From the King & Tinker, named after a traditional tale in which a disguised monarch surprises a local craftsman, to the Eagle & Child, commemorating 'the Lathom legend', many British pub names and signs are steeped in local legends and ancient beliefs. In Green Men & White Swans, Jacqueline Simpson, one of the UK's leading folklorists, explores the stories behind the names, showing where they originated and tracing how they have evolved over the years. In the process, she reveals why the Green Man is sometimes depicted as a club-wielding giant with a girdle of leaves and sometimes as a Robin Hood figure, retells the dramatic tale of local Wiltshire hero Rattlebone, and describes the centuries-old custom that gives its name to the Silver Ball in St Columb. From there, she goes on to explain why you seem to be able to find a Red Lion, a Queen's Head or a White Horse in every part of the country, and why the recent fashion for apparently meaningless combinations involving slugs, toads, parrots and firkins actually has a precedent in history. Enlightening, revealing and entertaining by turns, Green Men & White Swans is both an intriguing insight into the history of the British pub and a captivating journey through the country's legendary past.
Author
Dr. Jacqueline Simpson (born 1930) is a United Kingdom researcher and author on folklore and legend. She studied English Literature and Medieval Icelandic at Bedford College, University of London. Dr. Simpson has been, at various times, Editor, Secretary, and President of the Folklore Society. She was awarded the Society's Coote Lake Research Medal in 2008. In 2010 she was appointed Visiting Professor of Folklore at the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy at the University of Chichester, West Sussex. She has a particular interest in local legends (as opposed to international fairytales), and has published collections of this genre from Iceland, Scandinavia in general, and England (the latter in collaboration with the late Jennifer Westwood). She has also written on the folklore of various English regions, and was co-author with Steve Roud of the Penguin Dictionary of English Folklore. She lives in West Sussex, England. She has been a point of reference for Terry Pratchett since he met her at a book signing in 1997. Pratchett, who was then researching his novel Carpe Jugulum, was asking everyone in the queue how many magpie rhymes they knew; and whilst most people gave one answer – the theme from the TV series Magpie – Simpson stated that she knew "about nineteen". This encounter eventually led to collaboration.
