North Yorkshire Folk Tales (27 page)

Occasionally instead of being helpful hobs took on the character of boggarts, haunting roads to frighten people and being general nuisances.

It is one of the mysteries of folklore that fairies appear to prefer prehistoric sites. Whether that is because of some sort of folk memory, or whether the places themselves have a numinous quality that humans respond to is debateable. At any rate, the Elbolton fairies could not have chosen a more ancient place, because in the late nineteenth century an excavation in the oddly named Navvy Noodle Hole found the remains of eleven burials and one cremation. Pottery found with them was dated to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (3,000–2,000
BC
). The whole area has many stones, tumuli, circles etc., from that period. Beneath the burials were older layers containing bones from cold-weather animals: reindeer, arctic fox, mountain hare, ptarmigan and bear.

For non-gardeners: fairy rings are rings of darker grass that appear in lawns and which were considered to be caused by the dancing of fairies. (I have one in my own garden.) They are in fact caused by many different types of toadstool and can be dated by their size. According to Wikipedia, one of the largest rings ever found is in France. It is about 600 metres (2,000 feet) in diameter and over 700 years old.

This story comes from H.I. Gee’s
Folk Tales of Yorkshire
.

From Parkinsons
Folk tales of Yorkshire, Vol 1
.

There are many versions of this popular tale. In some, the beggar is a holy hermit but the result is always the same. Classically minded readers may recall the selfish city turned into a lake by Zeus and Mercury, only in that case the aged couple with whom they have stayed persuade the gods to restore it.

The evil city turned into a lake and the inhabitants becoming fish also appears in
The Thousand and One Nights.

The story is mentioned in Marie Hartley & Ella Pontefract
Wharfedale
(Skipton: Dalesman Publishing Co. Ltd November, 1988).

Another story from William Hone’s
Table Book
(London: Thomas Tegg, 1841). I have used the original words mostly, only leaving out a few rhetorical flourishes (and Latin quotes).

Hone tells the story according to the literary conventions of his day. He begins by saying he was talking to another traveller in a Craven pub when the subject of the local belief in witchcraft arose. Hone, the eighteenth-century sceptic, does not believe in it, but his companion says that, being a local, he had had personal experience of it. The Wise Woman of Littondale is the story he tells.

This version is from
Folk Tales of Yorkshire
by H.L. Gee (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1952), but it is widely told.

This story and the one that follows it comes from
Wit, Character, Folklore and Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire
by Richard Blakeborough (London: H. Frowde, 1898). He seems to have had it almost verbatim from local people whose grandparents remembered Molly Cass. She died in the middle of the eighteenth century.

Why the nine of hearts coming up nine times should result in Old Nick having your soul, I do not know. Nine (3x3) is magic, of course, but not usually evil (unlike ‘666’). In cartomancy (divination by cards) the nine of hearts is called the Wish Card.

All sorts of information is available about Mother Shipton. She almost certainly did not exist, but her prophesies live on – at least in cyberspace.

Further reading might include: Richard Head’s
The Strange and Wonderful History of Mother Shipton
, (London: Richard Lownds, 1686);
The Life and Prophecies of Ursula Sontheil: Better Known as Mother Shipton
by J.C. Simpson (Knaresborough: Dropping Well booklet); or
Mother Shipton: Her Legendary Life
, Daniel Parkinson’s online article from the Mysterious Britain site.

This story comes from
The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok
translated by Ben Waggoner (New Haven, USA: Troth Publications, April 2009); it was written about
AD
1400. Ragnar himself as an historical figure is very evasive, he, too, may not have existed at all, although other people in his story including King Aelle and Ivar the Boneless certainly did. It is possible that Ragnar is the same person as the Reginhari who sacked Paris in
AD
845.

The saga includes other exciting deeds of Ragnar and his sons. It incorporates themes from folk tales from all over Europe; his shaggy breeches come from Russia for example and the snake pit probably comes from a similar story in the Völsunga Saga. I have tried to give a flavour of the terse style of the sagas, though leaving out or simplifying the obscure verses Ragnar chants.

Ivar may have been called Boneless (we do not know why) but he certainly was not spineless. He went on to wreak havoc and destruction throughout England, Scotland and, eventually, Ireland where, known as Imharr, he appears to have gone on a tomb raiding spree in the sacred Boyne Valley breaking open the ancient mounds including New Grange – but that, as they say, is another story!

This story has all the signs of being an early Victorian version of a much-travelled story, relocated to York. It certainly is rather ignorant of both monasteries and Medieval York, where St Leonard’s was a hospice for the sick, not a monastery as such. The historically minded might be interested in the following short description of it.

It was founded, according to tradition, by King Athelstan on his return from the battle of Brunanburgh. He built a small hospital for the poor, to the west of the minster, and generously endowed it with one thrave (twenty sheaves) from every plough being used in the diocese. (The thraves were known as Petercorn.) It was run by a master and chaplains; some ordained monks from the minster, some secular. There were also about eight sisters; some ordained and some secular. They cared for about 180 sick or incapacitated people, who were cared for until they either died or were sufficiently recovered to work. Mothers will be pleased to know that two sisters were assigned to a special room for abandoned babies who were fed with the milk of two cows.

It is hard for us to realise how strong anti-Catholic feeling was in England in the past – the nearest equivalent would be some people’s attitude to Muslims. The idea of the walled-up monk or nun, popular in Gothic novels, was a common Protestant theme arising perhaps from anti-Catholic propaganda, perhaps just from ignorance. There are several ghost stories that rely on this idea. In fact, the death penalty was a secular not a religious punishment (although walling-up was never on any statute book). As it happens there are actually punishments specified for St Leonards, of which the most severe appears to be temporary imprisonment in a room at the hospital and penance until ‘signs of amendment’ were seen. Brother Jocundus would have got off lightly.

This is another story that has been located in York and Scarborough to give it authenticity. It is much closer to a traditional wonder tale than most of the stories in this book. The Book of Fate is an unusual addition. As in the Greek myth of Oedipus, it demonstrates how the attempt to avoid a particular destiny actually results in it being brought about. The finding of the ring in the fish appears in countless tales.

A version of this story can be found in Richard Blakeborough’s
Wit, Character, Folklore and Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire
under the chapter Children’s Lore. He points out that it is related to various other European stories including one of the Brothers Grimm. Unfortunately, he does not say where he got it from.

I got my version from H. Gee’s
Folk Tales of Yorkshire
.

This story is found in ‘A Geste of Robyn Hode’, one of the first printed accounts of the outlaw, probably produced at the beginning of the sixteenth century. However, his origins can be traced back as far as the thirteenth century.

The tales seem to have been transmitted by the oral storytellers and entertainers employed by noble houses throughout the country. Robin was included in plays and Christmas revels and was so well known that impersonating him on special occasions was popular – even on one occasion at St Mary’s Abbey! (
See
J.C. Holt’s
Robin Hood
, Thames and Hudson, 1989.)

The truth of any criminal’s life is difficult to verify, but Dick Turpin’s certainly appears to have been rather squalid. His old romantic image probably came from a completely different man named John ‘Swift Nick’ Nevinson, who lived before Turpin was born. It is from ‘Swift Nick’ that the myth of Turpin’s ride from London to York was stolen. One morning in 1676 Nevinson robbed a homeward-bound sailor on the road outside Gads Hill, Kent and, deciding that he needed to establish an alibi, he set off on a ride that took him more than 190 miles in about fifteen hours. William Harrison Ainsworth included the exploit and attributed it to Turpin in his 1834 novel
Rookwood
(London: Richard Bentley, 1834). It is his particular version of the heroic highwayman that has endured when the pockmarked horse stealer has been forgotten.

There are trial accounts of so many of Turpin’s associates that it is possible to follow his evil and violent exploits in considerable detail should one wish to do so – I have simplified the story somewhat, especially the convoluted way in which he was finally brought to trial.

There are a few thieves’ cant words in the story, such as yellowboys. No doubt the real Turpin would have used a lot more.

There are many books on this horrible man and you can even see a version of him singing his (factually correct) song on YouTube.

This highly coloured and clearly mythical version of the life of Lancelot Blackburne comes from
Old Yorkshire
by William Smith (Morely: issued yearly from 1881). Almost everything in it is untrue (starting with his university, he went to Oxford, not Cambridge) but it is a genuine folk version of a well-loved celebrity of his day. He almost certainly was not a pirate, and he certainly was never called Muggins, but he does seem to have been employed as a spy by Charles II.

Horace Walpole, who knew him, wrote a description to a friend which shows that, pirate or not, he was definitely a character!

From
Old Yorkshire
Series I by William Smith.

Ghosts and Legends of Yorkshire
by Andy Roberts (Norwich: Jarrold Publishing, 1992)

Folk Stories from the Yorkshire Dales
by Peter N. Walker (London: Robert Hale Ltd, 1991)

Folk Tales from the North York Moors
by Peter N. Walker (London: Robert Hale Ltd, 1990)

Yorkshire Legends and Traditions
by Revd Thomas Parkinson (London: E. Stock, 1888)

The Hand of Glory and Further Grandfather’s Tales
by R. Blakeborough and John Fairfax-Blakeborough (London: H. Frowde, 1924)

First published in 2014

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