Tiddy Mun of the Fens
When the fens of Lincolnshire were drained, the little spirit of the waters grew angry. Children sickened and cattle died, until the people poured water back for him.
What was reported
Tiddy Mun was a small spirit of the Lincolnshire fens, the wet marshlands where people once lived by fishing and fowling. He looked like a little old man with a long white beard and a grey cloak, and he controlled the water and mists. People would call on him to lower the floods.
When the fens were drained by outsiders in the 1600s and later, the story goes, Tiddy Mun was furious, and sickness and bad luck fell on the fen people. Every new moon, they went out at dusk and poured water into the dykes, asking his forgiveness, until he forgave them.
Explanations offered
The tale was collected in the 1890s by the folklorist Marie Clothilde Balfour, and some have questioned how much she added. It reflects real anger among the fen people, whose way of life was destroyed by the draining of the marshes.
- When
- Collected in the 1890s
- Where
- The Ancholme Valley, Lincolnshire, England, UK
- Witnesses
- Lincolnshire fen folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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