The Wolf of Allendale

In 1904, in the town of Allendale in Northumberland, something started attacking the sheep. An escaped wolf was blamed, although the culprit was never conclusively identified.

Farmers started housing their sheep, but still the slaughter continued. A committee was set up to try and hunt it down and a reward offered for its skin, to no avail.
A wolf was then found dead on a railway line and the story was considered finished, until 1971.

The chance discovery of some ancient stone heads, suggested to be Celtic in origin, triggered strange happenings including the appearance of a werewolf-like creature. This was linked to the legend of the wolf of Allendale. The incidents seemed to be attached to the heads and stopped when they were moved.
The heads were eventually taken by a museum for study; their current whereabouts is unknown.

This strange story is the inspiration behind my new novel The Wolf of Allendale. For more information see http://hannah-spencer-author.weebly.com

Unlucky Days

Friday the Thirteenth, the most dreaded date of the calendar. It has darkened our lives since the 19^th century: the first known superstitious reference to the date is in 1869, when Gioachino Rossini died on Friday 13^th November, the very date he had particularly believed to be so unlucky.

Fear of this day is called paraskevidekatriaphobia: paraskevi being Greek for 'Friday,' and dekatria meaning 'thirteen.' It is estimated that around $900 million USD are lost in business on this day, as people are reluctant to go out, drive, trade or any other potentially risky things. Statistics do actually show a slight increase in road accidents on Friday the 13^th, compared to any other Friday, but probably this can be explained by the simple fact that what you expect to happen, often does.

The reasons for this superstition are complex. Friday has always been considered an unlucky day: this is referred to in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales written in the 14^th century. This possibly stems from the crucifixion of Jesus, which took place on a Friday. Thirteen is the traditional unlucky number. Again this may link to the crucifixion: there were thirteen people at the Last Supper. Thirteen is a discordant number: being prime, it is divisible by no numbers except itself and one, whereas twelve is the traditional number of harmony and completeness. There were twelve apostles, twelve knights of the round table, twelve constellations of the zodiac, and many others. Friday and thirteen combined is therefore a double whammy of bad luck.

Another reason, popularised by Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, is the Knights Templar, the organisation linked to so many conspiracy theories which were rounded up en masse and imprisoned or killed on Friday 13^th October 1307. This may have led to a belief that this date was cursed.

Whether you believe in it or not, I hope the day passes well for you.

Plough Monday

Plough Monday, falling on the Monday after Twelfth Day or epiphany (6th January), was the traditional start of the farming new year after the twelve days of Christmas revelries were over.

Ploughing the fields after the fallow period of winter, ready for the spring planting was the main focus of the coming month or two.  The care taken and the weather conditions at the time would have a dramatic influence on the quality of the harvest later in the year. As anyone who cultivates plants knows, the seedbed is the most important variable. 'God speed the plough' is commonly found in ballads and on engravings.

The celebration dates to at least the 15th century, and the day was one of feasting, revelry and pageantry, and a plough, decorated with ribbons, was pulled around the village by all the farm lads with pipes and other instruments playing.
Money was usually collected door to door, as on St Thomas' Day and wassailing days, with the threat that non-compliance would result in their garden getting ploughed up!

In some areas, participants would dress as women. In Warwickshire the plough boys and farm girls would race to the nearest furrow and back; the losers lost their share of plum pudding.

Plough Monday was all but forgotten by the beginning of the 19th century, but in the late 20th century it began to receive more interest as old customs were revived. It is celebrated in several places today.