Messing about in Boats
Last week, my husband and I spent a few days ‘messing about’ on a narrowboat. We were doing our helmsman and crew course actually, but that story is for another day. Although busy during the training, the narrowboat was also our accommodation and the mornings and evenings were peaceful and calm on a beautiful canal side mooring. We saw plenty of wildlife including the expected swans, cygnets, ducks and ducklings, red kites, sheep, horses etc. However the sight of an adder swimming across a wild and narrow section of canal was not expected! Its markings were unmistakable and luckily there were at least three of us that saw it, so no, we weren’t daydreaming.
During those few days, there was a lot of talking - teaching, learning and socialising. It was interesting how many literary or story based phrases and quotes slipped subconsciously into our conversation, many only picked up on if you knew the story well enough. One that came out several times in variations was Ratty’s statement from the Wind in the Willows -“ there is nothing … half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” As well as fragments of the Ducks Ditty “ducks are a dabbling, up tails all.” And Dr Seuss’ “would you? Could you on a boat?” And we all answered YES! (To a cup of tea of course!) There was the use of the word ‘susurrus’, particularly in the quiet evening just before the rains. This is a favourite word of ours since reading Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men a good few years ago. This is when you realise how much of what you read stays with you. Unexpected little gifts.
Of course, in the quiet times, my brain wandered, as it does, to folktales. Timeless stories passed down over generations about the water sprites, witches and fairies. Whether they were stories to warn children away from dangerous stretches of water or if they really did have some spiritual or supernatural basis, who is to say. Yet the stories persist. Jenny Greenteeth, Peg Powell, the Shellycoat and the water wyrms or Knuckers and Nuckelavee in the UK; Nixie, Nix, Nykur, Undines and other European variations; in fact water spirits are named in most traditional folktales across the world. Some are quite benign, while others are very scary. I do know that when down in the deep locks, dripping green, slimy walls and moss covered gates triggered my imagination. As did early morning walking along the misty canal banks thick with reeds and rushes. I kept my eyes and ears alert for strange movement in the water weed or ripples at the edge. What I would do if I did see a water sprite or hear a susurrus, I have no idea. But I do know that a hot cup of tea safely inside a solid steel boat hull put paid to any concerns in seconds.
All this has not put me off narrow boating on the canals and waterways. It is both exercise and relaxation for the body, mind and soul. And now, I am keen to learn more about the watery folktales from around the world. If you know any or have references to any, please drop me a message, or maybe look up a tale or two from the characters I have mentioned.
I’ll leave you with a quote from American anthropologist Loren Eiseley:
“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”