Folklore, pt. 1

I have a deep fascination with old legends and folklore, you know, the type of local stories many "ole timey" parents probably told their children at night, such as stories about the boogeyman or the Jersey devil. Most of them are very obviously made up, but its cool to think about the possibility of maybe some of them being... true!

This will be my first of hopefully many more posts retelling my favourite old legends from the past. This one is about the "Green Children of Woolpit".

So, scholarly accounts of this date back to Suffolk, England in the 12th century, during the reign of King Stephen. It concerns two children, a boy and a girl, who one day mysteriously appeared in the village of Woolpit, without any explanation. The childrens' hair and skin had a green tinge, and they spoke in an incomprehensible language never encountered before.

Apparently the boy soon died, but the girl lived on and eventually lost her green colour, and even learned to speak English.

The real kicker is what she told them about their origin.

She told them that they came from St. Martin's Land, an underground world where all the inhabitants were green. It gives me shivers just thinking about it.