Your Story: Ghosts and Superstitions in Llangattock
"Cursed is the man who kills a robin"
"Whoever breaks a wren’s nest shall never know heavenly rest"
"I have lived too near the wood to be frightened by the owls"
"Good morning Mr Magpie"
Some of the expressions heard as a youngster used by members of older generations living in the village. The behaviour of birds and animals was said to have some influence on the lives of human beings. There are dozens of ways in which such behaviour found expression and I could not possibly mention them all. The above are an example of those circulating locally, in other parts of Wales and undoubtedly among the superstitious on the other side of Offa’s Dyke.
When we were young and foolish and collected bird’s eggs I did not know anyone with a robin’s egg in his collection! Ill luck followed those who took its eggs. A wren’s nest was also treated with great respect. Many of the older generation considered the hooting of the owl to be unlucky particularly so if there was some variation in the hooting. It would be a delight in this day and age to hear any of the owl family, Many would say there are too many magpies about these days, be that as it may do not forget to say “good morning”. Folk used to be pleased to see two or three magpies together when starting on a journey providing they were moving from left to right. If they were moving from right to left, the journey would be hazardous. To avoid this you made the sign of the cross on the ground and spat in the middle of it.
Do not take a hawthorn spray in flower into the house at any time and in Llangattock it was considered unlucky to take daffodils into the house before Palm Sunday.
“I don’t believe in ghosts” how easily the words are spoken in cheerful company and familiar surroundings. Alone in a strange place at dead of night you may find that they come less readily to the lips. Even the most hardened skeptics may know the prickle of unease in passing through the old graveyard late at night. In states of solitude and apprehension the existence of a Phantom Monk or a Grey Lady takes on a more plausible reality.
Many of us have experienced those moments of loaded silence when the unfamiliar may shock like high voltage electricity! These Fairy Stories and Old Wives Tales are part of our common inheritance, without which there is a yawning gap with our past and without which we are separated from our surroundings.
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