Folktales and Costumes

While designing the types of enemies I wanted my scavengers to face, I decided to delve into the realm of folklore. It was then I stumbled across an old Welsh tradition revolving around a creature known as the Mari Lwyd.

photo by Hollie Bennett

The Mari Lwyd is a figure in Welsh folklore which resembles a looming horse-headed creature covered in shrouds and trinkets.This strange character’s origin is officially unknown. However, there is mention of it from the 19^th century, and speculation that it’s festivities could date back prior to the middle ages. 

 

Although the Mari Lwyd had fallen into obscurity by the mid 1800s, celebrations of the creature started to make a resurgence in the 1980s, and it has been steadily growing in popularity since. Traditionally, someone dressed up as the Mari Lwyd by donning a horse’s skull attached to pole, dripping with ribbons and decorations. They would then wander the town during New Year’s Eve festivities, moving from pub to pub as the night went on. Before entering each establishment, Mari Lwyd would regale the customers with a song to plead for entry. The inhabitants would combat this with a song of their own about why they could not let the beast in, and this exchange would continue until their rhymes were exhausted and Mari Lwyd was finally allowed to pass. Despite the pub-goers initial unwillingness to let the creature in, Mari is said to bring great fortune on the building they enter, and thus is always eventually invited in.

Look at this funky little chap. Terrifying.

 

The bizarre appearance of the Luck scavengers’ bosses is inspired by folk tales such as the Mari Lwyd and their odd behaviour. I really enjoy how the tradition centred around it is unshakeably ominous but treated as light-hearted and fun for all involved. I wanted to achieve this balance of foreboding and whimsical in the Luck puppet bosses, and the rest of those affiliated. I drew the puppets’ faces in a way that evoke a strange sense of nostalgia, like seeing a vintage toy that appears to have something wrong with it.