Luck and Intelligence

Luck and Intelligence argue which is the better. Intelligence: "I can make a man famous." Luck: "I can make a lowly man rich." Luck enters a poor man. King knocks on door, asks for water, man being unintelligent gives him water, tells him rudely to be on his way. King asks what he does, says farmer,...

The Magic Garden of the Poor

The Magic Garden of the Poor is a favorite story of mine and the youth at the Juvenile Detention Center. It is in Margaret Read McDonald's book of Earth Care: World Folktales to Talk About and is from Kazakhstan. Here's the gist of the tale: The story starts with 2 friends, one a farmer and the...

Burscough Priory

Robert Fitz-Henry, Lord of Lathom (Born 1135) founded the Augustinian Burscough Priory around 1190. It was dissolved during the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII circa 1536 and today very little remains of the building. It is mentioned in ‘A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume...

Bowscale Tarn

Bowscale Tarn is 56 feet deep and during the Victorian era was popular with tourists. According to folklore two immortal fish live in this corrie tarn and depending upon which version of the story you read, they may, or may not have the ability to talk. William Wordsworth mentions these fish in...

Bomere Pool

English folktale from the UK British folktale story The privately owned Bomere Pool was created through glacial action and is an example of a kettle hole mere. However, there is a story that would have you believe it was created another way. Edwin Sidney Hartland gives the following account of...

Biddenden Maids

Every Easter Monday the village of Biddenden, not far from Staplehurst in Kent, is the scene of old custom, called the Biddenden Maids' Charity. Tea, cheese and bread are given to local widows and pensioners at the Old Workhouse, while the celebrated Biddenden Cakes, baked from flour and water, are...

Betty Chidley The Witch

Folktale from the UK Below is the story of Betty Chidley, originally published in Miss C. S. Burne’s ‘Shropshire Folk-Lore’ and then again in ‘English Fairy and Other Folk Tales’ by Edwin Sidney Hartland [1890]. A FAMILY of the name of Ambler occupied a farm at Wilderley, near Pulverbatch, and...

Bearnshaw Tower and Lady Sybil

The 17th century Bearnshaw Tower (or Bernshaw Tower) is said to have collapsed in the 1860's when its foundations were dug away by people hunting for hidden treasure. This pele tower though is best known for its association with a witch, Lady Sybil, who's story below appeared in 'Lancashire Legends'...