Latest Folklore

The village of St.Agnes still holds a ‘Bolster Festival’ in April / May. This consists of two weeks of celebrations in the village including workshops, culminating in a weekend to celebrate the rise and fall of the Giant Bolster. First a lantern and torch procession through the village to the top of the St. Agnes Beacon and a large bonfire and barbecue. Then the next day witness the deeds of the giant revealed in street theatre and dance, before a colourful procession of giant moving puppets to the cliff top at Chapel Porth where the wicked giant was tricked into death whilst proving his love for Agnes.

For the latest info contact St Agnes Tourist Information Centre: Tel – 01872 554150 / Web – www.stagnes.com

“In Cardiganshire, the tradition respecting an encampment called Moyddin, which the fairies frequented, is that they were always in green dresses, and were never seen there but in the vernal month of May.”

(Wirt Sikes, ‘British Goblins’ 1880)

Ringsbury Camp sits on an outcrop of coral rag and has views over the clay plain south towards the Marlborough Downs.

Although the earthworks are from the Iron Age – it’s described as a small multivallate hillfort in the scheduled monuments description – neolithic flints have also been found there. Also discovered has been an uninscribed gold coin depicting a disjointed horse and a wheel, probably from the Iron Age. It’s thought that the ditches and banks of such hillforts were for showing off your high status as much as for defence, and that the site would have been lived in pretty much full time.

Locally it is said that the camp is ‘as old as Stonehenge or Avebury’. The red spotted flints and pebbles which can be found there are splashed with the blood of the Saxons and Danes who fought nearby.

(folklore from ‘More Ghosts and Legends of the Wiltshire Countryside’ by K Wiltshire: collected from Mr G Harris of Purton in 1975)

Norse (or Teutonic) Mythology

Wayland (alt: Weland, Volund, Vulcan et al) appears in various guises in various mythologies (even Ancient Greece!). In the Northern Mythology he and his brothers come into contact with the Valkyrs, beautiful ladies with swan plummage who can fly, only to lose them later. Wayland pursues his love with zeal and this causes him to be captured and enslaved. He is put to work creating weapons of magical power and during his capture suffers the loss of an eye and a cut achilles hill resulting in a lame leg.

I thoroughly recommend anyone interested in wayland smithy to read up on the Norse Mythology for the full story, it is truly a wonderful tale.

The Saxons have many mythological associations with the Norse tradition and you can see how the story of Wayland has been carried from Remote Scandinavia, through mainland Europe and with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, into England and then to leafy Oxfordshire.

Although the folklore relates to the Anglo-Saxon mythology of a Neolithic Long barrow (many thousands of years difference!), it is still an interesting aside.

Tied up with Wayland Smithy are a number of stones and barrows relating to the tale. Wittich’s Hill, a barrow (Wittich was the son of Wayland) and Beaghild’s burial place (a princess whom Wayland ravished), another barrow are but two in the local area.

the secret passage

There is some folklore concerning Waylands that a secret passage lies underneath it and opens up in Ashbury coombes (a mile or so away). Shepherds in the late 19th century used to strike a crowbar into the ground near to the ‘cave’ (as it was then before reconstruction in the 1960s) and hear a hollow sound.

I guess they were half right! Later archaeology helped us understand that Waylands had a number of stages of construct. The hollow sound was likely to have been an earlier grave lying underneath the present sarsen faced long barrow.

I have also read of the secret passage connecting to White Horse Hill. The two sites seem always to be closey linked in folklore.

Ah, the old story of St George and the Dragon is attached to Dragon Hill, as it is to many places. Could it be a big analogy? Is St George the Christian faith and the Dragon the Pagan one? Such a significant place of heathen worship for centuries (nee Millennia) must have had to have been conquered.

Female and Male stones?

The huge sarsens that guard the front of the tomb are four in number. Two other original large stones are missing. Are they in any particular shape? I have always looked at the lozenge (or diamond) shaped stones as female (think hips!) and the thinner more upright stones as male (think phallus!). This appears to be the case at Waylands Smithy (look at some of the piccies). I think the missing one on the left hand side was male and the missing one on the right hand side middle was female.

The avenue at Avebury sometimes leads me to a similar conclusion with male and female stones.

from BERKSHIRE by F G Brabant (1911)

This entry is in an old book about Berkshire from 1911. It does mention the ‘knob’ as being a barrow, but I imagine every lump was termed a barrow in those days.

Scutchamore Knob is a remarkable barrow on the ridge of the downs, two and a half miles S. of East Hendred. It stands in the centre of a fine clump of beeches, and a large hole has been dug on its N. side. The name is a corruption of Cwichelm’s hlaew (or hill), which has also been altered to Schoomchamfly. Cwichelm was a chieftan or prince in authority under the King of Wessex, and he may well have defended the line of the downs against the advance of the Mercians, as his son Cuthred did, somewhat later. In 871, the Danes, after leaving Reading, are said in the Saxon Chronicle to have ‘turned along Ashdown to Cwichelm’s hlaew’ just before the battle of Ashdown. In 1006 the Danes, after burning Wallingford and Cholsey, turned again to Cwichelm’s hlaew, and stayed there out of bravado, because it had often been said that if they came to Cwichelm’s hlaew they would never go to the sea.

The blowing stone legend is related to King Alfred, like many places in the local area. The victorians were very fond of King Alfred and romanticised him heavily. The statue of him in the marketplace at Wantage is a lasting testiment to their love of the ‘first english king’.

The legend concerns the battles of King Alfred against the mighty Dane. It is said that he called his armies to battle by using the blowing stone as a huge horn which echoed around the vale (of the white horse).

I have found many references to the blowing stone being moved from somewhere on the ridgeway to its present position. This seems very likely. The legend is surely just a legend created much later in the life of the blowing stone.

Could it be more like a continuation of a pre-christian (i.e. heathen) tradition of ‘kissing the stone’ – pagan stone worship in the 21st Century? in the middle of rural Oxfordshire?

maybe, maybe not but you kiss the blarney stone in Ireland as well...

Scutchamer Knob was once a ‘moot’ or ‘gemot’ place in Anglo-Saxon times. This basically means a ‘meeting place’ and was used for the local Anglo-Saxon leaders as a sort of ‘Berkshire Parliament’. (Originally it was in Berkshire but the boundaries between Berkshire and Oxfordshire changed in the mid 1970’s).

Local law and justice would have been decided here. The tradition of meeting outdoors to deal with important matters, as opposed to indoors, has its roots in the Germanic (i.e. A-S).

It was at this place that criminals would be tried and sentenced (sometimes to death). See ‘Kilman knoll’ nearby on the OS map as a possible site for the hangings.

Originally named ‘Cwicchelmeshlaew’ (or variaitions on the spelling), the place literally meant ‘the law of Cwichelm’ and referred to one of the early Wessex Anglo-Saxon sub-kings (a long time before Alfred the Great). This gives a date of use in the early Anglo-Saxon period, early in the 600’s AD.

The place became symbolic in the later viking invasions and expansion into the area. The Wessex Anglo-Saxons were some of the last to resist the mighty and all-conquering viking invasions. It was sad if the vikings ever reached as far as Scutchamer Knob, then they wouldn’t escape alive. This was reached by the vikings and sort of came true. Alfred led the local Saxons to victory against the Danes in the Battle of Ashdown in the year 871 AD somewhere in the local area (there are various places suggested for this site). The invaders were beaten and retreated back to Reading. This was a pivotal point in Anglo-Saxon times as the vikings had never suffered such a defeat on a large scale before. Although Alfred the Great suffered further defeat at the hand of the viking hordes and ended up fleeing to the Somerset marshes later, it showed they could be beaten.

Scutchamer Knob has had an important place to play in the history of England. The Anglo-Saxons of the kingdom of Wessex came out stronger than the other A-S kingdoms of England at the time of the viking invasions and went to to form the country we now know as England. Out of Wessex, came England.

A Bronze Age round barrow lies within this later Iron Age fort on the highest point of Long Mountain. ‘Beacon Ring’ rather implies that the site has also been used for beacon fires.

Grinsell (Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain) recorded that it is a haunt of fairies, and J+C Bord (Atlas of Magical Britain) describe it as ‘atmospheric’.

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There are remote districts in our county where the more ignorant part of the population still put their faith in witchcraft; and the fairies are still believed to hold their assemblies at the Beacon ring on the Long Mountain.. From p64 of ‘On the Local Legends of Shropshire’ by Thomas Wright. p56 in ‘Collectanea Archaeologica’ v1, 1862. Online at Google Books.

A woman robed in grey formerly used to frequent a spot on Moel Arthur, overlooking the Vale of Clwyd, in North Wales. Under a rock near which the grey lady was chiefly seen, treasure was concealed in an iron chest with a ring handle. People said that the place of concealment was illuminated by a supernatural light. Occasionally in the evening, or soon after dawn, men dug for this treasure; but their efforts were rewarded with fearful noise and they were driven away by thunder, lightning, and rainstorms. One man found the grey lady beckoning to him as he ascended with pickaxe and shovel. He went to her, and she gave him some peas in a pod, and whispered, “Go home.” He did so, and the peas turned to gold in his pocket.

From Mary Trevelyan’s ‘Folk-lore and folk-stories of Wales’ of 1909.

The site is also rumoured to be Queen Boudica’s burial place.( J+C Bord’s ‘Atlas of Magical Britain’)

The name of Moel Arthur (bare hill of Arthur) was recorded before the 17th century (so at least it’s not a romantic fabrication of the Victorians). (mentioned in Grinsell’s ‘Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain’)

Local tradition points [the encampment] out as the residence of a prince, and as a spot charmed against the spade of the antiquary.

“Whoever digs there,” said an old woman in Welsh to some of the men going home from their work after a drenching wet day, “is always driven away by thunder, and lightning, and storm; you have been served like every body else who has made the attempt.”

Then there is a current belief that treasure, concealed in an iron chest with a ring-handle to it, lies buried within the camp, and I was told that the place of concealment was often illuminated at night by a supernatural light; several had seen the light, and some, more fortunate than the rest, had even grasped the handle of the iron chest, when an outburst of wild tempest wrested it from their audacious hold, and blasted their aspiring hopes of wealth.

To such stories I think there are two solutions. They may have been grounded upon the fame of some celebrated chief who, while he held this spot, acquired some degree of power and renown; or they may have been fabricated by those who, having really discovered treasure here, devised them as a means of securing it to themselves; and, from stories told me when examining these Clwydian camps, I think there is reason to believe that treasure has been discovered on these hills, and made away with by those who were lucky enough to find it.

from p181-2 of ‘A record of the antiquities of Wales and its marches (vol 1)’ by the Cambrian Archaeological Assoc. Published 1850 and now online at Google Books.

Realting to the naming of Blewbury village... Which came first? the hillfort? or the village? I suspect the village nearby was named after the iron age hillfort. The placename evidence suggests that the latter part of the placename of the village of Blewbury, the ‘bury’ is a derivative of ‘burh’ or ‘byrig’ in Anglo-saxon times. This means ‘Hill fort’. Although not all placenames that end in ‘bury’ mean ‘hillfort’, many do relate to an ancient structure, be it, barrow or hill fort.

An early recording of the placename in the year 944 is ‘Bleobyrig’. After the Normans came, it was recorded in the DB in 1086 as ‘Blidberia’. What a difference a new ruler makes in terms of culture (and indeed, spelling!)

So then, the village was named after the iron age hillfort.

The monument to Lord Wantage positioned high up on the ridgeway, is rumoured to be built upon a bronze age barrow. I have come across a reference to this a few times in some local research. Lord Wantage was a soldier and became a local landowner. He is most rembered for his services in the Crimean war and for the success of Ardington (a nearby village) as a model farming village, providing work for the local agricultural community in hard times.

Given the high up position (common for the siting of a lot of barrows of the bronze age), this wouldn’t suprise me.

In the area around the monument are some other barrow sites (marked on OS Explorer 170 map). This again is additional evidence.

The field in which the stone lies is called the ‘Devils Flights’, and it is said that the stones sometimes turn over at midnight – presumably if they haven’t got the energy for the activity Kammer mentions above.

(folklore info from J + C Bord’s ‘Atlas of Magical Britain’)

Apparently when King Arthur was on the run, he hid all his treasures here. Merlin cast a spell over the cave so that it couldn’t be found.

The cave is also the site of a legendary underground passage, which runs to ‘New Weir’ according to Janet and Colin Bord, in ‘Atlas of Magical Britain’.

Legend of the Cleeve Hill Stone. ---Between Marl Cleeve and Offenham, on the left bank of the Avon, is a long, and almost straight ridge, which slopes down abruptly to the river and its meadows. Along its brow runs an old (reputedly Roman) road; and where this is crossed by a way leading from the village of Prior’s Cleeve to Cleeve Mill, is a prehistoric barrow, upon which is a heavy mass of stone, evidently the base of a fourteenth century wayside cross. The presence of this stone is accounted for by a legend.

Once upon a time, the Devil perched on Meon Hill (in Quinton, Co. Gloucester), and looking towards Evesham, was annoyed by the sight of its Abbey, then in great prosperity. There being a big stone at hand, he kicked it at the Abbey with malicious intention; but Evesham bells beginning to ring, it swerved to the right, and fell where it now lies.

Gloucestershire Legends
F. S. Potter
Folklore, Vol. 25, No. 3. (Sep. 30, 1914), pp. 374-375.

It’s marked as a ‘tumulus’ on the map but is not on ‘Magic’ as a scheduled monument.

Janet and Colin Bord, in their ‘Atlas of Magical Britain’ explain that King Arthur killed a giant (or maybe a rival king) here. And, (also confusedly) Arthur or maybe the Giant is buried here.

If you look under a hedge nearby you might spot the ‘Quoit Stone’ which has hollows in it – these were made by the giant’s elbows. Or maybe by Arthur’s knees when he stopped for a quick prayer. Or maybe the heel marks of some people who were playing quoits.

Hope that’s cleared that up.

Local people were so convinced that Oliver Cromwell had buried some treasure chests in these barrows, that when one was excavated in 1866 many people were convinced one had been found, and gathered to take a look.

In L. V. Grinsell’s ‘Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain’ (1976)

As it says at https://www.mysterymag.com:

“It is said that anyone who moves it will surely die. In fact, it was moved a few yards several years ago when the road was straightened and one of the workmen died suddenly. ”

It’s also said to be on the alleged cross-country ‘St Michael and Mary’ ley line.

It’s said people make a lot of stuff up as they go along, but I can’t be sure these two come into that category. It’s nice that the stone still has a strange reputation in the 21st century.

J&C Bord say that Whiteleaf Cross has not been dated, but that a local boundary mark called ‘Wayland’s Stock’ was mentioned in a charter of 903AD, and perhaps they’re one and the same. ‘Stock’ could be interpreted as alluding to something stick-like (which rather ties in with the hypothesis that the cross is actually a christianised phallic symbol). But perhaps that’s just finding what you want to / expect to find.

(info in their ‘Atlas of Magical Britain’, but no more details about what charter it was from)

This stone and the two nearby mark the place where Jack the Giant Killer despatched his last victim. Jack hid behind the Giant’s Stone to shoot, but unfortunately the mortally wounded giant managed to get a punch in and Jack was himself killed. The stone now acts as his gravestone.

(story from J&C Bord’s ‘Atlas of Magical Britain’)

Like Cairnholy this is supposed to be the grave of the legendary King Galdus.
Symson, in his Description of Galloway, written in 1684, says--”

“In the high-way betwixt Wigton and Port-Patrick, about three miles westward of Wigton, is a plaine, called the ‘Moor of Standing Stones of Torhouse,’ in which there is a monument of three large whin-stones (called King Galdus’s Tomb,) surrounded, at about twelve foot distance, with nineteen considerable great stones, (but none of them so great as the three first mentioned,) erected in a circumference.
In this moor, and not far form the tomb, are great heaps of small stones, (which the country people call Cairns) supposed by them to be the burial-place of the common soldiers. As also, at several placeds, distant from the monument, are here and there great single stones erected, which are also supposed to be the burial-place of his commanders and men of note.” (Symson’s MS Account of Galloway, Advocates’ Library.)

The manuscript is quoted by Thomas Murray in his ‘The Literary History of Galloway’ published 1822, and now online at Google Books.

One of the cairns nearby had its cist slab removed in the 19th century, and it was taken away to be used as a cover for a water conduit. Several people claimed to have seen a light emerging from the cairn at night, and moving along the route the slab was taken. On reaching the slab it would rest on it for a while before (presumably) disappearing.

(story from J&C Bord’s ‘Atlas of Magical Britain)

Cairnholy might come from ‘Carn Ulaidh’ meaning ‘treasure cairns’.

Cairnholy II is the traditional burial spot of Galdus, a mythical king and bishop, who was killed in a battle in the 14th century.

(noted in J&C Bord’s ‘Atlas of Magical Britain’)

This story was recorded in Robert Chambers’s ’ Popular Rhymes of Scotland.‘

In the first edition of that work (1826) Chambers recorded a tradition, which he had taken down the preceding year, to the effect that it was supposed by the people who lived in the neighbourhood of Largo Law, in Fife, that there was a very rich mine of gold under and near the mountain, and they were so convinced of the truth of this story, that whenever they saw the wool of a sheep’s side tinged with yellow, they thought it had acquired that colour from having lain above the gold of the mine.

A great many years ago a ghost made its appearance on the spot, supposed to be laden with the secret of the mine, and Chambers proceeds to tell the story of a shepherd who plucked up courage to accost it, and received the following reply to his demand to learn the reason of the spectre’s presence:—

If Auchindownie cock disna craw,
And Balmain horn disna blaw,
I’ll tell ye where the Gowd mine is in Largo Law.

Not a cock was left alive at the farm of Auchindownie, but man was more difficult to control, for just as the ghost appeared, ready to divulge the secret, Tammie Norrie, the cow-herd of Balmain, heedless of all injunctions to the contrary, ” blew a blast both loud and dread,” on which the ghost immediately vanished, after exclaiming :—

Woe to the man who blew the horn,
For out of the spot he shall ne’er be borne.

In fulfilment of this denunciation the unfortunate horn-blower was struck dead upon the spot, and it being found impossible to remove his body, which seemed, as it were, pinned to the earth, a cairn of stones was raised over it, which, grown into a green hillock, was denominated Norrie’s Law and for long was regarded as uncanny by the common people. But it appears that in 1810 a man digging sand at Norrie’s Law found a cist or stone coffin containing a suit of scale-armour, with shield, sword-handle, and scabbard, all of silver.

This discovery was recorded by Chambers in later editions of his work, in which it is further stated that the finder kept the secret until nearly the whole of the pieces had been disposed of to a silversmith at Cupar; but on one of the few that remain it is remarkable to find the ” spectacle ornament,” crossed by the so-called ” broken sceptre,” thus indicating a great though uncertain antiquity.

Redescribed in N+Q Aug 17, 1901.