The Curse of The Suffolk Soot Mouth

Where the land is ancient and the air is fresh, sometimes, just sometimes you may smell the faint hint of wood smoke on the wind. Be it from a fire? Maybe. Be it caused by a Soot Mouth? Maybe. Best to believe that it’s from a wood fire from a cosy hearth, or a workers campfire where good cheer surrounds it. Or a bonfire in the gentle breeze lifting the smell of burning Autumn leaves into the air. For the smell of an awakened Soot Mouth is not something you should neither smell or encounter, as trouble always begins where the smoke drifted from.

Settle in dear friends and listen close, for I will tell you the tale of The Suffolk Soot Mouth.

It all began many moons ago, when times on this land were changing. The Suffolk born people had been toiling across this old land for centuries. They loved it, cared for it, and in return the land did its best to provide. Their language was in tune with their work and their ways. Most of all it was in tune with the land itself.

Then the incomers arrived! They brought with them their money, their version of status and their longing to own the land. The villagers over time lost their land to the incomers. To survive they even had to work for the new landowners on the very land they had to give to their new employer.

The new landowners brought with them their own language. One that was deemed far superior to the voices of those who had been speaking the language of the land there for generations. They began changing the words in the workers mouths. Often with force and terror. Stories of beatings, humiliations and religious reasoning was used to change the words from the workers mouths. The deep seated rural families sat around their fires, lamenting the harshness of their employers ways. Tending to their beatings and throwing the bloodied cotton into the fires. Crying and telling their stories in front of those very same fires. What they didn’t realise was that the fire was listening.

The fires were made of the wood of the land. A land that remembered the people who sparked the wood in a light and warmth that kept themselves and land alive. The ash and embers remember, just as much as the air that breathes with heat and flame. The Curse of The Soot Mouth was growing. The first spark of the land was building, ready to strike back at those that harmed its own.

The wealthy incomers loved their social events! Lavish parties and dinners were often laid on for their visiting friends, where they danced and ate and drank aplenty. Though it was one particular party that changed everything because there was a guest that lingered long after the others had gone to bed or returned homeward bound. That guest was The Soot Mouth.

During the party the host had been rejoicing to his esteemed company at how well he had done. How much land he now owned, how much livestock he had. He was like a puffed up Pigeon as he strutted up and down in front of his guests. Then he said with a breath of distain that he did not approve of his workers not speaking as well as he. Where he then began to imitate their words, and their voices. How the guests did laugh. The host was jubilant with the reception of his imitations.

News of this spread within the areas surrounding all the guests that spoke of it. In time, travelling entertainers would be brought in as entertainment to such gatherings and parties. They would lose their usual voices to entertain portraying the local folk that worked the land. The very people that had been beaten and scared into losing their native tongue. The maids, cooks and other help within those walls all listened at a distance as the ridicule and laughter came through the walls and gaps in the doors.

But something else was still listening, The Soot Mouth.

Then it happened one fateful night. The fire suddenly went out and the grand room filled with guests in their finest suits and gowns was filled with smoke. The Soot Mouth had been gathering its strength with every fire, and had grown more angry at those that ridiculed the people of its land. The Soot Mouth blew and breathed the smoky air into their mouths for their mockery.

Nobody knew what had been born that night. No repercussions were felt until around three months later. Anyone that had attended all those grand parties all noted one thing about that night, everything that happened after the third month happened to those that hosted the party or joined in with the mockery. Especially those that were paid to play parts and imitate those that worked the land.

So what happened after those three months had passed? They say that those that spoke with a tongue not of their land, with a mouth that ridiculed a voice not of their own started to smell a faint hint of smoke. A scent that nobody else with them could smell. The smell would get stronger and stronger until it drive them crazy as they tried to search out its origins. Was a fire left alight in the house? Were the labourers burning leaves in the fields? Was the family in peril when the clock struck midnight and the smell of smoke engulfed their mouth and noses? Rushing out of their beds to find the house in deathly quiet and a cold chill blowing through the halls.

That’s when the darkness of the inner smoke started to descend. The smoke that nobody else could smell or see. Family and friends would see either their descent into madness and this phantom smell, or worse the luck draining out of the person to be replaced with dark fortune.

The Soot Mouth was getting its revenge on those that had disrespected its own. Those that had either gained laughter or money from taking away the dignity of the lands people. The people that the Soot Mouth cared for and its sparks and embers remember.

One by one, after the three month mark was up nothing but darkness and misfortune enters the lives of those that had been a part of the mockery. Misfortunes and unhappiness that I shall not speak of, for it is vast and the things of nightmares.

They say if you are somewhere and you smell the faint aroma of wood smoke on the wind or within your home, take heed and think back to the words that have escaped your mouth. Especially if those words came forth three months ago and if you have used our words and voice for gain.

Maybe, just maybe, you are smelling the smoke from a nearby bonfire or a cosy cottage. In which case fear not, and continue with your day.

If it is not then cover your mouth with your scarf on that dark Autumn or Winters night and shield yourself from the smoke from the flames.

You may just be smelling the start of The Soot Mouth searching out another round of vengeance, because as always, the sparks and embers remember.

Written by Sarah Ann Shave