Wild Hunt by Jim Kirkwood

Wild Hunt by Jim Kirkwood. From ASH no.2 Winter 1988.

Thomas Hickathrift, Lord of the Year (part 2)

Above: Saffron Walden parish church

This is the second episode of Dave Hunt's research into the legends surrounding Thomas Hickathrift. It appeared in ASH number 2 winter 1988 and is reproduced here with brand new images to help enhance and expand the article. Dave, a Cornishman by birth, looks at some Cornish links to the East Anglian folktales and concludes with fascinating evidence of ancient sun worship in the ancient and historic North Essex town of Saffron Walden.

Thomas Hickathrift, Lord of the Year
Part 2: Sun Worship

by Dave Hunt

In the first episode, I related some of the legends of Tom Hickathrift, giant and giant killer. I have since come across a legend from Morvah in Cornwall, which makes it necessary to tell one of the other East Anglian tales.According to tradition, in Tom's later years, he set up home with a tinker, who was the only man who could match Tom's strength and fighting ability. This may seem a rather feeble legend in itself, but when I relate the Cornish legend, you will realise its significance.

The Morvah Legend.
Morvah, in the far west of Cornwall, has always been famous for its giants. The Cornish language did not die out here until the 18th century, and the people were so isolated from the rest of the country they retained their customs and beliefs long after they had become folklore elsewhere.
In one of the tales, the story is told of one giant called Tom, and his battle with another of his kind. As Tom drove his cart from St Ives to his home in Morvah he found the road blocked by a newly constructed dry stone wall. Because he was too tired to remove it, Tom decided to take a short cut across the land of another giant who lived in a nearby castle. As he drew near the castle, Tom was challenged by the occupier, who demanded to know why Tom was on his land. Tom argued that, as the giant had blocked the road with the wall, he was taking his own way home. At this, the giant pulled a small elm tree by its roots, and brandishing it as a weapon, ordered Tom from his land. Tom then upturned his cart and , removing a wheel and axle s haft stood to face his foe. After a battle that made the ground shake with its ferocity, Tom finally dispatched his enemy with a mighty blow to the neck. The victor then took possession of the castle and all the treasure it contained. A point of interest is that the legend states that while the battle was being fought, the local people were dancing round the festive fires in the vicinity.

This legend and that told of the East Anglian Tom are so obviously the same that one wonders how the same story can exist at different ends of the country, a distance of some 300 miles apart. Having said this, it is of interest that East Anglia was, until quite recently, as isolated as Northwest Cornwall. Perhaps we have here a nationwide memory of the old Gods, told by the people of Albion's extreme regions to their children and grandchildren until relatively modern times.

As for Tom Hickathrift's companion of later years, the tinker, the Morvah legend states that Tom eventually befriended a Tinker named Jack, whose strength matched his own. Tom even allowed Jack to marry his daughter Genevra. The wedding took place on the first Sunday in August. One and a half miles east of Morvah stand the Mên-an-Tol holed stone, one of the most enigmatic Bronze Age stone monuments in the country. This consists of two upright stones and a third, which is disc shaped with a round hole in the centre, not unlike a cartwheel.

Ogmios

Ogmios - Ogma Sunface, Son of Breas, Lord of the Sun and the Celtic Hercules was worshipped by the Druids as the inventor of the Ogham alphabet, god of eloquence, healing, fertility and prophecy. He is portrayed in carvings as wearing a lion skin, a nd carries a huge club. His feast day in Scotland is Hogmany, our New Years Eve. The power of Ogmios lies not in his great strength, but is symbolised by the chain that joins his tongue to the ears of those listening to him. He is a hero furthering the cause of civilisation, the god of eloquence and persuasive discourse. In Irish mythology, he becomes th e god Ogma, whose sword tells all the exploits it accomplishes during the battle of Mar Tured.
 

The Greek Hercules is depicted in similar garb to Ogmios, wearing a lion skin, and carrying a club. He was also famed as a healer of the sick, and Lord of the Zodiac. Ogmios, as Sun God, would naturally carry the same title. The Roman writer Lucian connected Ogmios with Hercules, and in Gaul a similar figure existed in Smertius, the Striker, although this Summer God carried a hammer rather than a club.

Ogmios as inventor of the Ogham alphabet has some famous counterparts. Among his equals we find Hermes, in ventor of the Greek alphabet, Thoth, inventor of hieroglyphics, and Odin, discoverer of the Runes. Ogmios as lord of the Sun also has a counterpart in Helios, the Greek god of the Sun.

Getting back to Saffron Walden, it is time to look for signs of our Sun God around the town. St Mary's church is a magnificent Norman (with later additions) building and is said to be the largest parish church in the country. As with many other sacred and secular buildings, it has many superb gargoyles and grotesques carved on it's exterior. High on the north wall of the nave are spandrels, decorated with, amongst other designs, cart wheels. These undoubted solar symbols are usually symbolic of St Catherine, a fictitious Christian marty r put to death by the Romans on a blazing cartwheel. Lower down the north wall, tucked in beside a buttress, is a charming little carving of a fellow wielding a club, with a most fearsome look on his face. Again, high high up on the north wall, we find a string course of grotesques including a phoenix, symbol of rebirth, another solar sign, two figures holding torches, solar again, and a chained monkey. "A chained monkey?" I hear you cry. "What on earth has a chained monkey got to do with the Ogham alphabet?" Absolutely nothing! However it is of interest that one of the symbols of Thoth, inventor of Hieroglyphs, is a monkey which he led around on a chain!

So what of Hermes and Odin. Can we find evid ence of these two in Saffron Walden? Indeed we can. Of Odin, just a small thing. South west of the town in Grimsditch Wood, in medieval times Grymswich. Grim is another name for Odin, or Woden, discoverer of the Runic alphabet.

Above: Saffron Walden Turf Maze.

Hermes, it is said, discovered the Greek alphabet after watching cranes flying in formation overhead, making letters as they flew. Apart from the figures of Tom and the Wisbech giant on the Sun Inn, we find two depictions of cranes, birds sacred to Hermes. A sculpture above the doors of Barclay's bank in the town, executed during the early part of the twentieth century, depicts cranes flying. Coincidence? Maybe. Of the two Sun Inn cranes, one is shown performing a mating display, or crane dance as it was called in ancient Greece. The crane dance is said to have produced the pattern of the labyrinth or maze into which the sun god descended after his yearly death to be reborn eventually from its centre. On the east side of Saffron Walden common lies one of the countries largest and best turf mazes or labyrinths in the country. One of the streets approaching the common and aligning approximately onto the maze, is Hill Street. In 1468 this was Helestrete (Hele Street) surely a reference to Helios, the Greek sun god. If the alignment is carried across the common, through the maze and continued, we come eventually to Helion Bumstead. May I suggest that before the two and three stories building were erected in Saffron Walden, one could stand looking along Helestrete and see the newly born sun rise from the maze, on a particular day.

This is some of the evidence of Sun God worship in ancient Saffron Walden. However, before I close this episode I should mention a small carving of a Romano-British God found at Corstopitum, a Roman town in the north of England. It depicts a god dressed in Roman type armour, who carries a square shield and a large club. He is accompanied by a single cartwheel.