Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells isn’t all holiday cheer. From swamp-dwelling cryptids that lure with chimes, to phantom bells tolling from sunken kingdoms, to the ominous Belled Buzzard and a chilling modern encounter in the woods—this episode explores how bells ring not just with joy, but with warning, deception, and dread.

It’s Christmas Eve, and while sleigh bells jingle in frosted streets, Journey to the Fringe invites you to listen closer. Because not every bell signals joy. Some toll from beneath the sea, echoing the downfall of lost kingdoms like Ys and Cantre’r Gwaelod. Some ring from phantom towers, warning of tragedy yet to come. Others chime from the shadows of the forest, held by hands that should not exist.

In “Jingle Bells,” Taylor and Chelsie guide you through folklore’s darker soundscapes:

• 👹 The Bell Bottoms, grotesque swamp cryptids that mimic voices and lure victims to watery graves.
• 🧚 The spectral fairy bells of the British Isles, both invitations to enchantment and wards against the fae.
• 🪶 The ominous Belled Buzzard, a feathered harbinger of death whose tolling bell haunted Southern newspapers in the 19th century.
• 🔔 The phantom church bells of Ys, Lyonesse, and Cantre’r Gwaelod, ringing eternally as laments of divine judgment.
• 🌲 And finally, a chilling modern tale of a bell-wielding figure in the woods, where folklore meets true horror.

This holiday season, pour yourself some cocoa and hang your stockings with care—but keep one ear open. Because when bells ring in the world of fringe folklore, they may not be jingling for joy.