I’ve described The Green Man’s Heir and subsequent books as modern fantasy rooted in the ancient myths and folklore of the British Isles. The artwork for The Green Man’s Quarry, will tell readers this latest novel draws on myths and folklore ancient and modern. The more I’ve explored traditional tales, the more I see collective unconscious story creation continues to this day.

The term ‘urban myth’ appeared in the 1960s, but discussion of ‘urban legends’ goes back to at least the 1920s. The OED cites the term’s first appearance in Vanity Fair, 1931. Some modern myths can be tied to earlier versions of the same tale, updated to make them more convincing. Ghostly highwaymen are replaced by phantom hitch-hikers. A legend in the Cotswolds where I live features a spectral Morris Minor on a road where a headless coachman once whipped his horses.

These stories are remarkably persistent, and spread far and wide even before the Internet. As a teenager in 1970s Dorset, I heard the horrifying tale of a young couple whose car broke down on a lonely New Forest road. He went for help, and she fell asleep. She was woken by rhythmic thudding on the car roof. She saw armed police surrounding the vehicle. A man with a loud-hailer told her to get out and walk towards him and not to look behind her… That echo of a story element going right back to Orpheus is obvious. Of course, she looks and – I’ll be interested to learn who knows how this story ends, when they first heard it and where.

I came across this exact same myth in the 1990s. I was volunteering at a local primary school, working with reluctant readers. A lad was clearly distracted in our one-on-one session, so I asked what was bothering him. He said he’d heard something horrible. A young couple’s car broke down on a lonely road in Otmoor… I stopped him and finished the story, guessing correctly the hospital referenced would be in Littlemore not New Milton. When these stories shift to a new location, place names change. He was aghast. If I knew, it must have happened. Not at all. I explained this was an urban myth. I’m pleased to say this reassured him. Better yet, I learned later via the staffroom that he’d been debunking the story in the playground. Teachers were pleased because this had been upsetting a lot of children. Modern myths can be far from benign. I’m still curious to know how widespread this story is, and if anyone can point me towards a possible origin.

Some modern folklore can be traced back to popular fiction. The Angel of Mons is a famous example, where Arthur Machen’s short story The Bowmen, published in September 1914, swiftly took on a life of its own. In his story, British soldiers on the verge of defeat on the Western Front are saved by the ghosts of archers who won the battle of Agincourt. Variations on the tale and other instances of supernatural intervention in the dreadful battles of the Great War soon followed, recounted as authentic fact. I have heard anecdotally that something similar happened among aviators, after Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novella The Shepherd was published. That’s the tale of a lost Cold War pilot guided back to his airbase by a WWII Mosquito.

The Internet has seen a surge in misinformation of all kinds, and this quickly gets tangled up with modern myth-making. The Slender Man originated on an Internet forum thread and very rapidly went viral with lasting and violent real-world consequences. In an insidious example this past month on social media, I saw Neil Gaiman refuting the claim in an online article that his inspiration for Coraline had been a widespread urban myth from Hampshire UK. Allegedly, children exploring a burned-out mansion came across the body of a baby in a cot with buttons on its eyes… Another echo of Greek myth there, though I don’t know what Charon would do with buttons.

Neil states very clearly that he’s never heard of this story. I believe that, and not merely because I trust him. I strongly suspect the 1969 book/1972 film/2021 TV movie The Amazing Mr Blunden is the source for much of this scenario. I’ve also checked with family contacts who lived, taught and went to school in Hampshire. They’ve never encountered this allegedly well-known local legend.

Does this have any relevance beyond discussions of folklore? I think so, because misinformation and deliberate disinformation is an increasing problem for us all. If a lie could get around the world before the truth had got its boots on, in the days of print journalism, it can do that in the blink of an eye online. People can be far too willing to believe what they want to be believe. That has always been the case, as politicians have known for centuries, going back to the ancient Greeks yet again. However, the reach and persistence of deliberate lies has increased exponentially. At the same time, education which prioritises teaching to a test downplays critical thinking skills. Talking about modern myths, uncovering their origins and their lack of factual evidence, can be a non-confrontational way to prompt people to ask themselves if they’re being told the truth elsewhere.

On a lighter note, modern myths can give writers ideas as readily as ancient legends. Sightings of and belief in The Beast of Bodmin (and other places with names beginning with B) offered me far too many possibilities to pass up, especially once I started looking further back for related folklore.

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018, and The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023 is the sixth title in this ongoing series.

Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter stories include forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.

For more, visit www.julietemckenna.com