THE BOGLE BO (or Bugaboo)


When I was in my prenticeship and learning of my trade,

I courted my master's daughter, which made my heart right glad.

I courted her both summers days and winter nights also

But I never could her favor win till I hired the Bogle Bo.


Day being gone, and night coming on, my neighbor he took a sheet

And straight into her room he went just like a wandering spirit.

She went (went) running up and down, not knowing where to go

But right into my bed she went for fear of the Bogle Bo.


And so my true love and me, (we both) fell fast asleep,

But ere the morn at fair daylight, sore, sore did she weep

Sore, sore did she weep; sore, sore did she mourn

But ere she rose and put on her clothes, the Bogle bo was gone.


You've done the thing to me last night, the thing you cannot shun

You've taen from me my maidenhead, and I am quite undone.

You've taen from me my maidenhead, and brought my body low

But, kind sir, if you'll marry me, I will be your jo.


Now he's married her and taen her hame, and it was but his part

She's proved to him a loving wife, and joy of all his heart;

He never told her of the joke, nor ne'er intends to do

But aye when his wife smiles on him, he minds the Bogle bo.




Note: Foggy Dew variant

printed in Lloyd's Folk Song in England. Lloyd suggests that the

mysterious "foggy dew" of later versions is a corruption of the

'Bugaboo'

Bogle Crag is the name of the site. Archaeological techniques were incorporated into the installation (or excavation), which interwove fact and fantasy, history and myth, dark and light.

Above all, there was the embracing of 'chance'. The presence of Dada and Fluxus* loomed large.


The 'bogle' is also known as the the 'boggart':

"The horrible shrieks of one kind of boggart - a class of supernatural creature particularly common in the north-west - have earned it the name shriker, though it is also a barguest or trash. Usually it appears as an omen of death, sometimes in the form of a white cow or horse, or an enormous black or white dog, with huge pads, shaggy hair and glaring, saucer-like eyes.......Some boggarts, especially human-shaped ones, are distinctly malicious....The White Dobbie lives in a world of its own though it seems in some way attached to the coastal villages of Furness. It appears like a wandering, weary, emaciated and silent human, and dresses in a dirty white topcoat. Its constant companion is a white hare with glaring, bloodshot eyes."


On the Isle of Man, it is the 'buggane' that was feared, "a goblin that changed size and shape at will, adopting the form of a black bull, or a monstrous ram. Bugganes haunted old chapels to prevent their repair, or would repeatedly pull down their roofs.."


Folklore, Myths & Legends of Britain, Readers Digest, 1977



"In the Slavonic tongues, which are akin to the Teutonic, Bôg is God, and there are sleights of etymology which would identify the two terms; the Icelandic Puki is an evil spirit, and such we have seen was the English Pouke, which easily became Puck, Pug, and Bug; finally, in Friesland the Kobold is called Puk, and in old German we meet with Putt or Butz as the name of a being not unlike the original English Puck.[e] The Devonshire fairies are called Pixies, and the Irish have their Pooka, and the Welsh their Pwcca, both derived from Pouke or Puck. From Bug comes the Scottish Bogle and the Yorkshire Boggart. The Swedish language has the terms spöka, spöke; the Danish spöge, spögelse, the German, spuken, spuk, all used of spirits or ghosts, and their apparitions. Perhaps the Scottish pawkey, sly, knowing, may belong to the same family of words. Akin to Bogle was the old English term Puckle, noticed above, which is still retained in the sense of mischievous, as in Peregrine Pickle and Little Pickle. It has been conjectured that Picklehäring, the German term for zany or merry-andrew, may have been properly Picklehärin, i.e. the hairy sprite, answering to Jonson's Puck-hairy, and that he may have worn a vesture of hair or leaves to be rough like the Brownie and kindred beings. From Bug also come Bugbear, and Bugleboo, or Bugaboo."


The Fairy Mythology

Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries.

by Thomas Keightley, 1870

The Bogle Experience (a part-fabricated history)

Grizedale Sculpture Park


A superfiction project by Antony Lyons

* "Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts. Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief. Fluxus is fun. Humour has always been an important element in Fluxus."