![]() Many of our most familiar stories, of dragons, black dogs, kelpies or hobs, are folkloric they contain motifs which are commonly found in other stories told across Europe, or they tap into beliefs that are widely held across the British Isles. Legends usually have a close connection with a particular place, such as Sherwood Forest, home of Robin Hood, or Tintagel, where King Arthur is said to have been conceived, Stonehenge, or Dover Castle, where the skull of Arthur’s famous knight, Sir Gawain, was long preserved.įolklore covers a range of beliefs, from the existence of fairies who dance in certain places when the moon is full, to the habits of the Loch Ness Monster, to the belief that witches can turn into hares and steal milk from cows. Hereward was a real person, descended from Viking lords on the one hand and English nobility on the other, who led a resistance movement to the Normans after the Conquest. Sometimes there is a semi-historical basis for these stories. Legends deal with heroes, imagined as human or superhuman, such as St George, Robin Hood, or Hereward the Wake. Stories that explain where certain peoples come from are known as ‘origin myths’ the most important and enduring origin myth for Britain is the legend of Brutus, a refugee from Troy who sailed to these shores and slew all the giants who were then the only inhabitants, giving his name to the British Isles. They answer big questions such as: how was the world created? Where do humans come from? How did we learn to make fire, or to smith metal? What is the origin of the gods? The term ‘myth’ may be used more loosely to cover whole cycles of tales, like the stories of the Irish gods or the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, dealing with Welsh semi-divine characters. Myths are usually understood as stories about gods or divine figures. Interwoven with our understanding of history are the threads of myth, legend and folklore these shape and colour our understanding of both our past and our present. Much of what we might think of as early history is really legend – tales about the Druids, the story of Cædmon (the ‘father of English poetry’, who lived at Whitby Abbey) and the exploits of King Arthur for example. The British Isles have a very long history, stretching back well before written records began. ![]()
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