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I asked @chrisgardiner.bsky.social for some references to the various kinds of UK folklore we've been reading about for our upcoming game, Mandrake, and here's a long and juicy thread! There are so many worth telling you about!

Mandrake is a rural life sim set in a village called Chandley, whose people have to get along with all sorts of neighbours, some far from human. Regal woods-gods; dangerous, rootless spirits roving the wilds; gentler, domestic sprites that nevertheless abide by their own, sometimes obtuse, rules.

Sunken Lands: Atlantis might be the most famous sunken land, but we've taken inspiration from examples closer to home. Lost Lyonesse that lay beyond Land's End in Cornwall, and became associated with Arthurian legend.

The lost Brittany city of Ys (or Kaer-Ys), drowned by mortal folly, which features in the collection of Breton folk-songs known as the Barzaz-Breiz. Cantre'r Gwaelod, a land said to lie off the coast of Cardigan, in Gwynedd.

In Mandrake, our drowned isle is poor Oleas, which lay just off the coast near Chandley, and was home to the Rose dynasty – the historic rivals to the Mandrakes, our protagonist’s family house. The locals say that on quiet evenings, you can still hear the bells of Oleas ringing under the waves…

Seal-Folk: Haunting the sunken streets of Oleas are the korrigan, who swim in the shape of seals, but can take human form on the shore. They are attuned to the tides of fate, dangerous to cross, and have magics of their own. Our sea-fisherman, Ruan, knows to treat seals with the utmost courtesy.

They are of course primarily inspired by the Scottish legends of selkies. A favourite modern version of the archetypal selkie story can be found in Kevin Crossley-Holland's short collection Outsiders, which retells folktales from the point of view of those who don't fit in.

Their name and sorcerous inclinations were inspired by the korrigan, another bit of Breton folklore: deadly, capricious fey whose demands were dangerous to defy.

(Tolkien wrote a great, grim poem about a ‘corrigan’ called The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, which has been released in a recent edition along with drafts of a couple of earlier poems he wrote about them. They obviously made an impression on him!)

Chimney-Gods: You might have seen our friendly-faced character Hob Halfling, who lives in the hearth of your recovered family lodge.

There are countless brownie stories, but one of our favourites is from Sunderland: the Cauld Lad o' Hilton. According to Robert Surtees in 1820, the Cauld Lad would cause chaos if Hylton Castle, where he lived, was left in good order – or tidy it immaculately if it was left in a mess.

He played pranks on the inhabitants, but was eventually banished by the traditional method of leaving out a set of clothes for him. He found them, put them on, admired himself in a mirror, and left - never to return. 'Here's a cloke, and here's a hood; the cauld lad o' hilton will do no more good.'

Surtees' version seems to consider the Lad a brownie, but says that it had become identified with the ghost of a murdered servant whose bones were later found in a pond on the grounds. Folklore is rarely neat! There's no murder in Hob's origin, anyway.