Dorset Ooser
Encyclopedia
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
in the town of Dorchester, in the county of Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
in southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, for several centuries. The original mask disappeared in 1897, though a modern replica, made in 1975 by John Byfleet, is held in the Dorset County Museum
Dorset County Museum
The Dorset County Museum is located in Dorchester, Dorset, England. Founded in 1846, the museum covers the county of Dorset's history and environment. The current building was built in 1881 on the former site of the George Inn...
, where it is taken out as a part of a procession of Morris dancers atop the Cerne Abbas giant
Cerne Abbas giant
The Cerne Abbas Giant, also referred to as the Rude Man or the Rude Giant, is a hill figure of a giant naked man on a hillside near the village of Cerne Abbas, to the north of Dorchester, in Dorset, England. The high, wide figure is carved into the side of a steep hill, and is best viewed from...
on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
and St George's Day
St George's Day
St George's Day is celebrated by the several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint. St George's Day is celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George's death in AD 303...
, though some records indicate that in the 19th century it was paraded at Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
instead.
Both the mask and the modern replica have a hinged jaw, allowing it to move, in much the same way that hobby horse
Hobby horse
The term hobby horse is used, principally by folklorists, to refer to the costumed characters that feature in some traditional seasonal customs, processions and similar observances around the world. They are particularly associated with May Day celebrations, Mummers Plays and the Morris dance in...
s, another folkloric English tradition, move their jaws.
History
It is unknown when the original mask was made, but appeared to be in a tradition of making animal and grotesque masks to be worn in procession; in the 7th century book Liber Poenitentialis by the then Archbishop of CanterburyArchbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, Theodore
Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore was the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury....
, he stated "whoever at the kalends of January goes about as a stag or bull; that is, making himself into a wild animal and dressing in the skin of a herd animal, and putting on the heads of beast, those who in such wise transform themselves into the appearance of a wild animal, penance for three years because this is devilish".
The mask became the property of the Cave family of Holt Farm, Melbury Osmond
Melbury Osmond
Melbury Osmond is a village in north west Dorset, England, situated on the A37 road seven miles south of Yeovil. The village has a population of 190 . It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as a possession of the Arundell family, and remained so until the 19th century. The parish church, St...
, in Dorest, who remarked that it was used in local revels by a man dressed in animal skins. It was first mentioned in print in the 1891 book Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries.
In the late 19th century, Dr Edward Cave, who owned the mask, moved to Crewkerne
Crewkerne
Crewkerne is a town in Somerset, England, situated south west of Yeovil and east of Chard in the South Somerset district close to the border with Dorset. The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Woolminstone and Henley...
, and he took the mask with him. He later moved to Bath, but left the object in Crewkerne, where it was under the charge of a family coachman. The head disappeared, and the coachman claimed that he had sold it to a stranger from "up Chinnock way". Its whereabouts are currently unknown.
One of the main theories regarding the usage of the Ooser is that it was a representation of the Devil, though another theory, purported by Margaret Murray
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
, in her 1933 book The God of the Witches, and her supporters, such as Doreen Valiente
Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...
, but now largely discredited, claims that it actually depicts the Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
, a deity worshipped by a supposed underground Witchcraft cult which was the basis for modern Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
. An illustration of the Ooser is held at the Museum of Witchcraft
Museum of Witchcraft
Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall, England is a museum dedicated to witchcraft and has the largest collection of witchcraft and Wiccan related artifacts in the world...
in the nearby county of Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
.
The Gardnerian
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
initiate, and researcher into the history of Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
, Melissa Seims, believed that the statue of the Horned God
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in some European pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion's duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is...
Atho which was built by Raymond Howard
Raymond Howard
Raymond Howard was an English Witch and an early figure in the history of the neopagan religion of Wicca. Howard propagated the tradition focused around the Horned God known as Atho, which had originated with Charles Cardell....
may have been based upon the iconography of the Dorset Ooser.
External links
- The Dorset Ooser - Dark Dorset entry
- Celebrating May Day the pagan way - Guardian article
- The Dorset Ooser study by Daniel Patrick Quinn, available for free download