The Legend of Davy Jones

Illustration of Davy Jones in his locker by John Tenniel, public domain

For last month's favorite folktale, I covered the kraken because my husband and I were just about to start our annual summer rewatch of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Now that we've finished rewatching all the films, I thought it might be fun to cover Davy Jones!

"... Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is seen in various shapes, perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, shipwrecks, and other disasters, to which a seafaring life is exposed; warning the devoted wretch of death and woe." - The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollet, 1751

Despite all the research I've done on Davy Jones, I can't find a source to confirm where he originally came from. There are lots of stories about him, but again, I can't find anything 100% canonical. (I suppose that's part of the fun with folklore, though, eh?)

Davy Jones (the sea devil) from Tobias Smollet's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle illustrated by George Cruikshank, public domain

Some speculate that Jones is an evil version of the Hebrew character Jonah, while others say he's based on the patron saint of Wales (Saint David). Others still believe that he was inspired by a bar owner in London who trapped his inebriated customers in an ale locker, sold the poor souls as slaves to boats that were coming and going, and eventually sailed the seas himself as a cruel pirate. There's also a theory that "Davy Jones" is just the nautical name for Satan - all very different hypotheses, I know.

But while the origins of Davy Jones might not be crystal clear, his legend remains more or less the same. He's a kind of god, devil, or ghost for sailors. He's also the personification of the bottom of the sea by dictionary definition - seriously, look him in M-W if you don't believe me on that. If a sailor died at sea, it was said he ended up in "Davy Jones's Locker." The same goes for sunken ships!

On top of being unable to find the "true" origin of Davy Jones, I also couldn't find exactly what he's supposed to look like. He's pictured in Tobias Smollet's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, and his octopus-like character design in Pirates of the Caribbean is iconic, but the way he looks in these pieces of fiction appears to come from the writers' imaginations rather than the folklore itself.

I hope you enjoyed July 2024's favorite folktale!