I never really thought about why we toss pennies in wishing wells or who exactly was supposed to grant our silent wishes. I knew you weren’t supposed to tell anyone about your wish, or else it wouldn’t come true. But that was as far as my knowledge went. So before I started writing Down the Wishing Well I dived down research rabbit hole.
I started with the history of wells. Water is sacred. Plants, animals, and humans all need it to survive. That was why villages were constructed near water sources—rivers, lakes, springs, and wells. In order to ensure these wells and springs remained uncontaminated, people would walls or roofs around them. Just as modern people gather around the water cooler at work to socialize and gossip, citizens of the past would gather around wells.
Now on to the wishing part. We have no idea exactly where or how the very first wishing well was erected. But they do seem to be a very old European tradition. Nearly two thousand years ago, Pliny the Younger (lawyer, writer, and magistrate of Ancient Rome) wrote about spring water so clear you could see the gleaming coins people had tossed in.
Springs and wells have long been associated with gods and spirits who may have created, protected, and dwelled within them. Germanic tribes believed that if a person said a wish while standing before a body of water, the spirits in the water may grant their wish. If they really wanted their wish granted, they might try to entice the spirit into helping them by tossing a coin or other valuable item into the water.
The Celtic people also believed in leaving offerings to their water spirits by tossing treasured possessions into wells. There is a famous well in Northumberland that had been a temple to the goddess of healing and childbirth, Coventina. Archeologists uncovered coins, glass, pottery, buttons, and beads there.
You also have the Well of Wisdom, also known as Mimir’s Well, from Nordic mythology. The Well of Wisdom rests beneath the Tree of Life—Yggdrasil. The water deity Mimir guarded the well. Those who drank from the well would receive its wisdom. The god Odin sought the well’s wisdom in order to save the world from destruction. However, Mimir demanded payment before Odin could drink and he required more than a coin. He wanted Odin’s eyes. Desperate, Odin complied and his eye was tossed into the well.
Kitsy and Teddy’s wishing well is portal to the magical realm of Lunia, home of the Wish Granters. When a person makes a wish, the wish bonds to the coin so the coin becomes the wish. It falls down the well and into the Lake of Wishes, where it’s fished out by the Wish Collectors—if it’s not stolen by mermaids first, that is. Then the wish must make the dangerous trek through the Black Forest, and if it’s not stolen by the wild woodwoses, it will be delivered to the White Palace where the Wish Granters will decided if the wish shall be granted.
Get a sneak peek at the first chapter of Down the Wishing Well here.
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