Tiddy Mun was a legendary

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

spirit in

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, who was believed to have the ability to control the waters and mists of

The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...

of South

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, The Carrs of North Lincolnshire and fens of the

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an Administrative counties of England, administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to ...

Legend

The belief in Tiddy Mun was first documented in June 1891 in an article by M. C. Balfour in

the Folklore Society The Folklore Society (FLS) is a registered charity under English law based in London, England for the study of folklore. Its office is at 50 Fitzroy Street, London home of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. It w ...

journal ''Folk-Lore''. In the article she recalls a story, collected in the Ancholme Valley, told to her by an older person who spoke of a

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

of pestilence that had been cast upon his village by the Tiddy Mun, who was angered at the draining of the Fens by the Dutch, led by Cornelius Vermuyden, in the seventeenth century. According to the story the Tiddy Mun was eventually placated after the villagers gathered at twilight at the time of the new moon, poured buckets of water into the dyke and apologised for the damage caused. He was not exclusively malevolent; if the Fens flooded and the waters reached the villages, people would go out at night and call ''Tiddy Mun wi'out a name, tha watters thruff!'' ("Tiddy Mun without a name, the water's through!") until they heard the cry of a peewit, and the next morning the waters would have receded. In his 1987 ''

Folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

'' paper "Tiddy Mun's Curse and the Ecological Consequences of Land Reclamation", Darwin Horn argues that all but one of Tiddy Mun's specific curses may be connected to misfortune and disease brought about by the effect of draining the fenland.

Description

The Tiddy Mun was described, by folklorist M.C. Balfour in 1891, as being no bigger than a three-year-old child, but looking like an old man with long, tangled white hair and a matted white beard. He is said to have worn a grey gown so that at dusk he was difficult to see. His laughter was said to resemble the call of the peewit.

The Tiddy people

Writing in 1955, folklorist E. H. Rudkin also records another Ancholme Valley belief of an imp-like race of beings who were generally considered mischievous but benevolent. They were 'called the Tiddy people', but also ''the Strangers'', ''Greencoaties'' and ''Yarthkins''. The 'Tiddy' name related to their size and Rudkin quotes a source describing them: 'They be tiddy critturs, no more than a span high, wi' arms an' legs as thin as thread, but great big feet an' hands, an' heads rollin' aboot on their shoulders'. The Tiddy people would dance, by moonlight, on large flat stones, known as ''Strangers Stones'', found in the area. Rudkin records a local tradition of smearing the stones with blood and lighting fires on them, but was unable to determine a meaning, or specific belief, behind the practice. The first of the crops would also be left on the ''Strangers Stones'', as well as bread and salt, to keep the Tiddy people happy and ensure a good harvest.

Tiddy Mun Bridge

In 2022 the upgraded bridge on the A47 at Guyhirn was officially opened and named Tiddy Mun Bridge. A competition to name the bridge was won by 13 year-old Ava McCulloch.

References in popular culture

* In his 2013 paper "Caliban and the Fen Demons of Lincolnshire: The Englishness of Shakespeare's Tempest", Dr Todd Andrew Borlik identifies Tiddy Mun as a possible inspiration for Caliban in William Shakespeare's ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

''.

References

{{Use British English, date=January 2017 English legendary creatures History of Lincolnshire Lincolnshire folklore Water spirits