Summer solstice greetings

Hello Reader

Happy summer solstice!

My new print is about an old midsummer tale about Grey Wethers stone circles.

Last year at around this time I walked through Fernworthy forest to Grey Wethers stone circles.

It was the hottest day of the year and I was totally unprepared (no suncream and wearing shorts and sandals). I got piskie led getting there and piskie led returning and my phone battery died on my return. I was lucky to eventually find my way back to the car, otherwise I'd probably still be there, attempting to survive as a wild wood witch and appeasing the Fernworthy spirits.
That day, I found out how I was a tick magnet and for the next few days my partner was pulling out tiny blood sucking bugs out of my skin with tweezers! Up to that day I had managed to walk on the moors semi naked and barefoot!

Now I wear trousers tucked into socks and proper walking shoes, even though I look totally ridiculous!

I've been wanting to make this print for ages but as it is a story for midsummer I waited until now.

As many of you are local, you will be aware of the twin stone circles at Grey Wethers and probably know the story and subsequent legend too. But as stories are passed down over the centuries every retelling is a little different.

So sit back with a cup of tea and I'll begin.

The story of Grey Wethers

Many many years ago there were 3 peat cutters who worked together on the high moor. Two of them were local old boys while the other was a stranger in those parts, having come down from London after falling on hard times.

One cold stormy night after a hard days work, sitting in front of the fire in the cottage where one of the men lived (believed to be Statts house, now a ruin on Winney’s Down), they talked about Grey Wethers and how relieved they were not to be up there tonight in this weather, but wouldn't want to be up there either on Midsummer night. The city boy was confused. 'Ok, I understand why you don't want to be up there tonight but what of midsummers night?' he asked.

'Ah well that be to do with the dark magic that appens round that time,' starts the man who lives in the house. And he goes on to tell the stranger an old story about a good shepherd called Zorak who worshipped the old gods, and at this time of year he gave thanks to Belus the sun god by sacrificing one of his lambs.

So Zorak went to choose one of his lambs, he tried to choose a runty one, but he couldn't find one, they were all fine strong lambs and he really didn't want to part with any of them.

Well it just so happened that Zorak had recently had a bit of a tiz with the shepherd in the neighbouring farm, so he thought about that for a while, to get himself het up and agitated, and on the eve of the solstice at 12 midday, when he knew his neighbour would be having some dinner, he slipped over the boundary reave and stole one of the lambs.

As he offered the slaughtered lamb to Belus at dawn on the solstice there was a huge clap of thunder and the brightest flash of lightning that blinded him for a few minutes. The sun god Belus was not pleased with the deception, and as Zorak turned around he saw that all his sheep had been turned into two circles of stone.

Poor Zorak, after that fright he was never the same again and soon he was laid to rest under a cairn on Cosdon hill with his sheep shears beside him.

'Oh be on,' pipes up the other old boy, 'tell ee bout the gold'

'Ah well me buy, tis a legend see. On midsummer night and before the sun rises, if ee can dig Zorak's shears out of the Kist, un dunk em in the North Teign river by the Tolmen stone and wait to see a tress of hair floating by, grab the hair and get up to Grey Wethers , use the hair to stay a sheep and shear ee, then onto the fleece sprinkle water from the rock basin on Kestor, and then your eyes will be pleased to see a Golden Fleece before ee. You must do it all before dawn mind whilst you speak these words'

And the old boy recites this poem,

'At midnight by the Tolmen, upon the river Teign,

The shears within its water, shall carve thy weal or bane.

Strike on thy left, then on thy right, red blood the flood shall stain.

Beware lest trembling fingers, withdraw the blade again,

But hold it firmly neath the stream, till tress of hair appears,

Which seize and keep to bind the sheep, then use the magic shears.” *

The city boy is fascinated, and he begins to wonder...is there really gold there? He thinks about it all year until the next midsummer. During that year he has become quite wealthy, having found work with a merchant banker, who has died and passes the business onto him. But he has become greedy and he thinks about the golden fleece and the challenge has wetted his appetite.

So on the eve of midsummer night he returns, determined to try and win the gold fleece.

He remembers the poem word for word having learnt it when he worked with the peat cutters. But as he chants it a few more times to make sure, he falls asleep. Waking in the early hours of the morning he knows he only has a short time before the sun rises and the magic will no longer work.

So he runs to the cairn on Cosdon hill and pulls up the kist stones where he finds a skeleton and the rusty old pair of shears. Taking the shears he races down to the Tolmen stone, and hangs his body down through the hole in the stone and dunks the shears in.

They bubble, sizzle and glurp, his hands shake and he holds them tighter. The river sings and the wind howls and he hears the words of the poem forming around him…

Strike on thy left, then on thy right, red blood the flood shall stain.

With hands shaking even more now he keeps the shears down in the bloody water, and he waits for the tress of hair. A silver fish wriggles past and distracts him and he watches it for a second or two. Then he notices the tress of white hair floating past very fast and he lurches forward to snatch it up, but he only manages to get a few strands.

Then he remembers the water from the basin on Kestor so he has to double back on himself and he races up to collect some in his flask.
As he reaches Grey Wethers he hears the strangest sound in the air like a clock winding down, reminding him of the little time he has left to complete the task. Looking up he sees an unusual bird fly by, but being a city boy he doesn’t know what it is.

In a frenzied panic he continues his mission and grabs a sheep and ties it with the hair and begins to shear it. He makes a bit of a mess of it, and not just because of the blunt and rusty shears but because he is in such a frenzy to HAVE THE GOLD! He thinks he has finished shearing until the sheep turns and slips the knotted hair to reveal half of a back leg covered in wool. But still city boy continues and is about to sprinkle the fleece with the water when.... yes you guessed it... the SUN COMES UP!

So city boy, with tears in his eyes, looks up to the sky to watch the sun rise and as he does so the flock of sheep surround him, each sheep has grown in size and city boy is very afraid. He watches in horror as they begin to shapeshift, their locks of wool are no longer wiry and greasy but have become dry and hard, their legs, heads and bodies are no longer so well defined, only their colours of black grey and white remain the same, as they solidify and become rock, large granite stones.
And as this wierd sort of black and white animation unfolds before him, a voice booms out from under the ground,

‘Thou that seekest to gain the treasure of the dead, shall win the fatal gift the grave doth yield instead.' *

And as he heard those words of doom his body began to stiffen and grow cold.

And to this day city boy remains amongst the sheep all in two circles of stone, lest he forget his greed !

*I have copied the rhyme from the tale told here and here, but my retelling of the tale is a little different.

And if you didn't already know the meaning of 'Wethers' is a castrated ram!

Shadows and Mist at Grey Wethers

I have 5 prints available of my print Shadows and Mist at Grey Wethers.

All have slightly different skies as I wanted to experiment to get a noctilucent sky, a phenomenon at this time of year on Dartmoor, with patches and streaks of light shining through.

They are £60 each, as an introductory price.