The Missing Fairies of Norfolk Part Four
The Puritans of East Anglia wanted to make sure they’d finished the job ‘good and proper’
Where have the Fairies of Norfolk gone? Please excuse my repetition but in this instance I feel a quote from a previous article is necessary:
“Let me begin by saying I do not believe that the fairies of Norfolk are lost but that the general folk memory of Norfolk fairy-lore has gone astray. As mentioned in the introduction, here in Norfolk we do have some strong folk traditions, Black Shuck in particular is a subject that many a Norfolk resident could expound upon roundly if questioned. So it is not folk-lore in general that is missing, just our fae-lore.”
Since writing this hypothesis I have researched and written two further articles using what evidence I could find of Norfolk fairies. It is scant, but it is there underneath the surface. However, I think that much that was once known is now lost (or waiting to be rediscovered). For instance, I happened upon a reference to what I believe may pertain to a fairy occurrence in an issue of the ‘Norwich Gazette’ from 1709:
“A very strange Noise has been heard near Holt in the Night for a Month together which People of the Town say is made by Wind-Whelps…they certainly mean Water-whelps, a curious sort of Creature bespangl’d with as many Eyes as Argus.”
However, upon further research, I cannot find ANY information about Wind-Whelps or Water-Whelps. I fear the truth may be lost to the ages, but if anyone knows anything about them please do let me know in the comments.
So, what happened to the Norfolk knowledge of the Fae?
At first my pondering led me to wonder if the Industrial Revolution and the great exodus of country folk to the cities caused the tales of fairy folk to dwindle in Norfolk. Further digging however revealed that widespread belief and folktales of the hidden people were in decline at least 200-300 years before steam locomotion. I believe we can, partly, lay the blame at the door of the Puritans!
Whether due to the geographical location of East Anglia and it’s perfect position for lucrative trade of goods and ideas with our neighbours in Holland to the East or as one author1 put it ‘the unromantic scenery of the Eastern Counties’ Puritanism really took off in Norfolk (lucky us):
“East Anglia and the South East were particularly prone to puritanical beliefs. Literate middle classes and gentry were often the first society to commit to the Protestant causes and with large cities like Norwich, they were in abundance…Bishop Edmund Freke, who took up the diocese of Norwich in 1575, lead a campaign to enforce state-sanctioned proceedings among the puritanical clergy of the diocese…Freke ultimately failed to quell puritanical clergymen or preachers despite his best efforts to suspend those deemed improper, and Puritanism continued to be a dominant force in Norfolk’s religious culture.” (From norfolkrecordofficeblog.org)
And as illustrated in the above quote this was not actually what the powers that be desired. Puritanism was considered too extreme, it strayed too far from the prescribed beliefs of the Church of England governed by the crown. Puritanism was looked upon with a disdain similar to that reserved for Catholicism; which was banned in England during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1581 after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and the subsequent turbulent years of back and forth thanks to Queen Mary.
Bishop Richard Corbett (1582-1635) who held the episcopacy of Bishop of Norwich from 1632-1635 was author of the wonderful and oft’ quoted poem ‘The Fairies Farewell’ which illustrates beautifully the very subject of this essay. I have quoted it in part below:
The Fairies Farewell
Farewell, rewards and fairies,
Good housewives now may say,
For now foul sluts in dairies
Do fare as well as they.
And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixpence in her shoe?
Lament, lament, old Abbeys,
The Fairies’ lost command!
They did but change Priests’ babies,
But some have chang’d your land.
And all your children sprung from thence,
Are now grown Puritans,
Who live as Changelings ever since
For love of your demains.
…
Witness those rings and roundelays
Of theirs, which yet remain,
Were footed in Queen Mary’s days
On many grassy plain;
But since of late, Elizabeth,
And later, James came in,
They never danced on any heath
As when the time hath been.
By which we note the Fairies
Were of the old Profession.
Their songs were ‘Ave Mary’s’,
Their dances were Procession.
But now, alas, they all are dead;
Or gone beyond the seas;
Or farther for Religion fled;
Or else they take their ease.
Within four verses of this nine verse poem, or rather song as it was originally sung to a tune of a funeral lament, there is much to unpick:
“Lament, lament old Abbeys, The Fairies’ lost command!”
A reference, perhaps, to the purported lax ways of the monks and friars used as scapegoats by Henry VIII as a justifiable reason to rid the country of institutions that had lasted a millennia. A little known fairy called an ‘Abbey Lubber’ springs to mind, referenced in Katherine Brigg’s ‘Encyclopaedia of Fairies’ “who were detailed to tempt the monks to drunkenness, gluttony and lasciviousness.”
“They did but change Priests’ babies”
Of course, the priests referred to here were supposed to be celibate but this was seen as a suggestion more than a rule by some (see above re: lasciviousness). Were the Priests babies exchanged for Changelings to pay a tithe to the devil? - As suggested by Briggs in her encyclopaedia entry for Changelings.
“But some have chang’d your land”
Six short words that say so much. So much in fact that I intend for it to be the subject of my next article. In short - land was stolen, access was restricted…a lot.
“And all your children stol’n from thence,
are now grown Puritans”
Lack of access to hereditary lands leading to a change of beliefs that veers on the extreme? I’m sure I’ve heard that story somewhere before…
“By which we note the Fairies
Were of the old Profession.
Their songs were ‘Ave Mary’s,
Their dances were Procession.
But now, alas, they all are dead;
Or gone beyond the seas;
Or farther for Religion fled;
Or else they take their ease.”
Along with the Pope and the Catholic Church of pre-dissolution England went the beliefs, traditions and knowledge that had been scooped up and incorporated through a process of religious syncretism from those peoples of this land that were here when the Romans and the Christian’s came. The Puritans of East Anglia wanted to make sure they’d finished the job ‘good and proper’. Mayhap some of those fairies native to the East of England fled to the West, over the sea to the resplendent green stronghold of the fairy faith, Ireland?
There is plenty more to be examined on the the whereabouts of Norfolk’s fairies and fae-lore. In my next instalment I shall examine the woeful subject of land enclosure and the under investigated round barrows of the county. So, I will end part four here with another quote from the wonderful Katherine Brigg’s Fairy Encyclopaedia:
“Departure of the fairies. From the time of Chaucer onwards, the fairies have said to have departed or to be in decline, but they still linger…Aubrey has a story of a fairy driven away when bells were hung in Inkberrow Church. He was heard lamenting:
‘Neither sleep, neither lie,
Inkberrow’s ting-tang hangs so high.’”
Those bloody ting-tangs.
L.F. Newman in ‘Some Notes of the Folklore of Cambridgeshire and the Eastern Counties Magazine (1945)
I think timings everything and I found your essay about the time I started writing my essay about The Scarlet Letter. There are so many references of the Puritan town calling out untamed children as fairies or elf children. I read your essay and instantly made a connection and it really helped me tie everything together. Gave you a shout out here too, would love your thoughts: https://open.substack.com/pub/chaosandpoetry/p/puritans-fairies-and-witch-trials?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=9e6ci
This is interesting. ‘Whelp’ is an archaic term for puppy or dog and also a young otter, plus ‘water-dogs’ suggests otters to me. And otters whistle, which would explain the sound. Not sure about the bespangled eyes though!