The Strangers in the Land

The Strangers in the Land:
What Was Forgotten, and What Should Never Be Forgotten

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Land spirits, whether seen as spiritual powers in nature, inhabiting some specific place, or as the powers of the dead, emerging through the Land at that place, were always venerated in Pagan religions across the world- and for good reason. Aside from the sheer politeness and wisdom of befriending and honoring the local powers in the Land, the Land-spirits had power over the harvest and over human well-being, insofar as humans depended on the Land.

The Dead or the Pale People are powers of the Underworld, and the Land Spirits are powers of the various aspects of the Land in expression- but both come from the unseen reality at the heart of the Land and the Unseen world, or Underworld, has always been thought of as the source of wealth and fertility. Crops grew up from the depths of the underworld, just as the under-earth contained mineral wealth. Thus, the veneration of the inner-land dwelling spirits of the dead and the veneration of the spirits of nature have a similar goal, beyond politeness- to secure food and plenty.

A powerful example of the survival of genuine Land-based paganism into Christian times, complete with a veneration and propitiation of Land-spirits, was recorded and retold by Katharine Briggs, in her essential book “The Encyclopedia of Fairies”. A woman named “Mrs. Balfour” collected a good deal of folklore from an area of Northern Lincolnshire, where the fens had been drained. This area was called “the cars”, and she preserved the notes she took down as the stories were being told to her. Some people didn’t believe her, on account of the macabre nature of what she found and published, but time has proven that she was correct- information found in other works on the folklore of the Fens has corroborated what she wrote.

The people in the Fens called the land-spirits “The Strangers”, but also the “Greencoaties”, the “Yarthkins” and the “Tiddy people”, this final name being on account of their diminutive size. In many folklores around the world, the spirits of the dead are presented as being small- a reference to the “reduction” of the dead into the inner dimension of the world, the “going down” into the Underworld. Her account contained actual folk rituals done with the ancient megalithic stones found around England, and so it interests all Traditional Pagans of this tradition.

Let me begin by quoting one of her contacts directly- a Fen-man who was recorded in the late 1800’s, in a very dense local dialect; what you read here is my transliteration of what he said, but you can see the original on page 383 of “The Encyclopedia of Fairies”:

Mrs. Balfour’s contact told her:

“But about the Strangers…you know what they be- aye- you’re gettin’ ready with the word, but it’s chancy to call them such! No, and if you’d seen them as much as I have, you’d twist your tongue into another shape, you would. Folk in these parts, they call them mostly the Strangers, or the tiddy people, or the Greencoaties from their green jackets; or maybe the Yarthkin, since they dwelled in the mools. But mostly the Strangers, as I said before, for strange they be- in looks and in ways...

On summer nights they danced in the moonshine on the great flat stones you see about, I don’t know where they come from, but my grandmother said how her grandmother’s grandmother told them that long ago the folk set fire on those stones and smeared them with blood and thought a deal more on them than the passion bodies at the church...

And on winter evenings the Strangers danced at nights on the fireplace when the folk went to bed; and the crickets played for them with right good will… Folk thought the Strangers helped the corn to ripen, and all the green things to grow and that they painted the pretty colors on the flowers and the reds and browns on the fruit and the yallerin leaves. And that’s how, if they were fratched (offended) things would dwindle and wither and the harvest would fail and the folk would go hungry. So, they did all they could think to please the tiddy people and keep friends with them.

In the gardens, the first flowers, the first fruit, and the first cabbage or whatnot, they’d be taken to the nearest flat stone and laid there for the Strangers; in the fields, the first yearn of corn or the first potatoes were given to them and at home, before you began to eat your vittles, a bit of bread and drop of milk or beer, was spilled on the fireplace to keep the Greencoaties from hunger and thirst.”

Katherine Briggs continues the story in her own words- words chilling and powerful:

“According to the Story, all went well with the people and the Land as long as they kept up these habits. But as time went on, the people became careless. No libations were poured out, the great flat stones were left empty, and even sometimes broken up and carried away. There was more church-going, and in time a generation sprang up that had almost forgotten about the Strangers. Only the wise women remembered.

At first nothing happened; the Strangers were reluctant to believe that their old worshippers had deserted them. At last they became angry, and struck. Harvest after harvest failed, there was no growth of corn or hay, the beasts sickened on the farms, the children pined away and there was no food to give them. Then the men spent the little they could get on drink, and the women on opium. They were bewildered, and could think of nothing to do; all except the wise women.

They got together and made a solemn ceremony of divination, with fire and blood. (presumably on the stones) And when they learnt what was making the mischief, they went all among the people, and summoned them to gather at the cross-roads in the deep twilight, and there they told them the cause of the trouble, and explained the usages of the older people. And the women, remembering all the little graves in the churchyard and the pining babies in their arms, said that the old ways must be taken up again, and the men agreed with them.

So they went home, and spilled their libations, and laid out the firstings of the little that they had, and taught their children to respect the Strangers. Then, little by little, things began to mend; the children lifted their heads, the crops grew and the cattle throve. Still, there were never such merry times as there once had been, and the fever still hovered over the Land. It is a bad thing to forsake the old ways, and what is once lost can never quite be recovered.” (Briggs, 384- 385).

Mistress Briggs is quite right- it is bad to forsake the Old Ways, and it is true that the full power of a former era or age can never be recovered, for the world’s procession of “ages” is moving along, until the end, and you can’t go back. But you can spiritually revitalize yourself and your world, in accordance with what is possible for your own age, and the Strangers occupy an inner world of timeless power, which is still available to all that have the courage and love to make the fires on the stones and spill some blood for them.

Stories like this, from the 1800’s, should make the hair turn white on the nay-sayers who claim that pagan customs never survived into the modern day. This second-hand account from Mrs. Balfour clearly identifies the various features of Traditional Paganism in the British Isles- a reciprocal exchange with Land-powers or Innerworldly powers, libations, “wise women” who understood the origin of these rites and methods of divination, meetings at the “crossroads in deep twilight”, ancient stones and hearths as interaction points with the unseen world, and the dangers of losing the Old Ways.

Site last updated: November 2, 2005