European folklore on bats

The following tradition is from Finland, where in some groups it is believed the soul takes the form of a bat and leaves the body during sleep. The logic of this is that while people are awake during the day their souls are at home in their bodies and, of course, no bats are seen flying in daylight, but at night when everyone sleeps there are many bats to be seen. This logic came from an elderly man who was sharing stories with a folklorist collecting stories in the late 1920s.

He told a story from his village of a group of men talking in a courtyard. One became tired and retired to his room to sleep. Shortly afterwards, a small bat appeared flying round the men’s heads, past different buildings and parts of the yard and gardens. When the man rejoined them he described how in his dreams he had walked around them and explored the yard and gardens following the route that the bat had taken.

In Greece, bats were sacred to Persephone, wife of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, because they flew by night and she and Hades ruled the darkness.

In the Odyssey, the poet Homer tells of souls fluttering like bats as they followed Odysseus in one of his adventures.

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