The first piece of folklore I collected in the field was... well, see Here for the tale. Did it put me off? Not a bit of it!

I've still got a Harvest Troll I made when I was six or seven. Not sure what was going on in my head on that occasion but I recall a vivid awareness of primal ritual embodiment. It's fashioned from a sod of clay on clump of barley stubble and was dismissed by some of my mother's Christian friends as devilish. Nice that she hung onto it all those years though; it now has pride of place in our place.

Here it is: Harvest Troll - September 1967 / 68

Primal impulses? Archetypes? I often wonder - I really do!