Despite hares being seen as unlucky in British Folklore, its actually a white hare that was thought to be unlucky, well more so a foreboding + that your normal brown hares crossing your path was lucky.
Then there’s the whole thing of witches disguised as hares……..well more so they were believed to use hares as a distraction. Some say that a witch could put their fetch into a hare (or rabbit) or could transform into a hare to escape the eyes of others.
But then there were stories of witches being able to place the spirit of another into a hare. Whether that was to trap the spirit of another or to save. You see, it was seen that the hare could straddle 2 worlds, that of earth and of the otherworlds.
The hare is said to be the fastest Land mammal native to the UK, reaching speeds of up to 40mph. Pairing that with the quietness + swiftly manoeuvring around with out being seen, is the reason why hares are rarely seen, unlike rabbits.
In folklore, it’s said that when a white hare crosses your path, to repeat the following; “Hare before, Trouble behind: Change ye, Cross, and free me.”
But it was the Romans who introduced the brown hare to the UK. One story of a hare that made it through history, is that of Boudicca consulting the entrails of a hare, that would foretell her success of conquering the Romans, then releasing her curse onto Roman soldiers, when she released a hare to run their way before charging into battle.
But where does the saying ‘as mad as a march hare’ come from? That would be to do with Hare’s mating season, you’d be lucky to see 2 male hares wrestling during this time. However, their mating season can usually run from February to August.
