The Green Children of Woolpit by Lynda Turbet

A large tree in the middle of green woodland. Large white text reads: The Green Children of Woolpit. Smaller text reads: Discussing disabled characters in fairy tales and folklore.

so they came wandering from the woods 
hand in hand, the boy younger 
clothes like torn leaves 
their hair dry rushes 
and we broke off harvest 
dropped scythe and rake 
crossed ourselves in fear
of their green
their green
skin
as true as I stand
their strange babble 
like corncrakes in the stubble 
thrushes fluting in the hedge 
refused our bread, chewed 
raw green beans, like cats
lapped water from the hand 

years on, green no more 
the boy being dead 
the girl baptised and godly speech 
restored - or learned anew -
she told her tale: she spoke of bells
a river, sunless St Martin’s Land,
of tending flocks, a deep ravine - 
truth or fancy? She married well.

Time twists memory to legend -
fragments jag, distort
like a splintered glass -
but this we swear:
from somewhere unbeknown 
two green children came.

---

About the author:
After decades teaching in Scotland and Yorkshire, Lynda Turbet now lives in north Norfolk, where she observes the world from her wheelchair and tries to make sense of it all through writing. Her work has won prizes, has been published in online and print journals, and in themed anthologies.

This is the story of the green children of Woolpit, Suffolk, which dates from the 14th century and is depicted in a window of the village church.