Who was Tiddy Mun?

Video Description

Who was Tiddy Mun? Why is he one of the most important figures in English folklore? And how is it that he was nearly forgotten forever? Hi everybody, I’m Nick and this is Beasts of the Olde World: a channel that explores ancient folklore and mythical creatures from across the globe. If you’re fascinated by the mysterious and the unseen, then make sure to subscribe and ring the bell. ✨Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDC9kYtpj38X2bn6eXrbd2Q/join Join us as we uncover the story of Tiddy Mun, a once revered King of a group of Marsh Spirits known as The Strangers. Did he really hold the power to lower rising marshwaters, sparing homes and fields from disaster? Find out why the fenfolk would gather at the cresting of the first new moon and offer him water, and what this ritual had to do with the Peewit bird. Find out why today, few remember Tiddy Mun. And why his story is one that might have been forgotten forever. We will look at the modern day county of Lincolnshire: whose countryside is a vast quilt of ordered fields and wolds stretching endlessly toward the horizon, and explore its hidden history as a "wild desolate dreary marsh, full of strange sights and sounds…” The waters here have long since retreated, leaving behind a land that bears no trace of the savage beauty it once held, or of the spirits who once walked its shrouded paths. Discover the unique and now vanished culture within the region, destroyed after King Charles I ordered Dutch engineers to drain the Fens to make way for profitable farmland. Learn how this momentous act caused the Fenfolk’s ancient way of life to drain away with the marshes, and disturbed something far older, something far more dangerous. Join us as we whisper about spirits turned evil. Of the strange lights flickering in the dark, and distant moaning cries echoing across the marsh. Of the pale faces hovering just below the surface of the murky waters, and of the monstrous disembodied hands that would wait in the mists for travellers to approach before dragging them down to their watery graves. Listen to the story section, telling not only of the last days of Tiddy Mun, but also of the beginning of the end of Fenlands themselves, and the lost Fenfolk who once lived there. Learn how the Tiddy Mun myth reflected the capricious nature of the untamed earth, as well as our complex relationship with it, and why, in a number of ways the Tiddy Mun story encapsulates the very reason I began this channel in the first place and why I consider it to be one of the most important in English Folklore. Finally, we'll discover why even though Tiddy Mun may no longer be the centre of a way of life, and though those who revered him are long gone, somehow his story endures: a window onto a time, a place and a people now utterly lost to us… and why despite all this, Tiddy Mun is possibly having the last laugh after all. 🔗Links/References: - A Dictionary of Fairies - Briggs, K - Legends of the Cars: M. C. Balfour (1891) Legends of the Cars, Folklore, 2:2, 145-170, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1891.9720054 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0015587X.1891.9720054 https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1891.9720054 - Telling History https://tellinghistory.co.uk/content/1-%E2%80%98tiddy-mun%E2%80%99 - Storynory https://www.storynory.com/tiddy-mun/ - The Great Fen https://www.greatfen.org.uk/about-great-fen/heritage - The Fens Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fens#Draining_the_Fens - The great fen project youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuXh9Y3AVF4 🙏Thank you for watching this episode of Beasts of the Olde World!🙏 🎓 All research was undertaken by Nicholas Oakland (Please see linked resources) 📝 The script was written and edited by Nicholas Oakland 📖 The story section was written by Nicholas Oakland, adapted from the olde folk tale taken from Legends of the Carrs (see linked resources) 🎙️ All voice-over was performed by Nicholas Oakland, recorded via Audacity 🎬 All aspects of editing, including video and audio mastering, were undertaken by Nicholas Oakland, using PowerDirector365 and Audacity respectively. 🎼 The music was sourced from YouTube’s audio library. 🔊 Sound effects from multiple sources, including YouTube’s audio library, PowerDirector365 sound effects catalogue, or otherwise created by Nicholas Oakland ©️ Titles and branding by Nicholas Oakland 🎥 Licenced live-action footage sourced from Getty Images iStock, unless otherwise indicated ☹️ Other images generated with Dall.e generative AI. 🎬Timestamps: 00:28 - PART I - The King of the Strangers 03:25 - PART II - Murky Waters 10:25 - PART III - (STORY SECTION) The Tale of Tiddy Mun & the Death of the Fens 18:56 - PART II - Murky Waters continued... 22:12 - PART IV - Through the Shifting Fog #mythicalcreatures #mythsandlegends #ancientfolklore #mythology