BIGFOOT STUDIO ART PRINTS
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THE BEASTS of BODMIN MOOR
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An illustrated series featuring the wildlife and landscapes of Bodmin Moor, inspired by Cornish folklore and witchcraft traditions.
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BADGER / BROGH :The badger (or 'brogh' in Kernewek) is mentioned as one of the first disciples of Saint Piran as he built his church in Cornwall, and also as a totem animal of the Goddess Brigantia and the Celtic festival of Imbolc, signifying new life emerging from the earth in the spring. A harbinger of death and ill omen in some Celtic lore, Welsh legend casts the badger as a more benevolent guide through the underworld.
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ADDER / NADER:Celtic lore held that gatherings of adders could produce magical ‘hag stones’ known as ‘milpreve’ in Cornwall and ’glain-neider’ in Wales. These holed stones were thought to have supernatural powers and to be a cure and ward against stings and snakebites. A biblical belief that adders were deaf led to their use as an oil in folk medicine to treat deafness and earache.
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BARN OWL / KOWAN:Seen as gate keepers of the underworld in many cultures, in Cornish folklore the call of the owl announces the presence of Ankow, collector of souls and guardian of the graveyard. Cast as a bird of ill omen and harbinger of death in Welsh folklore, Greek myth holds the owl as sacred to the goddess Athena as a muse of prescience and great wisdom.
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BUZZARD / BARGOS:During the middle ages Buzzard was a common rural surname signifying fierceness and tenacity. In some areas treated as a bird of good omen, others used ‘buzzard’ as a derogatory nickname for the bird’s lack of use in falconry. Mordvin folklore from the Russian Volga region relates how the buzzard was banned from drinking from lakes and rivers, its call a cry to the gods for water.
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CROW / BRAN:Taken as messengers of the supernatural, Cornish folklore suggests greeting crows with due and proper respect. St Neot was supposed to have commanded the crows to leave the crops alone on the sabbath, so that villagers might take time off scaring them away to attend church. Many parts of Celtic Britain saw them as birds of ill luck. The Irish goddess of battle, the Morrigan, would take the form of a crow known as the ‘badb’.
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HARE / SKOVARNEK:As sacred creatures hares have an association with the Moon and lunar cycles and it is thought eating hares was prohibited in Iron Age Britain. Some witches were claimed to transform into hares, while in Cornwall white hares were said to haunt faithless male lovers, or to be an omen of death or coming storms if seen around the boats in the harbour at sunset.
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MAGPIE / PIESEN:Magpies, as birds of death and ill omen, are to be greeted with appropriate ritual and respect. In divinatory rhymes, such as ”one for sorrow, two for mirth” etc, they could signify varying fortunes for the future. In some Swedish folklore witches took the form of magpies when travelling, and in ancient Rome they were strongly associated with magic and fortune-telling.
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STAG / KAROW:In Celtic lore deer were magical beasts able to travel between worlds, their form sometimes taken by shape shifting humans. Saint Patrick is claimed to have transformed into a deer to escape a pagan king. In both Celtic and Greek mythology hunting the stag symbolised the quest for wisdom and some European fables claim the sun is carried between the antlers of a stag.
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STOAT / YEWGEN:Featured in royal, state and ecclesiastical robes, middle ages folklore claimed the stoat would rather die before soiling its white winter ‘ermine’ coat. This made it a symbol of moral purity and ‘death before dishonour’, used in heraldry as a pattern of ‘nails’ on a white ground to represent its fur and black tail, as featured on the Breton flag, the 'Gwenn Ha Du' (white and black).
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TOAD / KRONEK:Folklore tells of shape shifting Cornish witches transforming into toads. To become a witch it was advised to feed a stolen sacramental wafer to a toad from the graveyard. In folk medicine, preparations or parts of toads were used as charms to cure growths and swellings. In the 17th and 18th centuries ‘toad doctors’ were popular figures who dispensed dried toad skins, bones and powders for various ailments.
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