SOMETHING ODD FROM OUR ARCHIVES: THE VENGEANCE OF THE EARTH-GNOMES

Writing in “Devon Traditions and Fairy Tales”, the renowned Devonshire Folklorist J.R.W Coxhead included this following tale, which has been presented in a number of nineteenth century accounts as being true:

“THE VENGEANCE OF THE EARTH-GNOMES

The water supply of the attractive seaside resort of Torquay in South Devon was assured for many years to come when the Fernworthy Reservoir, on Dartmoor, was completed and opened on 22nd June, 1942. The reservoir was formed by the construction of a dam across the upper part of the valley of the South Teign River. Work on the project was commenced on 14th August, 1936, and during the course of the work the ancient farm-stead of Fernworthy was demolished. The house was last occupied in 1928, and its former site, on the north­west bank of the reservoir, is commemorated by a very strange little fairy-legend.

Fernworthy was built in 1590, by the last male member of an ancient yeoman family, on the site of a much older house which had been the home of his franklin ancestors for many generations. The house was solidly built of granite blocks quarried from the moor, a stark and gloomy structure, well in keeping with its remote and desolate setting.

The granite used in the building was obtained from outcrops of rock, of a particularly durable quality, on a hillside at some distance from the farm, and unbeknown to the yeoman, these particular rocks were under the protection of certain mysterious members of the fairy race.

Deep within the heart of the hill there lived a number of earth-gnomes who strongly resented the presence of human beings on their domain. When the workmen employed by the farmer commenced to quarry stone for the new house, the gnomes were so enraged that they vowed vengeance upon the rash mortal who had dared to violate the fairy hill.

Soon after the completion of the new farmhouse an event occurred for which the yeoman and his wife had long been hoping in vain. This important happening was the birth of a son. The farmer's ardent desire to have an heir to inherit the home of his ancestors seemed, at long last, to have been fulfilled.

Unfortunately, for the yeoman and his wife, other creatures had also been eagerly awaiting the birth of the heir of Fernworthy. These vindictive little people, were the elusive earth-gnomes of the enchanted hill, who were now ready to have their revenge on the yeoman for taking stone from the rocks belonging to the fairy-folk.

One winter evening as twilight was falling, and the farmer had not yet returned from cutting turf on the moor, his wife was sitting by the great open fireplace in the farmhouse kitchen watching over the child in the cradle. She had left the door of the room slightly ajar in order to be able to hear her husband enter the yard on his return from work. The pleasant warmth of the turf-fire made her feel drowsy, and after a short while she dropped off to sleep.

The opportunity for which the ugly little gnomes had been patiently waiting had arrived, and they acted swiftly. The mother awoke from her brief slumber just in time to see the flutter of a grey cloak as something darted through the half-open doorway. A weird laugh of triumph sounded from outside, and when she looked in the cradle she found to her dismay and anguish that her beloved child had gone. The cruel vengeance of the heartless earth-gnomes was complete.

The people of the neighbourhood were firmly convinced that as the new house at Fernworthy had been built of stone taken from an enchanted hill the first human being to be born in the building had thus fallen into the power of the fairy-folk.

A brief version of the foregoing fairy-legend is given by John L. W. Page in his book “The Rivers of Devon," published in 1893.”