According to legend, the English landscape - so calm on the surface - is really the Devil's work. Cloven Country, now in paperback, tells of rocks hurled into place and valleys carved out by infernal labour. The Devil's hideous strength laid down great roads in one night, and left scars everywhere as the hard stone melted like wax under those burning feet. With roots in medieval folklore, this is not the Satan of prayer, but a clumsy ogre, easily fooled by humankind. When a smart cobbler or cunning young wife outwitted him, they struck a blow for the underdog. Only the wicked squire and grasping merchant were beyond redemption, carried off by a black huntsman in the storm.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Harte - a curator at Bourne Hall Museum in Surrey - has an encyclopedic knowledge of the diverse sources of England's traditional tales and proves himself to be an authoritative guide . . . From the demon who appears as a fearsome figure hurling stones, gouging out valleys and heaping up hills, or as a sinister black-clad huntsman with his fiery-eyed hounds howling across Bodmin Moor, to ideas about how a woman's wit is better than a man's when it comes to besting the lord of darkness, Harte takes his reader on a devilishly entertaining tour of England and its richly storied landscape.' * The Guardian *
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ISBN-13
978-1-78914-651-6 (9781789146516)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Jeremy Harte is curator of the Bourne Hall Museum at Epsom and Ewell. He is secretary of the Romany and Traveller Family History Society and created the Surrey Gypsy Archive. He is the author of Travellers through Time: A Gypsy History (Reaktion, 2023).
