Jack o' Kent or Jack-a-Kent is a Welsh

folkloric Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...

character based in the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches ( cy, Y Mers) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ...

. He is alternately referred to as either a cleric or wizard who regularly beats

the Devil Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. ...

in bets and games. He is most well known around

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

and

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, and his legends are used to tell the origin of many of the geological formations around the region.

History

Jack o' Kent appears in print for the first time in a sixteenth-century play, so it may be assumed that he was well known in local culture before this time. He is said to have been used as a bogeyman figure until at least the early twentieth century. There is speculation that Jack could be

Siôn Cent Siôn Cent (c. 1400 – 1430/45), (or 1367? – 1430?) was a Welsh language poet, and is an important figure in Medieval Welsh literature. Similarity to other persons He has also been called Sion Gwent by Gruffydd Robert and Sion Y Kent and Sion K ...

, and other suggestions are that he was

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

, but it is more likely that he was an amalgamation of a number of people and myths.

Legends

Jack often outsmarted the Devil by entering into bargains and then fulfilling the letter of the bargain but not the spirit. In one instance he made a deal with the Devil so that his crops would prosper - Jack would plant the crops, and the devil would make sure that the sun and rain came in proper amounts. Jack asked the Devil which part of the crops he wanted, the "tops" or the "butts" (bottoms), and the Devil picked "tops" thinking that come harvest he would receive a lot of wheat, but Jack planted turnips and left the Devil with the useless leaves. The next year the Devil thought he would get the better of Jack and picked "butts", so Jack planted wheat, and once again the Devil was cheated. In another story, Jack asks the Devil to help him build a bridge, promising him the first soul that crosses it. They build the bridge and then Jack tosses a bone over the bridge and a hungry dog runs across.

Geographical interpretations

Jack o' Kent legends are used to explain a number of geographical formations in the Welsh border region. * Jack is said to have bet the Devil that the Sugar Loaf Mountain was higher than the Malvern Hills. When Jack proved the Devil wrong, the Devil tried to put more soil on top of the Malvern Hills, but his carrier broke and dropped at the end of the island forming a lump. * The cleft in the western part of

Skirrid Ysgyryd Fawr ( en, Skirrid) is an easterly outlier of the Black Mountains in Wales, and forms the easternmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The hill is often referred to locally as just The Skirrid. The smaller hill of Ysgyryd Fa ...

is said to have been caused by Jack's heel as he jumped onto it from the Sugar Loaf Mountain. * The

standing stone A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright rock (geology), stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. T ...

s at

Trelleck Trellech (occasionally spelt Trelech, Treleck or Trelleck; cy, Tryleg) is a village and parish in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales. Located south of Monmouth and north-north-west of Tintern, Trellech lies on a plateau above the Wye Valley on ...

are said to have been thrown there by Jack, the result of a stone-throwing competition held on Trelleck Beacon between him and the Devil. Another version has Jack flinging the stones from Skirrid. Hando, F., (1944), ''The Pleasant Land of Gwent'', Newport: R. H. Johns

References

{{reflist Fictional characters introduced in the 16th century English legendary creatures English folklore Welsh folklore Herefordshire folklore Jack tales Wizards in fiction Bogeymen