I happened to pick up a historical romantic novel from a used book store that includes a chapter about visiting Padstow and experiencing the May Day celebration. The novel is Amarantha by Melanie Jackson (New York, Dorchester Publishing Co; Leisure Books Edition, 2001).

I'm interested in what Mudcatters might make of these excerpts.

Here's the first one:

..."The Obby Oss is really more than a horse. A sea horse if that makes sense, though I do not understand why your uncle thinks of it as a Trojan Horse survival. As for the connection of the village to the sea, Padstow is a coastal town. The sea represents many things to the people who live there. It is their livelihood, the place where they see miraculous rebirth-and a place where some go to exile and even death. It is everything to them.

"Rebirth? From the sea? You surely do not mean like Jonah from the whale?"

"Yes, in a sense. He smiled. "For the farmer who lives inland, the Beltane fire is about renewing the land. But in Padstow, they must renew the sea as well. They do not sacrifice to an earth mother, but rather to the waters of the ocean that feeds them-hence the virgins given to the sea monster."

"Why a virgin girl, though? It seems so unfair. Why not a boy? Or a warrior? Or someone old and wise? Any of these would be a sacrifice."

"Because a virgin woman is a thing most precious and rare-and the most desired of the gods of renaissance. Only women can create life. Fair or not, that is the way of it. And the beast must be fed".

pp 122-123

-snip-

The book specifies no date for its actions but the former fiance of the main character, Amarantha, leaves her to join the Jacobite cause-so I suppose a date for that time can be determined.

I'll quote more of this book in my next post to this thread.