Home

The Legends of the Carrs - The Original versions and some of the adaptations

Folklore Volume II No 2:

Tiddy Mun

Dead Moon

Pottle of Brains

Folklore Volume II No 3:

Second set of tales told to her by ‘men who had not a strong and instinctive sense of the dramatic art of story-making’.

Green Mist

Yallery Brown

Dead Hand

Strangers' Share

Folklore Volume II No 4:

Flying Childer

Fred the Fool

Sam’ls Ghost

Summaries of some of the stories can be found on the links to the right.

PDFs of the Legends as they appeared in Folklore can be obtained via the following links

Part I

This part is also available as a wikisource

Part II

This can also be found via wikisource (see below)

Part III

The Legends can also be found on wiki source. The first page is

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Folk-lore_-_A_Quarterly_Review._Volume_2,_1891.djvu/153
The number at the end of the URL isn't the same as the page number in the journal. The numbers are
Part 1: /153 to /178 (= journal pages 145 to 170)
Part 2: /313 to /339 (= journal pages 257 to 283)

Part 3:/457 to /454(=journal pages 401 to 418)

The Joseph Jacobs adaptations of some of the Legends (as included in his More English Fairy Tales (1894) can be found via  the following links

The Buried Moon

Yallery Brown

A German translation of Yallery Brown can be found at

http://www.hekaya.de/txt.hx/yallery-brown--maerchen--europa_688

Pottle of Brains

Books containing versions of the Legends:-

Katharine Briggs included some of the Legends in her Dictionary of British Folk-tales (1970). Details as follows

Tiddy Mun - Part B, (Folk Legends) Vol. 1, pp377-378 (condensed)

The Dead Moon - Part A, (Folk Narratives) Vol. 1, pp206-208 (dialect modified)

Pottle of Brains - Part A, (Folk Narratives) Vol. 2, pp238-240 (dialect modified)

The Green Mist - Part A, (Folk Narratives) Vol. 1, pp295-296 (summary)

Yallery Brown - Part A, (Folk Narratives) Vol. 1, pp577-579 (summary of Joseph Jacobs version)

Flying Childer - Part B, (Folk Legends) Vol. 1, pp453-454 (notes)

Sam'ls Ghost - Part B, (Folk Legends) Vol. 1, pp563-564 (anglicized!)

Briggs also included shortened versions of some of the Legends in her Dictionary of Fairies (1976)

The Dead Moon (Briggs 1976:91)

The Green Mist (Briggs 1976:201)

The Strangers (Briggs 1976:383)

Tiddymun (Briggs 1976:395)

Yallery Brown (Briggs 1976:446)

Alan Garner included good adaptations of two Legends in his collection Hamish Hamilton Book of Goblins (1969) with the comment that they were "told by the old people and the young children who lived in Lincolnshire before the fenlands were drained." He described Yallery Brown as "the most powerful of all English fairy tales. This book contains notes on sources.

  • Green Mist
  • Yallery Brown

Alan Garner has also revived the stories within the Book of Goblins, along with some new material in Collected Folk Tales (Harper Collins 2011). The introduction to the book describes how he has "tried to get back, through the written word, a sense of the spoken. These stories...are to be heard as well as seen."

  • The Green Mist
  • Yallery Brown
  • The Flying Childer

Kevin Crossley-Holland has written some good adaptations of the stories which are included in the following collections-

Kevin Crossley-Holland (1982) ‘The Dead Moon and other tales from East Anglia and the Fen Country’. London: Andre Deutsch

  • The Dead Moon
  • The Green Mist
  • Tiddy Mun
  • Yallery Brown

Kevin Crossley-Holland (1987) British Folk Tales. London:Orchard Books

  • Samuel's Ghost

Kevin Crossley-Holland (1992) Long Tom and the Dead Hand: More tales from East Anglia and the Fen Country.

  • The Dead Hand
  • Pitcher of Brains
  • The Strangers Share
  • Samuel’s Ghost

Kevin Crossley-Holland (1999) ‘The Old Stories - Folk Tales from East Anglia and the Fen Country. Dolphin Paperbacks

  • Yallery Brown
  • Long Tom and the Dead Hand
  • The Dead Moon
  • A Pitcher of Brains
  • The Stranger's Share
  • Samuel's Ghost
  • The Green Mist
  • Tiddy Mun

Neil Philip included the Balfour versions of two of the Legends in his Penguin Book of English Folk Tales (1992) collection but with a clear criticism of their authenticity.

  • The Flyin’ Childer (with notes)
  • The Green Mist

 

Other adaptations can be found in the following:-


Adrian Gray (1990) Tales of Old Lincolnshire. Countryside Books - County Tales series

  • The Green Mist
  • The Fool and his New Brain
  • The Imprisoned Moon 
  • The Tiddy People

Polly Howat (1992) ‘Ghosts & Legends of Lincolnshire and the Fen Country’ Countryside Books

  • Tiddy Mun
  • The Dead Moon
  • Yallery Brown
  • The Dead Hand

Rosalind Kerven (2008) 'English Fairy Tales and Legends.' National Trust Books contains an unusual rendition of The Dead Moon in which the traveller crossing the boglands is stripped naked by the 'bogles and spooks,' and later leads the villagers in the mission to rescue the moon.

Molly Bang (1977) 'The Buried Moon and Other Stories'. Charles Scribner's Sons: New York includes just one of the Legends, as noted in the title.

Children's book adaptations

Susan Jeffers (1969) The Buried Moon. New Jersey: Bradbury Press. 

  MP Robertson (2004) The Moon in Swampland. Great Britain:Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

Mick Gowar (2000) Yallery Brown. Scholastic

 Mick Gowar (2005) Yallery Brown. Ginn

Marcia Sewall (1999) The Green Mist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


Audio Versions - Tapes

Hugh Lupton (1990?) Tales from the Fens

  • Yallery Brown
  • Tiddy Mun
  • The Green Mist
  • The Dead Moon

Polly Howat (1994) Tales from the Misty Fen

  • The Stanger's Share
  • The Green Mist
  • The Dead Hand

Video adaptation and dramatic performances

The Carrlands Project comprises three audio works (each of four MP3 files) for the valley of the River Ancholme, North Lincolnshire, conceived and written by Mike Pearson, composed by John Hardy and co-composed by Hugh Fowler. The first clip (Snitterby 1) includes reference to the Legends of the Carrs and the story of Tiddy Mun. It can be downloaded at www.carrlands.org.uk

 

Two short films of the Yallery Brown story were created as part of a joint project between the school and Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, in which BA Illustration students helped Bottisham pupils to create their own digital versions of folk tales and to contribute to the new European Storytelling Archive based at Anglia Ruskin University. The project was supported by CoDE. Patrons - Kevin Crossley-Holland and Jack Zipes

Wishingstone Curse - D Fie Foe

The Wishingstone Curse is a new film, again based on Mick Gowar's Yallery Brown Story, retold by Year 11 & Year 12 students from Ely Community College, Ely, Cambridgeshire in workshops with D Fie Foe media, supported by Cambridge Film Consortium and Cambridge City Council.

 

  • The Greater Fens Museum Partnership and the Fenland Stories travelling exhibition is led by Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service on behalf of Renaissance East of England, a Government Funded programme to provide additional support to regional museums. The partnership is supported by Renaissance East Midlands, Cambridgeshire County Council and a number of other local organisations and agencies. Includes Long Tom animation; Samuel and the Worm cartoon; Tiddymun film; Buried Moon shadow puppets. Web links to youtube postings of the films can be found by clicking on the name below: Buried Moon

A computer animated film adaptation of The Buried Moon has been produced by Jonah Kamphorst and is also on you-tube

Songs

Tiddy Mun also features in the song "Cursed Cornelius" by Norcsalordie, a song about the draining of the Lincolnshire wetlands.

Tiddy Mun is also the name and the subject of a song by Rosie Eade which can be found on you-tube

The Green Mist is a folk song written by Cathy Lesurf based on the legend. It was recorded by the Albion Band on their 1984 Album Light Shining. It is downloadable as an mp3 on the web

 

Other

Yallery Brown is the name of the hero of the 2010 book Yallery and the Lance of Cirein-croin by Chris B. Keeler. He is described as being three inches tall and in the habit of passing curses.

Yallery Brown is also a Notorious Monster in fantasy games with a listing on FFXICLOPEDIA!

Dave Allen's Blog all about folklore includes an exploration of the Yallery Brown story at http://upthewolds.blogspot.com/2008/03/perplexing-point-of-yallery-brown.html

Tiddy Mun is the name of the 123 bus run by Norfolk Green Buses. See their website at www.norfolkgreen.co.uk

PEACOCK BOOKS

An online PDF of Mabel Peacock's Tales and Rhymes in the Lindsey Folk-Speech can be found online here

or from archive.org here

THIS PAGE IS UPDATED WHEN I FIND NEW ADAPTATIONS. I AM ALSO HAPPY TO INCLUDE RELEVANT LINKS SENT TO ME. LINKS ARE CHECKED REGULARLY, APOLOGIES IF ANY ARE BROKEN.