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The Moon In Folklore - Page 3

© Virginia Marin

verse 32-36). A dog is sometimes added as in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream:

"This man with lantern, dog, and bush of Thora, presenteth moonshine." (v, i).

While in yet another folktale, written tradition says that the man in the moon is Cain along with his dog and a thorn bush. Cain was banished to the moon for killing his brother Abel. The thorn bush is emblematic of the thorns and briars of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, and the dog represents the foul serpent.

The moon as a literary devise in folklore is a powerful symbol of death, rebirth, male, female, and ambition. It has played a strong part in the religious life of a people from the earliest days of civilization to present belief groups such as Wicca and Pagans and it is inculcated into their growing body of folklore.

The realm of folklore can be found on any moonbeam, but the exact location of the other folk--the faeries, gnomes, sprites, cluricaun, ghosts and others of whom folklore is written, is as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

"Farewell, farewell;
And keep thee well, my love!
For nine long years, I'll wait for thee
And hold thee in my heart, my love
And then I shall return, on a Moonbeam
To thy heart."

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