The Fabled Coast: Legends & traditions from around the shores of Britain & Ireland

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Random House, 2012 M06 28 - 528 pages
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Pirates and smugglers, ghost ships and sea-serpents, fishermen’s prayers and sailors’ rituals – the coastline of the British Isles plays host to an astonishingly rich variety of local legends, customs, and superstitions.

In The Fabled Coast, renowned folklorists Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood gather together the most enthralling tales and traditions, tracing their origins and examining the facts behind the legends. Was there ever such a beast as the monstrous Kraken? Did a Welsh prince discover America, centuries before Columbus? What happened to the missing crew of the Mary Celeste? Along the way, they recount the stories that are an integral part of our coastal heritage, such as the tale of Drake’s Drum, said to be heard when England was in peril, and the mythical island of Hy Brazil, which for centuries appeared on sea charts and maps to the west of Ireland. The result is an endlessly fascinating, often surprising journey through our island history.

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The tradition continued well into the twentieth century. Commander W. Beckett,
writing of naval customs in the 1930s, records that 'Up to the present day we find
that coins are still put in a ship – often under the step of the mast when she is built
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Contents

About the Book
Channel Islands Cornwall Devon Dorset Gloucestershire Scilly
Hampshire Kent London Sussex Isle ofWight
Essex Norfolk Suffolk
NORTHEAST ENGLAND
NORTHWEST ENGLAND ISLE OF
WALES
SCOTTISH LOWLANDS
Highland Orkney Shetland Western Isles
CountiesAntrim Donegal Down Galway Louth Mayo Meath Sligo
Counties Clare Cork Dublin Kerry Waterford Wexford
Bibliography
References
Index
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Fabled Coast: Legends & Traditions from Around the Shores of Britain ...
Sophia Kingshill,Jennifer Westwood
No preview available - 2014

Common terms and phrases

ABERDEENSHIRE ancient animal appeared ARGYLL AND BUTE ashore became bell bird boat called captain Castle Channel Islands church coast COUNTY COUNTY CORK COUNTY GALWAY COUNTY KERRY creature crew dead death Devil drowned East Anglia Eire & Northern England & Channel fairies FARNE ISLANDS fish fishermen folklore fromthe Guernsey haunted head heard Highlands & Islands hOgain Irish John king known Kraken land later legend lived London magic man’s mermaid never night North NORTH YORKSHIRE North­East Northern Ireland ofthe sea once Orkney PEMBROKESHIRE reported rock sail sailors saint Scotland Scottish Highlands Scottish Lowlands seals sea­serpent seen seventeenth century Shetland ship ship’s shore smugglers sometimes Southern Eire South­West England stone storm story superstition tale tells tide told took tradition twentieth century vessel voyage Wales waves weather WEST SUSSEX WESTERN ISLES whale wind witch woman wreck

About the author (2012)

SOPHIA KINGSHILL is the author of a previous book with Jennifer Westwood, The Lore of Scotland, which was published by Random House in 2009. She also writes for the theatre, and her plays have been performed in Scotland, England, and Norway.

JENNIFER WESTWOOD was born in 1940 and studied English Language at Oxford, followed by Medieval Icelandic at Cambridge. A long-time member of the Folklore Society, she served as editor of FLS Books and also the journal Folklore. Her books include Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain (1985), Gothick Cornwall (1992), Lost Atlantis (1997), On Pilgrimage (2003), The Lore of the Land (2005, with Jacqueline Simpson), and The Lore of Scotland (2009, with Sophia Kingshill). When she died in 2008, she left a wealth of material for her most cherished project, a collection of British sea and coastal legend, which is embodied in this book.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Fabled Coast
TitleThe Fabled Coast: Legends & traditions from around the shores of Britain & Ireland
AuthorsSophia Kingshill, The Estate of Jennifer Westwood
Editionreprint
PublisherRandom House, 2012
ISBN1409038459, 9781409038450
Length528 pages
  
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