The Young Rake

The Young Rake is a ghost that appears in a fokktale collected in the Book of Ghosts and Goblins'. ' He's listed here as the Young Rake as he's not given any name in the actual story itself.

History
The tale begins with a young man agreeing to spend the night in a haunted house. As he is sitting by the fireplace having sausages for supper, the dismembered parts of a man fall from the fireplace as a voice cries out the chilling words "l fall!  I fall!  I fall!"

The pieces assemble themselves into the form of the Young Rake, who seats himself in front of the young man at his invitation and steals one of his sausages. After being warned that the young man will box his ears if he steals another sausage, he does just that, and the young man boxes his ear, knocking him to the ground. He thanks the young man for the blow, saying:

"l could not rest because in life l felled my own father with a blow to the chin. Only when someone returned the blow to me in full could l ascend to a higher plame. you have freed me.  Thank you so much!"

The young man later was rewarded handsomely for his act of breaking the curse.