Abstract:

Visitors to Devon are offered tales of the Devil on Dartmoor as if these were a timeless, sinister tradition of the moor folk. Historical analysis shows instead that the legends were worked into their present form by folklorists creating a guidebook literature for the new phenomenon of Dartmoor tourism. From 1840 onward, the stories took on an imaginative life which was irrelevant to the lived experience of Dartmoor people but which remained popular among outsiders because it framed their aesthetic responses to the moor.

Keywords: DARTMOOR; FOLKLORE; DEVIL; ROMANTICISM; WISTMAN'S WOOD; VICTORIAN; TOURISM

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.2752/175169608783489071