The Iroquois Legend of the Flying Head

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If you’ve been following along with Occult Captured, my column about all things strange, unexplainable, and spooky throughout the world, then you may remember an article that was published several months ago titled “The Curse of the Krasue: The Floating Head of Southeast Asia”. And perhaps you read that article and thought, The ghost of a floating head sounds terrifying but, luckily, I’m all the way on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in the United States. There’s no way that Krasue of Southeast Asia can get to me here. Well, I’m here to inform you that North America has its very own floating head spirit that comes from a legend from the Iroquois Nation. And, if you live in upstate New York, you’re extra likely to run into this horrifying apparition. 

The Iroquois Nation has a long and rich mythological tradition that has been passed down orally from generation to generation. Most of their stories aren’t to convey some sort of moral or to preserve the culture of the Iroquois. However, the story of the Flying Head doesn’t appear to have as much of a clear purpose. In most accounts of this villainous ghost, it attacks the Iroquois people seemingly for no reason whatsoever. 

There are many different stories involving the Flying Head (or multiple Flying Heads) throughout Iroquois legend and there are many different versions of those same stories as well. In this article, we’ll look at the common characteristics of the Flying Head throughout these stories, a few of the different legends involving this monster, and where this myth may have originated. 

What Is the Flying Head?

Well, first of all, the Flying Head is a head that flies. However, unlike the Krasue of Southeast Asia, the Flying Head of Iroquois legend doesn’t simply float through the air. It has massive wings that stem from its cheeks. In some stories, these wings are said to be similar to those of a bat whereas in other versions they’re more bird-like. Some even say that the Flying Head has a set of talons that it uses to sit on trees and to grasp its prey. 

To make things even creepier, the Flying Head is said to be about four times the size of a human (an entire human). It also has thick, black hair and a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. These monsters are said to have an insatiable hunger for anything that’s alive. They fly around in search of their next prey, whether it be a dog, a cow, or a human.

As large and vicious as these beasts are said to be, they can also vanish in the blink of an eye. In one moment, they may be laying siege to an entire Iroquois village, and, in the next moment, they’re simply gone. 

The First Record of the Flying Head

With many legends, it’s difficult to pin down exactly where it began. However, in the case of the story of the Flying Head, Iroquois historians are fairly sure that they know the exact location of the Flying Head’s first sighting: on a hill on the edge of Great Sacandaga Lake in New York, right behind where the Hamilton County government buildings sit today. 

According to the legend, a tribe whose name has been lost to time lived in this location for many generations. They used this location to hunt because they could wait for big game to come to the lake for drinking water. But, one day, the Flying Head appeared and decimated the tribe, forcing them to flee and abandon their land. 

This legend spread throughout the other neighboring tribes and no one dared to move into this land until the European settlers arrived. And, even though this area is now inhabited, some people of Iroquois descent still believe that this location is cursed. In fact, according to certain Hamilton County historians, three different hotels were built on this site and all three had very short lifespans before burning to the ground mysteriously. It’s difficult to confirm whether that’s true or false; however, it definitely adds to the lore of the Flying Head. 

The Origin Story of the Flying Head 

While the previous story details the first sighting of the Flying Head, it doesn’t explain how the monster was created in the first place. Luckily, there’s another Iroquois story that does just that. In this version of the story, there was a tribe in modern-day New York that experienced a great famine. The young men of the tribe suggested that they should move and find a new home with more fertile land. However, the old men of the tribe refused to abandon their land and said that they’d rather die than leave their home. 

This reaction enraged the young men of the tribe, who responded by killing the old men. Then, they were confronted with the question of how to dispose of the bodies. Hoping to sanctify their deed by making an offering to the Master of Life (their supreme god), the young men cut off the heads of the elders, burned the bodies, and sunk the heads to the bottom of a lake. According to some versions of this story, the heads were tied together with rope and several of the young men were dragged to their deaths by this rope when they pushed the heads into the lake.  

Once the heads were sunken into the lake, the surface of the water began to bubble and slime began to form. Then, a giant Flying Head emerged and began to wreak havoc on the tribe. Since then, the tribes of this region have paid for the sins of these young men and the Flying Head continues to terrorize the innocent. 

Tricking the Flying Head

There’s one particular story about the Flying Head that involves a woman tricking the beast and scaring it away from her tribe forever. As the story goes, this woman’s village had been plagued by unwelcomed visits from the Flying Head for years. One evening, the Flying Head appeared at the door of the woman’s lodge in search of food. 

The woman sat calmly by the hearth, didn’t turn around, and gave no indication that she had noticed the Flying Head at her door. However, she noticed the monster and she hatched a plan to get rid of it. 

As she sat by the fire, she began to heat rocks until they were glowing hot. Then, she began bringing the rocks toward her mouth with a forked stick and pretending to eat them. The Flying Head believed that the woman was eating roasted acorns instead of hot rocks. In one version of the story, the Flying Head then entered the lodge and stole the woman’s meal. Unknowingly, it ate a mouthful of scalding hot rocks. The creature began to beat its wings furiously and flew off into the darkness, screaming in agony. 

In another version of the story, the Flying Head watched the woman and realized that she was eating hot stones. The beast then became awed and terrified by the woman’s power. After that, the Flying Head flew away from the village and was too scared of the woman to ever return. 

What Do These Stories Mean?

Of course, the stories presented in this article are just a small percentage of the stories in the massive Iroquois oral tradition that involve the Flying Head. In other stories, the Flying Head devours naughty boys who wander after dark or are engaged in combat by brave warriors. Still, it’s fairly unclear what the Flying Head is meant to represent. But, whatever these stories are intended to mean, they offer an interesting look into the Iroquois worldview.