The Green Children of Woolpit

A magisterial, authoritative and, above all, sensibly judicious account of the Green Children of Woolpit, this book moves deftly between the medieval and the modern, sources and reception. It unpacks the multiple possibilities for the interpretation of the tale in its contexts and lays a solid foundation for future engagement with this unparalleled and mysterious story.

Carolyne Larrington, Emerita Professor of medieval European literature, University of Oxford

What is so outstanding about this enquiry is its demonstration of the power of story. Thorough, fair-minded and genuinely wise, John Clark's detective work shows just how and why the mysterious folk-legend of the green children has attracted and inspired such wide attention, including that from folklorists, rationalisers and artists. I've learned a very great deal from it, and once again fallen under the spell of this story, so strange and yet somehow so familiar, of these 'two little twelfth-century waifs' of Woolpit.

Kevin Crossley-Holland, author and poet

An outstandingly detailed, perceptive and wide-ranging study of an endlessly fascinating tale that will become the authoritative study of the subject, and is also compellingly readable.

Francis Young, Historian, Suffolk folklorist, and author of Twilight of the Godlings

This is an admirably thoughtful, wide-ranging and persuasive consideration - the best yet - of one of England's most famous medieval legends.

Ronald Hutton, Professor of History, University of Bristol

[John Clark] gathers up the dust of centuries, tosses theories on the scales, adds appropriate filters, and, in a worthily nit-picking feat of all-round scholarship, rounds out the context for these mystery children and their subsequent fate in a way that no prior researcher has done. The text is as interesting for its intense questioning of elements as for the fascinating story itself.

John Billingsley
Northern Earth

The Green Children of Woolpit is a comprehensive, meticulously referenced and fascinating delve into this most-beguiling of stories, for which John Clark should be highly commended. Crucially, it's also very readable.

Edward Parnell
Fortean Times

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements

1. An Introduction
2. The Story and its Legacy
3. Transmission
4. Interpretations
5. The Chroniclers and the Texts
6. The Framing Narrative
7. The Children’s Story
8. Excursions
9. Strangers in a Strange Land

Appendix: The Sources
William of Newburgh
Ralph of Coggeshall

Notes
Bibliography
Retellings, Reworkings and Reimaginings: A Chronological Listing
Index 

John Clark was for many years curator of the medieval collections at the Museum of London. Since retiring in 2009, he has continued research, lecturing and writing on topics including the history and archaeology of medieval London, medieval folklore and legends and their relationship to ‘real’ history, and medieval horses and horse equipment.