For my first post on our new blog I thought I'd chat a little about IMPS! Why? Well, a few years ago I was lucky enough to meet a wonderful lady who is now one of my dearest friends, Elizabeth-Jane Baldry, harpist & childrens' film director. She asked me & my mum to design & create the costumes & concept for 13 little Imp children & the evil Toad Queen for her film 'The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh'. The film was a blast to make, but because of other projects it sat unedited, in post production for 2 years. And then, when it was finally put together I got pneumonia & couldn't got to the premier! However, last weekend me and Marc finally saw it at the little cinema above The Globe Inn, Chagford with good friends & much food! These Imps, & that year, changed my life... I met my future husband, made some of the most amazing friends... & entered a new spurt to my creativity! And so this is my homage to the history of IMPS!
The name 'imp' as we know it is a quite recent use. Originally its use is horticultural- a 'graft', as in a graft on a branch of a tree to create a better growing stock of fruit & 'imping' is sometimes still used in the countryside for this work. Many historical texts refer to 'imping' in conjunction with Apple trees... that tree that pops up so much in folklore! The other trade that used the term 'imp' was falconry, where a damaged feather was imped, grafted with a new one to allow the bird to fly well again.
Over time the idea of the 'imp' as a source of better fruitful stock for the future began to be applied to the family trees of noble houses. Imps were the young males of the wealthy, titled families that would bare good 'fruit of their loins' to carry on the name & heritage. Even Robert Dudley is referred to in his epitaph at Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick as "Here resteth the body of the noble Impe Robert of Dudley, sonne of Robert Erle of Leycester".
However, & this is where it gets interesting, the word 'imp' began to take on a more sinister meaning, 'imp of the devil' & 'imp of hell' being common insults... surely a little harsh for mischeivous young boys! But boys will be boys & imps will be imps, & as time went on 'imp' became the natural word for miscreants. Even worse, imps became supernatural creatures, cohorts of demons, mischief makers in witchery practices. And so, Imps became VERY dark & malevolent indeed!!
Imagine a dark hearthside in a poor country cottage, lit only by flickering tallow candles & a feeble fire... on a Winter chilled night, the cold wind wuthering off the moors & whistling its breath into the very bones of the listeners... as tales were told of witches revels, demons attended by foul Imps. The silent, wide-eyed-fear of the listeners as their imaginations pictured fine fingered, clawed creatures slipping down the chimney to torment the household with tortured dreams, nasty scratches & bites, spiteful mishaps in the cottage where every morsel was precious. Imps must have been truly terrifying!
Now, in a more (ahem) 'enlightened' age the term Imp isn't popularly seen as sinister anymore, having reverted to a softer use, as in with a naughty boy child... a term of endearment for little lads who are always up to 'something'! However, our literary & artistic heritage still pays homage to the more wicked Imp... & this will keep the folklore of Imps alive and the Imps kicking (& biting & scratching no doubt!).
And this brings me neatly back to that impish film, the Laidly Worm, with its wicked Toad Queen casting evil spells as she throws 13 poppets of mud, moss, twig & leaf into the unclean water... only to have them appear as humanoid imps, 13 wicked children to torment the innocent!
Even though I had costumed, dressed & painted these utterly delightful children... on film they were eerie, unseely. There's something definately chilling about children in the roles of tormentors, would be murderous beasts... just not quite 'right'! The fact that these children had various teeth missing (my niece was the one who had no teeth at all at the front!), had rattles of crabshells & dried seaweed & copious amounts of green paint helped the effect immensely!
Over time I have learned to treat Imps of the more sinister kind with a respect well deserved of any wild creature with sharp claws & teeth... because, as I once unfortunately found out, unlike pretty children painted green & in leaf costumes... real Imps cannot be subdued using Chocolate Bourbon Cream biscuits.... BUT that's a story for another day! Enjoy the pix friends x:)
Imps on a sculpture necklace by Kelly
Imps in 'The Moth Prince' by Marc
The Lincoln Imp, Lincoln Cathedral
Some of the Imp Children from the Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh
(Top graphite image by Marc, other images by Anster Fitzgerald, one of our favourite artists)
