• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Who Is 'He Who Walks Backwards'?

A

Anonymous

Guest
Hello Does anyone know who 'He Who Walks Backwards' is?
 
It's definitely another name for Old Nick, but I seem to think that it was a "comedy" name for him by Ben Elton or someone...
 
Now, let me think...old story...girl/man dancing at village do with gorgeous stranger of appropriate gender...looks down in the dirt at the end of the night and sees that the stranger is leaving backwards footprints (or chicken feet marks or cloven hooves or whatever)...
 
Sounds like the story of The Devil and St. Dunstan.
 
Ranulph Fiennes, New Challenge: I'm Walking Backwards For Ch

Could also be a sort of shamanistic, clown, a:

'Heyoka'

Native American clowns: Heyoka

Clowning could be found in almost every North American Indian society. In every case, it involved ridiculous behavior, but on the Plains it especially exhibited inversion and reversal as elements of satire. There were four types of clown societies on the Plains - age-graded societies, military societies, the northern plains type, and the heyoka shamanistic societies. While clown societies were found throughout the Plains, the heyoka, or sacred clowns, were usually few in number, but were found in almost every clan.

Heyoka were contraries, often speaking and walking backwards. They acted in ridiculous, obscene, and comical ways, especially during sacred ceremonies. They were thought to be fearless and painless, and often dressed in a bizarre and ludicrous manner, wearing conical hats, red paint, a bladder over the head (to simulate baldness), and bark earrings. The heyoka's "anti-natural" nature was thought to be shamanistic in origin -- and as a contrary, he was expected to act silly and foolhardy during battle. Like any good trickster, the heyoka played pranks on others in his culture not to make them feel embarrassed and stupid, but to show them ways they could start being more smart.
Click to expand...
Proto-'Trickster' figure, we're talking about here. Well on the way to a sort of 'folk devil.' [/quote]
;)

thenoodlebowl.com/jesters/pages/cont_namerica.html
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2003121...odlebowl.com/jesters/pages/cont_namerica.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Native American "clowns"

In the 1970 movie Little Big Man, a member of the tribe that adopts Crabbe becomes a "contrary", doing everything in reverse, including walking backwards.

Apart from that, I always understood "He who walks backwards" to be Old Nick, too.
 
E.Wise [fluff] He's an important man! He moves in the powers of corridor.[/fluff]

E.Morecambe[adlib]That's right; he was walking backwards![/adlib]
 
The Virgin Queen said:
Na, someone already mensioned Satan.
Click to expand...

Just think, if he ever becomes Sir Michael Howard , then you could definitely say he had Something of the Knight about him.
 
Rrose Selavy said:
Just think, if he ever becomes Sir Michael Howard , then you could definitely say he had Something of the Knight about him.
Click to expand...

there's jokes and then there's jokes and then, just ocasionaly...:eek:
 
The Man with the Stick from Vic Reeves Big Night Out was the devil...........
 
In her book The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt author Jane Sellers notes that Osiris / Sahu (Orion) was sometimes referred to as "he who walks backwards" owing to the difference between the constellation's east-to-west progression and the god's gaze fixed on the eastern (dawn) horizon.

She also mentions a New Guinea ritual involving backwards walking as a symbolic return to an innocent or reborn status.

Sahu-Orion-Bit-A.jpg

(p. 210)​

SOURCE: https://books.google.com/books?id=j...who walks backwards" -"the next man"&f=false
 
I thought Michael Jackson walked backwards?
 
Aaaah yes, of course, looked like he was walking forwards while actually going backwards....
I think he learned to do that so he could leave a room but you'd think he was coming in.
 
Aren't you supposed to Moonwalk out of a graveyard so the Dead can't follow your footprints ?
 
Bad Bungle said:
Aren't you supposed to Moonwalk out of a graveyard so the Dead can't follow your footprints ?
Click to expand...

Yes, in fact it's rare you go past a graveyard when there aren't lines of people moonwalking out of them. Very common sight across the world.
 
GNC said:
Yes, in fact it's rare you go past a graveyard when there aren't lines of people moonwalking out of them. Very common sight across the world.
Click to expand...

Seems to work.
 
How can the dead follow your footprints anyway? Do you mean ghosts, or zombies?
 
I seem to recall a supernatural creature in the Far East who looks normal ... until the witness sees that their feet are backward pointing.
 
In Brazil, they have the curupira. It walks normally I believe, but it's feet point backwards.
 
Xanatic* said:
In Brazil, they have the curupira. It walks normally I believe, but it's feet point backwards.
Click to expand...

The name comes from the Tupi language kuru'pir, meaning "covered in blisters". According to the cultural legends, this creature has bright red/orange hair, and resembles a man or a dwarf, but its feet are turned backwards. Curupira lives in the forests of Brazil and uses its backward feet to create footprints that lead to its starting point, thus making hunters and travelers confused. Besides that, it can also create illusions and produce a sound that's like a high pitched whistle, in order to scare and drive its victim to madness.
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curupira
 
There are occasional references to folkloric figures and creatures with reversed feet found worldwide.

I wonder if the reversed feet claim dates back to the days of hunting and tracking, and the reversed feet trope is a creative explanation for a creature that cannot be reliably tracked using the conventional logic or techniques. In other words, I wonder whether the reversed feet represent a notably concrete explanation for a notably mysterious capability - an explanation that explains something strange without invoking "magic."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top