The Green Children of Woolpit
Page 18
There are a thousand stories in this place. If you have time, put your ear to the ground and close your eyes and wait. Every flower, every rock, is waiting to whisper in your ear. Woolpit would have you believe something simple and safe — there were green children and the harvesters found them. And it’s true, in its own small way, but they’re only repeating what they’ve heard. Far better to ask the girl in the story. The real tale is one only she can tell.
Ready?
It goes like this.
HISTORICAL NOTE
In the Middle Ages, two monks in different parts of England recorded a very similar and, to modern eyes, unlikely tale of two green-skinned children found near a village called Woolpit. Each monk told the story his own way, but they agreed on the core aspects of the event: The girl and boy were lost, they spoke a language no one understood, and they initially refused all food except raw beans. The boy grew sick and died, but the girl eventually learned to speak and described the place she’d come from — a green land where the sun never shone.
Medieval chronicles were kept for a number of reasons. We imagine them as careful, scrupulous records of important historical events, but this is not necessarily what the monks intended. They also wanted to make sense of the world as they understood it. It was common to include stories like the green children alongside happenings that we would view as “factual.” When Ralph of Coggeshall and William of Newburgh recorded the story of the green children, they did so believing absolutely in the truth of the things they wrote, even if they didn’t have an explanation.
Over the years, antiquarians, academics, folklorists, and writers have investigated, interpreted, and discussed the green children of Woolpit. Modern scholars have presented a number of rational explanations for the more outlandish aspects of the story in an attempt to separate fact from fiction. Many of these theories are convincing, but there are still things that don’t add up. The folklorists, of course, point out how many elements of this story align with traditional fairy beliefs — the color green, the twilit world, the strange language, the refusal of food. Speculative fiction writers, one as early as the seventeenth century, have suggested that the green children came from other planets or even other dimensions. It seems that everyone wants a specific answer. We are all curious to know what really happened.
More than eight hundred years later, it’s impossible to determine which parts of the green children story are real, which are misunderstood, which are misrepresented, and which are outright inventions. Trying to pin down the exact “truth” of a story like this one obscures a very real fact: Regardless of when you are, there is something deeply relatable about finding yourself in a place where you clearly don’t belong. We may do better to follow the example of the monks themselves, who saw stories like this one as less a mystery to solve than a wonder to appreciate, enjoy, and share.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest thanks to:
Katherine Longshore, for keeping me honest and cheering me on.
Anne Nesbet, Nancy Day, Elizabeth Bunce, Jeanne Ryan, and Janet Lee Carey, for helping to unstick the sticky places.
Reka Simonsen, for her graceful, insightful, and indispensable guidance.
Ammi-Joan Paquette, for her tireless work on my behalf.
Julia McCarthy, for bringing a fresh perspective.
Victo Ngai, for the gorgeous, evocative cover art.
The team at Atheneum, for making this book lovely inside and out.
Readers everywhere, and the whole kid-lit community.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. ANDERSON COATS has master’s degrees in history and library science. She is the author of R Is for Rebel, The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming, and The Wicked and the Just, and she contributed a story to the anthology A Tyranny of Petticoats. She lives with her family in Washington State. Visit her at JAndersonCoats.com.
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ALSO BY J. ANDERSON COATS
R Is for Rebel
The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming
The Wicked and the Just
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS † An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division † 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 † www.SimonandSchuster.com † This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. † Text copyright © 2019 by J. Anderson Coats † Jacket illustration copyright © 2019 by Victo Ngai † All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. † ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Atheneum logo is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. † For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com. † The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. † Jacket illustration copyright© 2019 by Victo Ngai † Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data † Names: Coats, J. Anderson (Jillian Anderson), author. † Title: The green children of Woolpit / J. Anderson Coats. † Description: First edition. | New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, [2019] | Summary: Twelve-year-old Agnes trusts a boy and girl with green skin who claim they are fair folk, and that she is a fairy princess, but in their underground world she finds great danger. † Identifiers: LCCN 2018061501| ISBN 9781534427907 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534427921 (eBook) † Subjects: | CYAC: Fairies — Fiction. | Magic — Fiction. | Identity — Fiction. | Fantasy. † Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C62 Gre 2019 | DDC [Fic] — dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018061501