Wall Hole for Evil Spirits

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Kevin calling from San Antonio, Texas.

Hey, Kevin, welcome.

How you doing?

Hey, good to talk with you all.

Well, let’s see, I have a strange window in my living room, and growing up, we called it a grumhole, and it was to suck out the evil spirits in the house. And I’m trying to figure out the origin of this word, if that’s even what this small window is called, and I haven’t had any luck with any research myself.

How do you know it’s called a grum hole?

That is just what my cousin and myself were told what it was by my grandfather. He’s the one who built this house in about 1950. And so I don’t even know that that’s an accurate description of this little window.

Interesting. So it’s an actual hole that like lets out into the air? Or is it a window covered in glass?

It’s up where the roof, the ceiling and the wall meet. It’s about eight feet up, and it’s just about one foot by one foot, and it’s about 18 inches deep. And so if you go outside and look, it sticks out from the exterior wall a bit, and it almost looks like a little tunnel.

My grandfather was from Finland. He grew up there, and he came over when he was about eight years old. And so I don’t know if it was something from Finnish folklore or if it was something different altogether.

He called it a grumhole, G-R-U-M?

Yeah, I’m not sure if it would be one M or two M, but that’s my understanding of the spelling. Grum, I’ve tried numerous variations of that, and I haven’t come up with anything. It makes me think of grim, G-R-I-M, which as a noun can refer to a creature of the night, a dark beast, something demonic or some evil spirit, that sort of thing.

And I do know that in some, I don’t know very much about this, but in some cultures, there is a tradition of leaving a hole high in the roof for spirits. Again, I don’t know very much about that. I think it comes up in some Native American cultures. I think I’ve seen it in Indonesia. And one reference to it in ancient megalithic structures in Germany.

Oh, interesting.

But that’s the best that I can do. But they tended to be for, yeah, so spirits wouldn’t be trapped in the house. Inconveniently happening in the same place where the smoke needed to escape.

Yeah, or maybe ancestors could return, I think. But that’s the best that I can hope for. I don’t know anything about a Grimhole. I’ve never heard of it. I’d be really interested.

If he built that house, did he build other houses and add the same feature?

No, this was the only house he built. He lived in it until he died. And then I bought it and have lived in it for the past 13 or 14 years. And it’s always just been a neat little feature there.

My father also grew up in this house. And he, it’s funny you mentioned Native American, he mentioned that the architect, who was a San Antonio native, that maybe the influence could have come from the architect and not have been from my grandfather at all.

And did you say that it’s covered in glass or is it an open hole?

Well, it has kind of a dark yellow textured glass window in the back of it. And so if you look at it, you kind of see this yellow tint coming from kind of the tunnel. It’s about 18 inches deep. So it is a little window. It does have that glass in the back.

Well, Kevin, I got to tell you, that’s the most that I can offer you on Grumhole. We obviously will pass along anything that we hear from our listeners, okay?

Hey, fantastic. It’s been great to talk with y’all. I love the show.

Yeah, you too. Take care.

Great talking with you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you know something about the grum hole that’s high on the wall in Kevin’s house, or if you know something about spirit holes in general, give us a call or send us an email, 877-929-9673, or email words@waywordradio.org.