Man: The Buggane of Saint Trinian’s

This week one of our Isle of Man episodes: the Buggane of the broken church of St Trinian’s. The recording used came from the book by Sophia Morrison and was released into the public domain through LibriVox by Kurt from Tucson.

A long time ago there came some monks to the broad, rough meadow, which is between dark Greeba mountain and the high road, and they chose a nice place and set up a church to St. Trinian’s on it. But they reckoned without the power of the buggane who had his haunt in the mountain. The buggane was mighty angry and he said to himself “I’ll have no peace night or day with their jingling bells if I let them finish the building!”

And as he had nothing else to do he took it into his head to amuse himself by tossing off the roof, so when the roof of the church was first put on there was heard that very night a dreadful sound in it. And when the people of Greeba got up early next morning they found their church roofless and planks and broken beams all around the place. After a time, and with great effort, the roof was put on again, but when it was on a great storm arose in the night and it was blown down from the walls, exactly as had happened before. This fall put fear in the people for they were sure now that it was the evil, destructive buggane himself that was doing the mischief. But though they were terrified they resolved to make one more attempt.

The third roof was nearly finished: now there was a brave little tailor living about a mile from Greeba, and because he had not too much worldly gear he made a wager that, when the new roof was on, he would not only spend the first night in the church, but also make a pair of breeches there. The wager was taken of eagerly as they hoped that if the roof was one night up it would be left on, so Timothy (that was the name of the little tailor) went to the church on the very first evening after the new roof had been put on.

He started just when the shadow was beginning to get gray by the hedges he took with him cloth needle and thread, thimble and scissors. He entered the church boldly, lit a couple of big candles, and looked all over the building to see that everything was right. Then he locked the door so that there was no way to get in. He cut out the cloth, and seating himself cross-legged in the chancel he put on his thimble and set to work at the breeches.

He paid no heed to the darkness of the lonely church at dead of night but with long thread and needle he bent low over his work, his fingers moving backwards and forwards rapidly, casting strange beckoning shadows on the walls. The breeches got to be finished or he would lose his wager, so he stitched away as fast as he could, thinking about the good money the people would have to give him. The wind was beginning to rise and trees sketched their arms against the windows. The tailor looked cautiously up and down and round about nothing strange came in sight and he took courage then he threaded his needle and began his work again. He gave another sharp glance around but saw nothing at all except the glimmer of the place near the candles an empty deep darkness away beyond them, so his courage rose high, and he said to himself “It’s all foolishness that’s at the people about the buggane, for after all the like isn’t in”.

But at that very the ground heaved up under him and rumbling sounds came up from below. The sounds grew louder underneath and Timothy glanced quickly up. All of a sudden a great big head broke a hole through the pavement just before him, and came slowly rising up through the hole. It was covered with a mane of coarse black hair. It had eyes like torches, and glittering sharp tusks. And when the head had risen above the pavement the furious eyes glared fiercely at Tim. The big, ugly, red mouth opened wide and a dreadful voice said “Thou risk. What business has thou here?”

Tim paid no heed, but worked harder still, for he knew he had no time to lose/

“Dost thou see this big head of mine?” yelled the buggane.

“I see. I see.” replied Tim.

Mockingly up came a big broad pair of shoulders, then a thick arm shot out, and a great fist shook in the tailor’s faced. “Dost thou see my long arms?”

“I see. I see.” answered Tim boldly and he stopped his tailoring to snuff one of the guttering candles, and he threw the burning snuff in a scowling face before him, then he went on with his tailoring. The buggane kept rising and rising up through the hole until the horrible form, black as ebony and covered with wrinkles like the leather of a blacksmith’s bellows, had risen quite out of the ground.

“Dost now see this big body of mine?” roared the buggane, angry that Tim showed no fear of him.

“I see! I see!” replied the tailor, at the same time stitching with all his might at the breeches.

“Dost thou see my sharp claws? roared the buggane, in a more angry voice than before.

“I see! I see!” answered again the little tailor, without raising his eyes and continuing to pull out with all his might.

“Dost thou see my cloven foot”? thundered the buggane, drawing up one big foot and plunking it down on the pavement, with a thud that made the walls shake.

“I see! I see!” replied the little tailor as before, stitching a heart at the breeches and taking along stiches.

Lifting up his other foot the buggane, in a furious rage, yelled “Dost thou see my rough arms? My bony fingers? My hard fists?” Before he could utter another syllable, or put the other foot out of the ground, the little tailor quickly jumped up and made two stitches together. The breeches were at last finished. Then with one spring he made a leap through the nearest window.

But scarcely was he outside the walls when down fell the new roof, in a terrible crash. That made him jump a great deal more nimbly than he ever did before. Hearing the buggane’s fiendish guffaws over laughter behind him, he took to his heels and sped hotfoot along the Douglas Road – the breeches under his arms and the furious buggane in full chase.

The tailor made for a church only a little distance away and knew he would be safe if he could only reach the churchyard. Faster still he reached the wall. He leaped over it like hunted hare and fell, weary and spent, upon the grass under the shadow of the church where the buggane had not power to follow.

So furious was the monster at this that he seized his own head with his two hands tore it off his body, and sent it flying over the wall after the tailor. It burst at his feet with a terrific explosion, and with that the buggane vanished and was never seen or heard of afterwards.

Wonderful to relate the tailor was not hurt and he won the wager, for no person grumbled at the few long stitches put into the breeches, and as for St. Trinian’s Church, there is no name on it from that day till this but… “broken church” for its roof was never replaced. There it stands in the green meadow under the shadow of rocky Greeba Mountain and there its gray, roofless ruins are to be found.

Comments

If you go looking for a life of St Trinian, to find what he’s the patron saint of, you won’t find him anywhere on the Internet, at least not with this spelling. Trinian appears to be a Gaelic form of the name Ninian and Saint Ninian is known through the southern part of Scotland. He was the apostle to the southern Picts. The church was originally called St. Ninian’s and its name changed to Sant Trinian’s.

If you do look up Trinian, what you will find is a series of comedic movies, that were released in the United Kingdom, starting in the 1950s. They are based on a series of cartoons drawn by Richard Searle while he was imprisoned by the Japanese in World War 2/ This Trinian’s is a girls boarding school in which the teachers are sadists and the students are juvenile delinquents. If you wanted a training school for common folk who were thieves, much like The House in Egypt, or the training schools run by House Tremere, there would be, at least from the films, a good excuse to put one here.

If you wanted to train a gang of adolescent, female thieves I’d remind you that there are thief Virtues and flaws in “Between Sand and Sea”. A useful aside the first Trinians film is called “The Belles of St Trinian’s”. The main reaosn the buggane destroys the place is the bells, because in many parts of Muthic Europe the Dominion aura spreads as far as the church bells can be heard.

Despite its cloven hoof, I think the buggane is a fairy. When it chases the man it doesn’t merely come up out of the floor and grab him. It instead forces him to do a series of Bravery rolls. Demons don’t do this – fairies however feed on strong emotions and therefore the gradual emerging and the ritualistic asking of questions seems just like the sort of thing that a faerie would.

It seems a strangely coincidental timing that the creature gets through its litany and is able to step out onto the ground and chase brave Timothy only movements after he manages to put the closing stitch into his set of breeches. In one version of the story, it only starts chasing him after he drops his needle and scissors (which would mean that he had discarded his iron) however that doesn’t occur in this version of the story. Instead he jumps out of a window and runs to a church, then throws himself over the churchyard wall. Once he’s on sacred ground he is protected.

The buggane throws its head, which explodes. Explosions are rare in folk tales that predate gunpowder, but let us assume that it is a vast illusion like a ball of fire. Notably the ball of fire doesn’t do Tim the Tailor any damage – it’s just to scare him. Again I think this demonstrates that the buggane is a fairy rather than a demon, despite being unable to cross onto holy ground.

The buggane has several other powers. It can travel through the ground. It can cause storms and it lives in a mountain, so you could suggest that it’s a magical creature. If it’s a spirit of the mountain I don’t see why someone stitching pants would force it to go away. I don’t see why it wouldn’t just throw boulders down on the church. Magical creatures don’t care about stories – they care about material effect.

So there’s a strange twist – if you’d like an area which may have a fairy aura to set up a covenant you could do worse than start a school for criminally inclined adolescent girls at the broken Church in the Isle of Man.