Joan the Wad

Joan the Wad

Joan the Wad is a mythological character in Cornish folklore. Specifically, she is Queen of the pixies (or piskeys), a race of tiny creatures usually associated with the area of Cornwall and Devon. "Wad" is a dialect word for torch. [ [http://www.answers.com/topic/joan-the-wad Answers.com / OUP] ]

Not much has been written on Joan, as the folklore of Cornwall relied on oral tradition for hundreds of years. She has been associated with Jack o' the Lantern, a will-o'-the-wisp type character who leads travellers astray on lonely moors, hence the rhyme:

:"Jack o' the lantern! Joan the wad," :"Who tickled the maid and made her mad":"Light me home, the weather's bad." [Dr Jonathan Couch, "History of Polperro" (1871)]

However, Joan is also thought to be lucky, and another rhyme runs:

:"Good fortune will nod, if you carry upon you Joan the Wad"

Even today people will carry small figures of her for good luck, [ [http://www.helium.com/tm/168373/could-forgiven-thinking-cornish Joan the Wad and the Cornish Piskeys] ] a small collection of which are housed at the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle.

References


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