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  • Writer's pictureAnthony Nanson

Green Children and other English Folk Tales


With 

The Anthology of English Folk Tales (The History Press) released on 1 November, Kirsty Hartsiotis has been blogging about some of the stories featured in the book.

Blogging about the Green Children, Kirsty writes: “It’s an old tale, one of three in Suffolk Folk Tales recorded by the monk Ralph of Coggeshall in his Chronicon Anglicanum around the turn of the 13th century: the others being the Wildman of Orfordand Malekin. Unlike the other two, the Green Children has another source, a slightly earlier source, from the Yorkshire monk William of Newburgh. The stories vary a little, but not in their essentials – the discovery of children with green skin in the small Suffolk village of Woolpit just outside Bury St Edmunds, then a major pilgrimage site for the relics of St Edmund.”

The story of King Raedwald of East Anglia also features in the anthology.

Kirsty writes: “A few months ago it was announced that Rædwald’s home had been found – exactly where it should be, at Rendlesham.   It is always remarkable when archaeology follows ancient sources, especially when those ancient sources postdate the actual events by a good century.”

Kirsty Hartsiotis, Anthony Nanson and Kevan Manwaring all have stories in The Anthology of English Folk Tales.

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