Finding Folklore

Description: Mayday is a time when the world of the fair folk comes close to ours.

Description: A wizard in a cave

Description: This wizard is in a cave.

Description: A knucker is a serpentine, dragon-style water monster from English mythology. Referred to in Beowulf as a "nicor", the longevity of this folkloric monster is striking, and many areas still have a pond or round body of water named "knuckers hole" or "knocker hole", often said to be infinitely deep.

Description: Mayday celebrations.

Description: Grendel is the bloodthirsty monster from the Beowulf story. Although he is described in human terms, he is from outside the human world - larger, stronger, more savage and utterly without mercy.

Description: Grendel is the bloodthirsty mythic monster from the Beowulf story. He is an unstoppable force of destruction - until he meets the great hero.

Description: Traditional Mayday celebrations involve dancing around the Maypole. It's a time for celebrating the cycle of nature, with the passing of winter into summer.

Description: Grendel is the terrifying bloodthirsty monster from the Beowulf story. In the dead of night he comes stalking out of the lake where, in the inky depths, he lives with his mother.

Description: Rawhead-and-bloodybones is a hideous bogeyman from English folklore, first attested in the written sources from the early 1500s, but likely older.

Description: Dancing in the leaves and flowers

Description: On St. Mark's Eve any who stand watch at the porch of their local church see the spectres of all those in the parish doomed to die over the coming year.

Description: King of the Anglo Saxon gods Woden is one eyed. But often carved or depicted with two, then the likeness is defaced to remove one. So poke a hole in your t-shirt.

Description: Though George lived in the 3rd century (AD), the dragon slaying story was not associated with him until hundreds of years later, in the 11th. But the tale of the dragon slayer is old.

Description: On St. Mark's Eve any who stand watch at the porch of their local church see the spectres of all those in the parish doomed to die over the coming year.

Description: Already ruined and nearing its 3000th birthday by the time the Romans invaded Britain, the mother of all England's monuments has to be stonehenge.

Description: King Sceafa was a mysterious child sent by the gods, who floated to land on a shield with a wheatsheaf of corn as a pillow. He brought prosperity to the people who found him, growing to be their king.

Description: A spooky ghost looming over a house on a dark and stormy night.

Description: The skeleton is reckless about fire safety.

Description: The skeleton witch entertaining a skeleton friend around her spooky bonfire.

Description: The last openly Pagan English king, Arwald Cyning of the Wihtwara was killed in battle, AD686. His two kinsmen fled the Island to the safety of the New Forest but were betrayed and forced to convert to Christianity before execution.

Description: The last openly Pagan English king, Arwald Cyning of the Wihtwara was killed in battle, AD686. His two kinsmen fled the Island to the safety of the New Forest but were betrayed and forced to convert to Christianity before execution.

Description: The giant Yernagate, from the New Forest, who grew so tired of one man stealing all the firewood that he picked him up and threw him all the way to the moon (where he lives still, and can be seen when it's full).