Tiddy Mun

Tiddy Mun was a bog spirit worshipped in Lincolnshire, England, who supposedly had the ability to control the waters and mists of the Fens.

Legend

Tiddy Mun's existence was first cited in June 1891 in an article by M. C. Balfour in the Folklore Society journal Folk-Lore. In the article she recalls a story, collected in the Ancholme Valley, told to her by an older person who spoke of a curse of pestilence that had been cast upon his village by the Tiddy Mun, who was angered at the draining of the Fens by the Dutch, led by Cornelius Vermuyden, in the seventeenth century. According to the story the Tiddy Mun was eventually placated after the villagers gathered at twilight at the time of the new moon, poured buckets of water into the dyke and apologised for the damage caused.

He was not exclusively malevolent; if the Fens flooded and the waters reached the villages, people would go out at night and call Tiddy Mun wi'out a name, tha watters thruff! ("Tiddy Mun without a name, the water's through!") until they heard the cry of a peewit, and the next morning the waters would have receded.

Description

The Tiddy Mun is described as being no bigger than a three year old child, but looking like an old man with long, tangled white hair and a matted white beard. He is said to have worn a grey gown so that at dusk he was difficult to see. His laughter was said to resemble the call of the peewit.

References in popular culture

• Tiddy Mun appears in the story "Yarrow" by the fantasy author Charles de Lint.^{[citation needed]}
• Tiddy Mun also features in the song "Cursed Cornelius" by Norcsalordie, a song about the draining of the Lincolnshire wetlands.^{[citation needed]}
• Tiddy Mun is the subject of a poem "Tiddy Mun is Gone" by Patricia Monaghan in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 10.2 (Summer 2003)