Darren Simpson on Folklore, River Gods, and THIRST

Guest post written by Darren Simpson, author of Thirst. 

You may not have heard of the long-armed hag who dwells deep in ponds, waiting for children to come close so she can snatch their ankles and haul them screaming into the water. But back in the 1800s, all of Durham’s young folk knew of Nelly Longarms, and were careful to avoid weed-strewn waters, just in case her bony hands emerged to drag them to their deaths.

Nelly was in good company. These “water weirds” existed up and down the country. There was Peg Powler, waiting in the River Tees. Jenny Greenteeth, lurking in the north-west’s ponds. And the grindylow who prowled the Yorkshire marshes.

These slimy stalkers all served a purpose. They were cautionary, folkloric monsters, invented to keep children away from dangerous waters. I came across them while researching online for a horror novel and discovering that folklore – with its shared tales and traditions of the past – is rich with an earthy, thorny strangeness that still resonates today.

Every culture’s historical landscape is populated with folkloric creatures, without whom we wouldn’t have the likes of the vampires, zombies, werewolves and ghouls that entertain us today. But during my research, it was the lesser-known creatures that intrigued me most, particularly those that – like Nelly or the grindylow – hid in lakes, rivers, swamps and sea.

These water-dwelling terrors can be found in folklore from all over the world. Greek mythology tells of the beautiful, singing sirens who lured sailors towards treacherous rocks. There’s also the bloodthirsty, turtle-shelled kappa of old Japan, and the mischievous, shapeshifting vodyanoys of Russia and Eastern Europe, to whom fishermen sacrificed hens and horses in exchange for safe passage along rivers. The list goes on and on.

I soon learned that vodyanoys weren’t alone in receiving sacrifices. In pre-Christian times, pagan communities often gave offerings to their local rivers, which they saw and revered as living entities. These pagans offered not only honey, wine and hair braids to the rippling waters, but also animal lives.

And they didn’t stop at livestock. Archaeologists have found human skulls – often belonging to children – buried at the banks of rivers and lakes. This shows how keen these communities were to please their rivers, which gave them fish in return, along with fresh water for cleaning, drinking and irrigating crops. Furthermore, a pleased river was less likely to turn on its people by flooding.

This notion of living rivers fascinated me, and I wondered what it would be like if a river was the main villain in a horror story. The idea was so out there that I had to give it a go.

What I ended up with was THIRST: the tale of a teen called Gorse, from the quaint village of Maimsbury, who has to reluctantly find a human sacrifice for the river worshipped for centuries by his people; and of another teen called Faye, from a neighbouring town, who is on the run from the Maimsbury folk determined to drown her. As much as Gorse doesn’t want to hunt and drown Faye, he feels he has no choice. Because if the River Yeelde isn’t given what it demands, it has gruesome ways of taking a sacrifice from Maimsbury – from the community Gorse knows and loves – for itself.

So ask yourself: what would you do? Drown a stranger to spare the ones you love? Or spare a stranger, to have someone you love drowned in their stead?

Read THIRST to find out what Gorse decides…

THIRST by Darren Simpson is out September 11 (Pushkin Children’s).