Joan the Wad is a mythological character in Cornish folklore. Specifically, she is Queen of the pixies (or piskeys), a race of tiny creatures usually associated with the area of Cornwall and Devon. Wad is a dialect word for torch.[1]
Not much has been written on Joan, as the folklore of Cornwall relied on oral tradition for hundreds of years. She has been associated with Jack o' the Lantern, a will-o'-the-wisp type character who leads travellers astray on lonely moors, hence the rhyme:
However, Joan is also thought to be lucky, and another rhyme runs:
Even today people will carry small figures of her for good luck, a small collection of which are housed at the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle.
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