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Cloven Country
The Devil and the English Landscape
Jeremy Harte
Reaktion Books 2022
Hb, 296pp, £15.99, ISBN 9781789146509
One of the most beloved of Doctor Who stories has long been 1971’s “The Daemons”. Over the course of its five episodes, the Doctor battles against ancient forces, unleashed after being long buried beneath a seemingly sedate English rural village. To exemplify the apparent super-natural qualities of the storyline, the village and the Neolithic burial mound from which these dormant horrors emerge are named Devil’s End and the Devil’s Hump. These names were not acts of poetic licence on the part of the writers of “The Daemons”; as Cloven Country shows, the English landscape is studded with many a placename or geographical feature named after Old Nick.
Cloven Country’s nine chapters are each formed around a different folk tale describing an encounter with the Devil, the ending of which often explains why the Devil’s name is given to a specific location or aspect of the landscape (alas, Harte features no Devil’s Ends but does feature the Devil’s Humps near Chichester).
From each folk tale, Harte then pulls back to reveal how the story is not solely rooted to one area but has variations occurring across the English, and sometimes Welsh, countryside. For instance, England abounds with tales of the Devil interceding during the construction of churches by moving the building stones away from the agreed upon location – tales which were told to explain why often these churches were in odd locations in their parish.
However, it quickly becomes apparent that what Harte is doing is not simply compiling a compendium of traditional folk tales. Although he will retell a tale with a nimble and gleeful charm, he’ll then carefully examine them, showing the similarities between different versions and revealing the tropes and motifs that these variations share. For example, the number of Devil’s Bridges and Devil’s Ditches that – according to local folklore – owe their creation to the Devil being tricked into their construction.
Harte’s skill as a writer makes this process seamless. It also renders what could be an academic and slightly dry exercise every bit as interesting as the narratives themselves. Come for the telling of folktales; stay for the workings of folklore.
For Harte, the key to understanding folklore is the process of transmission. He shows legend and tradition not to be static and unchanging, but stories that alter and shift in the telling, citing the realisation in
