I'll soon be hosting a workshop on wonder tales and folktales of the oral traditon, with most of my stories coming from the European tradition.

I (and the participants of my workshop) reside in the Tidewater region of Virginia (southeast corner of the state, near the NC border), however, and I'd like have at least one story from our local traditions.

One of my Google searches for "Viginia, North Carolina, Folklore" led to this site:

Click here.

It gives an overview of the legends about the Dram Tree, and says:

"Ships whose crews failed to drink of the Dram Tree or, even worse, failed to place a bottle there when entering port were doomed to disaster. Many are the tales of ill-fated vessels that met violent storms or were becalmed in the doldrums."

I've since searched the card catalogues of my local library, and done more web searches to try and find some of the specific stories... But so far, I've come up with zilch....

So I thought: "Maybe a 'Catter or two knows a ballad about the Dram Tree!"

Do any of you??

:-)

Thank you, Ann