Requested by @maninthewoods who mentioned folklore about cows. Not sure how well this one fits the criteria, but it's a folktale, and there's a cow in it...
This is one of the many stories about St Cuthbert that we have up here.
After Cuthbert died on the Farne Islands, his burial place became a pilgrimage site; however, Viking raids made it unsafe, so a group of monks removed his coffin and took it away.
They travelled the countryside for a long while, looking for a safe place, and there are plenty of stories about their journey, but those will have to wait for another time.
One night, a monk had a dream, or perhaps it was a holy vision, that the saint's body would be safe at Dunholme. However, none of them knew where that place was or had ever heard of it.
Soon after, they encountered two milkmaids on the road. One was looking for her good dun cow, and the other said she had seen the cow away over at Dunholme. The monks followed the milkmaids until they came to a piece of land protected by a loop of the river and by steep crags. There was the dun cow peacefully grazing, and there they knew Cuthbert's body would be safe.
They buried his coffin and built a church over it. The church became a cathedral and a city grew up. Over the years the name Dunholme became Durham, and St Cuthbert's body still rests there, thanks to a wandering dun cow.
#folklore #FolkloreThursday #Northumberland #Durham #legends #OriginMyth #StCuthbert #EarlyMedieval
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