pirates
The souls of those who died at sea lost in the Sea of the Dead.

The souls of those who died at sea lost in the Sea of the Dead.

"You have my payment. One soul to serve on your ship. He is already over there."
"One soul is not equal to another."
"Aha! So we've established my proposal is sound in principle, now we're just haggling over price."
"Price?"
"Just how many souls do you think my soul is worth?"
"One hundred souls. Three days."
―Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones[src]

The soul, in many religious, mythological, and philosophical traditions, was an incorporeal, non-material or immaterial essence of a person, which includes one's identity, personality, and memories. In many conceptions, it was an immortal aspect of a living being that was believed to be able to survive physical death. The concept of the soul was generally applied to humans, although it could also be applied to other living or even non-living entities. By the Age of Piracy, a story told of a legend of Davy Jones and Calypso, where the sea godess charged the great sailor with the duty to ferry souls who died at sea to the afterlife. However, after Jones became the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman, the poor unfortunate souls had to find their own way.

History

The undead pirate Jolly Roger devours the soul of Bo Beck.

The undead pirate Jolly Roger devours the soul of Bo Beck.

"Ah, there I be again, forgetting why the missionary was here. My daughter fears for my soul, what's left of it. You truly wish to save me, my child."
"Every soul can be saved."
―Blackbeard and Angelica[src]

When the sea goddess Calypso fell in love with a sailor named Davy Jones, she gave him the sacred task of collecting all the poor souls who died at sea, and ferrying them to the worlds beyond with the Flying Dutchman. Many years later, when Davy Jones corrupted his purpose and his ship became a cursed ghost ship, Jones used the Kraken to attack ships brought the captain of the Flying Dutchman ever more souls onto his cursed ship, dead sailors forever bound and impressed into servitude.[1][2] By the early adventures of young Jack Sparrow, it was believed that the terrible vessel's timbers were cut from the bodies and souls of doomed seamen.[3]

In the 1710s, when Jack Sparrow sank with his ship, the East India Trading Company merchant vessel Wicked Wench, Sparrow sold his soul to Davy Jones, who raised his ship from the bottom of the sea, and renamed the Wicked Wench as a pirate ship, the Black Pearl.[4] Some time later, after Jack Sparrow became the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea, the infamous pirate captain Jolly Roger tried to steal his Piece of Eight in a poker match. When Roger failed and shot his partner in crime, the voodoo witch doctor Amo Dorsi, Dorsi cursed Roger with his last breath, turning him into the undead, soul-devouring creature. By the war against Jolly Roger, there was an area on Raven's Cove known as the Cave of Lost Souls.[5]

The souls of Palaimon's victims charge against Hector Barbossa's cursed crew.

The souls of Palaimon's victims charge against Hector Barbossa's cursed crew.

After their mutiny on the Black Pearl, Hector Barbossa's crew fell under the Curse of the Aztec Gold, and began a quest to lift the curse. At some point in their pursuit, Barbossa's crew discovered a young castaway who claimed to be Juan Ponce de León, the conquistador who searched for the Fountain of Youth. Barbossa believed his tale and set forth for the Fountain, only to discover the young man's tale to be false. He was actually Palaimon, a demonic Greek god who fed on sailor's souls. Palaimon then summoned his army of souls and Barbossa's men were unable to hurt them, but Barbossa managed to defeat Palaimon by forcing him to fall into the sea.[6]

In the late 1720s, when Davy Jones came for Jack Sparrow's debt, Jack attempted to give Jones Will Turner's soul, but ended up having to collect 99 more souls for Jones.[7] During the War Against Piracy, when the Motley crew, led by Hector Barbossa, came to Davy Jones' Locker to save the Jack and the Black Pearl, Pintel and Ragetti saw dozens of lost souls in the endless seas of Davy Jones' Locker.[2] In 1750, during the quest for the Fountain of Youth, Angelica wanted to find the legendary Fountain to save the soul of her father, the infamous pirate Blackbeard, though the missionary Philip Swift believed that Blackbeard's soul was beyond saving.[8] When the young astronomer Carina Smyth saw the cursed Armando Salazar and his crew of ghosts on the shore of Hangman's Bay, she thought of them as grotesque souls.[9]

Behind the scenes

"Ah, shiver me soul. It's dead wore out I be. A mite too fast these light-footed wenches be for the likes of an old schwegbellied pirate such as I."
―Pooped Pirate[src]

In Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, there is an area referred to as a "graveyard of lost souls".[10] Although it was a term throughout the franchise, souls made their first appearance in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.[2]

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl when Elizabeth Swann throws her red dress at Barbossa she says "Goes with your black heart." In the 2006 German novelization she says "Fits your black soul."[11]

For Dead Man's Chest, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio originally conceived of Davy Jones and his crew as ghostlike creatures. Determined to come up with never-before-seen fantastical characters, director Gore Verbinski wanted them to be more specifically of the sea, with gravity and weight, as if the souls of shipwrecked sailors had fused with the detritus of the ocean floor.[12]

In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, one area on Raven's Cove is known as the Cave of Lost Souls.[5] In the trailer for the cancelled video game Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned it was said that the player was engaged in a battle to save their soul.[13]

In Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides, which served as the basis for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, practitioners of voodoo like Blackbeard are able to transfer their soul from one body to another.[14]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game): Story of Davy Jones and Calypso
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  3. ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm, p. 126
  4. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Epilogue: The Black Pearl
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pirates of the Caribbean Online
  6. ↑ Six Sea Shanties: Strangers Bearing Gifts
  7. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  8. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  9. ↑ The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p. 188
  10. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies
  11. ↑ Fluch der Karibik, p. 186
  12. ↑ Bring Me That Horizon: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean, p. 165
  13. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned
  14. ↑ On Stranger Tides