Yorkshire Legends and Traditions of Wells, England

Springs and wells of water have, in all lands and in all ages, been greatly valued, and in some regarded with a feeling of veneration little, if at all, short of worship. They have yielded their treasure to the sustenance and refreshment of man and beast, as age after age of the world's history has passed along, and have been centers around which village story and gossip have gathered for generation after generation.

Little wonder, therefore, is it that legends and traditions abound concerning them. These are often extremely local, and therefore little known. The names alone, however, suggest much.

The memory of the mythical gods, satyrs, and nymphs of the ancient heathen times lingers in a few, as in Thors-kil or Thors-well, in the parish of Burnsall; and in the almost universal declaration -- by which not over-wise parents seek to deter children from playing in dangerous proximity to a well -- that at the bottom, under the water, dwells a mysterious being, usually named Jenny Green-teeth or Peg-o'-the-Well, who will certainly drag into the water any child who approaches too near to it.

The tokens of medieval reverence for wells are abundant. The names of the saints to whom the wells were dedicated yet cling to them. "There is scarcely a well of consequence in the United Kingdom," says the editor of Lancashire Folk-lore, "which has not been solemnly dedicated to some saint in the Roman calendar."

Thus in Yorkshire we have Our Lady's Well or Lady Well, St. Helen's Well (very numerous), St. Margaret's Well at Burnsall, St. Bridget's Well near Ripon, St. Mungo's Well at Copgrove, St. John's Well at Beverley, St. Alkelda's Well at Middleham, etc. Dr. Whitaker remarks that the wells of Craven, which bear the names of saints, are invariably presided over by females, as was the case with wells under the pagan ritual, in which nymphs exclusively enjoyed the same honor.

Source: Thomas Parkinson, Yorkshire Legends and Traditions (London: Elliot Stock, 1888), pp. 202-203.

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