origin stories

For centuries, there have been folktales which set out to explain how a custom began, why a place-name was given, how some feature of the landscape was formed, why an animal, bird, or plant has certain characteristics. They not only explain, but, in many cases, supply a justification by reference to a prestigious authority or a notable past event, the more impressive the better. Examples from the religious sphere include legends claiming topographical features resulted from a saint's act or a judgement on sinners (see wells, trees, standing stones, Semerwater); pious stories linking animals or birds with Jesus (see donkey, owl, robin); customs validated by a link with the Christian calendar (see burning Judas, catterning, souling).

Secular stories to account for local customs are fascinatingly varied, some containing a fair degree of historical accuracy, while others are colourful pseudo-history, or even jokes. Several events were allegedly founded by a noble medieval benefactress (see bread and cheese dole, Haxey Hood Game, Tichborne dole); some supposedly celebrated a victory, for example catching a traitor (Hunting the Earl of Rone), foiling French invaders (Padstow), or simply outwitting a rival village (Painswick). Street football in several places was said to have originated in kicking an enemy's head—a Scotsman's at Alnwick (Northumberland), a Dane's at Chester. People giving money to a Jack-in-the-Green were following the precedent of ‘a lady who found her long-lost son as a sweep, and then she gave a celebration each year’ (Judge, 1979: 45-51). Tinsley Green claims its marbles championship began when two Elizabethan gentlemen, rivals in love, staked the lady's hand on a marbles match.

Besides these tales, which arise from within folk tradition, there are origin theories which were initially proposed by intellectual observers, but now permeate popular culture. One type claims a ‘historical core of fact’ underlying a fantastic or nonsensical item: for example, a dragon legend is ‘really’ a memory of Viking attacks, a nursery rhyme is ‘really’ about the Plague. The other is Frazer's theory that folk customs are survivals of fertility cults. Performers, press, and public now largely ignore individual origin tales in favour of a single all-purpose explanation: it is prehistoric and pagan (preferably Celtic), and whatever it may look like now, it was ‘really, originally’ a fertility ritual. Thus origin tales, like other aspects of folklore, evolve to reflect current tastes.