Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.    Today’s post is about the concept of Dead and Undead Brides!   I have long had a love of the morbid and the macabre, being a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe, especially of his stories of lost beloved ladies.    I love the idea of romanticizing dead loved ones, like Poe often did in his stories and poems!   So, without further ado, here are five different examples of Dead and Undead Brides that I find fascinating.    

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

~The Bride of Frankenstein is found in both the original novel by Mary Shelley, although more as a concept, and in the 1935 Universal Horror masterpiece Bride of Frankenstein.   She is created in the film to be the Monster’s Mate, but famously rejects him.    The concept of a female monster made of corpses is also utilized intriguingly well in Frankenstein: The True Story, a 1970s television film that starred Jane Seymour as the Bride of Frankenstein-like character.    A more modern usage of the concept is seen in the fantastic television series Penny Dreadful, where Victor Frankenstein is given the same ultimatum by his Creation, but accidentally ends up falling in love with his female monster!

CORPSE BRIDE

~Ah, how much I adore the Tim Burton film Corpse Bride!   Emily is one of the most intriguing characters in the whole of Burton’s film oeuvre.   She is so excited at the possibility of finally having found love after being betrayed by her fiancé and murdered by him, ending her life and breaking her heart.    In the end, she lets Victor go so that he can be with Victoria.   But she also is able to get her ultimate revenge on the man who had murdered her years before!   

GHOSTLY BRIDES

~This is a very rich topic, which honestly could have an entire post devoted to just the topic easily.    The idea of Ghostly Brides is very common.    Many folktales and horror stories over the centuries have featured the concept of a young woman who died on her wedding day.    She then will haunt areas associated with her unfinished nuptials.    I would even relate the concept of Ghostly Brides to any of the tales of Ladies in White, both the Lady Gwyn, who has a section below and any of the White Lady ghosts said to haunt travelways and roads.   Those Lady in White ghosts are often said to be women whose husbands betrayed them by committing adultery!   That concept of them is even used in the pilot episode of Supernatural.

VAMPIRE BRIDES

~The most iconic examples of Vampire Brides are of course the Brides of Dracula.    I find the Brides of Dracula to be utterly fascinating, even if the original novel does not give them much development.   They are the three beautiful and terrifying female vampires that live with Dracula and are lusty and sexually alluring, easily attracting Jonathan Harker into their fold.   Harker is equal parts terrified and allured by their beauty and intrigue.    I love reading new books that reimagine the idea of who the Brides were, giving them more of a fleshed-out tale.   A great example of this is Being Mrs. Dracula by Faith Marlow, and her sequel to the book Being Dracula’s Widow.

LADY GWYN ~WHITE LADIES~

~The Lady Gwyn is a White Lady, a Faery Woman who is deeply associated with Samhain.    The Lady Gwyn is a forlorn woman dressed in white, sometimes appearing headless and sometimes not, who uses her guise of sadness to entrap people into her clutches.    In the tales, she is shown to be evil and vindictive, desiring to possibly harm those she came into contact with.   She is usually seen with a tailless black sow in tow, so it is said to beware if you come into contact with a Lady Gwyn on Samhain night!   I also want to mention that by her name, Guinevere is linked to this figure, as the name in the original Welsh means “White Phantom” or “White Spirit.”!

~I hope you have enjoyed this post about Dead and Undead Brides.   Do you enjoy tales of Spooky Brides?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Reading/Watching

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Being Mrs. Dracula by Faith Marlow
• Being Dracula’s Widow by Faith Marlow
• Sleepy Hollow and Other Tales by Washington Irving
• https://specifipedia.com/the-legends-of-samhain-part-one/
• https://covens.fandom.com/wiki/Lady_Gwyn
• Supernatural (2005)
• Corpse Bride (2005)
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)
• Penny Dreadful (2014)