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Sacred Waters
Places of Holy Water in Great Britain and Ireland
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published October 23, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 21, 2016
Taking a break from my endless supernatural and horror fiction reading, I decided to do a quick re-read of this very interesting overview of Holy Wells, their legends, lore, and reality as found throughout the British Isles.
Janet & Colin Bord were always a fun read during my childhood/teen years of interest all things Fortean and paranormal (late 70s). Neither new age gullible, nor dry and academic, they wrote books on a variety of things like standing stones, ancient earth mysteries and pagan rites, Bigfoot, black dog phantoms and lake monsters.
This book does a great job of looking at the enormous body of legend and folklore that accumulated around the ancient pagan/later Christian, tradition of sacred/holy wells. With water being such an important aspect of continued life to ancient man, it makes sense that its very origin point from the earth should be venerated by pagans and rural peoples (and later appropriated by Christianity - so, in that classic, formula wells dedicated to ancient gods and heroes become wells dedicated to saints and Mary). There's all kinds of juicy, symbolic folklore to be found here - the connection between decapitated heads and wells, offerings to wells, wishing wells, poisoned wells, wells that run with milk or blood or wine, wells that control the weather or hide treasure or hidden tunnels. And, of course, wells and springs guarded by fairies, sprites, ghosts, witches, monsters and hideous hags.
Lots of interesting stuff here, and the back of the book is an extensive gazetteer of what wells are still extant all over the British Isles - if I lived there, it would make a wonderful guide for some fun day trips.
Janet & Colin Bord were always a fun read during my childhood/teen years of interest all things Fortean and paranormal (late 70s). Neither new age gullible, nor dry and academic, they wrote books on a variety of things like standing stones, ancient earth mysteries and pagan rites, Bigfoot, black dog phantoms and lake monsters.
This book does a great job of looking at the enormous body of legend and folklore that accumulated around the ancient pagan/later Christian, tradition of sacred/holy wells. With water being such an important aspect of continued life to ancient man, it makes sense that its very origin point from the earth should be venerated by pagans and rural peoples (and later appropriated by Christianity - so, in that classic, formula wells dedicated to ancient gods and heroes become wells dedicated to saints and Mary). There's all kinds of juicy, symbolic folklore to be found here - the connection between decapitated heads and wells, offerings to wells, wishing wells, poisoned wells, wells that run with milk or blood or wine, wells that control the weather or hide treasure or hidden tunnels. And, of course, wells and springs guarded by fairies, sprites, ghosts, witches, monsters and hideous hags.
Lots of interesting stuff here, and the back of the book is an extensive gazetteer of what wells are still extant all over the British Isles - if I lived there, it would make a wonderful guide for some fun day trips.
June 15, 2013
Interesting and informative book covering the history and significance of holy wells. Useful gazetteer at the end of the book, it has inspired me to look into wells in more detail in my area as it only covers 200 sites.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews