This is the first post dedicated to Dan after his win in the Easter Egg Hunt. His chosen topic was: “some of the folklore of the UK”. So, I’m going to give a brief overview of the subject, because it’d be a bit of a bugger to collect it all!

I’m going to avoid the Celtic views, because Ireland is it’s own country. However, I find it important to note that we, as a nation, have also cobbled together stories based on the folklore of other European nations who have conquered us in the past. Romans, Vikings, Normans, all mixed in their stories to our folklore and gave us their creatures to play with.

The problem with the majority of folklore in the United Kingdom is that a lot of it is based off of legends focusing on heroes being valiant and victorious, more so than the creatures they encounter. Stories abound about dragons, but only those who are pre-destined to be slain by a well-groomed knight, and characters like Robin Hood and the Arthurian knights get many tales and poems about them. Of course, there are also many tales of elves, duerger, fairies, imps, pixies, sprites, dragons and other assorted legendary creatures, but these are often shared quite widely too.

Excluding ghost stories, there are very few actual terrifying creatures in modern telling. Although, ghost stories themselves are fairly common, albeit usually consisting of run-of-the-mill restless dead who seek revenge for their untimely demise or wish to serve their afterlife as a warning beacon to others. Part of the growing strength, I believe, to the belief in ghosts and ghost stories in the UK is that we have a plentiful supply of creepy old buildings and small rural areas, which keep the illusion that people hold alive, a vast number of pubs hold a haunting spectre as a marketable ploy, there are numerous White or Grey Ladies throughout the country, and the Tower of London has some rather remarkable celebrity ghosts.

Other famous ghostly entities include the Will o’ the Wisp, which were the supernatural explanation for lights seen over bogs or areas where there is often some form of natural decomposition taking place. Will o’ the Wisps’ are said to lure people in to marshes and bogs, leading to the wanderers death.

One version of the origin tells of a wicked blacksmith who on his death is given a second chance at life by Saint Peter to prove he should be allowed entry, but leads such a bad life that he ends up being doomed to wander the Earth, seeing this the Devil gives the blacksmith a single burning coal for warmth, which he then used to lure foolish travellers into the marshes. The story is not too different from the Irish story of Jack o’ Lantern.

The ghostly Black Dog, made more commonplace by the Harry Potter stories where it is merged with the legends of the Church Grim, are quite a widespread piece of folklore in England, even reserving special names in different regions, for example: the benevolent, protective Gurt Dog of Somerset (Gurt being the Somerset term for large) and Padfoot in Wakefield.

The Dog often acts as a foreshadowing creature, warning of a coming death in the immediate location and quite often can haunt locations of past deaths. Newgate Prison is supposed to be the home for a black dog for over 400 years, who appears before executions, while another dog in Hertfordshire is believed to always frequent the spot in Tring where they would hang condemned men. Perhaps the most vicious of these is the Barghest, which is one of the few Black Dogs to be established as a hunter, preying on lone travellers in dark alleys.

The Church Grim, on the other hand, is more an attendant spirit to a church yard and protector of the grounds from evil, and can appear either as humanoid or canine figures.

Dogs aren’t alone in this though, as the UK has a large number of Phantom Cats, which are believed to be like panthers skulking through moors and fields hunting on livestock. Though, some believe that there are actual real big cats in the UK, but that these have been released from private collections. Typically, they’ll earn the name “Beast of [place]”, such as Exmoor, Bodmin Moor and Riber.

Most other folklore tales that feature fearsome creatures or ghosts are usually used as a warning to children or an explanation to certain strange occurrences or noises. Though there are some that exist, the lack of great foreboding forests of tall, sharp trees - such as one may find in Germanic or Scandinavian regions - makes it quite obvious that our number would be lower for these creatures.

Instead, a large part of UK folklore comes from Pagan and Druidic beliefs, focused around fertility and harvests, which brings traditions of Morris Dancing and Maypoles to events even to this day. These beliefs also provide characters, such as the Green Man, which although it seemed to start as a head surrounded by foliage, has been merged with the May Day character Jack in the Green to make him seem more like a full-bodied earth elemental, trickster and fertility symbol.

A lot of folklore for the UK, in particular England, comes from legendary explanations of sites of interests, such as standing stones and geologic features. There was a practice during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to form standing stones in countryside, and stories were often attributed to mystical means of their placement - such as tales of people turned to stone or the devil himself throwing huge stone arrows that buried deep in to the ground. Even place names can feature elements of folkloric reference, such as Goblin Combe (where pixies kidnap children who pick primroses).

Witchcraft plays an important role in some of the UK folklore, as it does throughout most of Europe. There are certain characters who manage to fill bogeyman roles as witches. Black Annis of Leicestershire, for example, is a blue-faced crone with iron claws and a taste for flesh who goes out onto the glens at night looking for unsuspecting children and lambs to eat, then hang their skins around her waist.

The most common use of bogeyman and witch warning is towards the dangers of riverways and standing bodies of water, with the likes of Jenny Greenteeth, Peg Powler and Grindylows as traditional scare tactics. Peg and Jenny share a common appearance of green skin, sharp teeth and long hair, and all are said to reside in the water, ready to pull children in and drown them, though Jenny will also attack the elderly and Peg tends to focus on naughty children. Grindylows, which were softened by the Harry Potter series, would actually eat children instead of drown them.

Not all malevolent water creatures were ugly though, the Morgens of Wales were creatures not unlike the Sirens of Greek mythology. Eternally young, the creatures were said to lure men to their death with their beauty or with glimpses of underwater gardens.

An additional witch story, that I’d like to add here because I had a tour of it in primary school, is the Witch of Wookey Hole. The Witch of Wookey Hole is a stalagmite in the first chamber of the Wookey Hole show caves. The stalagmite was allegedly originally a witch who frequently curses budding relationships after she was jilted, her downfall came when she cursed the romance between a Glastonbury man and a girl from Wookey, the man became a monk and seeking revenge tips a bucket of holy water on her head, petrifying her.

English witch folklore has also been used to great, though not necessarily good, effect on other cultures. If you are familiar with the concept of Voodoo, then you are likely also familiar with the traditional Voodoo doll. No, actually you probably aren’t. You see, European witchcraft used small dolls called poppets to curse and cause harm, whereas Voodoo practices used Bocheos effigies and pegs for healing energies. However, Christian missionaries decided they’d much prefer for Voodoo to be evil and hex-making, so they applied European witchcraft to local beliefs. Though it’s spread may have something to do with its ability to intimidate superstitious slave-holders.