History Main / FlyingDutchman

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1440 SCP-1440]] apparently beat Death and his brothers [[ChessWithDeath at cards]], winning immortality in the process; unfortunately, Death and his brothers hold grudges. SCP-1440 suffers under at least two curses, [[WalkingWasteland one that causes increasingly destructive events to happen to humans, or anything connected to them, if he spends long enough around them]], and one that forces him to wander the Earth in a complex pattern that inevitably brings him into contact with human populations.

* Music/{{Rush}}'s "Xanadu" (from ''Music/AFarewellToKings'') is inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan"; the protagonist achieves immortality and, well, lives to regret it.

* Creator/{{CLAMP}}:
** [[spoiler:Male Tsubasa (a.k.a. Syaoran Jr.) of the eponymous]] ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' becomes this at the end of the story. As payment for continuing to exist after the paradox that is his parentage resolves itself, he may never remain for long in any one dimension, and will wander the multiverse until the payment is complete (whenever that is). He can, however, stop by in his girlfriend's dimension for a booty call any time he wants, as long as he doesn't stay too long.
** His time-travel duplicate, [[spoiler:[[Manga/XxxHolic Watanuki]]]], has it worse, having inverted the trope ''hard''. Rather than being cursed to wander, he's cursed to be trapped in a single InnBetweenTheWorlds-type [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday mysterious shop]] for the rest of his life, although to be fair it ''is'' anchored in one place and dimension. He just ''can't leave''. In the latest chapters, it appears [[spoiler:he might be able to travel to certain places he's traveled to before, as a sort of dream travel/spirit/what have you.]] By the end [[spoiler: after 100 years have passed, it's revealed that Watanuki's magic powers have grown strong enough for him to be capable of physically leaving the shop. That being said, he will still choose against leaving for now, because he'd also [[IWillWaitForYou promised he'd wait for Yuuko.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'''s version of the Flying Dutchman is more a PeekABogeyMan than anything else, but there is one episode that gives him a similar backstory: his body was used as a window display, and thus never got a proper burial, cursing his spirit to forever wander the seas. In another episode, aptly named "Shanghai'd!", [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick are pressed into joining him as "[[ShapedLikeItself ghostly ghost pirates]]." He also seems to serve as the GrimReaper of the seas, in the episode where Mr. Krabs's thriftiness goes overboard with the consumption of an extremely old Krabby Patty found on the kitchen floor, and he has had episodes that give him DealWithTheDevil tendencies.

* [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Big Boss]] learned the horrible truth about his country, and never recovered from it (or the execution he carried out on his mentor for said country, which wasn't for peace or even World Domination, but the victorious enslavement of the masses for the benefit of a few). As a result, he spent five years wallowing in regret, found hope in his charisma as a military leader, then spent another five years training an army of professional mercenaries, and even built a nation-state made out of oil rigs and loose parts. Only to lose these a few months later. He rebuilds yet again only to flee to Zanzibar when his successor blows it all to hell. In the end, Outer Haven is just a really good base, but Big Boss is a soldier through and through: Go somewhere, do a job, leave. Nothing else matters, home is the battlefield itself.

* Parodied in Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/TheUnadulteratedCat'', in reference to the "Travelling Cat" so beloved of local newspapers (as in "this unlucky cat was rescued from a car's engine compartment, having accidentally hitched a lift...". The book alleges that St. Eric, 4th century Bishop of Smyrna, may have unintentionally cursed a small black-and-white tomcat to an eternity of wandering when he yelled for it to go away after he'd tripped over it.

The ''Flying Dutchman'' variant (sources differ on whether ''Flying Dutchman'' was the name of the ship or a nickname for her captain) first popped up in the seventeenth century, and was said to be an old sailing superstition.

* Wonderfully subverted in Creator/TomHolt's ''Literature/FlyingDutch'', where the Flying Dutchman and his crew had accidentally drunk some elixir which gave them immortality, but also the most outrageous body odor for all but one month in every 7 years. In the book, Wagner is said to have been given direct inspiration from the captain of the crew...as well as a weird little psychological hang-up causing him to laugh maniacally upon hearing the name "Philip II of Spain."

* ''Manga/TheAncientMagusBride'' has the Biblical Wandering Jew, usually referred to as Cartaphilus in-story (though [[DoNotCallMePaul he really doesn't like being called that]] and would prefer to be called Joseph), who is the closest thing the story has to an overarching villain. His main goal is to create a body for himself that feels no pain, and he doesn't care who or what has to pay the price to obtain it.

** It's also implied that the Wandering Jew's UrExample is Literature/{{Genesis}}'s Cain, with the book of Genesis noting that after murdering Abel, Cain says to God "Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face I shall be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me" (Gen. 4:14). Afterwards, Cain settled in the now-lost land of Nod, whose name means "wandering exile" in Hebrew. Cain's roaming the earth could also be possibly interpreted as living a nomadic life.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's ''ComicBook/MidnightNation'' comic book, Lazarus, after being resurrected by Christ, found himself without purpose. Finally, Jesus tells Lazarus to await his return, then goes off to the Last Supper. Lazarus, now a wandering homeless man, is still waiting.

* Franchise/TheDCU:

** The Comicbook/{{New 52}} showed us "The Trinity of Sin", three figures who were cursed to be Wandering Jews: the Phantom Stranger (revealed to be ''Judas Iscariot himself'') who was cursed to "walk the Earth as a stranger to man. As a witness of what greed can do"; the mythological Pandora; and Comicbook/TheQuestion, cursed to "forever question [his] identity and forever search for answers [he will never find]".
* The immortal Hob Gadling in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' was once accused of being the Wandering Jew.
-->'''Johanna Constantine:''' They tell a tale, in these parts of London, that the Devil and the Wandering Jew meet, once in every century, in a tavern. [...]\\

* In Alan Moore's one-shot ''Majestic'', set in the Wildstorm Universe, Superman counterpart Mr. Majestic is one of the last surviving beings at the end of the universe along with the Wandering Jew himself, who's lived so long he's forgotten his name, his species, his planet of origin (he DOES remember he and Majestic both spent a while on it, though)...
* Jack from ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' and ''Jack Of Fables'' is apparently of the Jack O'Lantern variant, except his deal with the devil will eventually expire -- so he needs to find a different version of the devil every few hundred years in order to make a deal for more time.

* The Creator/MikeResnick short story ''[[OverlyLongName How I Wrote the New Testament, Ushered in the Renaissance, and Birdied the 17th Hole at Pebble Beach]]'' goes for a humorous take on the story.

* The ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' universe has the in-universe legend of ''Ampoliros'': a starship whose crew experiences group psychosis and believes the human race has been wiped out by aliens. They elect to wander the galaxy, taking as many of the aliens with them as they can. The time dilation effect of near light speed travel makes them effectively immortal, every planet is hostile by definition, and any ship is a legitimate target. To make things worse, the men are sick of, and fatigued by, their endless voyage ("forever prepared, forever unready")... but in their minds at least, to stop would spell the end of the human race.

* Kurumi of ''{{Presents}}'' is cursed to wander the Earth without aging because she didn't receive any presents on her tenth birthday. Until she finally finds her present, she fills the time by giving other people the [[LaserGuidedKarma presents they deserve]], or watching what ensues when they receive other presents.

* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'': In season 2, Paul Murrane is implied to be the Wandering Jew. He mysteriously appears in numerous times and locations, displays uncanny knowledge of various characters, and speaks about judgment and the afterlife. He bears the name given to the Wandering Jew in the fictional series ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_Writ_by_a_Turkish_Spy Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy]]''.

* This tends to happen to victims of [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos the Slender Man,]] usually with said victims becoming Runners, people who were forced to leave their home and, well, ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin run]]'' from the Slender Man.[[note]]"Runner" is also a term that refers to Slender Man's victims in general.[[/note]] It's so common it's an entire category of [[FanNickname slenderblogs.]]

* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'': In one of ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'''s strips, Kroton, the Cyberman with a soul, once ended up on the spacefaring "Flying Dutchman II."

* In ''Literature/MaleRising'', Andras Weisz and his men were captured by the Ottomans during the Great War and sent to the Uppper Nile. However, they escaped and for three years ''traversed across war-torn Africa'' to find a way back home to Hungary. Along the way, the met the Lost Hungarians of Nubia, fought for native kings, and gathered a following of locals before finally reaching to Luanda [[spoiler: and discover that Austria-Hungary had collapsed in the interim]].

* Legend has it that around the time of TheGreatPoliticsMessup, formerly Soviet airline Aeroflot split into different organizations so chaotically that one passenger flight was advised it would need to pay landing charges at its destination airport... during final approach to said airport. The stewardesses had to go down the aisles collecting money from the passengers to pay it.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Richard Kreugar was cursed to never be able to die by a necromancer he betrayed. He's doomed to wander the land until the end of days, and seeks out battle in the hope that one day he'll find some foe powerful enough to make death stick.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' Coney the Island is an alien who subjected himself to a procedure [[{{Transhumanism}} transforming]] him into a vastly powerful LivingShip. He then traveled between galaxies, at sublight speed, alone, and went half-mad from the eons of isolation.
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* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' Coney the Island is an alien who subjected himself to a procedure [[{{Transhumanism}} transforming]] him into a vastly powerful LivingShip. He then traveled between galaxies, at sublight speed, alone, and went half-mad from the eons of isolation.

** Fridge logic: The song says that "every day at a quarter past two" Charlie's wife hands him a sandwich through an open window. If it is too difficult to hand him a nickel on its own, she could put it in the sandwich!

** He appears as a character in Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/FoucaultsPendulum''.
** He's also the protagonist in Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's [[OurVampiresAreDifferent St. Germain series]].
** Saint-Germain from VisualNovel/CodeRealize is based off of him, as well.

* There is a myth of a man in the southern USA who tricks the devil multiple times so the man doesn't die when he is supposed to. The man thinks that all he has to do is become religious in the extra time, and the devil won't be able to take him anyway. Unfortunately the man blows it each time he tricks the devil and gains more time (he spends all the extra time drinking). When he finally dies, heaven refuses to let him in. Then hell refuses to let him in because the devil doesn't want to put up with him after all the tricks. The man begs a lantern from the devil to let him see his way back to the land of the living, which is supposedly all you can see of him now.
** That's basically the old Irish tale of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_O%27Lantern#Folklore Jack O'Lantern]], or StingyJack, whom the cute little Halloween pumpkins (originally turnips) were named for. The tale was used to explain why there are these floating fires in swamps.

* In the folklore of Mecklenburg, Frau Gauden was a woman who loved hunting more than life itself, and foolishly declared it was better than heaven. For this blasphemy, she was cursed to ride around the world in a chariot pulled by her hounds, eternally hunting until judgment day.