé, 1843, showing Puss in Boots

But people have also always had a feeling that shoes are symbolically needed for journeying into the unknown. They used to be tied behind the car of newly-weds, to bring them good luck as they left for their new life together. You might even throw one after somebody if they were going on a long journey.

Besides, there’s something very personal about footwear. When I see the shoes of some long-ago person in a museum, that person becomes real to me. A human being walked around in those shoes, wearing the soles and creasing the leather with each step. I can even see the shape of their long-dead feet.

So it seemed right that these shoes and boots should be closely linked to the souls of the Dead. It seemed right that they should play a part in the Dead’s last journey, through strange seas to an island that appears on no map…

Photo of old shoes, by George Hodan