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
... storm; countless wives and children have watched in the morning for a sail that never came. Trying to secondguess fate, fisherfolk were alert to a variety of omens, making their forecasts from clouds, seabirds, fish, and sounds heard at ...
... storm, while the Revenge herself now sank, as if disdaining to survive her commander. The English held that this was the work of God, the Spanish that it was infernal, and 'so soon as they had thrown the dead body of the ViceAdmiral Sir ...
... storms (making a profit for sorcerers called tempestarii, who raised the gales and then sold the ruined crops to the skysailors). A more specific account by the medieval historian Gervase of Tilbury relates how some people leaving a ...
... the pilot, 'we should thank God at sea as well as on land.' At this the captain grew still more angry, swore and blasphemed, and with an oath exclaimed, 'Not so, thank yourself and a fair wind.' A storm at once arose. The ship was driven ...
... storm at once arose. The ship was driven on to the rocks and sank, and all on board except the devout pilot were drowned. As the vessel foundered, the bells were heard tolling, and they still ring out before a gale, 'but woe to the ...
Contents
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 | |