Folk witchcraft is practised by men and women. In Cornish there is no differentiating title for the two sexes, but their powers differ slightly.  Male witches can work out how a person was cursed, or which person stole something, but they usually suggest remedies to the friends of the injured. Female witches seem to break spells and throw curses personally, rather than through intermediaries.

 

“Charmers” are folk magicians of whom the society approves: they use a mixture of natural magic and prayer.  “Witches” use darker methods, based on contacting the dead, the more disturbing faeries, or infernal spirits. An untutored person can have difficulty telling these two classes apart, and some, like the Sorcerer of Pengerswick, seem to use both styles of magic. Some charmers charge for cures, others refuse on principle. This isn’t an infallible way of sorting the virtuous ones from the vicious, but it makes a fine first sieve. The power runs in families.

Insert: example charmer families

The Charmers of Zennor can cure a variety of illnesses, but their most famous charm is the stopping of blood. It can keep alive someone who has been deeply injured, much as Hermetic spells to bind wounds do, save that the person seems to heal while the charm is in place. The Zennor charmers are unusual in that they can stop blood merely by thinking their charm: most people need to say it. The charms are passed down within each gender. It’s not clear what happens if this prohibition is broken. The Charmers can use the charm upon themselves, which makes them valuable as grogs and companions – they can bind their own wounds, during combat, merely by wishing to.
The Charmer of St Colomb used to convince people he had magical powers by putting patterns of candles in his fields. He claimed it counteracted, and protected him from, the spells of witches. He would send away evil spirits by banging on wooden furniture, walls, and shutters with his walking stick, and telling the spirits to go away to the Red Sea. He also spoke nonsense words, which are called “gibberish” in Cornish. After a place was exorcised, he would order it cleaned and the walls and ceiling limewashed. This may be a substance inimical to local faeries or demons.  The charmer could also show the face of a thief in a tub of water, and made money selling powder to throw over bewitched cattle. Either as a conman or as a folk magician, he’s a useful character available to the covenant.

Insert: Individual Charms as Minor Virtues

Most Cornish charms are specific to a particular illness. Virtually all of them are Christian prayers, so they are arguably guaranteed miracles. That’s theologically troublesome in period, but that doesn’t stop anyone. Players should just say what one illness they want their character to cure, how the cure looks in game. It costs a fatigue level per person cured.
Serious illnesses may require props or special times. For example, the fonts in Cornwall have locks on them, because people keep stealing the water from after christenings. They call it “holy water” and use it in folk charms. There’s also a belief you can put your warts in a bottle or bag, by touching them with pins or pebbles. As the warts will go to any other person if they touch the bag, some people try to sneak them into newly dug graves.  These warts might be a Corpus vis source, or a plague of tiny demons.

Generally known charms

Hunt says that no-where has he seen so strong a belief that the shades of the dying are seen by their families as in Cornwall. I’m tempted to make that a free Virtue for Cornish characters: you can appear to your loved ones as you lie dying. These apparitions never seem to say much, and wouldn’t be visible to magi because the Parma Magica would prevent mental contact. They seem to only be visible to the intended recipient, but I’d stretch the point to those with the Sight.

Cursing Psalm

is a general belief, in the western part of Cornwall, that if a greatly injured person, the last thing before death, reads or recites the 109th Psalm, usually called the “Cursing Psalm,” applying its comminations to the injurer, the dying maledictions are sure to take effect.

Pull quotes

In those old times, and in that remote part, there were many who would even now be considered good scholars. The old folks of our great-grandfathers’ days were neither so ignorant nor so immoral as it is now the fashion to represent them ; true, there were few sleek smoothies among them, and they would be too rude and outspoken for our taste
perhaps. Books, from their dearness, were comparatively scarce ; but the few they had were read over and discussed around the winter’s hearth, where neighbours assembled in a social way that is now not found in country villages. The “Story of Troy-town,” as they called some old translation of the “Iliad,” almost everybody knew by heart. Hector
was such a favourite, that the best horse was called after him ; and Penelope had, in most families, a namesake (Pee) to commemorate her constancy.

They had also the ” Seven Wise Masters of Greece,” ‘ Moore’s Almanack,” “Kobinson Crusoe,” which everyone knew by heart, and believed a true history, and two or three herbals, besides religious books, of which they made little account on the whole. Culpepper was an especial favourite with elderly dames ; stills being common, they experimented with his recipes, and often compounded precious balsams that would operate famously as evacuants. 

Yet, there were others that regarded her as a witch of deeper dye, and who believed that, by her strange dealings with the Old One, her husband had always a favourable wind, so as to make a quicker passage to France and back than anyone else in “the fair trade.” Besides, fish, they said, always came to his hook and net when other fishermen had none. If anyone happened to offend either of the pair some strange run of bad luck was sure to follow; and nothing proved their compact with Old Nick so much as the rich wrecks which were constantly floating into Pendeen Cove when the pair lived there.

Public Charms as Boons in Covenant Designs

There are some charms so widely known in a community that they are modelled into the covenant’s design, rather than each individual character’s. There are many examples in Cornish folklore.

Insert: Environmental Boon or Vis Source?

Many charms might also be modelled as vis sources. Troupes should negotiate if the covenant needs to pay for both the vis source and the environmental boon. Most herbal charms, as an example, use the non-virtuous versions of the plant, and in that case both need to be paid for, but if vis must be sacrificed to use the charm, then it’s not an Environmental Boon. It may be a Contested Vis Source, if local folk magicians try to harvest the vis before the servants of the covenant can collect it.

Arthritis silver

Hunt records a lady begging for pennies on the porch of a church. When she has thirty, she goes inside and the priest changes them for a silver coin. The lady painfully hobbles around the altar three times, and then goes off to have her coin made into a ring, which cures her arthritis. Everyone involved knows how the charm works. This is an Environmental Boon, which allows the characters to treat Ageing crises.
Club moss: 
To quote Hunt” IF this moss is properly gathered, it is ” good against all diseases of the eyes.” 
The gathering is regarded as a mystery not to be lightly told ; and if any man ventures to write the secret, the virtues of the moss avail him no more. I hope, therefore, my readers will fully value the sacrifice I make in giving them the formula by which they may be guided.
On the third day of the moon when the thin crescent is seen for the first time show it the knife with which the moss is to be cut, and repeat, ” As Christ heal’d the issue of blood, Do thou cut, what thou cuttest, for good ! “

At sun-down, having carefully washed the hands, the club-moss is to be cut kneeling. It is to be carefully wrapped in a white cloth, and subsequently boiled in some water taken from the spring nearest to its place of growth. This may be used as a fomentation. Or the club-moss may be made into an ointment, with butter made from the milk of a new cow.

Plot hooks:

A charmer is dying, and so she needs to pass the charms on to her heir. Can the magi steal her secrets?

Can the magi prevent a rival from ever contesting a vis source again by forcing him to speak his charm?

Judicial Holy Rocks

The Garrick Zans (“Holy Rock”) in Ecols is used for minor judicial magic. If something has been stolen, a large fire is lit on the rock and each person takes a burning faggot out. They spit on their stick and if it sizzles they are innocent. Hunt says its because guilty people have dry mouths, but in Mythic Europe, it’s likely something mystical.

Fire Circles

There’s a tradition that if people light a bonfire and form a dancing ring about it, if they can stamp it out with their feet before breaking hands, no-one in the circle will die within a year. Ill luck to whomever broke the circle first, otherwise. Hunt notes that you can lead beasts over fire, or have humans jump over fire, to break curses.

Sea Poppy

Hunt: “This root, so much valued for removing all pains in the breast, stomach, and intestines, is good also for disordered lungs, and is so much better here than in other places, that the apothecaries of Cornwall send hither for it; and some people plant them in their gardens in Cornwall, and will not part with them under sixpence a root….

This root, you must know, is accounted very good both as an emetic and cathartic. If, therefore, they design that it shall operate as the former, their constant opinion is that it should be scraped and sliced upwards that is, beginning from the root, the knife is to ascend towards the leaf; but if that it is intended to operate as a cathartic, they must scrape the root downwards. The scnecio also, or groundsel, they strip upwards for an emetic and downwards for a cathartic….

Plot hook: the research project 

A vis source that changes from an indeterminate state while alive, to either Creo or Perdo depending on the way you cut it fascinates a Bonisagus maga, who sets up a covenant for Original Research. Covenants which try to prevent her access to the vis source earn the ire of her House.

Thunderstones

The Celtic arrowheads which elsewhere are considered the remanants of elfshot are, in Cornwall, believed to be produced by thunder. They fall from the clouds, and change colour to predict the weather.  Water in which they have been soaked also cures diseases. They are an an Auram vis source with a secondary use.
  • There are 238 holy wells in Cornwall.
    • the Piksey Well at Pelynt: the piksies follow you home if you don’t follow the rituals., Vis source?
    • Clouties (cloths which decay to cure injuries) need to be stressed.
    • Bowsenning is name for the eastern Cornish practice of dunking people to cure their minds.

Serpent Charms

There are a series of folk beliefs clustered around snakes, and the charms they produce or are obstructed by.

Concerted action

Adders in Cornwall come to each other’s aid when one is trapped or attacked. Do they have a communication system, a group mind, or are they the servants of a faerie? Are they like the bees of a hive, serving a great dragon beneath the earth? In the story given by Hunt, a man traps an adder with a pail of milk, and then thousands of others come to aid it. All of the man’s neighbours, anticipating this, make a furze (bracken) pile over them and incinerate the lot. Can a Bjornaer magus, or a magus with an adder familiar, use their communication system?

Milpreves

The downs of Cornwall, particularly near Land’s End, are thick with adders at certain times of year, and the best way to protect yourself is to carry an adder stone, or “milpreve”. One source also calls them “milprers”, meaning “thousand worms”. These are created when many adders get together. Hunt, rational explanation at the ready, suggests these are madrepore corals which have washed up on the shore. Let us temporise by saying that milpreves look a lot like coralline limestone, even if they are made of young, petrified snakes. These are a vis source.

Time for a quote “Camden asserts that one of the prevailing superstitions concerning them was that, about midsummer-eve, they all met together in companies, and, joining their heads, began a general hiss, which they continued until a kind of bubble was formed, which immediately hardened, and gave to the finder prosperity in all his undertakings.” If it gives general luck, then the vis source’s secondary power seems to be that it grants a minor Virtue.  Perhaps it gives a reroll or a Confidence point?

Later, Hunt mentions another source which indicates there is a charm which creates milpreves. The folk magician finds a sleeping snake, says a charm and then strikes it with a hazel wand in the centre of its “spirae.”. This means “coils” but it is included because Spira is a wonderful name for a maga. This transforms the snake into an adder stone, presumably to the delight of nearby magi.

Folk magicians use the stone to make an antivenin. This is Carew in Hunt. “The country people retaine a conceite, that the snakes, by their breathing upon a hazel-wand, doe make a stone ring of blew colour, in which there appeareth the yellow figure of a snake, and that beasts which are stung, being given to drink of the water wherein this stone hath bene socked, will there-through recover.”  Hunt notes the same things are called “Druid stones” or “Druid glass” in various other Celtic countries.

 

Plot Hooks: Do charms scale?

Hunt notes that “The body of a dead serpent, bruised on the wound…is said to be an infallible remedy for its bite”  Can you mice up a dragon and turn it into poultices to cure the people made sick by its vapours?

Similarly, Hunt later says: “When an adder or snake is seen, a circle is to be rapidly drawn around it, and the sign of the cross made within it, while the two first verses of the 68th Psalm are repeated : “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away ; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.” Likewise, does this work with dragons? Is it a faerie ward? What do you do once you’ve caught a dragon in a magic circle?

 

Plot hook: A childhood familiar?

SNAKES AVOID THE ASH-TREE.
IT is said that no kind of snake is ever found near the ” ashen- tree,” and that a branch of the ash-tree will prevent a snake from coming near a person. A child who was in the habit of receiving its portion of bread and milk at the cottage door, was found to be in the habit of sharing its food with one of the poisonous adders. The reptile came regularly every morning, and the child, pleased with the beauty of his companion, encouraged the visits. The babe and adder were close friends.

Eventually this became known to the mother, and, finding it to be a matter of difficulty to keep the snake from the child whenever it was left alone, and she was frequently, being a labourer in the fields, compelled to leave her child to shift for itself, she adopted the precaution of binding an ” ashen-twig ” about its body.

The adder no longer came near the child ; but from that day forward the child pined, and eventually died, as all around said, through grief at having lost the companion by whom it had been fascinated.

So, that’s an origin story for an apprentice, and a Traditional Ward for local snake faeries.

Folk Charm

She remembered to have heard that the adder-charm was powerful to drive away all mischievous sprights.

The Pellar

The Pellar is the folk charmer described in most detail in sources. The quote below is from Botrell. The Pellar could be a covenant resource if magically proficient. If he is a charlatan, he might trade the gossip he learns from the community for subtly cast magic, to guarantee the reputation of his cures. A charlatan might also be drawn to the covenant if faeries begin tormenting him, for accidentally spreading a useful Ward. The rituals below post-date the 1220 start date for most campaigns.According to ancient usage, the folks from many parts of the west country make their annual pilgrimage to some white witch of repute, for the sake of having what they call “their protection renewed.” The spring is always chosen for this object, because it is believed that when the sun is returning the Pellar has more power to protect them from bad luck than at any other season…There used to be rare fun among the folks in going to the conjuror in the spring, when they were sure to meet, at the wise man’s abode, persons of all ages and conditions, many from a great distance. Then the inhabitants of the Scilly Isles came over in crowds for the purpose of consulting the white witches of Cornwall, and that they might obtain their protection, charms, spells, and counter-spells. Many of the captains of vessels, belonging to Hayle, St. Ives, and Swansea, often visited the Pellar before they undertook a voyage, so that, with seaman and tinners, there was sure to be great variety in the company…. The conjuror received the people and their offerings, singly, in the room by courtesy styled the (hall). Few remained closeted with him more than half-an-hour, during which time some were provided with little bags of earth, teeth, or bones taken from a grave. These precious relics were to be worn, suspended from the neck, for the cure of prevention of fits, and other mysterious complaints supposed to be brought on by witchcraft. Others were furnished with a scrap of parchment, on which was written the ABRACADABRA or the following charm:–SATORAREPOTENETOPERAROTAS.These charms were enclosed in a paper, curiously folded like a valentine, sealed and suspended from the neck of the ill-wished, spellbound, or otherwise ailing person. The last charm is regarded as an instrument of great power, because the magical words read the same backwards as forwards. A gritty substance called witch-powders, that looked very much like pounded brick, was also given to those who required it. An aged crone of the pellar blood, mother or sister of the white witch in chief, received some of the women upstairs to cure such of the least difficult cases, as simple charming would effect; but the greatest part of them preferred the man, as his charms only were powerful enough to unbewitch them.Instead of the earthy powder, some are furnished with a written charm, which varies according to the feelings of the recipients. Most of the very religious folks have a verse of scripture, concluded with the comfortable assurance that, by the help of the Lord, the White Witch hopes to do them good.But those who have no particular religious sentiments he furnishes with a charm, of which the following is a literal copy:

On one side of a bit of paper, about an inch and a half by one inch,

NALGAH.

Here follows a picture of what must have been the conjuror’s own creation…The only object we can compare it to is a something which is a cross between a headless cherub and a spread-eagle. Underneath what might have been intended for angel or bird, there is an egg, on which the creature appears to be brooding. There is another egg at the extremity of one of the outstretched legs of the creature…The word

TETRAGRAMMATON,

is under it. On the reverse,

JEHOVAH.
JAH. ELOHIM.
SHADDAY.
ADONAY.
HAVE MERCY ON A POOR WOMAN.

Another amulet, which is commonly given by the Pellar to his patients, to be worn suspended from the neck, is a small bag of earth taken from a man’s grave.

Besides the above-mentioned precious charms, the Pellar gives his neophytes powders, to throw over their children, or cattle, to preserve them against witchcraft, ample directions as to the lucky and unlucky times, and a green salve, which is said to be an excellent healing ointment. I have talked with many who have visited the Pellar every spring, for years running, that they might get their protection renewed. Yet there is no finding out all that takes place at the time of this important pilgrimage, as the directions are given to each individual separately, and all are bound to preserve the greatest secrecy about some portion of the charm, or it will do no good.

Others were supplied with blood stones, milpreves, or snake-stones, and other trumpery, manufactured by the pellar family, to be worn as amulets. The blue-stone rings, in which some fancied they saw the figure of an adder, or when marked with yellow veins the pattern of a snake, were particularly prized, because it was believed that those who wore them were by that means safe from being h armed by any reptile of the serpent tribe, and that man or beast, bit and envenomed, being given some water to drink, wherein this stone had been infused, would perfectly recover of the poison. The amulets, reliques, and charms supplied by the white witch served to tranquillize the diseased fancy as well as the bread pills, coloured waters, and other innocent compounds of more fashionable practitioners, or the holy medals and scapulars of other professors. There are no new notions under the sun; the only difference is the fashion in which they are disguised.

Hunt mentions the Peller only briefly. Theis magician has charms which can scare off faeries and possessing demons. The demons need somewhere to go, and oddly he does not send them to the Red Sea as is so common in Cornwall, he chains them under great and distant rocks.

Plot hooks: Under the rocks

Given that Hermetic magi tend to live secretly in wastelands, the Peller might force a demon into an area of value to the magi.

The Cornish tendency to mine wherever there’s a good chance of ore makes planting demonic landmines seem injudicious.

The Pellar also lets others perform magic. As an example he tells a cursed woman to buy a bullock’s heart and pierce it with as many pins as she can. The person who placed the curse feels every pin, until the curse is lifted. That’s a little like voodoo, but note that the person doing them magic and the person doing the physical actions associated with the spell are separate. This argues that he’s a faerie, because he can lend magical abilities.

Pull quote:

After taking a good drink of the brandy, she said, “Don’t you be frightened even if you happen to see Old Nick. Perhaps it would be well to tie a nackan (handkerchief) over your eyes, because often, in spite of all my charms, mystifications, conjurations, toxifications, incantations, fumigations, tarnations, devilations, and damnations, besides all the other ations ever known to the most learned passon or conjuror, the devil will often be here trying to catch the sperats, and the sight of his saucer eyes of fire, ugly horns, and cloven hoof, is enough to frighten one into fits. And oh! the smell of brimstone he brings along with him es enough to poison one! You arn’t afraid, are ‘e, that you’re trembling so?” – Botrell

 

Witches and Sorcerers

TOUCH a Logan stone nine times at midnight, and any woman will become a witch. A more certain plan is said to get on the Giant’s Rock at Zennor Church-town nine times without shaking it. Seeing that this rock was at one time a very sensitive Logan stone, the task was somewhat difficult.” – Hunt

Anyone touching the Witches’ Rock at Trewa  rock nine times at midnight was insured against bad luck.

Plot hook: Touch a rock to become witch?

Is this a mystagoguic initiation? Are the witches being possessed by creatures that served the druids at the Logan stones? Is this “luck” story just a way for would be witches, on discovery, to explain their behaviour? Might it be useful for magi to have people watching the rocks for potential apprentices, or would such people fall easily to the Infernal?

Ill-wishing

Cornish curses seem small by Hermetic standards. People do not believe in witches with the full panoply of Satanic powers necessarily, but they believe in ill-wishing, which is a variant of the Evil Eye Virtue. This is sometimes called “owl blasting”. A well known counter-charm often breaks the curse. If cattle in a herd keep dying due to ill-wishing,, the farmer must collect up every drop of blood of one of the dead animals on straw, and then burn the straw. The witch, or her shadow, will be seen in the smoke.

Burning some of the blood of a witch seems to have protective effects as well: it’s one of the things male witches often send the friends of an ill-wished person to do. In Cornwall, burning a little of the blood of the magus who cast a particular spell might reduce its duration. The mechanism for this failure seems to be an intercession by a potent magical spirit or faerie.

Plot hook: Even the medieval Cornish knew this was a bad idea

 In both examples Hunt gives, a female neighbour turns up to see why there’s a bonfire raging in the field, and is badly treated by the farmer until rescued by other members of the community.  So, this charm either does not work, in which case you may murder a neighbour, or it does work, in which case you’ve got an angry witch to deal with.

Sir John Arundell’s Curse

I’ll avoid a quote from Hunt here, by simply saying that Sir John was a good magistrate, and in the course of his duties he was cursed to die by human hand on yellow sand. As a sensible chap, he moved his home from Efford, which is on the coast, to Trerice, deep inland. He lived contentedly for many years.

Eventually, though a rebel nobleman took the Mount from the priests, and John was called to subdue him. Even though he knew he was going to fight on the beach, he went anyway, as he was a model of feudal service. He died.

I’d note that Sir John would be a perfect tame nobleman for a covenant, and that you could void his curse by having a spell turn the sand beneath his feet into grass, if only for a moment. Alternatively, if he was a foe, you could just hide sand in his mattress and cut his throat while he slept. His miraculous protection’s only a challenge until you find out the exact wording of the curse.

Castle Peak

To the south of the Logan Rock (near Trereen) is a high peak of granite, towering above the other rocks ; this is known as the Castle Peak. No one can say for how long a period, but most certainly for ages, this peak has been the midnight rendezvous for witches.
Many a man, and woman too, now sleeping quietly in the churchyard of St Levan, would, had they the power, attest to have seen the witches flying into the Castle Peak on  moonlight nights, mounted on the stems of the ragwort and bringing with them the things necessary to make their charms potent and strong.

This place was long noted as the gathering place of the army of witches who took their departure for Wales, where they would luxuriate at the most favoured seasons of the year upon the milk of the Welshmen’s cows. From this peak many a struggling ship has been watched by a malignant crone, while she has been brewing the tempest to destroy it ; and many a rejoicing chorus has been echoed, in horror, by the cliffs around, when the witches have been croaking their miserable delight over the perishing crews, as they have watched man, woman, and child drowning, whom they were presently to rob of the treasures they were bringing home from other lands. Upon the rocks behind the Logan Rock it would appear that every kind of mischief which can befall man or beast was once rewed by the St Levan witches.

This area has a high Infernal Aura.

Madgy Figgy’s Stories

Again a quote from Hunt:

All those who have visited the fine piles of rocks in the vicinity of the so-called ” St Levan,” Land’s-End, called Tol-Pedden-Penwith, and infinitely finer than anything immediately surrounding the most western promontory itself, cannot have failed to notice the arrangement of cubical masses of granite piled one upon the other, known as the Chair Ladder. This remarkable pile presents to the beat of the Atlantic waves a sheer face of cliff of very considerable height, standing up like a huge basaltic column, or a pillar built by the Titans, the horizontal joints representing so many steps in the so-called ” Ladder,”

On the top is placed a stone of somewhat remarkable shape, which is by no great effort of the imagination converted into a chair. There it was that Madgy Figgy, one of the most celebrated of the St Levan and Burian witches, was in the habit of seating herself when she desired to call up to her aid the spirits of the storm. Often has she been seen swinging herself to and fro on this dizzy height when a storm has been coming home upon the shores, and richly-laden vessels have been struggling with the winds. From this spot she poured forth her imprecations on man and beast, and none whom she had offended could escape those withering spells ; and from this “chair,” which will ever bear her name, Madgy Figgy would always take her flight.

Often, starting like some huge bird, mounted on a stem of ragwort, Figgy has headed a band of inferior witches, and gone off rejoicing in their iniquities to Wales or Spain. This old hag lived in a cottage not far from Raftra, and she and all her gang, which appears to have been a pretty numerous crew, were notorious wreckers. On one occasion, Madgy from her seat of storms lured a Portuguese Indiaman into Perloe Cove, and drowned all the passengers. As they were washed on shore, the bodies were stripped of everything valuable, and buried by Figgy and her husband in the green hollow, which may yet be seen just above Perloe Cove, marking the graves with a rough stone placed at the head of the corpse.

The spoils on this occasion must have been large, for all the women were supplied for years with rich dresses, and costly jewels were seen decking the red arms of the girls who laboured in the fields. For a long time gems and gold continued to be found on the sands. Howbeit, amongst the bodies thrown ashore was one of a lady richly dressed, with chains of gold about her and not only so, but valuable treasure was fastened around her, she evidently hoping, if saved, to secure some of her property. This body, like all the others, was stripped ; but Figgy said there was a mark on it which boded them evil, and she would not allow any of the gold or gems to be divided, as it would be sure to bring bad luck if it were separated.

A dreadful quarrel ensued, and bloodshed was threatened ; but the diabolical old Figgy was more than a match for any of the men, and the power of her impetuous will was superior to them all. Everything of value, therefore, belonging to this lady was gathered into a heap, and placed in a chest in Madgy Figgy’s hut. They buried the Portuguese lady the same evening ; and after dark a light was seen to rise from the grave, pas^ along the cliffs and seat itself in Madgy’s chair at Tol-Pedden.

Then, after some hours, it descended, passed back again, and, entering the cottage, rested upon the chest. This curious phenomenon continued for more than three months, nightly, much to the alarm of all but Figgy, who said she knew all about it, and it would be all right in time. One day a strange-looking and strangely-attired man arrived at the cottage. Figgy’s man (her husband) was at home alone. To him the stranger addressed himself by signs, he could not speak English, so he does not appear to have spoken at all, and expressed a wish to be led to the graves.

Away they went, but the foreigner did not appear to require a guide. He at once selected the. grave of the lady, and sitting down upon it, he gave vent to his pent-up sorrows. He sent Figgy’s man away, and remained there till night, when the light arose from the grave more brilliant than ever, and proceeded directly to the hut, resting as usual on the chest, which was now covered up with old sails, and all kinds of fishermen’s lumber.

The foreigner swept these things aside, and opened the chest. He selected everything belonging to the lady, refusing to take any of the other valuables. He rewarded the wreckers with costly gifts, and left them no one knowing from whence he came nor whither he went. Madgy Figgy was now truly triumphant. “One witch knows another witch, dead or living,” she would say ; “and the African would have been the death of us if we hadn’t kept the treasure, whereas now we have good gifts, and no gainsaying ‘em.” Some do say they have seen the light in Madgy Figgy’s chair since those times.

The foreigner may be the demon which served the dead witch, gathering in his gifts, to distribute to a new pawn. Figgy could have Sensed their Unholiness.

Short stories

Hunt also gives a story about the same witch who gains a pig through a curse. She offers to buy it, and when the owner will not fix a price she ill-wishes it, so that runs around crazily when on a lead, and gets thinner the more it eats. Eventually it eats the owner out of house and home, and he gives her the pig for a twopenny loaf.

The next Cornish witch takes the form of a hare to travel swiftly, and seems to be able to carry burdens in that form. She has a familiar which can take the forms of a hare, cat and black, demonic shape. These forms can issue a blood curdling howl.

Hunt then tells two stories of witches who send a toad familiar to curse enemies. While it is present the people sicken, but when the toad is thrown in the fire, its owner is burned according to its wounds. Arguably this isn’t a familiar at all: it might be a nightwalker’s phantasticum.

The Devil’s Whetstone was placed by a smith, as part of a bet which kept the devil away from the area. Eventually a man is convinced to take it to use it as building materials, so the devil punishes the town for keeping him away for so long. Story hook.

The witches of Saint Eonder can take the shape of hares, and ride ragwort.

Sorcerers

The power of Cornish sorcerers tends to come from evil sources, and be passed from father to son. The most notorious family in this regard lived at Castle Pengerswick, which post dates the period, but its folklore casts a shadow back into the far past. The Lord of Pengerswick turns up in stories often enough that he is sometimes a faerie. Botrell gives the more detailled version of the story, but Hunt gives it a different ending, that ties Pengerswick to a darker realm.

Lord Pengerswick the Sorcerer

In Bottrell’s version, the father of the eventual sorcerer goes on Crusade. Despite being married, he seduces a princess.

“She lent Pengersec her father’s enchanted sword a magic weapon that brought success to the rightful possessor and fought by his side ; yet they were conquered ; and the Cornish

rover missed his lady-love in their confused retreat; when, to save himself, as best he could, he took ship for home and left her to her fate….Ho had scarcely settled himself comfortably in his castle with his wife and his son of whom he was very fond when, one night, the Queen knocked at his gate. In her arms she held a babe that had been born at sea ; weeping, she showed it to its father who refused to admit her within his doors. ” What can have possessed thee to follow me here thou crazy saracen,” said he, “know that I’ve many years been wed.” ” Cruel man, dos  thou spurn thy little son and me from thy doors,” she replied,
“now that I am in this strange land poor and needy.”…he led her away down by the sea-side. There, standing on a cliff, she reproached him with being a faithless, perjured lover; with having stolen the magic sword, on which the safety of her land depended; and with being the cause of all her misfortunes. He threatened to drown her unless she promised to return at once to her own country….[She dies at sea]…The Queen’s remains were taken to her native land, and the good captain reared her child, which passed for his own son. 

This old tiger of a Pengersec spent much of his time in hunting wolves, which were numerous then ; the following day he was in full chase on Tregonning hill until night, when a violent storm arose. By the lightning’s glare he saw, cowering around him, a drove of wild animals, that dreaded the awful thunder-storm more than they did the hunter and his dogs. Presently appeared among them a white hare, with eyes like coals of fire, then the dogs and savage beasts ran away howling louder than the tempest ; the horse threw its rider and left him alone on the hill with the white hare that Pengersec knew to be the vengeful spirit of the murdered lady. 

Plot hooks

If your dad was a Crusader, you may have a whole other family somewhere.

Suicides, or wronged women, returning as ghostly hares are common in Cornish folklore.

There is, apparently, a magic sword hidden in Cornwall. Is this a faerie prop? If the hare is a ghost, is the sword an ethereal prop.

Search being made next day he was found on the hill more dead than alive from the effects of his fall and fright. Worst of all he had lost the enchanted sword, with which he could save his life in any encounter. This mishap troubled him much, for, when in possession of this charmed weapon, he thought it mere fun to lop off the heads of those who offended
him ; but now he became a coward and dreaded to go beyond his castle gate without a priest beside him. Indeed, he could never leave his dwelling but the white hare would cross his path. When the priests vainly tried to dispose of her like other spirits in the Red Sea, she assumed her natural shape and told them not to think they had power to bind or loose
her like the spirits of those who had been in their hands from their cradle to the grave ; moreover, that she wouldn’t be controlled by them or their gods, but, to please herself, would quit the place until her son came to man’s estate.

Plot hooks

According to the Queen, she cannot be exorcised because she was not a Christian. That’s an interesting metaphysical problem. If she’s a faerie, it’s useful to note that she does go away. Her protestation that its her own choice may be a lie.

Pengersec’s cruel treatment of his wife shortened her days ; she soon died, leaving her unweaned child, called Marec, to be nursed by the miller’s wife, who shared her breast between the young heir and her son Uter. Many years passed during which Pengersec seldom went beyond his castle that he had almost entirely to himself ; a few old servants only remained in the gloomy habitation, out of regard to the young master, that he might be properly instructed and cared for. Marec, when about twenty years of age, excelled in
all manly exercises ; being a good seaman, as well as his constant attendant and foster-brother Uter, they would steer their boat through the roughest breakers, to aid a ship in distress, when other men feared to leave the shore. His favourite pastime was taming wild horses of the hills, in which he was said to have remarkable skill.

About this time Pengersec recovered his wonted courage, so far as to venture out to see the young men’s sports, and to visit Godolphin castle a few miles off where lived a rich lady whom he wished his son to wed. She had often seen Marec bear away the hurling-ball, win
prizes at wrestling and other games, and had a great desire for him and more for the domain to which he was heir. Although she was passable as to looks, and only a year or two older than the young lord, he had no liking for her, because she had the repute of being a sorceress. In all the country side it was whispered that the damsel was too intimate with an old witch of Fraddam, whose niece, called Venna, was the lady’s favourite waiting-woman.

Plot hooks

Sorceresses offer each other’s nieces work. This means if you attack one witch, you need to be very careful not to hurt her laundry-maid.

They spent much time together distilling or otherwise concocting what they named medicaments, though some called them poisons; and many persons, believing the lady had evil eyes, pointed at her with forked fingers to avert their baneful influence.
Yet, from her affected horror of little failings, pretended pity for those whom she slandered by insinuations, and her constant attendance at church, simple people, that she favoured, thought her a good woman ; and crafty ones, from sympathy, were ever ready to further her designs.

Plot hooks

The Cornish are using a folk charm to avert ill-wishing.

The witch doesn’t have the Gift, or can hide it. She’s particularly persuasive.

As the young man cared more about his sports than for the lady, Pengersec did the courting for his son at first but at length he married the damsel of Grodolphin himself. They had not been long wedded, however, ere she became disgusted with her old lord’s gloomy fits, and, from seeing much of Marec, her passion for him became too much for concealment. Fearing lest she might betray her desires to her husband, she shut herself up in her own apartments and, pretending to be ill, sent for the witch of Fraddam, who soon discovered her ailment.

The lady complained of her dreary life shut up in the lonesome castle with her morose old husband, though he doted on her, after his fashion. Having made him promise, before marriage, that she and her children should inherit his lands and all he could
keep from his eldest son, it fretted her to find that, as yet, she was not likely to become a mother. ” Behave kinder to Marec,” said the wise-woman, “that he and his comrades may cheer your solitude.”

” Never name the uncouth savage to me !” exclaimed the lady, ” he would far rather chase wolves and ride wild horses around the hills than pass any time, by day or by night, in a lady’s bower.” The witch being skilled in making love-potions and powders, after more converse, promised to send her a philter, by the aid of which Marec would soon become her humble slave, and pine for her love. The love-drink was fetched without delay by Venna, who waited on her young master at supper and spiced his ale ; but this was a mistake, for it should have been prepared and served by the person in whose favour it was intended to
work. 

The waiting-maid being a comely lass, and he a handsome man, she forgot her duty to her mistress, when Marec as the custom was with gallant youths pressed her to drink from his
tankard to sweeten it. The cordial and charms, that were intended to move his affections in the lady’s favour, ended in his strolling on the sea-shore with her handmaid. The step-dame,
unable to rest, wandered down on the beach, where she espied the loving pair in amorous dalliance. Her love turned to hate ; without being seen by them, she returned and passed the night in planning revenge.

Plot hook

Love philtres create Personality Flaws. Very few love philtres in Cornwall are swallowed by the people they are meant for.

Two witches are fighting for the love of a man, and destroy each other in the process.

In the morning early the enraged lady sought an interview with her doting old husband, and told him that she wished to return to her father’s house, because she was pining for fresh air, but dared not leave her room when his son was in the castle for fear of being insulted by his unbecoming behaviour ; in fact, she gave the old lord to understand by hints, which might mean little or much that Marec then discovered such a passion for her as she failed to inspire before her marriage. Pengersec raved, and swore he would be the death of him before many hours were passed ; at length, however, his fit of anger having moderated, he assured his wife that he would get him taken so far away that it would be long ere he returned to trouble her, if ever he did. 

Plot hook

Kidnapping occurs a lot in Cornish stories. This may be because most Cornish people believe in death curses – a kidnapped person cannot utter one.

This being agreed on, the lady somewhat pacified returned to her own apartment, and summoned her woman to attend her. Venna had no sooner entered the chamber than her mistress pinned her in a corner, held a knife to her breast, and vowed to have her heart’s blood that instant for her treachery in enticing her young master to the sea-shore unless she drank the contents of a phial which she held to her lips. ” Have patience, my dear mistress,” said she, ” and I will either explain to your satisfaction what seemeth false dealing and disloyalty, or I’ll drain this bottle of poison to the last drop.” Venna then told her mistress that she was only following her aunt’s instructions to get Marec into her toils, and if other means failed induce him, in the dead of night, to visit her chamber by the outer stair from the garden. The woman also proposed to make other arrangements, of
which her mistress approved. 

Then the pair devised how to get rid of the old lord speedily, for having excited his jealousy they feared he might kill his son, or send him from the country without delay. They little thought, however, when they had decided to poison him in the evening at his supper, that all their infernal plans were overheard by the priest and steward, who had long suspected the step-dame and her woman of hatching some plot against the young master.

In Pengersec castle, as in many dwellings of that time, there were private passages, contrived in the thickness of its walls. Such places, being known only to the master and his confidential servants, were frequently forgotten ; yet the priests, who were skilled builders and great devisers of mysterious hiding-holes, mostly knew where to find them. From behind a perforated carving, in stone or wainscot, the lady’s wicked designs were found out. At supper, the old steward, as was his custom, stood behind his master to hand him the tankard of ale, that he drank with his venison pasty, and a goblet of strong waters, that stood in a buffet prepared and spiced by the lady for her husband beside one for herself, to take with the sweet waffels with which they finished their repast. 

Plot hook

Priests being associated with architecture is in period, but their link with hidden passages dates from after 1220. Catholics priests were persecuted in England during the Tudor and Stuart periods, and Catholic families had places to to sequester them if soldiers came searching.

The hall being but dimly lighted by the fading twilight and a fire on the hearth, the steward managed to distract the lady’s attention, when removing the tankard, by letting it fall and
spilling what remained in it on her robe, so that, without being noticed, he exchanged the two drinking-vessels’ contents, and the lady took the poisoned draught which she had prepared for her spouse.

But it had little or no effect on her for the time, because, to guard against a mischance of this kind, she had long accustomed herself to imbibe poisons, in increasing doses, until she could stand a quantity that would be fatal to one not thus fortified. After supper the priest informed Marec of the snares laid to entrap him, and of the step-dame’s murderous attempt on his father.

Plot hook

Taking a variety of different poisons so that they can, eventually, survive poisoning, may be a side effect of a mystery initiation.

The lady despaired of accomplishing her designs, as Marec showed by his behaviour, that he regarded her with loathing. One day, when she was more gracious to him than usual, and made advances not to be misunderstood, looking on her with contempt, he said, “Know, sorceress, that I detest thee and abhor thy shameful intentions, but thou canst neither hurt me by thy witchcraft, nor with the blight of thy evil eyes.” She made no reply, but left the hall and soon after told her spouse that his son had most grossly insulted her. “
Indeed,” said she, “I had to defend myself with all my might to preserve my honour, and threatened to plunge a dagger into his heart unless he desisted and left my apartment.” Her fabricated story so provoked the old lord that he determined to dispose of his son without delay.

Plot hook

Why is Marec immune to her magic?  Is he lying? Can your characters use the same methods in confrontations with other witches?

That evening, the weather being stormy, Marec and Uter noticed, from Pengersec How, a vessel taking a course which would bring her into dangerous ground; the young men
launched their boat, rowed towards the ship, and signalled that there were sunken rocks ahead. Night was now fast closing in, and the land could scarcely be discerned through the mist, when the young men beheld something floating at a little distance. On approaching it, they saw it to be a drowning seaman quite exhausted, and unable to keep any longer on the surface; they pulled with might and main and were just in time to save him. Having reached Pengersec Cove, they bore him to Marec’ s chamber, stripped off his wet clothing, rubbed him dry, placed him in bed on sheep-skins, and lay on either side that the warmth of their bodies might help to restore him. At length his breathing became regular, and,
without speaking, he went off in sound sleep.

The rescued sailor awoke much restored and just as well as need be, though surprised to find himself in a new berth with strange shipmates as he thought his two bed-fellows. He tried to get out of bed and have a look round, when Marec well pleased to see him so far recovered related how they had taken him into their boat the previous evening, when he was seemingly at the last gasp.

The seaman who was called Arluth then said, that he recollected having fallen from the “tops” into the water, and endeavouring to keep himself afloat, in hopes of being seen from
his ship and rescued; but of what followed he had no remembrance. He also informed them that he was the son of a captain of an eastern ship, which frequently traded at Cornish ports ; fearing his father might be in great distress, from thinking him drowned, he wished to get on board his ship as soon as possible.

Plot hook

This character may have a Destiny. Falling from the tops is fatal to some sailors: falling into a cozy bed with your long lost brother is profoundly unlikely.

Uter fetched, from the butlery, beef, bread, and beer ; when the sailor and his master sat beside each other he remarked that they looked like twin brothers, from their close resemblance. Having breakfasted, they took horses and followed by the dogs started for Market-jew. When they came out on uncultivated ground, Marec proposed to hunt as they went along, that the seaman might have some game to take aboard.

They had gone but a little way when a white doe started from a thicket and ran towards the hills followed by the hounds in full cry. The sailor’s horse being an old hunter, took after them, and the rider, being an indifferent horseman, lost all control over his steed, which bore him after the hounds near to the top of Tregonning hill, where the doe disappeared and the dogs were at fault.

The sailor alighted near the same cairn where Pengersec had been thrown from his horse many years agone. He had no sooner put foot to ground than lightning struck the rocks close by and they toppled over. Then he heard a voice as if from the ground that said, “Fear not, Arluth, beloved son of mine, to seize thy forefather’s sword and with it win thy kingdom.” There was no one nigh him ; but, on glancing towards the earn, he saw near it a beautiful white hare, which gazed lovingly on him for a moment and then disappeared amongst the rocks.

On going to the spot, where the rocks had been severed, he found a naked sword with sparkling jewels in its hilt, and the blade shone like flame. Arluth, having recovered from his surprise, took up the sword, and, looking round, he saw Marec and Uter near him.
Surprised that it should be discovered in such a place, and at what the seaman told him. Marec said, that as he had found the magic weapon, he was destined to achieve great things. Arluth again thought of his father and shipmates, who, not knowing if he were dead or alive would be in great trouble ; he begged his companions to let him hasten to Market-jew, and their horses soon took them thither. On parting the sailor said he hoped to see his friends again ; they proposed to visit him in the evening ; saw him embark in a boat and pull off to his ship. The good captain was overjoyed to see him after having mourned for him as dead. 

Arluth related how he had been rescued ; drew the sword from his belt and told the captain where he had found it, with what he had Seen and heard on the hill. The captain having examined it, said, “The time is come for me to declare that the only relationship I bear thee is through my regard and loyalty to the murdered Queen, thy mother.” He then related to Arluth how the Queen had lost her kingdom and magic sword, through her ill-requited love for Pengersec ; and how he had saved him when an infant. In conclusion the captain said,
” Thou wilt now understand, my son let me still call thee so how that the young lord of Pengersec, who rescued thee last night, is thy brother. Thy name, too which was given thee by thy mother, as soon as thou wast born belongs to this country’s tongue. The Queen,
having heard Lord Pengersec thus called by his Cornish followers who attended him to her land, took that title to be one of his names, and liked it best for thee.”

The captain also told the wondering sailor that he would be the acknowledged heir to their country, which had for many years been rent with civil war between divers pretendants thereto, among whom there was no one sufficiently powerful to secure the throne, since the magic sword on which their country’s safety in some way depended had been lost, and reserved by a protecting power for him. “Now nothing more is wanting,” said he, “to enable thee to reclaim thy mother’s dominions, and its people will gladly receive thee to give peace to the distracted country.” The young sailor was much surprised by what the captain
related, and still more so when he said that about the time Arluth was following the white doe Pengersec came on board his ship and proposed to hire him and his crew to kidnap and
carry away his son and his servant, merely to gratify a stepdame’s spite. The captain said his only reply to the befooled and unnatural father’s proposal was to tell him he should never leave his vessel alive if he spoke to one of his crew, and to order him over the ship’s side immediately. Being stupefied with grief, he didn’t think, however, of another vessel then anchored at no great distance that came from a city where the people mostly lived by piracy ; the crew of this ship which sailed under any colour that suited their ends made it their business, among other things, to land in lonely places, maraud the country, carry off young people, and sell them in Barbary for slaves.

Plot hook

Arluth is a form of Arthur. He finds a magical sword that shows him to be the true heir to the kingdom. Is he a faerie following a story?

Barbary is in Northern Africa. The term post-dates the game period.

“Had I but thought of it in time,” said the captain, “we would have taken off Pengersec and given him a taste of the sea, for I knew much more of him than he suspected.” Having seen
Pengersec go on board and leave the pirate ship, the captain and Arluth, knowing the gang would even murder their own brothers for a trifle of gold, determined to watch their proceedings, and rescue the young men if need be. It was bargained between Pengersec and the pirates that, for a small sum, they would kidnap his son and Uter, either when
they went out a-fishing as was their practice almost nightly or land and steal them from the castle. Meanwhile, Arluth had arms placed in a boat; and when twilight darkened into night he saw a boat leave the pirate ship. 

” Now, may the gods help me ! ” he exclaimed, springing up and brandishing his sword, ” my first use of this shall be to save my brother.” Arluth with several of his crew gave chase.
Marec and Uter, being on their way to the good captain’s ship, were encountered by the pirates, overpowered, and put in irons, when their companion of the morning sprang into the pirate’s boat and cut in pieces every one of the gang. Having released and embraced the captives, Arluth bore away to the pirate ship, boarded her, hanged the rest of her crew,
and took the craft as a lawful prize; and a rich prize they found her. Arluth, having returned to the good captain’s ship and informed Marec and Uter how the old lord intended to serve them, said, ” Come with me and never more put foot in the place whilst thy crafty step-mother’s head is above ground.” Marec replied to the effect that he didn’t like to go away until he had furnished himself and Uter with money and needful changes of clothing. “Don’t touch a thing in the accursed place,” returned Arluth, “for you have a brother belonging to the land whither we are bound, who will share his last stiver with thee, and shed his heart’s blood in thy defence. Nay, brother, be not surprised,” continued he, in drawing Marec to him, “this brother of thine will ere long be king of the country.”

“Would to heaven thou wert my brother, thou heart-of-oak, and I would joyfully go with thee to any land,” replied Marec. The captain gave the young men of Pengersec a cordial
welcome, set before them the richest wines in his ship, and smiling with satisfaction to see the brothers’ attachment, and Marec’s puzzled look he related to him the history of his
father’s exploits, which had been told to Arluth, for the first time, only a few hours before.
Marec had been altogether ignorant of much that the old commander related of his father’s youthful adventures; he rejoiced, however, to find a brother in Arluth, and to go with
him, he cared not whither. Uter had such a strong regard for his master that he would gladly accompany him to the world’ s-end. Arluth, having taken command of the captured pirate ship, with his brother for mate Uter, and a few hands spared from the other vessel, as his crew they at once made sail. 

Plot hook

Your life is going badly, but as a surprise, your brother is King Arthur and he’d like to whisk you away, possibly into Faerie, and make you into Merlin.

Pirates are a source of treasure you are apparently allowed to murder like orcs. They also have ships, which can be the focus of a covenant.

Whilst the two ships go sailing on, with clear skies and favouring gales, we will return, for a brief space, to Pengersec. About the time they got under way, the priest was told that
the old lord had during the day been on board two eastern vessels; the good man, fearing this visit portended mischief, watched all night for Marec. When morning dawned, there
being no appearance of the young men nor their boat and the ships having left the bay he sought Pengersec; found him and his wife, early as it was, in the hall. The priest and steward accused the lady of having conspired with her woman and others to destroy her step-son and husband. Venna, being summoned, turned against her mistress ; the old lord, seeing how he had been fooled, ordered both women to be cast into the dungeon, mounted
his horse and rode in all haste to Market-jew to see if any craft might be procured to sail after the departed ships and recover his son. Finding nothing there to the purpose, he returned at nightfall distracted with remorse and rage fully determined to hang his wife and her woman from the highest tower of his castle.

On nearing the thicket, from which the doe started on the preceding day, out sprang the white hare with flaming eyes, right in face of his horse ; the terrified steed turned, galloped down to the shore, and, to escape the pursuing hare, took to sea. Neither the horse nor its rider were evermore seen.

Plot hook

A ghost hare causing a horse to shy, so its rider falls down a mine-shaft, is a common trope in Cornish stories. If he was Spirited Away, he misht still be in faerie, being punished.

The lady was released by her father’s people; she became covered with scales, like a serpent from the effects of the poison she had taken. It was supposed and she was shut up, as a loathsome object, in a dark room of Godolphin. Venna escaped to her aunt the witch of Fraddam. The old lord having confessed, in his anguish, how he had disposed of his son and Uter, the people of Pengersec supposed they were taken to Barbary and sold as slaves ; hoping, however, to discover them, the old servants took good care of everything, in order to save money and effect his ransom.

Plot hook

One of the witches is warped into a scaly thing that goes to live in the sea. The other becomes a human-toad hybrid. I don’t want to say Deep Ones too often…but I’ll say it here.

Paying a ransom for slaves was a known practice in this region: the slavers from Dublin were not still operating in 1220, but the idea of them persists in folk-lore, so faeries may take up the role.

You could pay the ransom, or you could send a team of companions to bust heads along the Barbary Coast. If this really was a faerie kidnapping the Barbary Coast you arrive at may be closer and stranger than you prepared for.

The two ships kept as near as might be on their voyage ; and it was noticed that a beautiful white bird followed them from Mount’s Bay ; it often came within bow-shot but no one dared to aim a shaft at it, for the eastern mariners believed it to be the spirit of a departed friend who guarded them from harm. Marec frequently passed to the old captain’s vessel, when they were becalmed, for he liked much to hear him tell of eastern magicians and the wonderful things they did.

Having arrived at their destined port, they found their country in great disorder from the war waged by many pretenders to the throne, as before stated by the old commander. He had no sooner, however, presented to the people the young man, whom they had long known as his son, and related to them the history of his birth, and of the recovered magic sword, than they all flocked to Arluth’s standard and proclaimed him their king. .

Arluth but little valued his new dominions at first, and would have preferred the command of a good ship. Yet, to please his people, he consented to rule them, and soon became fully
occupied with the cares of his government, which he regulated like the prudent captain of a well-ordered ship ; he would have no idle hands nor waste of stores in his dominions. King Arluth wished his brother to live with him as chief mate and adviser, and offered to dwell in any place he might choose, so it was near their principal port, that he might superintend the traffic. Marec was loath to part with his brother, but his fancy was so fired with what the captain told him about a people, living near them, who were skilled in magic, that he ardently desired to visit their country, and, if possible, acquire some of their extraordinary
wisdom. 

Arluth, on becoming acquainted with his wishes, furnished a vessel with such merchandise as would meet with a ready sale in the wise-men’s country ; equipped his brother in every way becoming his rank, and dispatched him and Uter under the care of trustworthy persons. Marec remained a long while studying among the magicians, and learned many curious arts, unknown in western lands. He also married a beautiful and rich lady, who was gifted with many rare accomplishments, and Uter wedded her favourite damsel.

In about three years, the old captain who, in the meantime, had made a voyage to Market-jew for tin came to the sage’s country on purpose to inform Marec that his father had long
been dead, and how the people on his estate had sent him money and wished for his speedy return. Pengersec’s heart then yearned for his home and his people ; he told his wife how in the pleasant land, towards the setting sun, gentle showers descended, all summer long, like dews distilled from Heaven, and kept the fields ever verdant; how crops succeeded crops throughout the year, which was like a perpetual spring compared with the arid land in which they then dwelt. He said how hills and dales were covered with fat herds in that
happy land, whose inhabitants had not to hunt half-starved wild animals for their subsistence, but only followed the chase for pastime; how by a process, unknown in other lands, a liquor was there brewed from grain, which made those who drank it as strong as giants and brave as lions ; how the Cornish people merely washed the soil of their valleys and found metals more precious than silver or gold. ” That is the tin, to obtain which your eastern mariners make their longest and most dangerous voyages,” said Pengersec as
we shall now call Marec “besides,” continued he, “I have a strong and fair castle in a green valley by the sea; I will build thee a bower by the murmuring shore, where we will have delightful gardens and everything for pleasure.”

“Say no more, my beloved, about the delights of thy land,” she replied, “for I shall little regard that when thou art by; thy home shall be mine wherever thou choosest to dwell ; and whenever it pleaseth thee let us depart.” After procuring many magical books and other things, necessary for the practice of occult sciences, Pengersec and his lady,
with Uter and his spouse, took leave of the sages and made sail for home.

Plot hook

When he returns to Cornwall, Pengerswick uses a lot of incense. Is he a Coptic or Soqotran magician? The “land of the wise men” seems to suit the Soqotran explanation. In contrary, the Soqotrans so not use laboratory equipment, or books of occult science, both of which might be Egyptian.

On the way, Pengersec stayed some time with King Arluth, who presented him with a foal of the choicest stock of his country ; he also sent on board, unknown to his brother, bales of brocade, and various rich stuffs of gold and silver tissue, besides pearls, precious stones, and other valuable things ; and, promising to revisit each other, they took loving leave.
The lady passed much time on deck playing on her harp, its sweet music kept the weather fair, drew dolphins and other fishes from the depths of the sea to sport around and follow the ship to Mount’s Bay; thence it came to pass that on our coast were found many rare fishes never before seen here. “When the young lord and his beautiful bride landed at
Market-jew, the people one and all came from near and far away to welcome them. Bonfires blazed on every hill ; weeks were passed in feasting at Pengersec, where archery, hurling,
slinging, wrestling, and other games were carried on that the fair stranger might see our Cornish sports ; at night, minstrels and droll-tellers did their utmost to divert the company.
The lady of the castle took much delight in her new home ; she often passed the mornings with her husband in hunting ; she rode over moors and hills with a hawk on her wrist or a bow in her hand. At eve her harp would be heard in Pengersec towers sending joyous strains over sea and land ; then fishermen would rest on their oars, and sea-birds forgetting their nightly places of rest in the western cleeves remained entranced around the
castle.

Plot hooks

The lord is an enchanter, but is the lady using Enchantment or Free Expression? They can build a castle in three days.

They have the best blooded horses in Britain, if they have Arabians. That’s worth a fortune on the jousting circuit, or as diplomatic gifts to noblemen. Can you arrange a stud fee, or steal a hair of the horse and grow a copy using Ritual magic?

The lady of Pengerswick plays a harp which enchants the mermaids, fish and spirits, some of whom recite her words. Do any of this chorus remember them?

The people were much pleased with the outlandish lady, who admired, their unbounded hospitality to strangers, their primitive manners, simplicity of heart, and sincerity of intention ; for they appeared to her as absolutely ignorant of fraud or flattery, as if they had never heard of such a thing ; she found them to be of a free, facetious temper, though of a somewhat curious and inquisitive disposition the women especially. The lady thought our ancient language sounded much like her eastern tongue, and that made her feel all the more at home. 

Plot hooks

Cornish, in Ars Magica, is technically a descendant of the language of the Trojans. What the Trojans spoke is unclear: in Homer they speak Greek.

Pengersec was no sooner fairly settled than he built two broad and lofty towers united by a gallery on the seaward side of his castle. The easternmost tower was constructed with everything requisite for his magic art ; in the other were placed his lady’s private apartments, overlooking pleasant gardens, the green glen, and boundless ocean.
When Pengersec returned, his step-mother was still immured in her dark chamber. In a little while, however, she fretted herself to death, and the breath no sooner left her body than she returned to haunt the rooms formerly occupied by her in the castle. Pengersec had that portion of the building at once raized to the ground, but her hideous ghost still continued to wander about the place.

Plot hooks

Each magician has a tower, as is traditional.

Now it was that the young lord essayed the power of his art to some purpose, for, by his enchantment, he confined her to a hole in a headland, west of Pengersec Cove, called the How, and compelled her to assume the form of an uncommonly large adder, in which shape she is still occasionally seen there, if what people of that neighbourhood say, be true. 

Plot hooks

She is a monstrous witch in the form of a giant adder. Are statistics required?

Over a few years, Pengersec became so much attached to occult sciences that he devoted nearly all his time to their practice ; he was seldom seen beyond his castle, and, even there,
he almost continually shut himself up in his tower, where he was never approached except by his lady and Uter, both of whom assisted him in such operations as required help. Fires would be seen through loop-holes in his tower blazing all night long ; and the flames ascended high above the battlements when he changed base metals into silver and gold.
If his fire happened to go out he rekindled it by sparks drawn from the sun, by means of a magic crystal. “With the same glass, or another, he also saw what was being done in distant lands. A person, who came from far to see the magician’s wonders, on looking into or through this glass, beheld in the castle-court what appeared to be an uncommonly large bird carrying in its mouth a baulk of timber ; on taking away the glass he could only see a duck with a straw in her bill. 

Pengersec paid no attention to his farms, which were left to Uter’s management; the lord, indeed, had no reason to care about them whilst he could make gold in abundance. But this untold riches was about the least important fruit of his science, for ere he became middle-aged he concocted a magical elixir, or water-of-life, which preserved him, his lady, and others in their youthful vigour.

The lord of Pengersec was soon renowned in all the west as a most powerful enchanter, whom everybody feared to molest and well they might. Someone from the Mount, having a mind to his fat sheep, carried one of them down to the cliff, tied its legs together, and passed them over his head. At this instant, however, the enchanter, happening to glance at his magic glass, saw what was taking place, and put a spell on the thief that made
him remain in the same spot all the night with the tide rising around him and the sheep hanging from his neck. The enchanter released the thief in the morning and gave him the sheep with a caution not to meddle with his flocks again or he would be served
out worse. ‘

Tis said, too, that Venna, who was now a noted wisewom or witch living at St. Hillar Downs often had contests with- the enchanter to test the relative powers of their familiars ; they
contended with spells and counter-spells from mere pride of art. We omit the details because they would merely be a repetition of much that has been related in the foregoing stories of witchcraft and pellar-craft.

Plot hooks

Pengerswick can transmute base metals into gold and has an elixer that prevents him aging. He’s and alchemist, and he has the Philosopher’s Stone. This argues he was trained in Egypt, rather than Soqotra. He can travel rapidly, and can command spirits.

At times the lord would be seen careering over moors and hills, mounted on his handsome mare, brought from the east ; she excelled every other steed for swiftness ; a whisper from him would make her as docile as a lamb, though she was quite unmanageable with  everybody else. The castle servants were frequently alarmed by hearing the enchanter conjuring, in an unknown tongue, the unruly spirits that he required to serve him ; or by loud explosions. Pungent and fiery vapours, that threatened to consume the building, often
sent their strong odours for miles around. At such times the frightened inmates sought their lady’s aid ; who, on taking her harp to the enchanter’s tower, soon drove away or subdued the evil spirits by the power of its melody. One time the magician left his furnaces and their fires to the care of his attendant whilst [he] went to pass a while in his lady’s bower ; he had not been long there when something told him that mischief was taking place in his tower.

On hastening thither he found the attendant, Uter, had neglected his duty ; and, by reading in one of the magical books, had called up evil spirits in such numbers that in another instant they would have destroyed him ; and it required all the enchanter’s power to subdiie them. Many years elapsed. The lord had a numerous family of whom he took little heed. Some of them were settled on farms, others had been adopted by their uncle, King Arluth, who frequently sent his brother rare drugs, spices, and other things, required by him for making his precious liquor of life. The lady, having outlived all her children and grand-children, became weary of existence in a world, or amidst a people, that seemed strange to her all those of her own age being long dead and wishing to rest with her children, though loath to leave her husband, she often begged him to discontinue prolonging his life ; and he as on former occasions, for the last hundred years or so always promised her to leave the world when he had perfected some new essay of his art, which was all in all to him. His wife, however, neglected to take the lifecordial, and, at length, rested beneath the sod.

Their numerous descendants were known as the custom was then by the names of places on which they dwelt ; only one of them is particularly mentioned by name in the legend ; this was a lady, who lived in Pengersec Castle at the time that a Welsh Prince, from having heard of the Cornish magician’s renown, came over to him for instruction, and before his departure married the beautiful Lamorna, who was the sage’s great-granddaughter. The Welsh Prince, having sent a quantity of black stones to Pengersec, he extracted from them a sort of liquid-fire, which, by some mismanagement, burst its containing vessels, and an instant afterwards all was in flames. The magician was consumed with all his books and treasures; the castle and all it held destroyed, leaving nothing but the bare walls. 

It is said that Venna, the witch, prolonged her life also without the aid of Pengersec’ s elixir by merely enticing to her habitation, and keeping there, goats and young people. From
them, by some means of her craft, she drew their youthful vigour to herself and caused them to pine and die. This wicked practice of hers having being discovered, young folks were carefully kept out of her reach ; and to prevent her from doing any more mischief, one night when she was brewing her hellbroth, and the flames were seen rising high, the people to prevent her escape nailed up her door ; put a turf over her chimney-top, and smothered her in the infernal vapours that arose from her hearth.  All the chief people of the story are ended ; but had it not been for Pengersec’s untoward accident he might have lived to this day.

Hunt ending

Years had rolled on, and the people around were familiarised with those strange neighbours, from whom also they derived large profits, since they paid whatsoever price was demanded for any article which they required. One day a stranger was seen in Market-Jew, whose face was bronzed by long exposure to an Eastern sun. No one knew him ; and he eluded the anxious inquiries of the numerous gossips, who were especially anxious to learn something of this man, who, it was surmised by every one, must have some connection with Pengerswick or his lady ; yet no one could assign any reason for such a supposition. Week after week passed away, and the stranger remained in the town, giving no sign. Wonder was on every old woman’s lips, and expressed in every old man’s eyes ; but they had to wonder on. One thing, it was said, had been noticed ; and this seemed to confirm the suspicions of the people.

The stranger wandered out on dark nights spent them, it was thought on the sea-shore ; and some fishermen said they had seen him seated on the rock at the entrance of the valley of Pengerswick. It was thought that the lord kept more at home than usual, and of late no one had heard his incantation songs and sounds ; neither had they heard the harp of the lady. A very tempestuous night, singular for its gloom when even the ordinary light, which, on the darkest night, is evident to the traveller in the open country, did not exist appears to have brought things to their climax. There was a sudden alarm in Market-Jew, a red glare in the eastern sky, and presently a burst of flames above the hill, and St Michael’s Mount was illuminated in a remarkable manner. Pengerswick Castle was on fire ; the servants fled in terror ; but neither the lord nor his lady could be found. From that day to the  present they were lost to all.

The interior of the castle was entirely destroyed ; not a vestige of furniture, books, or anything belonging to the ”Enchanter ” could be found. He and everything belonging to him had vanished, and, strange to tell, from that night the bronzed stranger was never again seen. The inhabitants of Market-Jew naturally crowded to the fire ; and when all was over they returned to their homes, speculating on the strange occurrences of the night. Two of the oldest people always declared that, when the flames were at the highest, they saw two men and a lady floating in the midst of the fire, and that they ascended from amidst the falling walls, passed through the air like lightning, and disappeared.

Plot hooks

Did the Pengerswicks get taken to Hell, or was the man a psychopomp, conjured to take them to the Hall of Heroes?

The Witch of Fraddam and the Lord of Pengerswick

Again and again had the Lord of Pengerswick reversed the spells of the Witch of Fraddam…[Eventually Pengerswick defeats the Witch and locks her in a coffin floating in the sea.]

The Witch of Fraddam still floats up and down, over the seas, around the coast, in her coffin, followed by the crock, which seems like a punt in attendance on a jolly-boat. She still works mischief, stirring up the sea with her ladle and broom till the waves swell into mountains, which heave off from their crests so much mist and foam, that these wild wanderers of the winds can scarcely be seen through the mist. Woe to the mariner who sees the witch! The Lord of Pengerswick alone had power over her. He had but to stand on his tower, and blow three blasts on his trumpet, to summon her to the shore, and compel her to peace.

 

Mill

The dames would all get a ” half-a-strike ” of wheat each and take it to mill if they could. They liked going thither to ” serge ” (sift) their flour to their liking, and hear the latest gossip from the miller’s wife, or other women who brought their grist. Mills were so noted as places for scandal, that any slanderous tale used to be called a “mill story.” The mill, too, was the usual place of rendezvous for young folks of summers’ evenings, when they generally had a dance, to music> from the miller’s fiddle, — all the

One may hope that the pleasant old Christmas pastime of burning ivy-leaves and rushes was still observed, last Twelfth-night, in some outlying hamlets where the good folks are not yet so ” enlightened ” as to conceive that they know much more than their grandparents.

Those who have taken part in this old observance for obtaining presages
regarding the most important events of life, know that “touching the cravel”
must be carefully complied with on leaving the hearth to gather what they
require ; and the first thing on their return, before any of them may speak, and
their more interesting rites commence.

If any of the company happen to speak by the way, the charm is spoiled, and
the seeming presages will be unreliable, unless the incautious ones return, touch
the cravel, and resume the work.

ld millers could play dance tunes. If the miller hadn’t leisure, some of the merry company either beat up the time on a ” crowd ” (sieve-rind with a sheepskin bottom, used foi’ taking up com, flour, &c.), or they sung verses of old ballads which suited the measure. 

 

 

Vis sources:

  • If go into a particular graveyard on the evening of May 1, and run your hand down the tombstone of the most recently buried young person of the opposite sex, you get vis.
  • Each village puts up a maypole, which is a cut fir tree, and tries to steal one from their neighbouring village, during the month of May. This could be a contested vis source with a faerie court.
  • Some places store their poles and reuse them each year: some cut the poles up and use them to make things. There’s a note in Langstone about skittles. Is stuff made from a maypole special in some way?
  • At Dately there’s an oak that’s over a thousand years old.
    • Its acorns are used by folk magicians to make charms.
    • The tree grants wishes.
    • The tree is hollow and so large you can walk through it, or hold picnics in it.
  • Conjurers make altars on Brown Willy, to cast their spells.
  • Bat frenzies in August may create vis.
  • There are faerie hawthorn trees on the moor. If you sit under them, at dusk or dawn, you see piksies or visions.
  • Ash twigs can cure adder bites.
  • Silver is put under new planted trees, for luck.

  •  

    Vis sources

    This section will hopefully be consumed in other parts of the book in the final draft

    Mucus

    Sorry, I’m just going to quote this one. I’ve heard it before and I love it. It’s a Muto vis source, clearly, but it’s bad news for a Bjornaer magus of this type, who spends winter in a bucket or down a well.

    Migratory birds

    “I FIND a belief still prevalent amongst the people in the out- lying districts of Cornwall, that such birds as the cuckoo and the swallow remain through the winter in deep caves, cracks in the earth, and in hollow trees ; and instances have been cited of these birds having been found in a torpid state in the mines, and in hollow pieces of wood. This belief appears to be of some antiquity, for Carew writes in his ” Survey of Cornwall ” as follows : ” In the west parts of Cornwall, during the winter season, swallows are found sitting in old deep tynne-works, and holes in the sea cliffes ; but touching their lurking-places, Olaus Magmts maketh a far stranger report. For he saith that in the north parts of the world, as summer weareth out, they clap mouth to mouth, wing to wing, and legge to legge, and so, after a sweet singing, fall downe into certain lakes or pools amongst the caves, from whence at the next spring they receive a new resurrection ; and he
    addeth, for proofe thereof, that the fishermen who make holes in the ice, to dig up such fish in their nets as resort thither for breathing, doe sometimes light on these swallows congealed in clods, of a slymie substance, and that, carrying them home to their stoves, the warmth restored them to life and flight.”

    A man employed in the granite quarries near Penryn, informed me that he found such a “slymie substance” in one of the pools in the quarry where he was working, that he took it home, warmth proved it to be a bird, but when it began to move it was seized by the cat, who ran out on the downs and devoured it.

    The stuff of shooting stars

    There’s a glowing slime found in the quarries of Penryn at night, which folklore says is caused by shooting stars, and may contain some of their substance. Hunt says that it is frogs’ eggs, thrown up by crows, but I see no reason that should be so in Mythic Europe. At minimum it is Auram vis: at best it is stuff from beyond the lunar sphere that has antimagical properties because of its extraordinary origin.

    Danewort

    At Trewithan there’s a battlefield, called the Swordfield, where the blood of the fallen Danes sprouted as “Dane’s-wort” or dwarf elder. Writers from England claim that the Danes planted this tree on the graves of their dead. Either way, its a beacon for necromancers.

If people are boiling bitumen (which is a sealant) there will often be popping bubles which throw a piece off toward the observers. If it is round, that’s a purse, if it is oblong, it’s a coffin.

If the cock crows at midnight it sees the Angel of Death over a house. Dogs and ravens also seem to have similar abilities. Does this include Bjornaer magi?