Maidens, Monsters, and More: Mapping History and Culture through British Folklore of Water Beings

ABSTRACT

Popular anthologies of British folklore suggest regional diversity in magical water beings, for example, potentially benevolent fairy brides in Welsh tales as opposed to dangerous monsters throughout England. This article explores this apparent variation through mapping recorded tales of water beings across England, Wales, and Scotland. While positively portrayed beings occur mainly in the west of Britain, beings portrayed as hostile appear to be ubiquitous. Two approaches are taken to provide speculative explanations: first, a historical interpretation, considering medieval and postmedieval migration of motifs in light of Barry Cunliffe’s proposed historical Atlantic and North Sea cultural spheres; second, a psychogeographic approach, interpreting regional variations in folklore as expressions of differing practical and emotional interactions with the nonhuman environment in different social, geographical, and historical contexts. To illustrate that this affective relationship between story, landscape, and psychology is ongoing, differences are noted between present-day popular associations of water beings with Welsh and Scottish cultural identities.