Fan o' the Fens

The tale of Fan o' the Fens tells of Fanny, a beautiful young woman living near Louth with her widowed mother. When the mother complains that a magpie keeps following her about, repeating everything she says, she consults the wiseman of Louth, who declares her bewitched. At a gathering he arranges, a sleeping cat is left by the fire with the prediction that when it wakes it will sit on the shoulder of whoever cast the spell — and the cat chooses Fan.

Fan is instantly shunned by the village, including her sweetheart Simon, who soon takes up with another woman. Simon then begins to swell in size and, alarmed, consults a different wizard, who tells him he too is under a curse and that the responsible witch will be revealed that very day, wreathed in fire. Walking home past Fan's house, Simon sees her run out screaming, engulfed in flames and nearly dead.

The villagers seize on this as proof and drag Fan to the river, threatening to drown her unless she confesses to witchcraft. She confesses — and they try to kill her anyway. She escapes, but is beaten with sticks and driven away, never to return. The story was recorded by Christopher Marlowe in 'Legends of the Fenland People' (1926) and retold by Susanna O'Neill in 'Folklore of Lincolnshire' (1992), and stands as a vivid fenland portrait of how quickly suspicion could curdle into mob violence.