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Hollow Places: An Unusual History of Land and Legend
IN THE MIDDLE AGES, a remarkable tomb was carved to cover the bones of an English hero. For centuries, tales spread about dragons, giants and devils. How and why this happened is the subject of this book.
Do you wonder where dragons once lurked and where the local fairies baked their loaves? Or where wolves were trapped and suicides buried? Did people in the past really believe the marvellous stories they told and can those beliefs and those stories still teach us something about how to live in the world today?
These questions lie at the heart of Christopher Hadley’s Hollow Places as it searches through the centuries for the truth behind the legend of Piers Shonks, a giant from a village in Hertfordshire, who slew a dragon that once had its lair under ancient yew in a field called Great Pepsells.
Hadley’s quest takes us on a journey into the margins of history: to the margins of the Bayeux Tapestry where strange creatures gather, of ancient woodland where hollow trees hide secrets, of 18th century manuscripts where antiquaries scribbled clues to the identity of folk heroes.
Hollow Places takes us back shivering to a church in Georgian England, to stand atop its tower triangulating the Elizabethan countryside, and to confront the zealous Mr Dowsing and his thugs looting the brasses and smashing the masonry during the Civil War. It asks why Churchwarden Morris could not sleep at night, and how long bones last in a crypt, and where a medieval stonemason found his inspiration.
Hollow Places rescues a vanished world and wrestles with superstition, with what people really believed; with what that tells us about them and how very much we are still alike– dragons or nay.
The story of Piers Shonks is an obscure tale, but it has endured: the survivor of an 800-year battle between storytellers and those who would mock or silence them. Shonks’ story stands for all those thousands of seemingly forgotten tales that used to belong to every village. It is an adventure into the past by a talented and original new writer and a meditation on memory and belief that underlines the importance and the power of the folk legends we used to tell and why they still matter.
Do you wonder where dragons once lurked and where the local fairies baked their loaves? Or where wolves were trapped and suicides buried? Did people in the past really believe the marvellous stories they told and can those beliefs and those stories still teach us something about how to live in the world today?
These questions lie at the heart of Christopher Hadley’s Hollow Places as it searches through the centuries for the truth behind the legend of Piers Shonks, a giant from a village in Hertfordshire, who slew a dragon that once had its lair under ancient yew in a field called Great Pepsells.
Hadley’s quest takes us on a journey into the margins of history: to the margins of the Bayeux Tapestry where strange creatures gather, of ancient woodland where hollow trees hide secrets, of 18th century manuscripts where antiquaries scribbled clues to the identity of folk heroes.
Hollow Places takes us back shivering to a church in Georgian England, to stand atop its tower triangulating the Elizabethan countryside, and to confront the zealous Mr Dowsing and his thugs looting the brasses and smashing the masonry during the Civil War. It asks why Churchwarden Morris could not sleep at night, and how long bones last in a crypt, and where a medieval stonemason found his inspiration.
Hollow Places rescues a vanished world and wrestles with superstition, with what people really believed; with what that tells us about them and how very much we are still alike– dragons or nay.
The story of Piers Shonks is an obscure tale, but it has endured: the survivor of an 800-year battle between storytellers and those who would mock or silence them. Shonks’ story stands for all those thousands of seemingly forgotten tales that used to belong to every village. It is an adventure into the past by a talented and original new writer and a meditation on memory and belief that underlines the importance and the power of the folk legends we used to tell and why they still matter.
438 pages, Hardcover
First published August 8, 2019
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November 1, 2021A delve into English history, attempting to trace the roots of a folk legend of a dragon killer in a tiny Hertfordshire village. Interesting in how historians go about looking for clues and answers, with lots of intriguing byways about tradition, superstition, mythmaking and history.
Ultimately a bit inconclusive since there are of course no answers to be had at a thousand years' distance and there isn't a super strong thesis, more a meditation. Good for those with an interest in folklore.
However, I had the 2020 HarperCollins paperback with the teal cover and I have to point out that the text seems to have been formatted for a completely different size of book since it has ludicrously massive margins and is poorly sited on the page. Not sure why the publisher couldn't have adjusted the layout rather than wasting quite so much paper on making a slim book into a brick.
Ultimately a bit inconclusive since there are of course no answers to be had at a thousand years' distance and there isn't a super strong thesis, more a meditation. Good for those with an interest in folklore.
However, I had the 2020 HarperCollins paperback with the teal cover and I have to point out that the text seems to have been formatted for a completely different size of book since it has ludicrously massive margins and is poorly sited on the page. Not sure why the publisher couldn't have adjusted the layout rather than wasting quite so much paper on making a slim book into a brick.
July 30, 2020
“Here be dragons” is often thought to be on ancient maps, but whilst there were drawing of fantastical creatures on the cartography, this phrase wasn’t ever used. But stories of these creatures, as well as others that step over the line of folklore and reality have been a part of our culture for hundreds of years. In a village in Hertfordshire, a tomb was carved to cover the bones of one of these men who it was said was a giant, and who also slew a dragon that lived under ancient yew in a field called Great Pepsells.
Who was this man? Was he a real giant? Why is his tomb in the wall of the church? Was there ever a dragon? And could he find the field where the ancient yew tree was?
It is unlikely that you would have heard of the story of Piers Shonks, I hadn’t until I picked this book up a couple of weeks ago. To find the answers to these seemingly innocuous questions will take Hadley far away from St Mary, the 14th-century church of Brent Pelham, Hertfordshire where Shonks’ tomb is set in the north wall. He died in 1086, several hundred years before the church was even built so finding where he had been in the interim would be a challenge.
First, though he has to scour the old maps to find the location of the yew tree, the place where the so-called dragon’s lair was discovered under it when Master Lawrence was asked to fell it. These maps do not reveal their secrets easily, but there are pointers to other documents and pamphlets that were written in the Victorian age by the those that had an interest in the history of the place they lived.
Some of these are based on truth, some are based on oral histories that are passed from person to person, changing subtly in their retelling until someone writes them down. Others have their roots deep in pagan folklore that the church had tried to suppress but never fully eradicated. Finding out about the richly decorated lid of the tomb is another series of mysteries trying to discover who carved it, where the stone came from and how it ended up there.
Each thread of the story he is researching is scattered far and wild and fining the end of one thread often leads to another tale that is separate and yet still intrinsically connected to the main story of the book. Just finding out if Shonks was a real person is a challenge, but details gradually emerge about the real man as he chips away at the documentary evidence.
This is a deeply layered historical mystery. It feels like he is reconstructing a finely woven cloth from a collection of threads that have been scattered near and far from the tomb. Hadley has done a pretty good job of it too, but there are gaps as you’d expect. Deciding what is history and fact or myth and fiction is very hard in stories like this. It is like looking into a dark pool where the sky is reflected with your face, but in the murky water are tantalising glimpses of the things you are searching for. Even Wimborne Minster gets a mention with Anthony Ettricke, who is buried neither inside nor outside the church, but in the wall as Shonks is. I thought the book was fairly well written, it might not have the rigour of a book but an established historian, but neither does it have the dry prose that you can sometimes get with those as well. It has a good selection of pictures and maps which complement the text really well too.
Who was this man? Was he a real giant? Why is his tomb in the wall of the church? Was there ever a dragon? And could he find the field where the ancient yew tree was?
It is unlikely that you would have heard of the story of Piers Shonks, I hadn’t until I picked this book up a couple of weeks ago. To find the answers to these seemingly innocuous questions will take Hadley far away from St Mary, the 14th-century church of Brent Pelham, Hertfordshire where Shonks’ tomb is set in the north wall. He died in 1086, several hundred years before the church was even built so finding where he had been in the interim would be a challenge.
First, though he has to scour the old maps to find the location of the yew tree, the place where the so-called dragon’s lair was discovered under it when Master Lawrence was asked to fell it. These maps do not reveal their secrets easily, but there are pointers to other documents and pamphlets that were written in the Victorian age by the those that had an interest in the history of the place they lived.
Some of these are based on truth, some are based on oral histories that are passed from person to person, changing subtly in their retelling until someone writes them down. Others have their roots deep in pagan folklore that the church had tried to suppress but never fully eradicated. Finding out about the richly decorated lid of the tomb is another series of mysteries trying to discover who carved it, where the stone came from and how it ended up there.
Each thread of the story he is researching is scattered far and wild and fining the end of one thread often leads to another tale that is separate and yet still intrinsically connected to the main story of the book. Just finding out if Shonks was a real person is a challenge, but details gradually emerge about the real man as he chips away at the documentary evidence.
This is a deeply layered historical mystery. It feels like he is reconstructing a finely woven cloth from a collection of threads that have been scattered near and far from the tomb. Hadley has done a pretty good job of it too, but there are gaps as you’d expect. Deciding what is history and fact or myth and fiction is very hard in stories like this. It is like looking into a dark pool where the sky is reflected with your face, but in the murky water are tantalising glimpses of the things you are searching for. Even Wimborne Minster gets a mention with Anthony Ettricke, who is buried neither inside nor outside the church, but in the wall as Shonks is. I thought the book was fairly well written, it might not have the rigour of a book but an established historian, but neither does it have the dry prose that you can sometimes get with those as well. It has a good selection of pictures and maps which complement the text really well too.
October 14, 2023
This book is pretty close in focus to my own academic interests - the meanings and values encoded into narratives about the past - and so I was primed to really enjoy it. Hadley is a great companion on a twisty journey to the heart of the story of a medieval dragon slayer, whose tomb at Brent Pelham church I actually went to look at last month. He’s both a careful historical researcher and a compelling story-teller, with a nose for the mythopoetic aspects of his quest. And it does ultimately feel like a quest, wherein the process of getting there is more important than where he ends up. Highly recommended, if you like your history on the folkloric and philosophical end of the spectrum.
May 22, 2020
Joe McLaren’s beautiful cover artwork initially drew my attention to this book, but the fact that it centers on the tale of a dragon slayer instantly sold me on reading Christopher Hadley’s “Hollow Places”.
From the outset I’d say how much you enjoy this book will likely depend on your expectations going in. I started reading this book expecting a much more narrow focus on the tale at hand than what Hadley delivered. A couple chapters in I realized I needed to realign my expectations for the book, as I saw what he was setting out to do. Hadley’s intentions are deeper than to just regale us with the tale of a dragon slayer from days gone by. The subtitle actually alludes to this fact, “Hollow Places: An Unusual History of Land and Legend”. Hadley explores not just the tale itself, but broadens his scope to also examine various aspects about the people and time period during which Shonks would have lived. In this way it not only sets out to investigate the veracity of the Shonks tale, but also attempts to trace how legends & myths come to be, and what we might still learn from them. Not only what we might learn from the legends themselves, but also what legends reveal to us about the people & time period from which the legend or myth emerged.
Hadley writes, “We will eventually forget our stories if we don’t renew our capacity for wonder. Walter Benjamin has written that we are now much more interested in information than in wisdom, and information must be plausible, whereas wisdom from afar often employed the miraculous. I wanted this book to be the most complete monograph of an English folk legend ever written, a fascinating journey back through history, a detective story about the hunt for a folk hero, but as I researched and wrote and the years passed, I began to hope for something else as well- I began to hope that I was doing my bit for the re-enchantment of the universe.”
For me he was successful in this goal. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As I said though, your expectations going in will likely determine if you like this. It’s certainly not the action-packed adventure you may conjure up when thinking of reading the tale of a dragon slayer. This delves into a lot of history, and at times parts of that history can be pretty dry. There were sections I had to push through. Still, I could see the relevance of what Hadley was doing, and the underlying story of Shonks weaved throughout kept me interested.
It’s clear Hadley put an impressive amount of time and research into this. The book is 438 pages long. 336 pages make up the main body of the story, with the remaining 102 pages consisting of chronological & textual history, notes on each chapter, and an index. I found myself noting several books by other authors who were cited, which I would like to pick up in the future.
The book also included many b/w photos and illustrations throughout. I do wish that some of these had been larger, and in color when available. It was hard to really make out details in some of the included pics. It would be great to see this get the Folio Society treatment one day. Still, the inclusion of pics of any quality was appreciated.
Overall, I learned a lot, was left with plenty to think about, and enjoyed reading this.
Each chapter also opened with a quote for its heading. I’ve included just a few of my favorites below.
“Stories never live alone: they are branches of a family that we have to trace back, and forward.”
–Robert Calasso
“How incurious are the majority of us, except on the subject which we deem the one worthy of all our attention. How many antiquary, who has travelled miles to see a druidical monument has cried ‘Pish’-at the legend with which his peasant guide would illustrate it, when reflection would have told him, that under the garb of fiction the truth of history is frequently concealed.”
–William Thoms, Lays and Legends of France, 1834
“As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic, it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself.” –Elizabeth Goudge, at a meeting of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, 1966
“To study something of great age until one grows familiar with it and almost to live in its time, is not merely to satisfy a curiosity or to establish aimless truths: it is rather to fulfill a function whose appetite has always rendered History a necessity. By the recovery of the Past, stuff and being are added to us; our lives which, lived in the present only, are a film or surface, take on a body – are lifted into one.” –Hilaire Belloc, The Old Road, 1911
From the outset I’d say how much you enjoy this book will likely depend on your expectations going in. I started reading this book expecting a much more narrow focus on the tale at hand than what Hadley delivered. A couple chapters in I realized I needed to realign my expectations for the book, as I saw what he was setting out to do. Hadley’s intentions are deeper than to just regale us with the tale of a dragon slayer from days gone by. The subtitle actually alludes to this fact, “Hollow Places: An Unusual History of Land and Legend”. Hadley explores not just the tale itself, but broadens his scope to also examine various aspects about the people and time period during which Shonks would have lived. In this way it not only sets out to investigate the veracity of the Shonks tale, but also attempts to trace how legends & myths come to be, and what we might still learn from them. Not only what we might learn from the legends themselves, but also what legends reveal to us about the people & time period from which the legend or myth emerged.
Hadley writes, “We will eventually forget our stories if we don’t renew our capacity for wonder. Walter Benjamin has written that we are now much more interested in information than in wisdom, and information must be plausible, whereas wisdom from afar often employed the miraculous. I wanted this book to be the most complete monograph of an English folk legend ever written, a fascinating journey back through history, a detective story about the hunt for a folk hero, but as I researched and wrote and the years passed, I began to hope for something else as well- I began to hope that I was doing my bit for the re-enchantment of the universe.”
For me he was successful in this goal. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As I said though, your expectations going in will likely determine if you like this. It’s certainly not the action-packed adventure you may conjure up when thinking of reading the tale of a dragon slayer. This delves into a lot of history, and at times parts of that history can be pretty dry. There were sections I had to push through. Still, I could see the relevance of what Hadley was doing, and the underlying story of Shonks weaved throughout kept me interested.
It’s clear Hadley put an impressive amount of time and research into this. The book is 438 pages long. 336 pages make up the main body of the story, with the remaining 102 pages consisting of chronological & textual history, notes on each chapter, and an index. I found myself noting several books by other authors who were cited, which I would like to pick up in the future.
The book also included many b/w photos and illustrations throughout. I do wish that some of these had been larger, and in color when available. It was hard to really make out details in some of the included pics. It would be great to see this get the Folio Society treatment one day. Still, the inclusion of pics of any quality was appreciated.
Overall, I learned a lot, was left with plenty to think about, and enjoyed reading this.
Each chapter also opened with a quote for its heading. I’ve included just a few of my favorites below.
“Stories never live alone: they are branches of a family that we have to trace back, and forward.”
–Robert Calasso
“How incurious are the majority of us, except on the subject which we deem the one worthy of all our attention. How many antiquary, who has travelled miles to see a druidical monument has cried ‘Pish’-at the legend with which his peasant guide would illustrate it, when reflection would have told him, that under the garb of fiction the truth of history is frequently concealed.”
–William Thoms, Lays and Legends of France, 1834
“As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic, it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself.” –Elizabeth Goudge, at a meeting of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, 1966
“To study something of great age until one grows familiar with it and almost to live in its time, is not merely to satisfy a curiosity or to establish aimless truths: it is rather to fulfill a function whose appetite has always rendered History a necessity. By the recovery of the Past, stuff and being are added to us; our lives which, lived in the present only, are a film or surface, take on a body – are lifted into one.” –Hilaire Belloc, The Old Road, 1911
January 23, 2020
A detective story into WHY a tombstone in the wall of a 14th century English parish church was carved with a fire breathing dragon and why, against incredible odds, it survived 600 years. Fascinating and unusual story for anyone interested in the value of English folklore and local memory to historical research, for anyone interested in historical research as a detective story.
This book grabbed my interest and held it.
This book grabbed my interest and held it.
December 7, 2021
Wonderful investigation into the mysterious tomb of Piers Shonks and his legend as a dragon slayer. Delves into folk tales and archives to discover who Shonks truly was.
May 23, 2025
Not really what I expected. This was a deep (did I mention deeeeep) dive into an obscure bit of British history. I enjoyed following the author’s rabbit trails but I think the topic is niche enough that some are going to wonder what was the point. The journey was the point! The treasure hunt was the point!
November 11, 2023
How does one begin to review one of the most gripping books they have ever read?
Christopher Hadley's Hollow Places is the book that got me back to reading after 8 years of arduous university research spent glossing over manuscripts and dry accounts of histories. I have a degree in religious studies and I, myself, am not religious, a circumstance deemed necessary for such a field by some (I'm afraid I have to disagree, but that's a discussion for an entirely different time). I have chosen to study religion and various folklore not to try and prove whether they are true or not. It doesn't matter whether the stuff of folktales is indeed true, but what matters is that the people truly believed in it. And Christopher Hadley says they really did.
Hollow Places is an account of a legend about one Piers Shonks, a dragonslayer who is reported to be buried within a wall of a Hertfordshire church. The book documents the shaping and transformation of the legend through several centuries but instead of asking "Was the dragon actually real?" Hadley urges us to pose entirely different, more interesting questions. Hollow Places is an extraordinarily fascinating read, a hunt spanning centuries and times so different from ours, in a search for the historical man behind the legendary figure. It captures that sense of wonder one can only feel when standing in old places, feeling the touch of time across the ancient stones of churches and castles, knowing that the same walls were once thread by people long gone. It's these connections with those who came before that have always fascinated me and Hadley captures that feeling while meticulously poring over manuscripts and consulting passionate, and often driven amateurs. It is true that Piers Shonks is a man of times so different from ours, that the people who believed in his legend, who recounted it, shaped and changed it through the years were so utterly different from us. And yet, in some cases, so similar. One can't help but ask whether the sense of wonder we feel while reading about old folktales today wasn't at least similar to the sense of wonder people who came long ago also felt about stories of dragons and men who slayed them; whether they also strived to find some enchantment within the gritty and often cruel world.
Hollow Places is a historical detective story that documents the life of a singular legend through the centuries and the people who shared it. But it's more than that. It's a meditative essay on human nature and why we create stories that fascinate us and the generations to come. It's about the irony of folklore being, in many cases, instrumental in preserving histories, and makes us think differently when approaching the world of such wonder. Instead of asking whether the stories are true, we should ask instead: "What is it that drives people to tell them?"
Hadley mentions in the closing chapter that regardless of whether Shonks actually killed a dragon or not, he hopes to do his own part in trying to re-enchant the world. And I dare say he succeeded.
Christopher Hadley's Hollow Places is the book that got me back to reading after 8 years of arduous university research spent glossing over manuscripts and dry accounts of histories. I have a degree in religious studies and I, myself, am not religious, a circumstance deemed necessary for such a field by some (I'm afraid I have to disagree, but that's a discussion for an entirely different time). I have chosen to study religion and various folklore not to try and prove whether they are true or not. It doesn't matter whether the stuff of folktales is indeed true, but what matters is that the people truly believed in it. And Christopher Hadley says they really did.
Hollow Places is an account of a legend about one Piers Shonks, a dragonslayer who is reported to be buried within a wall of a Hertfordshire church. The book documents the shaping and transformation of the legend through several centuries but instead of asking "Was the dragon actually real?" Hadley urges us to pose entirely different, more interesting questions. Hollow Places is an extraordinarily fascinating read, a hunt spanning centuries and times so different from ours, in a search for the historical man behind the legendary figure. It captures that sense of wonder one can only feel when standing in old places, feeling the touch of time across the ancient stones of churches and castles, knowing that the same walls were once thread by people long gone. It's these connections with those who came before that have always fascinated me and Hadley captures that feeling while meticulously poring over manuscripts and consulting passionate, and often driven amateurs. It is true that Piers Shonks is a man of times so different from ours, that the people who believed in his legend, who recounted it, shaped and changed it through the years were so utterly different from us. And yet, in some cases, so similar. One can't help but ask whether the sense of wonder we feel while reading about old folktales today wasn't at least similar to the sense of wonder people who came long ago also felt about stories of dragons and men who slayed them; whether they also strived to find some enchantment within the gritty and often cruel world.
Hollow Places is a historical detective story that documents the life of a singular legend through the centuries and the people who shared it. But it's more than that. It's a meditative essay on human nature and why we create stories that fascinate us and the generations to come. It's about the irony of folklore being, in many cases, instrumental in preserving histories, and makes us think differently when approaching the world of such wonder. Instead of asking whether the stories are true, we should ask instead: "What is it that drives people to tell them?"
Hadley mentions in the closing chapter that regardless of whether Shonks actually killed a dragon or not, he hopes to do his own part in trying to re-enchant the world. And I dare say he succeeded.
September 7, 2019
Reading this book was an exercise in frustration, not least because I could see what the author was aiming at, but the structure of the book was like having a child let loose in a field full of butterflies where nothing was ever settled before off the book went on a different tangent.
It's clear that the author did a huge amount of research in trying to track down the truth about the local myth of Piers Shonks and the dragon (there are 100! pages of notes, bibliography, timelines and indexes to accompany 330 pages of story). The problem is that all this work never really successfully shows itself on the page. I can understand that the book, like the story itself, morphs and changes depending on how you look at and and who is doing the telling, and I never believed that there would actually be a definite answer at the end of the book, but the problem was that I was never entertained by the story whilst I was reading it. It was, in short, a slog.
One final thing - the illustrations seem to be used more to obscure the story rather than illuminate it. Maps are tiny and unfocused, with few pointers as to what we are meant to glean from them. There are no good shots of the coffin slab of Piers Shonks that was used to begin this tale - there may be an issue with the difficulty of photographing it, but a 10 second Google search provided more illuminating images than the ones in the book.
In a sense this may be deliberate - the author is talking about the impermanence of memory that creates a multi-generational game of Chinese whispers after all, while still actually keeping a legend alive after centuries. This contrasts with fragments of texts scattered over a multitude of obscure medieval manuscripts which seem to point to the main character as a real living person.
So who was Piers Shonks, was he a real person, did he actually kill a real or metaphorical dragon, was the strange tomb in a church his, what connection did the legend have with the real people with similar names that can be found in documents? The author doesn't know, I don't know, and I doubt that you will either once you have read this book.
It's clear that the author did a huge amount of research in trying to track down the truth about the local myth of Piers Shonks and the dragon (there are 100! pages of notes, bibliography, timelines and indexes to accompany 330 pages of story). The problem is that all this work never really successfully shows itself on the page. I can understand that the book, like the story itself, morphs and changes depending on how you look at and and who is doing the telling, and I never believed that there would actually be a definite answer at the end of the book, but the problem was that I was never entertained by the story whilst I was reading it. It was, in short, a slog.
One final thing - the illustrations seem to be used more to obscure the story rather than illuminate it. Maps are tiny and unfocused, with few pointers as to what we are meant to glean from them. There are no good shots of the coffin slab of Piers Shonks that was used to begin this tale - there may be an issue with the difficulty of photographing it, but a 10 second Google search provided more illuminating images than the ones in the book.
In a sense this may be deliberate - the author is talking about the impermanence of memory that creates a multi-generational game of Chinese whispers after all, while still actually keeping a legend alive after centuries. This contrasts with fragments of texts scattered over a multitude of obscure medieval manuscripts which seem to point to the main character as a real living person.
So who was Piers Shonks, was he a real person, did he actually kill a real or metaphorical dragon, was the strange tomb in a church his, what connection did the legend have with the real people with similar names that can be found in documents? The author doesn't know, I don't know, and I doubt that you will either once you have read this book.
March 29, 2023
A really impressive piece of historical writing! Hadley pulls apart and examines every part of the multiple versions of the Shonks legend, creating from its intricacies a composite image of Late Medieval and Post Medieval England, a collage of a changing landscape where dragons are born, insert themselves into existing legemds, and leave their holes for the workers to find. Where the evangelists become a local hero's attendant and hunting dogs. Where country parsons collect and curate local history over tea and tithes, arguing over the historicity and worth of those heroes. Most of all, though, with this book Hadley makes a case for the worth of the fantastic.
Well told, filled with interesting bits and pieces of history, prone to anecdotes historical and modern, and beautifully illustrated - Strongly recommended!
Well told, filled with interesting bits and pieces of history, prone to anecdotes historical and modern, and beautifully illustrated - Strongly recommended!
August 22, 2021
Once upon a time, I had a half-baked idea for a PhD, or a book, looking at how folklore could be used in history, to look back into deep time and see what was revealed. I am very glad that Christopher Hadley beat me to it, because his was a much better book than I would ever have produced. Beautifully written, and containing all my favourite things: the past, churches, folklore, dragons, the history of the landscape, antiquarians, Hertfordshire, church monuments, the Middle Ages.
January 19, 2020
Christopher Hadley prises open Shonks' legendary tomb and takes you on a friendly stroll through the labyrinth of medieval history that might or might not support the legend. He is charming, educated, and eloquent, it was, mostly, a pleasure to read and I learnt a great deal that I did not know before.
I too was frustrated by the publishers - that there is not a picture of the tomb on the front or the endpaper where I can find it every time it is described - the stonework, the little hands, the angel, etc. I was left leafing back for the picture every time it was described.
There are frequent, tiny, impossible to decipher, sepia pictures - of maps and medieval documents. They may have been intentionally vague but this did not endear them to the reader.
I was relieved in many ways that Christopher did not try to make this a personal journey which echoed his own struggle, however there are little touches of journalistic autobiography and these help to carry the research and my interest along. I felt rather let down, when we get to the chapter or two of crucial research towards the end, that the author abandoned this style, and I was left wondering: How did you find that out? Did someone guide you, or did you work it out yourself? Did you jump around and hug your wife and shout eureka? What were the archives like? Did you tell anyone? How does it work?
If on reading this you are frustrated by the rhetorical questions, do not read this book as there are many. If however you would like a guided tour around a historical curio, and a journey in the limnal places and tunnels that lead through history, which will lead you better able to understand your own history, go enjoy yourself.
I too was frustrated by the publishers - that there is not a picture of the tomb on the front or the endpaper where I can find it every time it is described - the stonework, the little hands, the angel, etc. I was left leafing back for the picture every time it was described.
There are frequent, tiny, impossible to decipher, sepia pictures - of maps and medieval documents. They may have been intentionally vague but this did not endear them to the reader.
I was relieved in many ways that Christopher did not try to make this a personal journey which echoed his own struggle, however there are little touches of journalistic autobiography and these help to carry the research and my interest along. I felt rather let down, when we get to the chapter or two of crucial research towards the end, that the author abandoned this style, and I was left wondering: How did you find that out? Did someone guide you, or did you work it out yourself? Did you jump around and hug your wife and shout eureka? What were the archives like? Did you tell anyone? How does it work?
If on reading this you are frustrated by the rhetorical questions, do not read this book as there are many. If however you would like a guided tour around a historical curio, and a journey in the limnal places and tunnels that lead through history, which will lead you better able to understand your own history, go enjoy yourself.
July 10, 2022
A well researched in-depth book about Shonks' tomb and his dragon slaying history. I could have played a drinking game, take a shot each time the author writes the name Shonks. I would have been wasted!
Overall an interesting book, it started off well and began to dither towards the middle/end. This final passage is a perfect way to summarize the book:
"So don't ask if there really was a dragon. After all ,'it is heresy to say there wasn't a dragon', Ted Barclay reminds us emphatically, and he means it.
Let's ask a different question: would the world be a poorer place without dragons in it? And heroes like Shonks for that matter? It is a story from the landscape and the seasons and the weather and the mysteries of the last things and the gossip at the blacksmiths and the stories the old people half remembered. We have lots of hollow places and less and less to put in them. So if some misguided person asks you if Shonks really slew a dragon, remember those men who stood on the edge of the hole in Great Pepsells field, and envy them their ability to make sense of the world with dragons, and say, 'Of course he did', and mean it."
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in English folklore and lost history, however, although engaging, the author's monomaniac enthusiasm with Shonks overshadowed the potential that this book has to be a folklore classic. It could have improved with more variation in stories to compare and contrast against Shonks' story.
Overall an interesting book, it started off well and began to dither towards the middle/end. This final passage is a perfect way to summarize the book:
"So don't ask if there really was a dragon. After all ,'it is heresy to say there wasn't a dragon', Ted Barclay reminds us emphatically, and he means it.
Let's ask a different question: would the world be a poorer place without dragons in it? And heroes like Shonks for that matter? It is a story from the landscape and the seasons and the weather and the mysteries of the last things and the gossip at the blacksmiths and the stories the old people half remembered. We have lots of hollow places and less and less to put in them. So if some misguided person asks you if Shonks really slew a dragon, remember those men who stood on the edge of the hole in Great Pepsells field, and envy them their ability to make sense of the world with dragons, and say, 'Of course he did', and mean it."
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in English folklore and lost history, however, although engaging, the author's monomaniac enthusiasm with Shonks overshadowed the potential that this book has to be a folklore classic. It could have improved with more variation in stories to compare and contrast against Shonks' story.
March 12, 2023
An enjoyable, if esoteric, meander down a rabbit hole of history, folklore, and the strange place where they meet. The author takes you on a rambling journey of discovery, beginning with a folk tale about a dragon slayer in Hertfordshire, but exploring the subject, its themes and every conceivable aspect of its history so thoroughly as to wander off onto all sorts of tangents. Parts of it are fascinating, parts of it are a slog. The lack of conclusivity, coupled with the flights-of-fancy structure (or lack thereof) detract slightly from an interesting and well-researched historical investigation. It's simultaneously a little too broad, in its exhaustive coverage of every possible angle of research even where barely, or not at all, relevant, and a little too narrow, in that it is so focused on this one folk tale that there's a wider folkloric context that often feels missing, leaving the book at times feeling myopically obsessive.
I enjoyed the pacing that cast the historical detective work almost as a narrative, and the essay structure of the chapters gives focus when things start to drift into more conjecture-based musings.
On the whole, an enjoyable read, just be prepared for the type of book you're getting into.
I enjoyed the pacing that cast the historical detective work almost as a narrative, and the essay structure of the chapters gives focus when things start to drift into more conjecture-based musings.
On the whole, an enjoyable read, just be prepared for the type of book you're getting into.
August 31, 2024
This has a lovely front cover, a great idea behind it which is totally unique and made me come back to it time and again in Waterstones picking it up looking at it, nearly buying it before I bit the bullet and asked my daughter to buy it for father's day.Then all the blurb on the front and back says it will be good but I do find these days if the subject is a bit off the wall critics love it but they make crap reads.
So off I go on another supposed classic.
So imagine how disappointed I have been with how turgid it has been to read, I don't t give up lightly on any book buy I have so many to read and so little time on earth to read them all, that sadly now if it can't hold me and give me some joy then I stop. This is one of those.
In bits it is interesting the social history of agricultural labourers, tithes etc but the never ending names of random people from the past introduced to the reader for comment on minute detail of the story is boring and eventually tedious. I read a very good review on Good reads and decided their review was spot on...if the book does not in the end have a punch line, a theory or whatever what is the point of getting to the end reading all this research for the authors pet project which even they don't appear to know what to do with. To be fair to the author I will read the end chapter to see if this is true.
News flash I tried and I could not even finish the Part V I was fed up of Piers Shonks and the imaginary dragon slaying, the author sadly went down rabbit holes marked great idea and never delivered a good book, maybe academics find this sort of puzzling interesting it was just too much. I like history to have some degree of real content and not all supasition from long dead reverends etc.
Nothing luminous is to be found here.
The Guardian said" An ingenious meditation on what history really is" It's not history it's a quaint folk story that is not that interesting
So off I go on another supposed classic.
So imagine how disappointed I have been with how turgid it has been to read, I don't t give up lightly on any book buy I have so many to read and so little time on earth to read them all, that sadly now if it can't hold me and give me some joy then I stop. This is one of those.
In bits it is interesting the social history of agricultural labourers, tithes etc but the never ending names of random people from the past introduced to the reader for comment on minute detail of the story is boring and eventually tedious. I read a very good review on Good reads and decided their review was spot on...if the book does not in the end have a punch line, a theory or whatever what is the point of getting to the end reading all this research for the authors pet project which even they don't appear to know what to do with. To be fair to the author I will read the end chapter to see if this is true.
News flash I tried and I could not even finish the Part V I was fed up of Piers Shonks and the imaginary dragon slaying, the author sadly went down rabbit holes marked great idea and never delivered a good book, maybe academics find this sort of puzzling interesting it was just too much. I like history to have some degree of real content and not all supasition from long dead reverends etc.
Nothing luminous is to be found here.
The Guardian said" An ingenious meditation on what history really is" It's not history it's a quaint folk story that is not that interesting
January 25, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/hollow-places-by-christopher-hadley/
A tremendously charming book about one obscure local legend in Hertfordshire, the story of Piers Shonks who slew a dragon hiding under an ancient yew tree in Brent Pelham, near Stansted Airport. Hadley goes into impressive detail about the origin of the legend, the meanings of dragons and yew trees, and Shonks’ unusual burial in the wall of the local church, and then into the limited but significant documentation of the life of a fourteenth-century Piers Shonks who lived in the right place.
The evidence doesn’t all point the same way, let alone hang together, but the point is not the truth or otherwise of the dragon myth, it’s the story of exploring the myth and seeing where that takes you; and it’s a great trip through the archives and lore of England, Hertfordshire in particular.
A tremendously charming book about one obscure local legend in Hertfordshire, the story of Piers Shonks who slew a dragon hiding under an ancient yew tree in Brent Pelham, near Stansted Airport. Hadley goes into impressive detail about the origin of the legend, the meanings of dragons and yew trees, and Shonks’ unusual burial in the wall of the local church, and then into the limited but significant documentation of the life of a fourteenth-century Piers Shonks who lived in the right place.
The evidence doesn’t all point the same way, let alone hang together, but the point is not the truth or otherwise of the dragon myth, it’s the story of exploring the myth and seeing where that takes you; and it’s a great trip through the archives and lore of England, Hertfordshire in particular.
October 11, 2019
If this had been produced by one of my undergrads, I would have marked it as a low (and I mean low) 2:2. This is an intensely frustrating book; every time Hadley gets to the threshold of saying something useful, he changes tack and goes off in a completely different direction. To what extent this is the author's intent or a symptom of poor editing is unclear.
There are also a number of factual errors, for example "Here is the bastard feudalism of 13th century England in action." Bastard feudalism is a feature of post-1350 English society and I would expect the author to know this.
The title of the book is also misleading, frankly.
Conclusion: the book promises much and delivers little. Leave it to the professionals.
There are also a number of factual errors, for example "Here is the bastard feudalism of 13th century England in action." Bastard feudalism is a feature of post-1350 English society and I would expect the author to know this.
The title of the book is also misleading, frankly.
Conclusion: the book promises much and delivers little. Leave it to the professionals.
January 15, 2020
This is a really intriguing book about how legends and myths are formed and become part of a folkloric tradition. Christopher Hadley explores how a Hertfordshire tomb gave rise to stories of giants and dragon slayers picking up clues scattered across landscapes and manuscripts.
In the end there are fairly prosaic reasons that initiated the tales that are part of every village’s oral history and that have become embellished in their telling across the centuries. However there is usually good reasons that particular deeds are remembered and passed down through generations. Christopher Hadley provides a deep seated rumination on the power of folklore and why it still matters in this supposed age of rationalism.
In the end there are fairly prosaic reasons that initiated the tales that are part of every village’s oral history and that have become embellished in their telling across the centuries. However there is usually good reasons that particular deeds are remembered and passed down through generations. Christopher Hadley provides a deep seated rumination on the power of folklore and why it still matters in this supposed age of rationalism.
April 1, 2020
At the heart of Hollow Places is a local legend about a dragon-killing giant, a mysterious tomb in the wall of a Hertfordshire parish church, and centuries of folkloric accretions that have developed into a tale of superhuman heroism and village pride. Christopher Hadley set out to write ‘the most complete monograph of an English folk legend ever written’, and, at 330 pages, plus another 100 of notes, he has probably succeeded. He digs deep into every aspect of the legend, revealing the factors that have shaped it over the centuries. It’s an exhaustively thorough job and a model of painstaking historical research.
August 24, 2021
Really interesting analysis of a folk story from a small town in England. He starts out with a review of the story, then leads into the historical and factual basis for the different parts of the story. If you like histories about different unusual things you might enjoy this, but some may find it dry. I really enjoyed it, especially the analysis of the meanings of different trees and the root of the word 'murder' (along with the weird idea of fining a town if a murder occurs and the killer isn't caught).
September 10, 2022
This is beautifully written, though occasionally hard to follow as the author wanders around the topic and follows different thoughts and ideas. You can’t help but get caught up in his enthusiasm for his subject - particularly the wider themes of folklore and myth generation, which is what this book is really about. I am left with the need to walk across fields looking for old trees, and to search dim churches for ancient tombstones. And I will do so while appreciating there is much more than just facts behind such things.
January 7, 2023
If you are interested in explorations of the deepest corners of English folklore, figures and fantasy, I would recommend this lovely book.
Haldey has weaved a wonderful tapestry of English rural history in his investigation of a tomb of a dragon slayer. Through this subject we traverse through contemplations of how stories, myths and fables intertwine with the rural English history of our people - enlightening us on their ways of being and seeing.
At times the writing was a little dense and meandering for me, but overall it was a perfect little bedtime read
Haldey has weaved a wonderful tapestry of English rural history in his investigation of a tomb of a dragon slayer. Through this subject we traverse through contemplations of how stories, myths and fables intertwine with the rural English history of our people - enlightening us on their ways of being and seeing.
At times the writing was a little dense and meandering for me, but overall it was a perfect little bedtime read
November 12, 2019
Purely delightful. The closest comparison I can’t make is Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, for its antiquarian air, asides, digressions and love of folklore - though one is fiction and the other a gentle history, so they are not so very alike. This is a rambling and discursive book, but it is done with genuine learning, curiosity and judgement. The perfect book for me as winter set in. Highly recommended.
April 4, 2020
It is a book that taught me a lot about English folklore in general. In particular, you can learn about the origin of bonfires, the myths and likely truths about dragons and their reinvention throughout the centuries and the history of English Feodalism and Reformation. It is somewhat a parallel primer to History textbooks. In terms of the legend, I think it is very very well-researched and anyone will be intrigued.
October 12, 2020
A promising premise, about an unusual 12th-century tomb and its dragon-slayer legend. It looks as if it’s going to reveal a lot about the power of oral tradition and transmission through centuries, but turns out much less than that, with only more recent anecdotes. It does show what a wealth of information remains in old documentary records, maps and so on, but the feeling is that there is a shorter book here waiting to get out.
January 21, 2022
An odd book that starts out as a local historical detective story and ends up as a meditation on the nature of folklore and legend. A huge amount of work by the author has gone into this and you only realise this after you’ve finished it. I would not call the ending satisfying, but it is thought provoking. Some of the more technical passages are a bit dry but to remedy this get the audiobook, which is excellent.
January 22, 2024
the sort of book that falls down twisting hollows and, through many disparate parts, weaves such a rich and detailed tapestry of its one tiny original concept - a dragon, a tree, a field. The chapters on field names, and the survey which saw hordes of school children descend on the countryside to try and record these names before they were swallowed by modernity, inspired one of my masters essays. The narrators voice in all its gravelly monotony added to the experience also
September 8, 2024
Loved this forensic deep dive into the local legend of Piers Shonks the dragonslayer and his tomb, which I've visited and wondered over myself. Hadley's aim is to explore the historicity of the tomb and the tale without ruining the magic of the legend and he absolutely succeeds, I learnt a hell of a lot about the medieval context of my home county, while our beloved dragonslayer's feat is left unharmed by modern skepticism!
November 30, 2024
Read this two years ago and I’m still thinking about it. At one point the methodology and research is described as being ankin to ambling through the countryside. I loved to join the walk, wished it went on forever. Felt like travelling with your coolest aunt who knows everything and shares all the bits with you as you tour the local graveyard to visit the family graves. That’s the kind of random specificity that awaits.
April 1, 2023
Absolutely brilliant book peeling away the history and miriad stories that entangle a single artifact over the course of 8 centuries. A sort of love letter to archives, memory, legend, oral tradition and medieval English law. It is also brilliantly told full of genuine respect to the traditions of storytelling that at the end the book is all about. I absolutely loved it.
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