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Ridiculous Assertions or Eyewitness Accounts: Memories Encoded within Ancient Stories Recalling How the Channel Islands (British Isles) Became ‘channel islands’
   

Ridiculous Assertions or Eyewitness Accounts: Memories Encoded within Ancient Stories Recalling How the Channel Islands (British Isles) Became ‘channel islands’

Patrick Nunn
Folklore, Vol.137(1), pp.46-67
2026
: https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.2025.2567136
 

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Ridiculous Assertions or Eyewitness Accounts Memories Encoded within Ancient Stories Recalling How the Channel Islands British Isles Became channe1.93 MB
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During the last ice age about twenty thousand years ago when the ocean surface was some 125 metres lower, the Channel Islands archipelago (British Isles) was part of a land mass that included mainland Europe and the British Isles. As oceans rose subsequently, the English Channel widened. People relocated landwards, occupying the Channel Islands at least ten thousand years ago when several islands remained connected to mainland France. Stories recalling such connections are more likely based on observations of land submergence than being ‘ridiculous assertions’. Key stories are recounted for the Channel Islands, especially Jersey which was the last separated from France, about six thousand years ago. These stories can be interpreted as memories of transformative events. Ages can be approximated for these memories by reconstructing ocean depth when a particular story would last have been true. This gives minimum ages for initiation of these stories of 1,740–8,070 years Before Present, comparable to elsewhere.
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