18th Feb 2021
Enys Tregarthen is possibly Cornwall’s most underrated writer, and one whose life is a mystery. Of course, this anonymity may be deliberate on Tregarthen’s part. She was a writer of dual pseudonyms, also publishing under Nellie Cornwall. In reality, she was Nellie Sloggett (1851-1923) of Padstow who expertly interweaved fragments of Cornish folklore into her own fairytales and short stories.
FILLING IN THE GAPS
It is hard to understand why Tregarthen is absent, or marginal, in seminal folkloric histories such as Folklore of Cornwall and A Treasury of British Folklore. There is no record of her in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Simon Young’s study "Nellie Sloggett and North Cornish Folklore" points the reason for this absence towards the fact that she wrote 'tales with folk themes' rather than 'writing as a folklorist'. For him, Tregarthen contributed as famous folklorists Robert Hunt and William Bottrell.
It is worth considering how and why Tregarthen treated Cornish folklore differently. Young observes that her stories filled the gap of North Cornish mythology left by Hunt and Bottrell’s studies into West Cornwall's folk stories. Another significant difference lies in how she fictionalised North Cornwall's folklore. She did not retell Cornish folk tales or create a standardised version of them. Instead, Tregarthen interweaved fragments of those traditional tales into her own stories. She took conventions of North Cornish folklore and reimagined them for a new era.
WEAVING NEW THREADS
Her book North Cornwall Fairies and Legends celebrates this skilled patchwork approach. A good example is the first chapter of the collection, “The Adventures of a Piskey in Search of his Laugh”. This story contains plenty of elements rooted in ancient Cornish folklore.
Yet Tregarthen creates new circumstances for recognisable mythic characters. In doing so, she both preserves and builds on traditional Cornish lore. The narrative arc may be unique to Tregarthen, inspired by the Cornish idiom to 'laugh like a piskey'.
The piskey encounters traditional Cornish characters who are not what they used to be. Merlin is the bargeman of Dozmare Pool, having lost most of his magical powers. Like the piskey, he has lost something that is integral to his identity. Meeting folkloric predecessors like Merlin helps the hero to learn from their stories.
Tregarthen’s works deserve their place alongside J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books. Do not think, however, that her stories are only for children. Themes of hope and community prove that her fairy world welcomes all who want to believe.
Further Reading
“Nellie Sloggett 1850-1923.” Mazed, 2021, https://www.mazedtales.org/content/nellie-sloggett-1850-1923
Tregarthen, Enys. North Cornwall Fairies and Legends. Amazon, 2020
Young, Simon. “‘Her Room was Her World’: Nellie Sloggett and North Cornish Folklore.” Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2017, pp. 101–136
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