The Ghost Ship of Porthcurno

The Ghost Ship of Porthcurno

Along the lines of antiquated communication
Within a stones throw of the
Ancient Logan Rock
Traditional place of initiations of
The ancient folk of fey
Pristine golden sand, glows in the sunlight
Illuminating the cove,
Softly sharing the space with
The sparkling crystalline granitic cliffs
Worn smooth by the insatiable tides and
Swelling waters of the alluring
Mesmerising Atlantic.
This soft contagious place
Backdrop scenery of a million pictures
Of family holidays and
Romantic canoodling couples
Honeymooning together in the warm
Cornish sun.
The bay of white sand caressing the toes of
Pilgrims and travellers and seekers of history
And mystery of the old
Hermitage and secret spring
Issuing from the clifftops from the secret abode
Of sages, priests and shamans of a golden past?

But as sunset approaches
A different mystery unfolds -
On certain nights, when the white shining moon
Peeks through scudding black billowing clouds
Sailing across the menacing
Dismal starry sky with
The feeling of a thousand
Demons watching from above
This cove is transformed,
The stage is set for another tall tale
That will terrify and astonish one and all...
For darkness has fallen, and the grey bell is tolling
The bell of the ghost-ship is ringing at sea
The phantom is coming, from the deepest dark ocean
As we observe from the shadowy tortuous
Covert corners of the
Moon-bathed village streets, with
Terrifying anticipation.
Ding, ding, ding
Tolls the bell,
Reverberating, advancing across the bay
The moon shining full lighting her way
Creaking and a groaning,
She sails closer for inspection
By the invisible deck-hands and the
Demonic admiralty
The dismal smell of decay rises above the sand.

Then at once,
She mysteriously appears
A fine ancient ghost-ship,
Close to the beach
Billowing ghostly fog abounds
Swirling and dancing
With dark ragged flags fluttering
On the deathly night air
Torn sails flapping with the
Creak and groan of deaths inevitable grasp.

The Dark Ship is with us
As she sails above the sand
Towards the village,
Crashing through unseen waters,
Seeking all who wish to hide
From this deliciously devilish scene.
Searching, hunting those souls
Whom she has left behind.

 taken from Lucifer Bridge. 
Click cover below to purchase or download.

Menhir: A poetic invocation of the Cornish landscape

 

I am very pleased to announce that my brand new poetry collection is now available. This little fifty-eight page anthology contains twenty-one poems, which take you on a journey into the heart of the hidden realms of Nature. The poetry explores some of the haunted coombes, enchanted woodlands, ancient sites, mysterious moors and secret coastlines of the wild and remote Cornish landscape. Enter into the liminal places where the genius loci awaits rediscovery.

The book is lavishly illustrated throughout by Paul Atlas-Saunders, and his beautiful watercolour 'From Treslea' is featured on the cover.

Below is a sample poem along with the illustration which accompanies it.

Pennkarow

Liminal movement  

By the darkened hedge                                  

From the threshold of night,                   

Floating in time                                      

Branches dance,                                         

Teased by the forest crown                         

Eyes peering from the                                   

Dense blackness.                                

Something stirs                                              

A quickening                                               

There are no stars tonight                                   

Just a low dense mist                                             

Rising from the valley floor.

Solitary vistas give way to                     

The antlered red beast                         

As he leaps over the ancient ramparts 

Into my path.                                                 

Time slows, eyes meet                              

Infinite possibilities tonight on                     

The hilltop settlement of                               

The ancient ancestors.                                

He quickly disappears again                 

Heading back into his                         

Woodland realm                                 

Continuing his solitary                        

Journey to the river.

_____________________________________________________

Menhir

Perfect-bound Paperback, with black and white illustrations throughout. 10.8cm x 17.48cm
ISBN 9780956355447

£5 plus shipping

Buy now 

Some Folklore from Tintagel

Some Folklore from Tintagel

Alex Langstone

The folklore of Tintagel is dominated by King Arthur, and Geoffrey of Monmouth was the first to document the Arthurian connection with Tintagel in his History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britnniae) which was written in the 1130s. The Castle, built by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in the 1230s is also connected, within the tangled web of folklore, to the legendary tales of Tristan and Isolde, as the castle at Tintagel was also the seat of King Mark. My favourite piece of ‘Arthuriana’ in Tintagel is the indentation in the clifftop known as King Arthur’s footprint, where the Victorians claimed that Arthur, as a giant, could stand one foot on the ‘footprint’ and another in the churchyard of St Materiana on the opposite cliff. However, there is much more to the folklore of Tintagel than King Arthur.     

Tintagel has its very own sea serpent. In September 1907 the Aberdeen Journal reported a sighting of a sea serpent by the Rev. T. C. Davies of Sheffield and Mr E Dodgson, Chaplain at Jesus College Oxford. They first sighted the creature about 11.45.am on September 12th. The report came in a letter to the Western Morning News. They were seated on the edge of the cliff at Gullastem when their attention was drawn to a black object moving very quickly along the surface about 200 yards away towards Tintagel Head. In view for about a minute, the serpent was at least twenty-foot-long, and was holding its head above the water which appeared to have a large mane upon it. The two witnesses rued that they had neither a telescope or a "Kodak to take its likeness”.                                                                         

The tales of some of the charmers and conjurors of Tintagel and district are of great interest and one such charmer was called ‘Old Martin’, who was practising his craft in the village in the early part of the twentieth century. He would cure warts using an absent treatment charm, where all he would ask for was the name of the affected person. The warts were invariably gone within a week. He would never accept payment for his services and he continued the old tradition of never being thanked for his treatments as this was widely believed to render the charm useless. He had an interesting charm for curing sprains. He would take hold of the injured limb and say - 

“As Our Saviour went over God’s bridge; he caught his toe in a stone and got a sprain. Then comes Peter who stretched it out, bone to bone, sinew to sinew, skin to skin. I hope every drop of the blood in thy body will run, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”

‘Old Martin’ also had a charm to cure boils. The spell was recited over the patient, using his or her name 

“(Patient’s name), three angels came from the west. One had fire; the others had water and frost. Out Fire! In Water and Frost! In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”

Another charm, this time from 1930s Tintagel, gives instructions on how to cure ringworm in humans. Take half a crown and encircle the ringworm three times opposite the sun. The ringworm will dry and eventually all infected skin will fall away leaving clear new skin.

 Fenterleigh Cross, Bossiney

There is an interesting account which reveals that several witch bottles were discovered underneath an old wayside cross at Bossiney in the 1880s. The antiquarian writer, H. Michell Whitley wrote about this discovery in Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries Vol 2, 1921 –

When on a walking tour through North Cornwall about forty years ago I stopped to sketch a wayside cross near Tintagel; and was told by the farmer of the adjacent land that it was overthrown some time ago, and on setting it up again, he found several bottles full of water, and with many pins in them, buried around its foot. On inquiring the reason of these bottles being buried, I was told at Boscastle that "If you are ill-wished you must take a bottle, fill it with water, and put some pins in it, cork it tight, and then bury it. at the foot of a holy cross; and the ill-wish will fall on the person who ill-wished you.

This is likely to be the cross at Fenterleigh, as this has been moved at least twice. According to Andrew Langdon in his book Stone Crosses in North Cornwall, the cross was standing by a hedge in the 1860s with only the front visible. According to Whitley’s account, it must have been moved by the farmer that he spoke to, circa 1880. This was when the witch bottles were discovered by the farmer. The monument has been moved again, more recently, due to road widening. However, according to Andrew Langdon, it remains close to its original position, at the cross roads, marked by the nearby field name ‘Cross field’.  

First published in Meyn Mamvro No. 92 Winter/Spring 2017. Text taken from my recent book From Granite to Sea: The Folklore of Bodmin Moor and East Cornwall.