The Fabled Coast: Legends & traditions from around the shores of Britain & IrelandRandom House, 2012 M06 28 - 528 pages 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. |
From inside the book
... between sleep and waking. The shore is another liminal area, joining earth to water, known to unknown, and this is the setting for some of the most beautiful, terrible, and memorable tales of folklore. Secrets of the Introduction.
... known as Bottreaux or Bottreau Castle). There is no consensus as to whether the bellless church referred to was the medieval church of St James at Boscastle, demolished in the nineteenth century, or St Symphorian's at Forrabury, now the ...
... known species, the Giant Pacific Octopus, usually attains an arm span of around fourteen foot, although there are reports of specimens with a span ofthirty foot. Tales of truly titanic creatures may relate not to the octopus but to ...
... known in her old age as Granny Grylls. In her youth she had often walked to the beach and back carrying a baby that was never heard to cry. One day a customs officer said to her, 'Well, Mrs Grylls, that baby ofyours is very quiet ...
... known as Peter's fish, or in France le poisson de St Pierre, from a tale that the two black blotches on its sides are the marks of St Peter's fingers, left when he took money from its mouth (Matthew 17:27). Folk explanations of marks on ...
Contents
SOUTHEAST ENGLAND | |
EAST ANGLIA | |
NORTHEAST ENGLAND | |
Cheshire Cumbria Lancashire Isle of Man Merseyside | |
WALES | |
SCOTTISH LOWLANDS | |
Highland Orkney Shetland Western Isles | |
NORTHERN EIRE NORTHERN IRELAND | |
Counties Clare Cork Dublin Kerry Waterford Wexford | |
Bibliography | |
References | |
Index | |