OT: Wells and folklore

Wells O’ Wearie 1

Image by Branwen

goffik Sep 23, 2009 10:54:00

I know this will attract flak from some quarters, as it's a bit off-topic for TMA, but...

Branwen - I've been thoroughly enjoying you many informed posts on so many subjects!

As some people here will know, I have an interest in wells and water-lore, and this is a great story! Not untypical in a lot of ways, but always fascinating to hear...

What I really wanted to ask is - do you have a website or blog with more info on it? I'd love too read more of this stuff! :)

G x

tjj Sep 23, 2009 11:54:26

Replying to goffik

I too have enjoyed Branwen's contribution, she may not want to give all her stories away at once though.

Here is something to keep you going "when we met in the wood at the well so wearie!"
http://www.fife.50megs.com/folk-tales.htm

Rhiannon Sep 23, 2009 14:26:43

Replying to goffik

Here you are Goffik, get a look at this lot.
http://openlibrary.org/fullsearch?safe=false&q=%22holy+wells%22%0D%0A&_save=Go
I'm sure there must be something there to amuse.

Branwen Dec 10, 2009 02:00:55

Replying to goffik

I was listening to a song from 1570 written by the daughter of a MacGregor whose father had just been executed. The traditional refrain which appears in many laments through the ages is:

"Bheir Mi Oh" or "Sad Am I (without you)"

In gaelic, in some dialects, it sounds like "Weer Ri Oh". Or "Weary-Oh" which perhaps explains why a well of death gets the name Weary Well too. Perhaps place names with weary can be assosciated with funeral rites Wideford?

also, been meaning to post some usefull books on well lore here:-

SACRED WATERS (1986)
Holy Wells and Water Lore in Britain and Ireland
by
Janet and Colin Bord.

CURES AND CURSES (2006)
Ritual and Cult at Holy Wells
BY
Janet Bord

HOLY WELLS IN BRITAIN (2008)
A Guide
by
Janet Bord.

THE FESTIVAL OF LUGHNASA (1962)
by Maire MacNeill
Oxford University Press
XII.Assemblies at Lakes and Rivers
XIII.Assemblies at Wells

tjj Jul 23, 2020 11:19:40

Replying to goffik

It always feels a bit weird when someone resurrects an old thread from eleven years ago - especially given that some of the contributors are sadly no longer around. I haven't re-read most of the posts because from this distance they do make me feel a bit sad.

However, I was recently given The Fish Ladder A Journey Upstream - by Katherine Norbury. In many ways it is her personal memoir combining her journey with nine year old daughter to follow rivers upstream to their source. Philip Pullman describes it as " ... a luminous sort of book, beautifully written, darting here and there like a kingfisher over a stream."
I've just been reading the chapter on 'holy' well Ffynnon Fawr which is found at the western tip of Llyn Peninsula and thought I would mention this lovely book here. As my mother used to say "You never miss the water until the well runs dry". And never more apt.