fate

   Though folklore is much concerned with *luck, it also recognizes the power of fate - but not an arbitrary or malevolent fate. On the contrary, traditional beliefs and practices imply that the circumstances of one's life and death were laid down in advance as part of an orderly plan determined by the Will of God. Occasional glimpses of the future could come unsought to anyone through *omens or premonitory *dreams, sent as forewarnings. Deliberate divination seems usually to have been tolerated when practised by young girls with an eye on love and marriage; however, the 'church porch watch' on *St Mark's Eve (and other dates) to learn who would die during the coming year was viewed with fear and disapproval. Opinion on the morality of *astrology and *fortune-telling was divided.

   Some folktales teach how useless it is to try to evade fate. One (from Minster-in-Shippey, Kent) tells how a man killed his horse because of a prophecy that it would cause his death - and so it did, much later, when he kicked its skull, cut his foot on a splintered bone, and died of blood-poisoning (Westwood, 1985: 97-9).