The Dead Moon

by Kevin Crossley-Holland, Shirley Felts (Illustrator)

Kevin Crossley-Holland, an expert in the field of legends, has collected and retold some of the best of the East Anglian and Fen country tales. To the people who lived in this bleak, cold marshland of mist, dark paths and corners, the strange creatures and spirits that haunted and lived in the earth and pools were a powerful living presence. The eleven tales are an excellent mixture of the spine-chilling, the humerous, the ghostly and the poignant - Country Life

This striking collection of legends, exquisitely illustrated by Shirley Felts, now appears in paperback for the first time.

Cover illustration by Shirley Felts.

Genres: Fairy Tales

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Kevin Crossley-Holland is an English poet and prize-winning author for children. His books include Waterslain Angels, a detective story set in north Norfolk in 1955, and Moored Man: A Cycle of North Norfolk Poems; Gatty's Tale, a medieval pilgrimage novel; and the Arthur trilogy (The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March), which combines historical fiction with the retelling of Arthurian legend.

The Seeing Stone won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Smarties Prize Bronze Medal. The Arthur trilogy has won worldwide critical acclaim and has been translated into 21 languages.

Crossley-Holland has translated Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon, and his retellings of traditional tales include The Penguin Book of Norse Myths and British Folk Tales (reissued as The Magic Lands). His collaborations with composers include two operas with Nicola Lefanu ("The Green Children" and "The Wildman") and one with Rupert Bawden, "The Sailor’s Tale"; song cycles with Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias; and a carol with Stephen Paulus for King’s College, Cambridge. His play, The Wuffings, (co-authored with Ivan Cutting) was produced by Eastern Angles in 1997.

He often lectures abroad on behalf of the British Council, regularly leads sessions for teachers and librarians, and visits primary and secondary schools. He offers poetry and prose workshops and talks on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, King Arthur, heroines and heroes, and myth, legend and folk-tale.

After seven years teaching in Minnesota, where he held an Endowed Chair in the Humanities, Kevin Crossley-Holland returned to the north Norfolk coast in East Anglia, where he now lives.

He has a Minnesotan wife, Linda, two sons (Kieran and Dominic) and two daughters (Oenone and Eleanor). He is an Honorary Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, a patron of the Society of Storytelling and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Reviews

[hawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

a collection of 11 tales from the fields and fens of East Anglia. good to hear some local stories and folklore. many of the stories are retellings by the author, being first recorded mostly in the early 19th century, tho often they are alot older than that. interestingly a few have some basis in fact, connecting to news and/or events from the past.

sadly the collection for me is marred by the authors tampering with the stories - in many he's noted as having modified the original dialect 😕 one story has a small piece of it in the notes afterwards, being presented as evidence of why it apparently 'needed' modifying, but it is instead beautiful to hear 😍😢

a number of the stories are introduced with explanations of some of the words that appear in them, which I found annoying - alot of the words could have been gleaned from context, and/or I was familiar with already. I think this would have annoyed a child me too, always having enjoyed learning something new from context. it would have been less intrusive for an optional glossary to have eg been included.

I think both of the above annoyed me in their suggestion of the rural dialects being lesser than 'proper' English, and the assumptions about the potential audience.

I am aware from some of the notes that the author filled out bits of the stories and/or characters in some places, and think this will likely have made for a more uniform experience overall - more of a collection than an anthology (of more variably written stories) - so abit of less problematic, and possibly positive, tampering 😉

reading this collection left me thinking I might look out some of the sources the author used, especially Mrs Balfour's 'Legends of the Lincolnshire Carrs' 🙂

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here's a list of the stories in order by name (tho without much comment), just cos I made a record and the info about this book is abit limited:

The Dead Moon
Tom Hickathrift
The Suffolk Miracle
The Pedlar of Swaffham
The Green Mist
The Callow Pit Coffer
The Dauntless Girl
Tiddy Mun
The Black Dog of Bungay
Yallery Brown
The Green Children

I think my favourite story was The Pedlar of Swaffham 😃😁 I rather liked Tiddy Mun too 🙂

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accessed as an RNIB talking well read by Gordon Deluil 🙂

[Hugh Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This compendium of East Anglian folk tales and legends was introduced to me by my wife only a couple of years ago and became an instant favourite of mine. Being a good Suffolk girl she is well versed in the myth and fable of this part of the country and this one of her favourites as a child. The stories contained within are a mix of good old-fashioned horrifying, leave-the-light-on folk tales and more moralistic affairs. All of them, however, are steeped in symbolism and superstition.

Very briefly the stories are: 1) The Dead Moon - an alliance of witches and demons abducts the moon and traps her in a marsh. 2) Tom Hickathrift - A super-strong youth kils a giant and steals his loot. 3) The Suffolk Miracle - Ghost boyfriend visits girlfriend and gives her a horse-ride, parents furious. 4) The Pedlar of Swaffham - A merchant dreams about and then discovers a hoard of gold and uses it to rebuild local church (good lad). 5) The Green Mist - Evil spirits grant a young girl her dieing wish and she forms a symbiotic relationship with a plant. But still dies. 6) The Callow Pit Coffer - Two brothers try to retrieve a treasure chest from a water-filled pit but are thwarted by a phantom. 7) The Dauntless Girl - Teenage girl steals a skull from a mortuary causing the death of a caretaker and drives the spirit of an old woman from a house drawing only on manners and politeness. And gets rewarded with gold, obviously. 8) Tiddy Mun - A vengeful spirit of the fens begins to murder Dutchmen as punishment for draining the marsh. Packed full of superstition and age old fear. 9) The Black Dog of Bungay - The devil takes the form of a black dog in order to commit atrocities in a church and vandalise a door. 10) Yallery Brown - Tom unleashes hell when he frees a tiny wisened genie like creature from a stone prison. 11) The Green Children - The legend of two green children who come from a hidden green land but stumble into our world while herding animals.

This would be a great volume to read aloud - maybe towards the end of the day - and just a story at a time. Kids will love it because its creepy and charming but also because a lot of deserving individuals get their comeuppance.

[Celine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folk tales from East Anglia, mostly from before the Fens were drained and when boggarts lived in the swamps to scare the local people. Includes The Peddlar of Swaffham, which is the same story line as The Alchemist by Paolo Coello. I will have to check if he used this as inspiration, or if it is one of these myths that exist in different cultures and countries.

[Hallie Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dead Moon: And Other Tales from East Anglia and the Fen Country (1982) by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Much more narrative-focused storytelling when compared to Tales From the Fens which is rather repetitive in its style. I enjoyed the slight variations in the stories, with the ghosts and spirits always taking a different form, which makes them feel refreshing every time. My favourites are probably The Pedlar of Swaffham, The Callow Pit Coffer, and especially The Green Children. I like all the rest of them near-enough, with only The Suffolk Miracle and The Black Dog of Bungay feeling rather plain and under-developed.

[Jeba Shikdar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written short humorous stories.

[Meha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, brisk collection of English folktales

[Colin Bruce Anthes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting note: the tale The Pedlar of Swaffham reads like a predecessor to Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist.

Well re-told, dark tales. Almost a five.