As Samhain and Halloween approach, I find myself returning to the old stories that belong to Cornwall, particularly those connected with the granite tors, burial places, mines, moorland and coast. The Witch and the Spriggan grew from that landscape and from my love of the strange beings that have inhabited Cornish folklore for generations.
I wrote and illustrated the tale for Folktale Week, and it was first included in the October Hedgerow & Moor Almanac Box. The finished illustrated zine is now available separately online for anyone who would like to read it.
Read more about The Witch & The Spriggan illustrated zine
What is Folktale Week?
Folktale Week is an annual online illustration and writing event organised by a group of artists on Instagram. Each year the organisers announce seven prompts, and participants create seven pieces of work inspired by an existing folktale or by a story of their own. Some people make a sequence of illustrations, some write, and others combine words and pictures into a complete tale.
I take part every year because the format gives me a reason to put other work aside for a while and concentrate on storytelling. Seven prompts provide enough structure to get started, while still leaving plenty of room to follow an idea wherever it leads. If you draw, paint, make prints, write stories or simply want to try something new, it is well worth looking out for this year’s prompts on the Folktale Week Instagram account.
Creating my own Cornish folktale
Rather than illustrating an existing story, I decided to write an original folktale inspired by the myths and landscape of the Cornish countryside. The story is set in Lamorna and begins with a wise woman who is driven away by villagers who have become suspicious of her knowledge. When the mayor’s baby later disappears, the people who rejected her are forced to ask for her help.
The search leads through a riddle and into the world of the spriggan, taking the characters across the sea, over the moor and down into the mines. These are places that already carry so many stories in Cornwall that they felt like natural parts of the tale rather than scenery added afterwards.
Spriggans, Knockers and the Cornish landscape
Spriggans appear in Cornish folklore as troublesome and sometimes dangerous beings associated with old places, buried treasure and ancient remains. The underground world of the story also draws upon tales of the Knockers, the spirits said to inhabit Cornish mines. Miners told of hearing tapping beneath the ground, and the sound could be understood as a warning of danger or as a clue that rich ore was nearby.
The stories vary from place to place and from one telling to another, which is part of what makes folklore so interesting. In The Witch and the Spriggan, I used those old ideas as the foundation for new characters, including the threatening Drokter and the more helpful Knockers who assist the search.
You can read more about Cornish mining folklore through the University of Exeter’s research into Knockers, and explore further Cornish myths and legends through the Royal Cornwall Museum.
The witch at the centre of the story
Although the title belongs to the witch and the spriggan, I wanted the wise woman to be much more than the familiar wicked figure from a fairy tale. Her knowledge and intelligence are what solve the problem, even after she has been treated badly by the people who need her.
That gave the story a second thread about fear, judgement and the ease with which a community can reject someone it does not understand. Her eventual return is not simply a neat ending; it changes the relationship between the wise woman and the villagers, who have finally learnt the value of what she knows.
From seven prompts to a finished book
I developed the story one Folktale Week prompt at a time, making the illustrations and writing the accompanying pages as the narrative unfolded. The images include the spriggan in the dark wood, crows and the sea, a mirror and candle, and the Knockers at work beneath the ground. Working within the seven-part format helped me decide which moments needed to be shown and which could be left to the reader’s imagination.
Once the week was over, I brought the words and illustrations together as a small printed zine. It became the folktale gift inside the October Almanac Box, where it sat alongside the month’s material on Samhain, Allantide and Halloween, and it is now available as a separate booklet.
A Cornish story for the darker part of the year
Late October is a fitting time for stories about unfamiliar paths, underground places and the consequences of ignoring good advice. The Witch and the Spriggan is an original tale rather than a historic Cornish legend, but it has been built from the landscape, beliefs and supernatural characters found in Cornwall’s storytelling tradition.
If you would like to see the finished illustrations and read the complete tale, you can find the printed zine in the shop.
View The Witch & The Spriggan illustrated Cornish folklore zine