Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain

Product Information

The book is split into three parts - the first covers ancient superstitions, creatures, plants and festivals. You'll also be playing a role in bringing the stories of England's history to life for future generations to enjoy. It's a huge book but very easy to read and illustrated with drawings and black and white photos throughout.

The Nuckelavee has the head of a man, only far larger, emerging from an equine body of rotting sinews and exposed veins that run with yellow blood. A boggart is, depending on local or regional tradition, a malevolent genius loci inhabiting fields, marshes or other topographical features. However, the cat ends up on board a merchant ship expedition organised by Dick’s master, and whilst at sea it impressively deals with a major rodent problem on board the ship. The original references to Robin Hood suggest that he wasn’t the aristocrat he’s made out to be in later versions of the tale, but a simple yeoman – an attendant on a nobleman’s household. Keen walkers can brave the trail left behind by the Pendle witches through the beautifully sombre Lancashire countryside of the Pendle hills to their site of execution.Such people were respected, feared and sometimes hunted for their breadth of knowledge which was suspected as supernatural. The maypoles were decorated originally with flowers and carved from the branches of trees about to bloom to symbolise the birth of new life.

These are figures drawn into the countryside by digging into the ground and sometimes filling it in with a mineral of a contrasting colour. It is a measure of how badly I wanted this book that I persuaded my friend to flout the rules and give it to me.

In Northern England, at least, there was the belief that the boggart should never be named, for when the boggart was given a name, it could not be reasoned with nor persuaded, but would become uncontrollable and destructive. As with one of the other reviewers, a copy of this book once belonged to my grandmother, and as a child I spent many happy hours poring over its pages, entranced by both the stories that it contained and its equally beguiling illustrations, many of which recreated the look of traditional woodcuts.