Giants, Fairies and Boggarts

Charles Hardwick

Description

Bewitched by banshees? Fascinated by fairies? Charmed by changelings? If so, add this engrossing collection of folk tales from in and around northern England to your reading list. Not only does author Charles Hardwick present a sizable collection of tales from the region, but he also explains their origins of many of the stories and compares and contrasts them to the similar themes found in other cultures.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Folclore
• Folklore

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775459286
• Langue: English

Extrait

GIANTS, FAIRIES AND BOGGARTS
IN NORTHERN ENGLAND
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CHARLES HARDWICK
 
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Giants, Fairies and Boggarts In Northern England First published in 1872 ISBN 978-1-77545-928-6 © 2012 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Dedication Preface Chapter I - The Early Inhabitants of Lancashire and the Neighbouring Counties Chapter II - Fire or Sun Worship and its Attendant Superstitions Chapter III - Christmas and Yule-Tide Superstitions and Observances Chapter IV - Easter Superstitions and Ceremonies Chapter V - May-Day Ceremonies and Superstitions Chapter VI - Witchcraft Chapter VII - Fairies and Boggarts Chapter VIII - Fern-Seed and St. John's-Wort Superstitions Chapter IX - The Spectre Huntsman and the Furious Host Chapter X - Giants, Mythical and Otherwise Chapter XI - Were-Wolves and the Transmigration of Souls Chapter XII - Sacred and Ominous Birds Chapter XIII - The Divining or Wish-Rod, and Superstitions Respecting Trees andPlants Chapter XIV - Well Worship and Superstitions Connected with Water Chapter XV - Conclusion Endnotes
Dedication
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"Thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."— Matthew , c. xi. v. 25.
"Every fiction that has ever laid strong hold of human belief is the mistaken image of some great truth , to which reason will direct its search, while half reason is content with laughing at the superstition, and unreason with disbelieving it."— Rev. J. Martineau.
TO HIS VERY DEAR AND EVER KIND FRIEND, ELIZA COOK, THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, AS A VERY HUMBLE BUT SINCERE TRIBUTE TO HER POETIC GENIUS AND HER PRIVATE WORTH, BY ITS AUTHOR, CHARLES HARDWICK.
Preface
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Our nursery legends and popular superstitions are fast becoming mattersof history, except in the more remote and secluded portions of thecountry. The age of the steam engine, and the electric battery, and themany other practical adaptations of the triumphs of physical science, isapparently not the one in which such "waifs and strays" from themythical lore of the dim and distant Past are very likely to be muchsought after or honoured. But now that the light of moderninvestigation, and especially that ray furnished by recent discoveriesin philological science, has been directed towards their deeper and morehidden mysteries, profound philosophical historians have begun todiscover that from this apparently desolate literary region muchreliable knowledge may be extracted, leading to conclusions of the mostinteresting and important kind, with reference to the early history ofour race. The labours of the brothers Grimm, Dr. Adalbert Kuhn,Professor Max Müller, the Rev. G. W. Cox, and others, have recentlyreceived considerable attention from philosophic enquirers into theorigin and early development of the people from whom nearly all of theEuropean, and some of the Asiatic, modern nationalities have sprung.
It is found that many of these imperfect, and sometimes grotesque,traditions, legends, and superstitions are, in reality, not the"despicable rubbish" which the "learned" have been in the habit ofregarding them, but rather the crude ore, which, when skilfully smelteddown, yields, abundantly, pure metal well worthy of the literary hammerof the most profound student in general history, ethnology, or thephenomena attendant upon psychological development.
Professor Henry Morley, in the chapter on Ethnology, in his "EnglishWriters," after noticing "how immediately and easily particular words,common in their application, would become available for common use," and"how often images of the seen would become symbols of the unseen ,"truly says, "The world about us is not simply mirrored, but informedwith a true soul , by all the tongues that syllable man's knowledge andhis wants. The subtlest harmonies of life and nature may lie hidden inthe very letters of the alphabet."
The subject has been but recently introduced, in a thoroughly popularform, to the English reader. Dasent's "Popular Tales from the Norse,"and occasional papers by local writers, intensified and extended theinterest taken in this species of research. The publication, in 1863, byMr. Walter K. Kelly, of his "Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition andFolk-Lore," however, may be said to have given a still greater impetusto popular investigation in this direction. This is largely to beattributed to the fact that he has summarised in a very pleasing mannermuch of the abstruse learning of the German philologists andmythologists to whom reference has already been made.
Whilst contemplating the publication of some "Supplementary Notes to theHistory of Preston and its Environs," the early chapters of which, ofcourse, would necessarily deal with what is termed the "pre-historicperiod," Mr. Kelly's work came into my hands. I was induced toconsiderably enlarge my plan, in consequence of the value I immediatelyplaced upon its contents, and of the suggestion in the followingparagraph, which appears in its preface:
"In not a few instances I have been able to illustrate Dr. Kuhn'sprinciples by examples of the folk-lore of Great Britain and Ireland,and would gladly have done so more copiously had matter for the purposebeen more accessible. My efforts in that direction have made mepainfully aware how much we are behind the Germans, not only as to ourinsight into the meaning of such relics of the past, but also as to ourindustry in collecting them. The latter defect is indeed a naturalconsequence of the former, and it is to be hoped that our localarchæologists will no longer be content to labour under either of themwhen once they have found what far-reaching knowledge may be extractedout of old wives' tales and notions. Only four years ago the editor of'Notes and Queries' spoke hypothetically (in the preface to 'ChoiceNotes') of a time to come when the study of folk-lore (he was I believethe inventor of that very expressive and sterling word) should haverisen from a pleasant pastime to the rank of a science. Already hisanticipation has been realised, and henceforth every careful collectorof a novel scrap of folk-lore, or of even a well-marked variety of anold type, may entertain a reasonable hope that he has in some degreesubserved the purposes of the ethnologist and the philosophicalhistorian."
In 1865-6 I published a series of the "Supplementary Notes" referred to,in the Preston Guardian newspaper. The general favour with which theywere received, and the increasing interest I felt in the subject,induced me to continue my researches, with the view to the ultimatepublication of the present volume. The original papers, as well as otheressays afterwards published elsewhere, have not only been carefullyrevised, and, in some instances, rearranged, but the quantity of newmatter added in each chapter is such as to render the work in everyrespect much more complete, and more worthy of being regarded as having,in some small degree, "subserved the purposes of the ethnologist and thephilosophical historian." I would gladly persuade myself that I have, atleast, rendered what many regard as frivolous, and others as veryabstruse and very "dry reading," interesting, attractive, andinstructive to the general reader. If I succeed in this respect, mychief object will have been accomplished.
The various authorities relied upon or quoted are sufficiently indicatedin the body of the work to render a catalogue of them here unnecessary.I may add, however, that the principal portions of the paperscontributed by my friend, Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., to the"Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society," havesince been incorporated with a portion of the collection of the late Mr.Jno. Harland, F.S.A., and published in a volume by F. Warne and Co.,entitled "Lancashire Folk Lore."
74, HALSTON STREET, HULME, Manchester, April, 1872.
Chapter I - The Early Inhabitants of Lancashire and the Neighbouring Counties
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Remains of Their Mythology and Local Nomenclature
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
Shakspere.
On several occasions, when discussing obscure questions of earlytopography or ancient nomenclature, although readily acknowledging thevalue of all facts in connection with genuine etymological science, Ihave recommended great caution in the use of this powerful but somewhatcapricious archæological ally. I yet retain a strong impression thatthis caution is still a necessary condition of truly scientifichistorical or antiquarian research. Consequently, several of thepresumed etymologies in the present work are advanced with diffidence,and with a thorough conviction that some of them may prove to beillusive. The suggestion of a probability, however, is a very differentthing to dogmatic assertion in such matters, a practice which cannot betoo much condemned.
It is not very many years since the writer of the article "Language," inKnight's Cyclopædia, felt it his duty, in introducing the subject, touse the following strong expressions:—
"That division of grammar which is called etymology has been disgracedby such puerile trifling, and has been pursued with such an utterdisregard to anything like scientific principles, as to create in theminds of many persons a suspicion against everything presented to theirnotice under the name of etymology. Such persons have viewed etymologyas noth