Tiddy Mun

Tiddy Mun is a legendary bog spirit said to dwell in the marshy landscapes of eastern England. He was believed to control the waters and mists of the Fens of South Lincolnshire, the Carrs of North Lincolnshire, and the fens of the Isle of Ely. Known as both a bringer of misfortune and a guardian of balance, Tiddy Mun embodied the delicate relationship between humans and the wetland environment.

The earliest written account of Tiddy Mun appears in the Folk-Lore journal of June 1891, in an article by M. C. Balfour. Balfour recounts a tale from the Ancholme Valley, where an elderly villager spoke of a curse of pestilence cast by Tiddy Mun after the land was drained by Dutch engineers under Cornelius Vermuyden in the 17th century. Offended by the disruption of his watery domain, Tiddy Mun brought illness upon the village until the people gathered at twilight, during the new moon, and poured water back into the dykes in an act of remorse. Only after offering apologies was the curse lifted.

Despite this ominous side, Tiddy Mun was not purely malevolent. He was also invoked to relieve flooding. When the fen waters threatened to overwhelm the land, villagers would go out into the night and cry, “Tiddy Mun wi’out a name, tha watters thruff!”—a plea for the waters to recede. If they heard the cry of a peewit (lapwing), it was taken as a sign that Tiddy Mun had heard them, and by morning, the waters would often have drained away.

In a 1987 paper titled Tiddy Mun’s Curse and the Ecological Consequences of Land Reclamation, scholar Darwin Horn suggested that many of the misfortunes attributed to Tiddy Mun were likely consequences of ecological changes caused by draining the wetlands. Horn argued that nearly all of Tiddy Mun’s supposed curses could be traced back to disease or hardship linked to environmental disruption.

According to Balfour’s 1891 description, Tiddy Mun was no taller than a three-year-old child, yet bore the appearance of an old man, with tangled white hair, a matted beard, and a grey gown that made him nearly invisible at dusk. His eerie laughter was said to mimic the peewit’s call.

Later accounts expand the legend. In 1955, folklorist E. H. Rudkin documented additional traditions from the Ancholme Valley, which spoke of a race of small, imp-like beings known as the Tiddy People. Also called the Strangers, Greencoaties, or Yarthkins, they were mischievous but generally benevolent. Said to stand no more than a span high, they were described as having thread-thin arms and legs, oversized feet and hands, and heads that seemed to roll about on their shoulders.

The Tiddy People were believed to dance in the moonlight upon large flat stones known as Strangers Stones. Local tradition held that these stones were once smeared with blood and used as fire altars, though the specific purpose remains unclear. Offerings of the first harvest, as well as bread and salt, were left on the stones to appease the spirits and ensure a bountiful season.

Through these stories, Tiddy Mun and his kin remain symbols of a forgotten world—one where nature and spirit were deeply entwined, and human survival depended on harmony with the land.