Gibbet Hill (short story)

"Gibbet Hill" is an 1890 short story by Bram Stoker first published in a Christmas supplement of the Daily Express Dublin Edition.

The story was unknown to even Stoker biographers and literary scholars until October 2024, when it was uncovered by Brian Cleary, an amateur researcher and Stoker enthusiast at the National Library of Ireland.

Plot

The story revolves around a man who meets three children standing in front of a memorial to a murdered sailor, by Gibbet Hill. One of the children suggests that, if there was a murder today, someone would be stuck up on Gibbet Hill. The man invites them to see where the murderer had been put and, together, they walk to the top of the hill. Distracted by the view, the narrator loses sight of the children. He takes a nap among some trees, and wakes to see the children a short distance away, before a snake passes over his feet towards the children, who appear able to communicate with and control the snake. Later, the children attack the narrator. The story culminates with the snake wriggling out of the narrator’s chest and gliding away down the hillside.