Vardøger

Vardøger, the title of my story published in Danse Macabre XLVI, Morgenblätter (May 2011), is based on an actual phenomenon.  The word itself is Norwegian for that experience of hearing someone arrive before they actually do.  It is common, and bizarre.

There was an alley between our house and the next, through which we had to drive to park our car.  Since the alley was shared by the neighbors, we quickly learned the signature sound of each make of car.  You could tell who was home based on which car trundled up between the buildings.

When my wife shopped for groceries, I helped carry them inside.  Naturally, on the days she went to the store, I kept an ear out for our car in the alley.  More than once I’ve dashed to the door after hearing her pull in, only to find no car there.  The sound seemed real enough; I’d never thought to try to record it since it is a daily sound.  Every once in a while, however, it was Vardøger.

Folk tradition—a rich source for fiction ideas, I find—suggests that Vardøger is a person’s spirit arriving before they do.  The tradition predates automobiles, and goes back to that aural experience of hearing someone enter the door only to find yourself still alone in the house.  In cases where driving right up to the door wasn’t routine, I had experienced this as well.  The arrival of a loved one before they arrive.

The idea is naturally spooky, but in real life it seems benign.  As if part of our lives may be running on a continuous loop.  Sometimes the tape is out of sync with the physical action.  In my story, the Vardøger is somewhat more sinister.

The house in the story is based on a house we once lived in.  Although often unuttered, the best fiction is drawn from real life.  Strange events make for good stories.  No satisfactory scientific explanation is given for Vardøger; the best we can hope to get is that it is an auditory hallucination.  The writer knows, however, that personal experience suggests otherwise.  That is the difference between fiction and fact.  Fiction is truer to experience.