Uncommon Folk 31 Days of Winter - Hunting the Wren

This episode explores the fascinating tradition of hunting the Wren, a symbolic custom celebrated on St Stephen's Day featuring folklore, music, and community spirit. We delve into its historical roots, modern adaptations, and the stories that keep this tradition alive. 
• Overview of the Wren hunting tradition 
• The role of the Wren Boys and community involvement 
• Historical context and folklore surrounding the Wren 
• The shift from killing to symbolic representations 
• Variations of the Wren tradition across cultures 
• Connection to animal rights and ethical considerations

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Hunting the Wren. Now, hunting the wren is a traditional custom. It's carried out in various parts of Britain and the UK and it usually takes place on St Stephen's Day, which is 26th of December, boxing Day Now. Men and boys would hunt a wren and place it on top of a staff which has been decorated with ribbons, ivy, holly, or sometimes they put it in a box and display that on top of a pole. They would walk around the neighbourhood On top of a pole. They would walk around the neighbourhood, a group of they were called Wren Boys, dressed in masks made of straw, lots of greenery and colourful motley, and they'd sing songs and play music and hope for a donation. The people afterwards would have a funeral for the Wren and they would dance around this pole, the Wren Pole or the Wren Bush. It did go through a revival in the late 20th century. Luckily, though, that the Wren itself it wasn't a real Wren used, or a stuffed Wren would be used, or something that represented the wren, the reason being that the wren obviously not as common a bird as it once was, and people generally don't kill animals for this sort of tradition anymore, but still like to celebrate these traditions. Now, um, in wales, I mean it's described as the um having procured a wren. This is from cardigan show and commandant show, where they used to um you do this custom. The bird was placed in a little house of paper with glass windows. Sometimes a cage or a lantern or a box was used for that purpose and often decorated with colored ribbons, and every young lady and even old ladies used to compete in presenting the grandest ribbon to the wren. That the cage or the lantern had been completely decorated then with ribbons and the little bird that was in it, whether it be alive or stuffed. It was hoisted up on four poles, not just three, one at each corner, and there were four men, as we mentioned before. The Wren boys or men would carry it around just to get contributions and they would sing a ballad or a ditty. It's quite a long song. I won't sing the whole thing, but they would sing a song. Where are you going? Says Milda to Melda. Oh, where are you going, says the younger to the elder. Oh, I cannot tell you. Festel to Fosse we're going to the woods, said John the Red Nose. Going to the woods, said John the Red Nose. It does continue, and always um ends with john the red nose there. Um, I'm not entirely sure who john the red nose was, but I'm guessing, um, by part of the tradition involved um bit of drink, um, maybe someone who was a little bit tipsy. There are other versions of the Wren tradition. In the Manx tradition it's called Wren Day, and this would actually you'd sacrifice a Wren, you would actually kill a Wren as part of it.

Speaker 1: 3:55

There's the earliest sort of most common folklore accounted for this, for this hunting of the wren from the Isle of man, in which the wren was chased. A beautiful woman is chased sorry, a fairy enchantress and she is changed into the form of a wren. And here is the story. Many years ago there came to the island a beautiful woman of the fairy people. She went all through the land and wherever she appeared, she put such enchantment on the men by her beauty and her wonderful attractive powers that they one and all left their work and their homes to follow her. When she had them all collected in this way, she led them across an apparently shallow ford in a wide river. She herself went across almost dry shod, but when her followers attempted the fording, the river rose in fury and drowned nearly all of them. Upon this, the survivors, brought to their senses by the disaster, gave chase to the woman, seeking vengeance upon her, but she, laughing in mockery, changed herself into the shape of a wren and flew away.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Some say that this particular wren was the first to be hunted, killed and carried round for exhibition. Others that the actual witch woman escaped, but it is generally believed to be a memory of this event that the wren is hunted and carried annually. Now some folklorists say that this is to do with. The hunting of the wren is related to the nursery rhyme who killed Cock Robin? The custom of the killing wrens was mostly stamped out in the British Isles by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is a very good thing. But there's a little poem that goes the wren the wren, the king of all birds, on St Stephen's Day was caught in the furze. Although he was little, his power is great. So up with a kettle and down with a plate, that's the hunting of the wren.