History and Folklore Podcast

Churchyard grims, stacked graves and Judgement Day. How did English graveyards changed in England between the medieval and Victorian eras?

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Transcript

There pass, with melancholy state,

By all the solemn heaps of fate,

And think, as softly-sad you tread

Above the venerable dead,

“Time was, like thee they life possessed,

And time shall be, that thou shalt rest.”

Hello, welcome to the History and Folklore podcast, where we look at different folk beliefs through history and how these beliefs shape people’s perceptions of nature. In this episode we will be looking at graveyards. As this is a huge topic, I will be focussing predominantly on Christian graveyards in England as that is what I have the most experience and knowledge on, and looking at their development, uses and folklore surrounding them.

Graveyards are interesting as hanges that have occurred in them over time often reflect a lot about the society that uses them including such wide ranging things as demographics, life expectancy, religious beliefs, attitudes to death, burial and remembrance, use of symbology, aesthetic design preferences and attitudes to the natural elements within the cemetery. The establishment of new graveyards can tell us about practical, political and religious considerations at the time regarding burial.

Many graveyards that currently exist in England date from the medieval period, and rural graveyards would often have been the first enclosed space to have existed within a parish. Some of these graveyards were established even earlier as burial grounds dating as far back as the Iron Age, and were later adopted and sanctified to be used for Christian burials.

A graveyard would usually be established in the grounds of the parish church, and would be consecrated before being used by the people in the parish. This sometimes caused issues for those living in distant, rural villages as the journey to the parish church could be long and dangerous. In these instances, the people living in these villages could apply to the parish church for their nearby chapel to be granted burial rights. However, as burial services provided a large income for the church or chapel at which the burial took place, these rights were hard won as the parish church would not want to lose the income from these burials. In the cases of burial grounds attached to hospitals often an agreement was made for the hospital to pay the parish church for every burial they conducted. However, disputes over burial rights were common, especially when a new monastery became established in an area.

These religious institutions often wanted to be perceived to be the preferred place for burial, especially by the elite, as this would bring the monastery both prestige and continued wealth from the families of the interred, who would pay for services and prayers for the soul of their deceased relative. These families would then be more likely to choose the same monastery for future burials, as family tradition often dictated where a person chose to be buried. In some cases these disputes got pretty intense and example being in 1392 when the monks of Abingdon actually hijacked a funeral procession and disinterred 67 people from the parish's burial grounds with the aim of reburying them at the monastery.

Because of the loss of income and potential prestige, a compelling argument had to be put forward to justify the creation of a new graveyard and the giving away of burial rights. The most common reason given was that the journey was long and dangerous. In 1427 the people of Highweek complained of having to bury their dead at the parish church, despite being able to perform the burial rituals at their local chapel, meaning they had to undertake a long and dangerous journey for the sole purpose of burying the body.

However, complaints could also be financial. Two years later the parish of St Ives applied for burial rights as people had to put their occupations on hold for so long that they lost a substantial amount of revenue when taking part in funeral processions. On top of this, as so many people would leave their homes to undertake the journey their deserted homes and belonging would be seen as easy prey for pirates, causing more financial hardship and distress. In some places funerals were even delayed as the local economy could not sustain lengthy absences caused by people attending funerals.

Whether a graveyard was being adapted from an existing burial ground or created from scratch, the land had to be sanctified before any Christian burials took place. In order to do this, the land would be cleared an...

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Discover the folklore behind hawthorn trees in early medieval Europe.

How are hawthorns connected to the dead?

Why is it dangerous to bring them inside? Can I say thrimethylamine? (no).

I had a bit of an issue with the sound at the end of this episode - sorry! I will do my best to get it sorted for the next episode. Sources used:

Baker, M., Discovering the Folklore of Plants (2019).

Carey, F., The Tree: Meaning and Muth (2012).

Castleman, M., The New healing Herbs (2009).

Eberly, S., A Thorn Among the Lilies: The Hawthorn in Medieval Love Allegory, Folklore (1989)

Roud, S. A Pocket Guide to Superstitions of the British Isles (2005).

Schneidu, L., Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland (2019).

Stocke, L., The Two Mayings in Chaucer's 'The Knight's Tale': Convention and Invention, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology (1986).Struthers, J. Red Sky at Night: The Book of Lost Countryside Wisdom (2009).

Watts, D.C., Dictionary of Plant Lore (2007).

Transcription:

Up the airy mountain,

Down the rushy glen,

We daren’t go a-hunting

For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl’s feather!

By the craggy hillside,

Through the mosses bare,

They have planted thorn trees

For pleasure, here and there.

Is any man so daring

As dig them up in spite,

He shall find their sharpest thorns

In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain,

Down the rushy glen,

We daren’t go a-hunting

For fear of little men;

• The Fairies by William Allignhorn.

Hello, welcome to the History and Folklore podcast, where we look at different folk beliefs through history and how these beliefs have shaped people’s perceptions of nature. Today we’re looking at hawthorn trees and the folklore associated with them.

Hawthorn has been in the British Isles for over 20,00 years, and is one of only 33 trees that are native to Britain. Probably because of this, it has a central place in British folklore and is seen as a sacred tree to be respected.

One of the strongest associations that hawthorns have is with spring, particularly May Day. As part of the May festivities, on the night before May 1st young people would go into the woods and return with hawthorn blossoms, stems and branches to turn into garlands and ‘may trees’ - hawthorn branches that would be set up outside the house and decorated with wildflowers. Crosses made of hawthorn would also be hung over home and stable doors to protect the inhabitants and in Suffolk any servant who was able to bring back a branch of hawthorn on May morning was rewarded with a bowl of cream for their efforts.

Hawthorn was such a sign of the change of seasons that it was actually used as a way measuring of time in some parts of the British Isles. In Scotland, farmers would say that ‘harvest follows thirteen weeks after hawthorn scents the air.’ The use of hawthorn at May Day celebrations became less common after the change from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorain calendar in 1752. This is because May Day was shifted to be about two weeks earlier, making hawthorn blossoms difficult to find. Despite this, the tree still has a strong association with spring and is still called the May Tree in some parts of Britain.

It is probably unsurprising that due to its link with spring and new life, that hawthorn has a number of other positive associations.

In Europe hawthorn symbolised hope, marriage and fertility. In England, it is often incorporated into the ‘Green Man’ figure and in Ancient Greece brides would carry hawthorn boughs and wear the blossoms in their clothes. In medieval literature hawthorn was used regularly in medieval literature to allude to courtship, fertility and carnal love.

After the Inclosure Act in England, which saw common land being divided up into smaller private fields, hawthorn was used as a common hedging plant and also became associated with boundaries and protection. Planting hawthorn in your garden was said to keep witches away from your home, or at least severely diminish their power. Including hawthorn in hedging plants was also said to ward away fairies, and any cattle kept in the field would flourish. Similarly, May blossom placed on the cowshed door on May morning would ensure the milk supply for the coming year. In Cambridgeshire, hawthorn was also thought to bring luck to the harvest and a branch would be added to the last hayrick. The protective nature of hawthorn extended to the point where it was said that a sprig of it in a hat would protect the wearer from ligh...

This month we look into the history of alchemy and the worldview and aims of early alchemists.

Find out how metal gets married, why poisons are good and how humans reflect the entire universe.

Transcript:

‘From a man and a woman make a circle, then a square, then a triangle, finally a circle, and you will obtain the philosopher’s stone.’

Hello, welcome to the History and Folklore podcast, where we look at different folk beliefs through history and how these beliefs shape people’s perceptions of nature. In this episode we will be looking at alchemy, what alchemists were hoping to achieve, and what alchemical theories can tell us about how people perceived the natural world.

Alchemists are often depicted as eccentric men in dark rooms conducting strange experiments with toxic and expensive chemicals with the aim of living forever or of turning lead into gold. Their experiments are often seen as being haphazard, illogical and dangerous, a stereotype that goes back a long way as seen in a legend regarding Roger Bacon and Thomas Bungay, thirteenth century friars who apparently blew themselves up in an alchemy experiment. This story was later adapted to the stage in a comedy written by sixteenth century playwright Robert Greene. However, alchemy has a complex history and the observations and experiments of alchemists around the world have helped shape our understanding of chemistry, metallurgy and medicine.

It is believed that the origins of alchemy stretch back to ancient Egypt, with Plutarch describing alchemy as ‘the Egyptian art’. It has been argued that the ‘chem’ part of the word alchemy derives from the Egyptian word ‘km’, which meant the black land, a term used to differentiate between the black fertile soil of the Nile valley and the barren desert sand that surrounded it. Assuming this origin, the arabic word ‘al-kimiya’ was claimed by Egyptologist EA Wallis Budge to mean ‘the Egyptian science’, however this origin has been refuted by others who claim that there is no evidence of the word ‘kmt’ ever being used for anything resembling alchemy in Egypt, and it is therefore likely that this supposed translation is a case of folk etymology, where a well-known similar sounding words are erroneously linked.

Others point toward alchemy having a Greek origin, arguing that the ‘chem’ portion of alchemy originates from the Greek word ‘chemia’, which first appeared in the fourth century and was used to refer to the art of metalworking, particularly the creation of gold and silver from base metals.

It is clear that the influences of alchemy are varied, and draw from a mixture of technology, philosophy and science from areas and cultures as wide ranging as Iran, India, Egypt and Greece. Metal workers in Egypt were highly skilled and were known to be able to create alloys that mimicked the appearance of gold and silver. They also created a body of knowledge that grouped metals according to their external characteristics which was built on their experience of working with them.

As well as this, the city of Alexandria became an intellectual hub and, following the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 330BC, attracted scholars from across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, allowing different ideas to develop and merge. Two theories that developed during this period were particularly influential in the formation of later alchemical practice. The first was Aristotle’s theory on the composition of matter, which adopted an older idea that everything was made up of the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, and built on it by hypothesising that these elements could be changed by the application of heat, cold, wetness or dryness.

The second was a philosophy that originated in Persia and claimed that the human body was a smaller version, the microcosm, of the larger universe, the macrocosm. The microcosm-macrocosm theory claimed that the study of the universe would give direct insight into the workings of the human body, and vice versa. Therefore techniques that worked for the manipulation of metal could be applied in the same way, and to the same effect, on the human body. As the universe was a macrocosm of the body it followed that it must also be alive and in possession of a soul. This is interesting as, as we will see later, the process of transmutation of metal was often described and understood in human terms of birth, marriage and death.

Alexandria’s influence eventually waned with the disintegration of the Roman Empire. The destruction of many texts from this period mean that none of the original Egyptian writing regarding alchemy survives from this time.

However, at least some of the theories and practices developed by alchemists and philosophers during this period did survive and were translated into Arabic by scholars and alchemists such as Ali Ibn Sina, Jabir Ibn Hayyan and Abu Bakr Al-Razi, who built on ...

Maps from Medieval Europe are littered with strange lands, monsters and mythical races. On them you can find the Tower of Babel, the Minotaur's Labyrinth, unicorns and men with the heads of dogs. Find out what these maps can tell us about how medieval European's saw the world in the latest episode of the History and Folklore Podcast.

Sources: B.L Gordon, 'Sacred Directions, Orientations, and the Top of the Map' History of Religions Vol. 10, No. 3 (Feb., 1971), pp. 211-227

British Museum, 'Tablet' https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1882-0714-509

Chet Van Durez, 'Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps' (2014).

Edward Brooke-Hitching, 'The Phantom-Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps' (2016).

Gerhard Dorhn-van Rossum 'Al-Idrisi and His World Map (1154)' (2011) http://www.cliohworld.net/onlread/wg2/wg2.pdf#page=209

Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping, 'History of Mapping' https://www.icsm.gov.au/education/fundamentals-mapping/history-mapping

John Block-Friedman, 'The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought' (2000).

John Mandeville, 'The Complete Works of John Mandeville (Shrine of Knowledge, 2020)

'Mappa Mundi Hereford Cathedral.' https://www.themappamundi.co.uk/

Paul B. Sturtevant, 'A Wonder of the Multicultural Medieval World: The Tabula Rogeriana' (2017)

https://www.publicmedievalist.com/greatest-medieval-map/

Richard Barber, 'Bestiary MS Bodley 764' (1999).

Richard Jones, 'The Medieval Natural World' (2013).

Robert Bartlett, 'The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages' (2006).

Thomas Wright, 'Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian.' http://public-library.uk/ebooks/60/81.pdf

Transcript:

‘Whatever Part of the Earth that Men dwell, either above or beneath, it seemeth always to them, that they go more up-right than any other Folk. And right as it seemeth to us that they be under us, right so it seemeth to them that we be under them.’

Hello, welcome to the History and Folklore podcast, where we look at different folk beliefs through history and how these beliefs shape people’s perceptions of nature. Today we’re looking at historical maps and the strange creatures and the mythical races found within them. This is a huge subject, so I am only going to be able to really give an overview of the subject, but am happy to make more indepth episodes on any of the different topics if there is any interest.

I find this topic really fascinating as maps, despite what we like to tell ourselves, very rarely show the world how it actually is. Instead they are excellent sources to show us the preconceptions, assumptions and prejudices of the map maker and the society the map is made in.

It has also been claimed that maps can affect the perception of people who view the map. We like to tell ourselves that maps are entirely neutral records of landscapes and settlements but this is not entirely true. Even today there are issues with our world map that are believed to affect the way we see the world. The most well-known example is the Mercator Projection, invented in 1569 as a way of displaying a globe on a 2D surface. Because of the way the projection works, countries at the top are distorted to become larger, while those closer to the equator appear smaller. The creator of this method, Gerardus Mercator, also chose to orientate the map with North at the top, which is the way we still orientate maps today. It has been argued that, while this map is useful for navigation, the location and relatively large size of northern countries gives them a more prominent place in the mind of the viewer.

While there is still a lot of discussion as to whether this is actually true, it is clear that maps have traditionally been used as a means of communicating ideas and values to the viewer. The earliest maps that survive today depict very local places that highlight sites of interest. There were no real conventions in cartography yet and so the layout and orientation of these maps was pretty much all over the place.

While it seems normal and obvious to us, it is only really quite recently in human history ...

The first episode of History and Folklore Podcast looking at how Anglo-Saxons viewed elves and how to heal a disease caused by elf-shot.

Transcript:

For a sudden stitch:They were loud, yes loud when they rode over the land,

THey were fierce when they rode over the land. Shield yourself now, that you may escape this evil. Out, little spear, if herein you be.

Stood under linden, under a light shield,

Where the mighty women readied their power,

And sent their screaming spears.I will send another back to them,A flying dart against them in return.Out little spear, if herein it be. Six smiths sat, war spears they made.Out spear, not in spear!If herein be a bit of iron, hag’s work,

It shall melt.If you were in the skin shot, or were in the flesh shot, Or were in the blood shot, or were in bone shot, Or were in limb shot, may your life be never torn apart. If it was aesir shor, if it was elf shot,If it were hag’s shot, now I will help you.It fled there into the mountains. No rest it had.Whole be you know. Lord help you.Now take the knife and dip it into the liquid.

Hello, welcome to History and Folklore, where we look at different folk beliefs through history and how these beliefs have shaped people’s perceptions of nature through time. As this is the first episode I just want to introduce myself, my name’s Holly. I have a degree in history, focussing on social and religious aspects of Anglo-Saxon and early medieval England. I focussed on this subject as I was really interested in folk beliefs and stories and what these tell us about how people interacted with and understood the world around them. I also have a Master’s degree in Museum Studies and, for the past ten years have worked in history and museum education.

Today we’re looking at elves in Anglo-Saxon England, particularly looking at charms against elves that turn up in Anglo-Saxon medical texts. Before we go into too much detail, we need to look at what an elf was to the Anglo-Saxons. The modern idea of elves is usually similar to a Tolkein elf; human-like, graceful, immortal and magical creatures that live in their own society away in the wilds of nature, the forests or mountains. It is fairly well known that Tolkein borrowed a lot of his ideas from Anglo-Saxon and

Norse mythology, and so his version of elves are quite similar to how an Anglo-Saxon person may have thought about them.

They were generally seen as human-like creatures, who were usually invisible to humans, or at least hard to see, and they lived in their own communities separate from humans. They also seem very tied to nature, with various references to different types of elves including water, mountain, wood, down, sea and field elves. From this it can be assumed that elves were associated with wild places, separate from human civilisation. What I find particularly interesting then, is how Anglo-Saxons perceived elves and what this says about how they perceived the natural world around them. If you are walking through a forest that you believe is inhabited by invisible beings, how you feel about those beings will very much affect how you feel about the forest.

It is apparent from a lot of existing texts that elves were seen as unpredictable and generally hostile towards humans. In the epic tale of Beowulf elves are listed as being part of the group of monsters who sided with Cain after he murdered his own brother. As punishment for this, they were driven away from mankind, denied the promise of heaven and were probably quite bitter towards humans because of this. However there are hints that elves were not seen as entirely evil. For example, the Old English ‘aelf’ is often used as a prefix to old English names to represent beauty, light or wisdom. Names like Aelfred or Aelfwynn mean elf councilled and elf joy respectively, which shows a rather more positive perception of elves. Although on a side note, if you have read any of Terry Pratchett’s books, in Lords and Ladies he does point out that the fictional elves of the Discworld are glamorous because they project glamour, they are enchanting because they weave enchantment and they are terrific because they beget terror. Although those descriptions are seen as positive none of them are synonyms for nice, and it might be a good idea to keep this idea in mind.

One issue that we do have in learning about Ango-Saxon elves is the arrival of Christianity. Christian missionaries in England were not interested in completely destroying the beliefs and culture of the Anglo-Saxons, but wanted to take elements of the culture and give it a more ‘Christian’ slant. Churches, for example, would be built on holy sites as people were already accustomed to going there to worship. Festivals would be celebrated at the same time of year, and in the same way, but the meaning for the celebration would be shifted to focus on Christianity.

Karen Jolly, who h...