All Journal stories Witchcraft, Magic and Mystery
The Sark JournalLes Veilles: how Sark's stories survived
Knitting, gossip and stories around the joncqui猫re helped carry Sark's folklore from one generation to the next.
Before Sark鈥檚 old stories were collected in books, they survived by being told.
One setting was Les Veilles, the island鈥檚 evening gatherings.
People met, knitted, caught up on local news and told stories.
Ghosts, pirates and witchcraft were all part of those evenings.
Knitting and talking
Hands stayed busy while people talked.
Around the joncqui猫re
Families gathered around the joncqui猫re.
It was a bench adapted from a firewood box and covered with a straw-filled sack.
The Tchico belonged to La Coup茅e. Witches returning from a Friday coven at Grande Gr猫ve were said to rest on chimney ledges, protecting the house beneath. Smugglers and ghosts belonged to particular places: the cave at Havre Gosselin, the Caverne des Lamentes, the haunted Jaspellerie.
Court records and spoken stories
Sark鈥檚 seventeenth-century witchcraft prosecutions survive because courts wrote down charges and sentences.
The island鈥檚 supernatural stories were passed on orally before later collectors wrote them down.
Les Veilles were one setting in which that happened.
More of those stories are collected in Sark folklore, including the later story of the Sark witch who became a duck.
