Romans in British Folklore
My initial plan was to make a post on British folklore involving the Romani. However, since most of it is pretty bigoted, I felt uncomfortable making it, but in searching "Roma" on the Word document that contains my folklore notes, I found a bunch of references to Romans. Hence, they get this post. Tagging @ivgaoriole (my number-one folklore post fan) and @laurasimonsdaughter (I wonder if the Netherlands, as a fellow former Roman province, also has folklore about them).
Folklore from the Romans: The Romans contributed a few bits of folklore to Britain - the belief that meeting a hare on the road is unlucky [1] and the practice of selecting passages of the Bible at random as a form of divination - although, or course, the Romans did it with the Aeneid [2]. Norwich Cathedral in the county town of Norfolk has several curse inscriptions that read like Roman ones [3]. However, due to how old they were and Britain being on the margins of the Empire, folklore from the Romans is much rarer than folklore about the Romans.
Roman Ghosts: Britain has several ghostly Romans, all of the ones I know of being Roman soldiers. Sometimes, they are solitary, such as at Tring in Hertfordshire [4], Lympne Castle in Kent [5] and the hillfort of Buckland Rings in Lymington, Hampshire [6] and the centurion in the George and Dragon Inn, Chester, Cheshire [7], and other times are found in groups, such as on the M6 motorway [8], at Cherhill Down in Wiltshire [9], Flower's Barrow, Dorset [10], Miswell, Hertfordshire [11] and at Trelawynd, Flintshire, where they were led by a centurion on a white horse [12]. Patty's Bottom, Boverchalke, Wiltshire was haunted by sounds of a battle between Romans and Britons [13] and in 1826 a man in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire dug up a Roman skull, and a headless skeleton appeared to him that night to ask for the skull back - he obliged [14].
Roman Sites: In Yorkshire, a Roman road was credited to a giant couple called Wade and Bell [15] and one in Northumberland was credited to Michael Scot, a sorcerer and folk hero in northern England and the Scottish Lowlands famous for outwitting the Devil [16] and in 1890 a black dog appeared on a Roman road in Ravensthorpe in the same county [17], while another black dog haunted a Roman lookout post in Somerset [18]. A Roman mosaic discovered by antiquarians in Painscastle, Radnorshire was believed to have been made by faeries and so reburied to avoid offending them [19].
Roman Coins: In Hertfordshire, Roman Coins were considered lucky amulets [20] and in Northumberland, the Black Penny was a Roman coin used to cure mad cows by dipping it in their water [21]. In Herefordshire, faeries were said to dance in the Roman ruins at Kenchester, and so Roman Coins found there [22] and at Bolitree Castle [23] were credited to them.
Miscellaneous: Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Brittaniae claims King Arthur fought and won against the Roman Empire [24] and knockers (Cornish mine spirits) were said to be the ghosts of Roman mine slaves [25].
William Henderson, 1879, Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders, Nichols and Sons, p.204
Tabitha Stanmore, 2024, Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic, Penguin Random House Ltd., pp.184-185
Ronald Hutton (editor), 2015, Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Witchcraft and Sorcery in Christian Britain: A Feeling for Magic, Palgrave Macmillan, p.16
Doris Jones-Baker, 1977, The Folklore of Hertfordshire, Batsford, p.86
Marc Alexander and Paul Abrahams, 2012, In Search of Britain's Haunted Castles, The History Press, p.94
Brice Stratford, 2022, New Forest Folklore, The History Press, p.208
Jo Bourne (editor), 2009, The Most Amazing Haunted and Mysterious Places in Britain, The Reader's Digest Association, p.160
Leo Ruickbie, 2013, A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting, Robinson, p.153
Ralph Whitlock, 1976, The Folklore of Wiltshire, Batsford, p.118
Thomas Gwynn-Jones, 1970, Welsh Folklore and Folk Custom, Redwood Burn Ltd., p.xxx
Rosalind Kerven, 2019, English Fairy Tales and Legends, Batsford, p.152
Jeremy Harte, 2022, Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape, Reaktion Books, p.145
Mark Norman, 2015, Black Dog Folklore, Troy Books, p.113
Jacqueline Simpson, 1976, The Folklore of the Welsh Border, Batsford, p.77
Janet Bord, 1997, Fairies: Real Encounters with the Little People, Michael O'Mara Books, p.154
Geoffrey Ashe, 1990, Mythology of the British Isles, Guild Publishing Ltd., p.206
Marc Alexander, 2002, A Companion to the Folklore, Legends and Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing Ltd., p.156
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