The Mysterious Ash Tree - Beware or Befriend?

​In my front garden stands a typically fast-growing Ash tree, one whose roots are perilously close to destroying the garage.

Which got me thinking about the Ash tree in folklore and in the paranormal world; my cultural touchstone being M.R. James’ disturbing tale The Ash Tree (1904); links to two BBC2 versions are linked below.

The Ash (or Fraxinus) is generally regarded as a positive member of a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, or Oleaceae. Indeed, in Norse mythology, the World Tree Yggdrasil is held to be a sacred Ash tree and was regarded across Northern Europe as a symbol of cosmic connection, healing, and strength.

The Old Ash Tree

​Symon Parsley / Old Ash Tree

In popular culture, the World Tree recently featured in season 2 of Marvel’s LOKI (2023).

For the Vikings, the first man, Askr, was formed from an Ash, whilst the first woman Embla was made from an elm. In the Norse poem Hávamál, Odin described hanging himself from a "wind-swept (Ash) tree" for nine nights, wounded by a spear, in a self-sacrifice to himself to gain wisdom and learn the secrets of the runes.

​In Celtic and British folklore, the Ash is one of the three sacred trees, along with Oak and Thorn; a healing tree, particularly used in rituals to cure poorly children.

For the ancient Greeks, the Meliae were nymphs associated with the Ash tree, born from the blood of Uranus falling onto Gaia.

​The Askafroa (wife of the Ash tree), or in Danish ‘Askefrue’ is the guardian of the Ash tree, a malicious creature. To appease her, it was necessary to make a sacrifice every Ash Wednesday by pouring water on her roots and declaring: "I am offering to you so that you do us no harm".

​Ash Wednesday, while nowadays of course, a Christian observance marking the start of Lent, has roots in pagan customs of purification, mourning, and the return of spring, including using ash for protection, fertility, and renewal. Ashes were used to mark the forehead for Odin’s protection often done on "Odin's Day" (Wednesday). In Celtic tradition, ashes were used to bless livestock and ensure fertility during the transition from winter to spring, frequently associated with Imbolc celebrations.

There are fictional takes on less than benevolent Ash trees, including in the 1990 3-part BBC television adaptation of Kingsley Amis’s novel, The Green Man (1969), where it puts in a truly terrifying appearance at the beginning of the first episode:

​Note: Green Man sculptures are often created from fallen Ash trees.

The Green Man in Lesnes Abbey Woods, London Borough of Bexley.

​Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The UK - in ‘real’ life?

1869’s Haunted Ash of Lampits (Scotland), part of The Ghosts of Carnwath series of supernatural reportage

An account in Scotland’s Hamilton Advertiser of 28th August 1869 detailed a melancholy apparition and haunted Ash tree near Lampits Farm, to the east of Carstairs Junction in South Lanarkshire:

“There long stood a solitary, melancholy-looking ash tree in a field on the Lampits Farm, in the vicinity of Cockysyetts, which was cut down to make way for the Queen’s branch of the Caledonian Railway, and which was still more melancholy, in my imagination, from its dismal associations; for here, on one of the branches of this dowie-looking tree, a poor heart-broken girl of Cockysyetts closed her earthly sorrows and her earthly pilgrimage. No mavis or blackbird was ever seen to nestle in it scanty foliage, no merry note of music was ever heard from its dull half-blasted branches; the raven might croak and the pyot chatter there by day, and the owl scream by night, but no other merriment, dear tree, was thine. Ghosts love the darkness and the shade, and the ghost of poor Jessie was often seen gliding at midnight among the shadows of the fearsome neuk.”

Today, few trees grow on the flat windswept carseland around Lampits. There remains, however, a solitary ancient ash tree that commands a view across the flat fields towards the Caledonian Railway. Many of its upper branches have been lost to past storms, and disease ravages others, however new growth continues to sprout from a gnarled and weathered old trunk.

With scanty foliage and half-blasted branches it has an uncanny resemblance to the melancholy old ash tree described in the newspaper article over 150 years ago. Ash trees can live for up to three hundred years, therefore it’s possible that the surviving tree could have witnessed Jessie’s melancholy end, early in the 19th century. It might even have sprung from a seed of the haunted ash.

The Hardy Tree (St Pancras Old Church, London)

​David Edgar, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Hardy tree was an Ash tree located in the very ancient, possibly Roman St Pancras Old Church's churchyard in London. Notable for the stacked gravestones embedded at its base in around 1860, when graves were moved by writer-then-architect Thomas Hardy to make way for the Midland Railway to run through the churchyard.

In 2014, the tree was infected with fungus, and with storms further weakening it, the tree fell in December 2022.

The Hell Tree

From: The Mysterious Hardy Tree | Graves that Circle a Tree….(2021)

It’s thought that during his time here, Hardy actually uncovered the body of a two-headed man during the excavations. Thomas never documented anything regarding and this and more recent photographs of the tree has encouraged speculation if he ever had anything to do creating the design at all. He did write a poem named Levell’d Churchyard. Thomas’s poem suggests that he didn’t have fond memories of the work he did here but its hardly surprising given the job he was expected to do.

In letters that were written by the St Pancras Old Church vicar John Tweed in 1859 to his wife Charlotte, he appeared to have witnessed a supernatural manifestation. The vicar detailed how his churchyard was home to a mass gathering of apparitions and how tombstones seem to appear at the Ash tree and that he had even seen them moving towards this tree by a unseen force.

In December 1859 he wrote to Charlotte: ”More missing headstones. Increasingly certain of connection with my guests. Today I traced strange lines of disturbed earth across the graveyard. Each lead to the Ash Tree. Are they being dragged there? And then where? The ash tree itself is looking increasingly unhealthy, possibly diseased. I don’t like to get too close to it.”

And then: “If I hadn’t seen such as I have seen these past months I may not have trusted my eyes, but trust them I must. I shall record it in as plain a manner as I know how: By the light of the moon last night I saw a gravestone, moving with some speed, and quite of its own accord, across the graveyard. It hurtled towards the ash tree, at the base of which it disappeared, as if plunging in to the very bowels of the tree.” Finally: “Good God. Hundreds of them, of all shapes, just pouring into the tree.” He later refers to the tree being a gateway and it’s believed by some that he felt it could have possibly been a hell gate.

​“Dearest Charlotte, I do so love hearing your news from the vale, it pains me to have to recount the horrors of my life here… At night I am plagued by nightmares so vivid and dreadful that I am afraid to sleep at all. I have been nailed to the cursed iron frontage of a flame-licked and hell-bound locomotive. I have walked through the dark miasma and fetid slime of a London choked by death. I have seen the flagstones of the church floor thrust violently upwards by a sudden eruption of uncertain origin. And these are only the visions I have the constitution to retell… I begin to suspect that it is not just the lost ones that are being dragged down to that place. For how to account for the sheer number I watch descend every night? Where will it end? Must every dead soul in the parish, every dead soul in London be reclaimed for damnation?! No Charlotte, I shall not see it happen.”

​Allegedly John Tweed closed the hell gate in 1860 by burying a Bible under the tree, and scans of the Ash tree show a large book buried within the roots… but nobody has ever been allowed to dig the area. No reports were made from Tweed after 1860, when he lost the ability to record his findings; his writing hand apparently useless.

​And...this from Exit Strategy for the Restless Dead: The Hell Tree of St Pancras (2017)

He wrote to Charlotte: “Every thief, vagabond and ne’er-do-well in London seems to have wound up buried at St P. Which would be all well and good, except that the digging up of late seems to have unearthed more than just bones. Judging by the number of lost souls drifting about the place in one spirit form or another, I would offer that many of my guests are far from welcome in Heaven. I can only assume that having been buried in consecrated ground further precludes them from the other place, which leaves them, it is my horror to say, stuck in the churchyard with me”.

Tweed was not entirely without sympathy for his ghostly companions, going on to tell his wife that they were: “Sad seeming things. I feel quite sorry for them. I don’t suppose I should mind at all if only they kept their mournful meanderings to the night-time hours. Last Sunday I was midway through service when a wraith came down the aisle – an infernal thing, it stalked among the shadows between the shafts of morning light, wailing and moaning like a baleful cat. There were already murmurings amongst the parishioners about the foul stench from the digging up. Dearest Charlotte, I am not sure how much longer I can pacify them.”

The Beatles at Old St Pancras (1968)

Although St Pancras Old Church is in central London, minutes away from the great Victorian Gothic pile of a station, the area can be quite a haunting, lonely place, perched on a hill overlooking the railway junctions of St Pancras and King’s Cross. I remember visiting in the snows and blizzards of Winter 2015, when the church grounds felt like something from one of Grimm’s tales.

The Lively Arts: Thomas Hardy - A Haunted Man (1978)

The Ash Tree - Vampire/Zombie Killer

​In folklore, an ash stake is traditionally used to kill vampires, especially in Slavic, Russian, and Baltic traditions. Ash wood represents protective, "life" energy in Norse mythology, where it can help destroy the Draugr (Undead), or at least weaken their supernatural powers. The Viking version of vampires/zombies are described as bloated “death-blue/black” revenants who ferociously protect their treasure, with the ability to grow to giant sizes and shapeshift.

Note: other words for the Undead or Vampires in Norse legend include:

Aptrgangr (Again-walker): One who walks again.

Haugbúi (Barrow-dweller): One that dwells within its burial mound (howe).

Gjenganger: A ghost or revenant.

​In Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), Abraham Van Helsing utilizes wooden stakes associated with specific woods like ash or white oak to impale vampires by piercing their Undead hearts.

Three BBC adaptations of The Ash Tree by M.R James

The Ash-Tree (1986)

And a later telling from 2000; my idea but ripped off by a then senior BBC colleague:

​A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ash Tree (1975) - The big reveal...

​Ash Wednesday (1973) full movie

LINKS

​The Haunted Ash of Lampits: https://clydesdalesheritage.org.uk/article/the-haunted-ash-of-lampits/

​Askafroa: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/history/myth/askafroa

​Ash Wednesday and its pagan origins: https://susannesanlier.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/ash-wednesday-and-its-pagan-origins/

​What is Imbolc? The Celtic fire festival that welcomes spring—in February: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/imbolc-celtic-celebration-brigid

​Draugr, Haugbui And Aptrgangr – The Undead of Norse Myths: https://vikingr.org/other-beings/undead-viking-age?srsltid=AfmBOooD9FPhdZ_fGZNJpou74mRFiwpS_qX8UmyR39HCDmJHrj0w4hDj

​Thomas Hardy: Gravestone-encircled tree falls in Camden: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64110086

​The Mysterious Hardy Tree | Graves that Circle a Tree….:https://paranormalhauntings.blog/2021/12/26/the-mysterious-hardy-tree-graves-that-circle-a-tree/

​Exit strategy for a restless dead: The Hell Tree of St Pancras: https://portalsoflondon.com/2017/01/20/the-hell-tree-of-st-pancras/

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Midsummer Oak Tree Tales, Traditions & Dancing Skeletons

​​The oak is the national tree of England; symbolising Strength, Longevity, Wisdom, Spirituality, Nobility and Trustworthiness. Virtues sadly currently lacking in ALL England and the UK’s leadership cliques, regardless of party affiliation.

​For the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutons, the mighty oak ranked first amongst venerated trees and was associated with many of the supreme gods (or high ranking deities) in each Pantheon. Oak trees are more susceptible to lightning strikes than other trees, a perceived link with the Sky Gods. This is actually due to their tree’s natural high water content and their stature; all quite logical, really.

​England’s oldest oak is considered by many to be King Offa's Oak in Windsor Great Park (Berkshire), estimated to be between 1,300 and 1,500 years old. The Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire is the UK's widest oak with a 13-metre girth, it is estimated to be over 1,000 years old. Its immense hollow trunk was once used as a dining room, seating 12 people “with ease”.

​An ancient 450 yera-old oak looms over my back garden; sometimes a forbidding presence it also reminds one of the continuity of life in the English Shires. It’s the home to a colony of rather cheeky squirrels, who now gather each morning for the daily handout of nuts (twenty of the critters at the last count). On June 11th, 2026, a huge part of the oak suddenly collapsed in my garden almost breaking through my drawing room windows, necessitating the urgent attendance of tree surgeons. ‘Sudden Branch Drop Syndrome’, apparently.

This occurred AFTER I had filed my Oak Tree investigation. Eerily reminiscent of the ‘evil tree’ scene in the 1982 horror movie, Poltergeist.

My garden. (Author’s image)

Poltergeist Evil Tree scene

Sherwood Forest’s Major Oak in Nottinghamshire is between 800 to 1,000 years old and linked of course to the legends of Robin Hood. It is the largest by mass, weighing around 23 tonnes. The Marton Oak in Cheshire is approximately 1,200 years old, famed for its 14-metre girth:

The Marton Oak

​Hypercolius, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The oak has royal connections in England, probably with the last monarch to display much in the way of personality, intelligence and political acumen - Charles II. The Royal Oak was the tree in which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape Cromwell’s Roundheads after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

​The tree standing on the site today is believed to be a two or three hundred year-old descendant of the original and is thus known as 'Son of Royal Oak'. The original tree was destroyed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by tourists who cut off branches and chunks of bark as souvenirs.

​Restoration Day, more commonly known as Oak Apple Day or Royal Oak Day, was an English, Welsh and Irish public holiday, observed annually on May 29th, to commemorate the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in May 1660. The public holiday was officially abolished under the Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859, but in some parts of England the day is still celebrated with gusto.

Celebrations to mark the event included the wearing of oak apples or sprigs of oak leaves. Those who failed to wear a sprig of oak were pelted with bird's eggs or beaten harshly with stinging nettles. In Sussex, those not wearing oak were liable to be pinched on the backside, giving rise to the unofficial name of "Pinch-bum Day"; similarly it was known as "Bumping Day" in Essex.

​Events still take place at Aston-on-Clun in Shropshire, Great Wishford in Wiltshire, Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire, Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire and Membury in Devon. At All Saints' Church, Northampton, a statue of Charles II is garlanded with oak leaves at noon every Oak Apple Day, followed by a celebration of the Holy Communion according to the Book of Common Prayer. Oak Apple Day is also celebrated in the Cornish village of St Neot, with a vicar led procession through the village. In 2021, Oak Apple Day was celebrated at Eton Wick within sight of Windsor Castle, one of Charles II’s many homes.

Our old friend The Green Man is always depicted wreathed in oak leaves; here he is in his most savage aspect, as shown at the beginning of BBC1’s adaptation the Kingsley Amis’ classic chiller The Green Man (1990):

Generally, the oak is regarded as a benevolent plant but, as always, there are exceptions to every rule...

​The Midsummer Tree, Sussex

​The Midsummer Tree, by the Grove Lodge roundabout in Broadwater: legend says that every year on Midsummer’s Eve, June 23rd, skeletons would rise from the roots of the tree and dance underneath it.

A plaque states: "This tree, believed to be over 300 years old, was once celebrated in local folklore. Every year, at Midnight on Midsummer's Eve, it was believed that skeletons would rise up from its roots and dance to the rattling of their own bones until daybreak."

​In 2006, local paper The Argus reported that the tree was under threat from the Highways Agency as it was suffering from brown cubical rot. Following a campaign by neighbours and folklorists, the tree was saved by conservationist Chris Hare, who proclaimed, “This tree is a vital part of Worthing's heritage. The origin of the Midsummer Tree is to be found in England's pagan past, when Midsummer, rather than Halloween, was viewed as the most auspicious time to commune with the spirit world."

​The tale of the dancing skeletons was first recorded by Sussex folklorist Charlotte Latham in 1868, writing, “There stood, and still may stand, upon the downs, close to Broadwater, an old oak-tree, that I used, in days gone by, to gaze at with an uncomfortable and suspicious look from having heard that always on Midsummer Eve, just at midnight, a number of skeletons started up from its roots, and, joining hands, danced round it till cock-crow, and then as suddenly sank down again. “My informant knew several persons who had actually seen this dance of death, but one young man in particular was named to me who, having been detained at Finden by business till very late, and forgetting that it was Midsummer Eve, had been frightened (no difficult matter we may suspect) out of his very senses by seeing the dead men capering to the rattling of their own bones.”

​According to Chris Hare, there has been a gathering of would-be believers at the tree every midnight on June 23rd in recent years...

The Chained Oak, Staffordshire

The Chained Oak, near the village of Alton, Staffordshire

​Gary Rogers / Chained Oak

On an autumn night in 1821, the wealthy Earl of Shrewsbury was travelling through the village of Alton on his way home to the family estate of Alton Towers. Without any warning, an old woman (or man, according to alternative versions) popped up in front of his coach, startling his horses. The coach stopped to find why she was there, and the crone pleaded for the charity of a coin. The Earl cruelly dismissed her, so she placed a curse on him, croaking, "For every branch on the Old Oak Tree here that falls... a member of the Earl’s family will die.”

The Earl wasted little time with the wittering of the wretched old woman, dismissing any talk of a curse and headed back to Alton Towers. But that very evening, whilst the Earl snored in his grand bed, a terrible storm raged, tearing a single branch from the oak tree. That same night, a member of the Earl’s family mysteriously passed away. When the Earl awoke and learned the news, he was convinced of the hag’s curse, and thereby the power of the oak. The flustered Earl immediately ordered every branch of the oak tree be bound up in chains to prevent it from falling, and to this day, the old oak remains bound by chains.

A large branch fell from the old oak in 2007, but the Earl’s descendants confirmed that no-one had perished. Sadly, some of the oak has disintegrated, in part due to the action of chains; one had rusted so much as to cause the collapse of a large part of the tree. However, most of the tree still stands.

​The 16th Earl, John Talbot, appeared to have learned Scrooge-lesson of his predecessor and was widely known for his philanthropy and support of local schools and churches; earning him the nickname ‘Good Earl John’.

​In modern Alton life, the story of the chained oak lives on in Alton Towers theme park, where the story has been re-written and dramatised for the ride ‘Hex – The Legend of the Towers’, a walkthrough dark ride based around the chained oak legend.

​In 2014, an independent horror film based on the legend was released.

​Old Knobbley, East Anglia

A notable old Oak tree has stood in Mistley, Essex for 800 years, taking anchor around the time Bad King John signed the Charter of the Forest. Named Old Knobbley, due to its lumpy appearance, the trunk is 9.5 metres wide (more than twice its height), topped by gaunt branches.

Infamous 17th-century Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins lived in nearby Manningtree, making his name torturing those accused of witchcraft to extort false confessions, killing hundreds. Village folklore says some of the accused successfully sought shelter in the hollows and branches of Old Knobbley.

This is of course unlikely, but chimes with the folklore image of trees as protectors; comforting to think of Old Knobbley doing his bit to offer sanctuary to those in extreme peril.

One does wonder why Hopkins, with his propensity for arson, didn’t just set light to the tree and settle down comfortably to watch the fun.

​According to local legend, Hopkins' ghost is said to haunt Mistley Pond.

​Hywel Sele was a cousin of Owain Glyndŵr, self-proclaimed Prince of Wales, but was also friend of Henry IV of England and opposed Glyndŵr’s rebellion (1400-1415). After Sele was captured by Glyndŵr he accepted a gracious invitation to hunt with the ‘Prince’ on the Nannau Estate, but, after failing to kill the rebel leader Sele was slain and sealed up within the hollow of a gnarled oak tree. The oak naturally enough, was soon haunted by his shade, becoming known as Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils"), Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost") or simply the Nannau Oak.

APPENDIX - WALES: Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils")/Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost")

In 1778 one Thomas Pennant inspected the oak and noted that it was 27 feet 6 inches (8.38 m) in girth but that it was in an advanced state of decay, resembling the shape of a gothic arch. The oak collapsed on July 13th 1813; it was said Sele’s corpse fell from within it and was supposedly buried in the ruins of Cymer Abbey.

​And finally, The Oaks of Avalon

​The Oaks of Avalon iare a pair of ancient 2,000 year-old oak trees in Glastonbury (Somerset), named after the ancient apocalyptic figures Gog and Magog. Believed to have been originally part of a ceremonial druidic avenue at the entrance to Glastonbury Tor/Avalon, most of which was cut down in 1906 to make way for a farm. Christian belief has Joseph of Arimathea following the row of trees towards the tor upon his arrival in Albion.

​In April 2017, though already lifeless, Gog was badly damaged by an accidental fire believed to be from an incense burning candle, but was extinguished by the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.

LINKS:

​Meetings with Remarkable Trees - The Bowthorpe Oak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSoa2N3UDD4

The Folklore of the Oak Tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rCJjJCd3ug

​'Do not sit under trees', council warns park-goers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgdly19j6yo

The English Oak: https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-English-Oak/

​Walks in Somerset: In Search of the Oaks of Avalon, Glastonbury: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNgi2dzKmxc

​The Mighty Oak: https://walkingthewolds.co.uk/f/the-mighty-oak

​Trees: myths and folklore: https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/school-gardening/resources/curriculum-linked/trees-myths-and-folklore

​Sussex folklore explored: Worthing tree where skeletons are said to dance on Midsummer's Eve: https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/sussex-folklore-explored-worthing-tree-where-skeletons-are-said-to-dance-on-midsummers-eve-4464732

300-year-old 'haunted' Sussex tree where skeletons 'dance' once a year: https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24619238.worthing-story-midsummer-skeleton-tree/

​Midsummer Tree Worthing, West Sussex: https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/tree/?treeId=55875#/

​The Legend of Old Knobbley, East Anglia's Spookiest Tree: https://www.thorogood.co.uk/the-legend-of-old-knobbley-east-anglias-spookiest-tree/

​The Legend of the Chained Oak: https://burialsandbeyond.com/2023/12/18/the-legend-of-the-chained-oak/

​Old Knobbley Oak Tree: https://oldknobbley.com/

​Country diary: Old Knobbley – a tree of twisted branches and even twistier myths: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/10/country-diary-old-knobbley-a-tree-of-twisted-branches-and-even-twistier-myths

​Sleepy Hollow - The (Oak) Tree of the Dead (1999): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72_-phtcbEw

​Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl, Nannau Park: https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1149879

​Hywel Sele and the Demon Oak: https://geoffbrookes.co.uk/hywel-sele-and-the-demon-oak/

​Broadwater Midsummer Oak Tree, Worthing, West Sussex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6UCIXwPKzg

​Ancient Glastonbury oak tree known as Gog damaged in fire: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/27/ancient-glastonbury-oak-tree-known-as-gog-damaged-in-fire

​People are crying as they visit 2,000-year-old tree Gog that went up in flames near Glastonbury: https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/distressed-visitors-survey-damage-2000-38464

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Was the True Inspiration for Tolkien’s Evil Saruman ‘Bad Lord Soulis’?

Saruman

​Was Tolkien’s Istari Maiar wizard Saruman the real-life Lord William de Soulis/Soules aka ‘Terrible William’ or ‘Bad Lord Soulis’? ‘Real-life’ might be stretching it a tad, as Borders Scots legends have heavily fictionalized Soulis’ life to the point where it bears little resemblance to the known and half-known facts, such as they are.

Hermitage Castle

​Hermitage Castle, Liddesdale by Iain Lees, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Eulogiser of all things Scotch, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) says this of Lord Soules: “He is represented as a cruel tyrant and sorcerer; constantly employed in oppressing his vassals, harassing his neighbours, and fortifying his castle of Hermitage against the king of Scotland; for which purpose he employed all means, human and infernal: invoking the fiends, by his incantations, and forcing his vassals to drag materials, like beasts of burden. Tradition proceeds to relate, that the Scottish king, irritated by reiterated complaints, peevishly exclaimed to the petitioners, “Boil him, if you please, but let me hear no more of him.”

“Satisfied with this answer, they proceeded with the utmost haste to execute the commission; which they accomplished, by boiling him alive on the Nine-stane Rig, in a cauldron, said to have been long preserved at Skelf-hill, a hamlet betwixt Hawick and the Hermitage. Messengers, it is said, were immediately dispatched by the king, to prevent the effects of such a hasty declaration; but they only arrived in time to witness the conclusion of the ceremony. The castle of Hermitage, unable to support the load of iniquity, which had been long accumulating within its walls, is supposed to have partly sunk beneath the ground; and its ruins are still regarded by the peasants with peculiar aversion and terror. The door of the chamber, where Lord Soulis is said to have held his conferences with the evil spirits, is supposed to be opened once in seven years, by that dæmon, to which, when he left the castle, never to return, he committed the keys, by throwing them over his left shoulder, and desiring it to keep them till his return. Into this chamber, which is really the dungeon of the castle, the peasant is afraid to look; for such is the active malignity of its inmate, that a willow, inserted at the chinks of the door, is found peeled, or stripped of its bark, when drawn back.”

Saruman, of course, was murdered by his aggrieved cannibalistic sidekick Gríma Wormtongue in the Return of the King chapter The Scouring of the Shire; in the Peter Jackson movies, he was knocked off earlier in the deleted scene below.

In the legend, Soulis' tenantry, having suffered long years of unbearable cruelty, captured him, warding off the Redcap with Christian verse and crucifixes, and at the megalithic Ninestane Rig stone circle, encased the sorcerer in lead and boiled him to death.

P​errott’s Folly, Birmingham, UK

​Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Perrott's Folly, near Chad Valley, Birmingham, Great Britain; the inspiration for Saruman’s tower of Orthanc, one of the Two Towers in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Tolkien spent his teenage years in nearby Stirling Road and Duchess Place. Perrott's Folly/ Monument, was constructed in 1758 by John Perrott as a folly or hunting lodge, converted to a weather observatory by Follet Osler in 1884 and later used by the Birmingham & Midland Institute and Birmingham University until 1979.

The other tower is at prosaic Edgbaston Waterworks and is believed to have been the basis for the mountain-side city of Minas Tirith. Yeah, I get it, if you look at the clips below. Kinda.

Minas Tirith:

John Leyden (1775 – 1811), the Scotch folklorist and orientalist composed the lay Lord Soulis (18-6) that Scott later drew on, the highlights of the lengthy ode being:

“Lord Soulis he sat in Hermitage castle, And beside him Old Redcap sly;— “Now, tell me, thou sprite, who art meikle of might, “The death that I must die?” “While thou shalt bear a charmed life, “And hold that life of me, “‘Gainst lance and arrow, sword and knife, “I shall thy warrant be. “Nor forged steel, nor hempen band, “Shall e’er thy limbs confine, “Till threefold ropes, of sifted sand, “Around thy body twine. “If danger press fast, knock thrice on the chest, “With rusty padlocks bound; “Turn away your eyes, when the lid shall rise, “And listen to the sound.”

The ‘Real’ Lord Soules

In history, the real William de Soulis, Lord of Liddesdale, changed sides between the English and the Scots, and was eventually imprisoned at Dumbarton at the order of King Robert of Scotland (Robert the Bruce), dying there by 1321... in mysterious circumstances.

When young, William was received into the service of King Edward I of England in 1304. After the victory of Robert the Bruce’s cause at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, he switched to the Scottish side. In 1320 he was involved in a conspiracy against Robert along with Sir David, Lord of Brechin. Whilst some say he desired the Scottish throne for himself, others said he wanted to place Edward Balliol on the Scottish throne. Soulis was arrested at Berwick and was arraigned before a specially convened session of parliament at Scone on 4 August 1320.

Confessing his treason, the ‘Black Parliament’ found Soulis guilty, forfeiting his title, and sentencing him to life imprisonment in Dumbarton Castle. William’s compatriots weren’t so lucky, executed by being drawn behind horses, hanged, and then beheaded. William was the last of the de Soules family to hold the title Lord of Liddesdale.

Today you can visit Soules’ Hermitage Castle care of Historic Scotland; haunted by both Redcap Sly, and later by Mary, Queen of Scots who married a later laird, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell.

Prices and opening times

Admission prices and opening times for Hermitage Castle in the Scottish Borders.

www.historicenvironment.scot

Saruman

​Gregor Roffalski (Saelon at Ardapedia)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A movie to enjoy with a vaguely similar theme, 1989’s Warlock:

The Bell Inn Tolkien connection

Incidentally, I was recently in the Cotswolds, an English region famous for its links with elves, witches and portals to other other worlds. In Moreton-in-Marsh, The Bell Inn claims to have inspired Tolkien’s Prancing Pony Inn, where Strider, the Black Riders, landlord Barliman Butterbur and Mr Underhill (and party) hung out in The Fellowship Of The Ring (1954).

Author’s own photographic image

My unofficial spoof sequel to LOTR: THE DARK SECRET OF BARLIMAN BUTTBUR

The Lord of the Rings Sequel: The Dark Secret of Barliman Butterbur, pub landlord

Ale, bread, cheese..

www.linkedin.com

Stephen Arnell’s novel THE GREAT ONE is available now on Amazon Kindle:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-One-Secret-Memoirs-Pompey-ebook/dp/B0BNLTB2G7

Excerpt

References

clancarrutherssociety.org

Dare You Meet the Owlman of Mawnan?

​​“The owls are not what they seem.” Twin Peaks

Cornish folklore tells of the cryptid Owlman (Kowanden in Kernowek), an owl-like humanoid creature first seen in 1926 in the quaint, but somehow forbidding, coastal village of Mawnan Smith, located in the south of the peninsula.

Johannes_Meiner_Eulenkost

​Johannes Meiner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Cornish ‘Mothman’ if you will.

The most famous appearance of The Owlman was in 1976

Surrealist artist, magician and writer Tony "Doc" Shiels (1938-2024), had a reputation as something of a trickster/hoaxer, and was already associated with a series of Cornish ‘monster-raising’ tall-tales in 1976 (sometimes aided by his coven of nude ‘witches’).

In the Spring of that year, he claimed to have investigated the curious story of two young girls on holiday who apparently witnessed a large, red-eyed, winged humanoid creature hovering above the tower of St Mawnan and St Stephen's Church on April 17th 1976.

St Mawnan and St Stephen's Church, Mawnan

​Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The girls - June (12) and Vicky Melling (9), were so rattled by the "feathered bird-man" their dad immediately cut their family holiday short and took them all home. Shiels said one of girls gave him her drawing of the beast, which he called "Owlman". The events were recounted in Anthony Mawnan-Peller’s (Mawnan?) pamphlet Morgawr: The Monster of Falmouth Bay, circulated throughout Cornwall the same year.

Sheils claimed "Owlman" was reported again a few months later on July 31st by two 14-year-old girls Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, who had heard of the supposed creature. The pair were camping when they encountered "a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man" boasting glowing red eyes and black, pincer-like claws, reminiscent of Spring-Heeled Jack, subject of a previous investigation of mine.

Spring-Heeled Jack mysteries and terror tales unveiled

Who or what was Victorian England's terrorizing Spring-Heeled Jack? Theories range from extraterrestrial and satanic to staged and supernatural.

paranormaldailynews.com

Irregular sightings of the beast in the vicinity of the church were shared in 1978, 1979, 1989, and 1995. According to local hearsay, a "loud, owl-like sound" was heard at night in the church yard during the year 2000.

​The 1995 incident was witnessed by an American tourist, who sent a letter to the then night editor of the Western Morning News, Simon Parker:

Dear Sir,

I am a student of marine biology at the Field Museum, Chicago on the last day of a summer vacation in England. Last Sunday evening I had a most unique and frightening experience in the wooded area near the Old Church at Mawnan, Cornwall. I experienced what I can only describe as a ‘vision from hell’. The time was 15 minutes after 9, more or less. And I was walking along a narrow track through the trees. I was halted in my tracks when about 30m ahead I saw a monstrous ‘Birdman’ thing. It was the size of a man with a ghastly face, a wide mouth, glowing eyes and pointed ears. It had huge clawed wings and was covered in feathers of silver grey colour. The thing had long bird legs which terminated in large black claws. It saw me and rose, floating towards me. I just screamed then turn and ran for my life. The whole experience was totally irrational and dreamlike. Friends tell me that there is a tradition of a Phantom Owlman in that District. Now I know why. I have seen the phantom myself. Please don’t publish my real name and address. This could adversely affect my career. Now I have to rethink my ‘worldview’ entirely.

Yours very sincerely scared Eyewitness.

​The creature was quiet for a few years but there were other strange occurrences recorded in Mawnan. In 1996 a woman reported a ball of light floating above the church. In 2003, two teenage girls (again) were listening to music in the church car park late at night (possibly indulging in some herbal recreation):

​They too saw a glowing, pulsating globe of light hovering over the church. The girls said that they watched it for a while until it just vanished. The most recent sighting (that I know of ) was in September of 2009. It was reported that a 12 year old girl named Jessica Wilkins (or Wilkinson) saw the Owlman of Mawnan for the first time this century. Why all these strange happenings have occurred in the vicinity of Mawnan church is a mystery. There is some suggestion that the sightings are due to an escaped Great Grey Owl which can have a wing span of nearly 2m, has huge talons and can stand around 4.5ft tall. The only problem with this theory is the length of time over which the Owlman has been seen. Another theory is that the stories have something to do with the church standing in the centre of an ancient earthworks. Or perhaps because some researchers have detected a ley line (earth energy line) passing through the site? Other writers have said that sensitive and perceptive visitors have also described Mawnan Woods as being ‘alive’ with energy. Could that natural Earth energy be connected to the reports of the Owlman? (The Cornish Bird: Cornwall’s Hidden History Blog)

Tony Shiels - from Magonia Archive

​Shiels seems to be an admirer of John Keel, the British edition of whose classic The Mothman Prophecies appeared in 1976. As if in affectionate imitation there then came report of a Cornish counterpart, Owlman. This entity showed himself only to adolescent girls on holiday, who afterwards would chance to meet Doc Shiels, tell him their stories, and never be seen again. Three of the girls produced drawings of what they had seen, though there is some doubt about one variously described as "by June Melling", or "based on the sketch by June Melling", which is not the same thing. If it is her original, then like the other two, she had remarkably excellent draughtsmanship for a pre-teenager; in fact one might have guessed all of the pictures to have been the work of a professional artist (e.g. Doc Shiels).

Barbara Perry and Sally Chapman both wrote a brief description of the 'monster' underneath their drawings. Their handwriting is of interest. Graphologists know that there are some writing habits that can be consciously altered, for instance whether the letters are joined up or not, whereas others are very difficult to disguise. Chapman's and Perry's hands are very different in their alterable habits; Perry joins up some of her letters but Chapman does not but are remarkably similar in their unalterable ones. The ways they wrote "monster" are virtually identical, and they share several other habits, both putting the dot over the i to the right of the letter and beginning the crossbar of the t at the upright stroke. One could almost conclude they were one person pretending to be two.

Years later Jonathan Downes, the portly Devonshire cryptozoologist, did his own investigation of Owlman and located a man who said he had seen it when a boy; though his sketch of it looks like an imitation of the originals rather than an independent drawing from life. The same is true of a letter sent by an American student who had seen it while on holiday. Though she gave an address in Chicago and stated herself to be a student of marine biology, when Downes tried to contact her she was not registered as living there, and no department chief he spoke to on the telephone had heard of her. Downes' best known contribution was to star in the Owlman video, which also featured the director's wife as a naked lesbian Witch, while a professional sceptic was depicted as a maniac gay Nazi.

​But... back to 1926

From Sarah Coomer’s ​100 Ghosts: The Owlman of Mawnan (May 2021)

​There had been reports of a very large angry bird type thing in the churchyard as far back as the 1920s, whose reputation was enough to attract the attention of loved up Surrealists Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst who allegedly performed rituals to try to summon the beast in 1937. But the most famous sighting of the Owlman occurred in 1976 - whilst holidaying in Cornwall, two (probably v bored) young girls caught sight of what they described as a very large bird with glowing red eyes and claws like blacksmith’s pincers hovering over the church, as reported to monster investigator, storyteller, magician and all round character Tony ‘Doc’ Shiels. A number of other sightings were sporadically recorded but dismissed as having been engineered by Shiels, who had a bit of a reputation as a hoaxer. It’s all so obviously utter nonsense, and easily explained away (er, it’s a big owl) but there’s something about it which has captured the imagination of fans of the unexplained / Surrealist painters for decades. The idea itself is terrifying, the environs evocative and a bit spooky and the name of the place is a gift, like something out of Lord of the Rings.

And this from The Cornish Bird: The Cornish Hidden History Blog

​In 1926 the Cornish Echo newspaper reported that two boys had been chased by what was described as a very large and ferocious bird. The terrified boys managed to escape and took cover behind a large steel grating. This first sighting attracted the attention of surrealist painters Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington. The couple visited Mawnan in 1937. There they are said to have performed rituals to try and summon up the half man half bird they called a ‘therianthorpes’. The Owlman featured heavily in both their artworks for the remainder of their lives.

​Lord Of Tears (2013) - In the film, the Owlman represents Canaanite god Moloch, who particularly savoured child sacrifice. Moloch has been connected to Bohemian Grove, a sinister ‘gentlemen’s club’ for wealthy elites who gather in the San Francisco woods and stand each summer before a giant moss-covered 40ft wooden owl statue erected there.

​The Owl Service

The Owl Service Episode One - transmitted Sunday, 21 December 1969, based on the Welsh legend of Blodeuwedd, turned into an owl for betraying her husband to death (all episodes available on YouTube)

​The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Links:

Owlman of Mawnan, Cornwall | Into Horror History | J.A. Hernandez

Many legends of cryptids don't have a clear origin, a story that can easily be traced back to the first sighting. For these creatures, the line between cryptid (an as-of-yet undocumented natural animal) and supernatural is sometimes blurry, as is true with cases such as The Qalupalik of Inuit Folklore or El Peuchen of Mapuche Mythology. In some ways, the controversy surrounding sightings of strange things can make them even more intriguing to explore because there is little in the way of proof for or against their existence. At the core of these legends or folklore is a story, often a tangled combination of truth and fiction, genuine experience and exaggeration.

www.jahernandez.com

Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside the Bohemian Grove

whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu

Hieronymus Bosch - Garden of Earthly Delights

​Hieronymus Bosch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Night Owl (full version) - Gerry Rafferty

Bird Song - Lene Lovich

​Blood Sweat and Tears - Suite from The Owl & The Pussycat (1970)

Stephen Arnell’s novel THE GREAT ONE is available on Amazon Kindle:

Amazon.co.uk

www.amazon.co.uk

SAMPLE: