Playing with the Lost Giants
The Lost Giants is a Cornwall-based art collective that specialises in making large scale sculptures and costumes for folk events. In their time they’ve made dragons, ogres, sea serpents and obby osses. And, just recently, I’ve been delighted to be part of one of their projects.
Fire in the Mountain Festival - Image: The Lost Giants
Hughenden Manor is a large country house, with a wonderful park, woods and gardens, on the outskirts of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. It’s the former home of Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, and she visited the house several times. It’s in the capable hands of the National Trust these days and open to the public throughout most of the year.
The staff there put on some great events throughout the year and, a couple of months ago, I was asked to act as folklore advisor on a Halloween project involving local myths and legends. We discussed various options but settled on a Green Man - the universal symbol of protection for our woodlands - and a couple of characters unique to this area - the Little Witches, and the Wycombe Wyrm.
Fire in the Mountain Festival - Image: The Lost Giants
The Little Witches are Buckinghamshire’s unique tribe of little people (just as other counties have Piskies, Boggarts, Brownies, Pwcas etc.). The Little Witches are mischievous but not overly malicious. They love to dance. But they are also secretive and can cast a ‘glamour’ so that you only ever become aware of them when you’re not looking. One story tells of a farmer who noticed that all of his sheep were looking in one direction. He followed their gaze and saw a pair of Little Witches sittng on a five bar gate. The minute they realised they’d been spotted they cast a spall and the gate jumped off its hinges and they rode it off across the fields.
Meanwhile, the Wycombe Wyrm is Wycombe’s very own dragon legend. Also known as the Hughenden Dragon, the story of how it terrorised the parish goes back to at least the 16th century. Its defeat is the centrepiece of the Wyrd Wycombe festival held on the first Sunday in February - the next one is February 7th 2027.
The National Trust asked The Lost Giants to bring these characters to life and they did an amazing job. I supplied them with the stories and some background but left them to interpret the characters.
And, talk about it being a small world …. would you believe that they are based in Helston, Cornwall, the town in which I lived during my teens? And I didn’t know that until after I was approached.
What an extraordinary coincidence.
Almost magical you might say …
A Little Witch
The Wycombe Wyrm