Hunting the wren

’Tis the season, folks.

For myth and magick!

D’ya fancy a game of “Hunt the Wren”? On December 26? On the Isle of Man?

At Ballycrink, Mr. Quirk’s house on the IOM, while he was petting his tailless (and mean-looking) Manx cat, he was telling me of other Manx oddities.

Mr.Quirk was a member of House of Keys,in Tynwald, the Manx Parliament and a real genial guy. He was eagerly telling me of the four, or even six-horned, Manx Loghtan sheep, of the fairy-guarded bridge at Port St. Mary, of the Buggane, the irritable and destructive Manx giant. (And of a local darkish, creepy and certifiably haunted secluded glen) and more to the point in this season, a beautiful and magical Manx lady that had so many men bugging her, Mr Quirk said, that she became so bored and irritated that she “laughingly,” shape-shifted” to a wren and flew away.

That is why, he said, the wren is “ceremonially” hunted on December 26, St. Steven’s Day. At first, years ago, in a vengeful manner but these days as a happy “hunting the wren” festival. Kenneth Nickel

Lancaster