Folklore of Lincolnshire by Susanna O'Neill Read Free Book Online

all be lost.’ He then led them far away to the high ground.
    When dawn broke, the Romans awoke and were baffled by the forceful winds blowing around the city, and then they discovered the gates were wide open and the slaves had all escaped. They were furious but the force of the tempest now raging round them prevented them tracking down the escapees. The soldiers became even more enraged when Valerian ordered them to do all those tasks commonly allotted to the slaves.
    As the day progressed, a curious cloud-like phenomenon was observed over the sea. The Romans flocked to try and see what it was but no one could make it out. The longer they watched, however, the more the strange mass seemed to resemble a huge column of water, rising higher and higher out of the sea as it came closer and closer. Then a messenger came from the shore to tell of a mountain of water rushing towards the town. Everyone dashed outside to look and ‘…in truth the column appeared at the very least 300 feet high, and seemed as if all the ocean were gathered up into it.’
    The terrified Romans fled into the forest where they met other Romans from other cities, who were also trying to escape the menacing torrent. There was noescape, however, and the colossal waves crashed into the cities, destroying Valerian’s palace as well as all the houses and streets. It swept away all traces of Roman supremacy and then it rushed through the forest, washing away all the trees and swallowing up the hills and rivers. High in the upland range, the Iceni watched the sea smash against the ground below them, obliterating everything in its path, but fortunately they were high enough up and the waves abated just below them, sparing their lives. They looked down in awe on what used to be thick forest and now appeared to be a huge inland sea, with small islands appearing here and there. The Iceni rejoiced and Mandru shouted out:
    We of the Iceni are the first to repeople the wilderness…and these parts shall never more become forest. The sea, our great deliverer, shall always be present here, in token whereof it has been decreed that we shall be known henceforth as Gyrvii or marsh-men, in place of Iceni, the slaves of the Romans.
    This is the legend of how the Fens and marshland originated and the people who lived there became some of the best fishermen and wildfowlers that lived. Marlow does add that the Romans re-conquered the area but not to the extent that they had before the floods. Efforts to tame the Fens were attempted, with banks and roads winding their way through the area but it remained for centuries the haunt of fish and birds with many islands surrounded by marshy wetland.
    Of course there is evidence to suggest that humans populated the area from the Mesolithic period, before the Iceni and the Roman times. The low-lying wetlands would have been seen as an advantageous area to live, hunting and fishing being vital activities for survival. Sources suggest the area was also favoured by warriors because it formed a naturally safe area. Their homes, surrounded by water, were easier to defend.
    Around the fifth century, during the time of King Vortigern, the Saxons were given the Fenlands in Lincolnshire to inhabit. Hengist and his brother Horsa had asked Lord Vortigern to give them homes, as they had been exiled from Germany. Vortigern, thinking they were savages but could be useful for protection, gave them land in Lincolnshire. McLeish tells us that Vortigern hoped that the draining of the marshes and muddy fields and fens would use up all their energy and leave them no time to be a threat to him. One day Hengist asked if he could build a castle in Lincolnshire, ‘…as large as can be encircled by a single leather thong and let me invite more of my followers from Germany, enough to fill it’. 5
    Vortigern envisaged how short leather thongs were and thought it would be a tiny castle with just a small number of soldiers, and so gave permission. Jennifer