Malekin of Dagworth

[Reposted from main Folklore thread]

The SPR Facebook page links to an article in the East Anglian Daily Times about the strange 12th-century tale of Malekin of Dagworth, about a haunting by a spirit which claimed to be that of a human child who had been stolen away seven years earlier:
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/weird-suffolk-looks-at-malekin-of-dogworth-1-5553672

It has been interpreted as an early poltergeist case, though I think the resemblance is very slight. An odd twist is that Alan Murdie was told that there had been poltergeist activity in the 1960s at Dagworth Hall - on the same site where the medieval haunting took place. There's an article by Murdie about the case - much more detailed than the EADT one - here:
https://europaranormal.com/poltergeists/do-poltergeists-strike-twice/

It has been interpreted as an early poltergeist case, though I think the resemblance is very slight. An odd twist is that Alan Murdie was told that there had been poltergeist activity in the 1960s at Dagworth Hall - on the same site where the medieval haunting took place. There's an article by Murdie about the case - much more detailed than the EADT one - here:
https://europaranormal.com/poltergeists/do-poltergeists-strike-twice/

The source of this tale is Ralph de Coggeshall (also one of the two sources of the story of the Green Children of Woolpit). I'm not sure where Murdie got his translation of Ralph's text from, but the Latin definitely indicates that Malekin was female, not male:
https://archive.org/stream/ChroniconAnglicanum/Chronicon_anglicanum#page/n161/mode/2up

Wiktionary says that the name Malkin is a diminutive of Maud or Matilda, and in medieval times signified a "lower-class or uncultured woman; a kitchenmaid; a slattern."

Wiktionary says that the name Malkin is a diminutive of Maud or Matilda, and in medieval times signified a "lower-class or uncultured woman; a kitchenmaid; a slattern."

I'm very much inclined to doubt these derivations and the pejoratives associated with them. The Dictionary of American Family Names (2003, Oxford University Press) states the English source for Malkin is simply a diminutive (with the "-kin" suffix) of "Mal(le)", which was a pet form of Mary. 

See:
https://books.google.com/books?id=vG7MZ9...in&f=false

Also see
http://www.oxfordreference.com/abstract/...sult=40221
for a much-abbreviated derivation.

I'm very much inclined to doubt these derivations and the pejoratives associated with them. The Dictionary of American Family Names (2003, Oxford University Press) states the English source for Malkin is simply a diminutive (with the "-kin" suffix) of "Mal(le)", which was a pet form of Mary. 

See:
https://books.google.com/books?id=vG7MZ9...in&f=false

Also see
http://www.oxfordreference.com/abstract/...sult=40221
for a much-abbreviated derivation.

Yes, Mary sounds more plausible than Maud to me, as the r changes to an l in other names such as Sarah/Sally, Harry/Hal and so on. (Though I see on Google Books some claims that the original form was Mawkin - maybe really a different name?)

As for the pejoratives, they do seem to be mentioned by quite a few authors, but I suppose they're not relevant to the 12th century (or if they were in use that early they almost certainly wouldn't be recorded).