Anyone else familiar with the expression " Delmarva Swamp God " ? (Selbyville: transplants, 2014)

[Lionel Fauquier]

In my youth I heard many of my elders , such as my grandfather , use the expression " Delmarva Swamp God " as in ( f.ex ) " May the Delmarva Swamp God be with you " .


It wasn't a religious thing either FWIW , since neither my grandfather nor anyone else I knew was a member of a religious group that worshiped the Delmarva Swamp God , so I'm certain it's just a peculiar expression .

[countryswan]

Maybe it had something to do with Patty Cannon... the Delaware legend.

[luv4horses]

It might be an alternative idea to the Selbyville Swamp Monster in southern Delaware. Delmarva is a concatenation of Del Mar Va for delaware, maryland, and virginia. Your elders were just having fun turning it on its head.

https://shorebread.com/2014/05/27/se...ct-or-fiction/

"Since the early 1960’s legend has it that a grotesque creature know as the “Selbyville Swamp Monster” lurks in the murky terrain of the Great Cypress Swamp in Selbyville, Delaware. Whether you believe in the legends or not, there may be a more obvious explanation to the fabled tale. Over 40 years ago Ralph Grapperhaus, the appreciated editor of the Delmarva News willingly admitted to creating the hoax, producing the story of a monster that inhabited the Great Cypress Swamp..."

[Lionel Fauquier]

Originally Posted by countryswan

Maybe it had something to do with Patty Cannon... the Delaware legend.

I highly doubt that , though FWIW the still existing rivalry between native White Delmarvans and White transplants ( oftentimes of Quaker extraction ) from the Philadelphia metro in Sussex County is very much informed by the legacy of historical figures like Cannon .

In short many of those Quaker descended transplants see us as unreconstructed Confederate descendants of rogue slave traders like Cannon , while many of us see them as Yankee carpetbagger types out to transform our ancestral lands , but that's a subject unto itself .

[Lionel Fauquier]

Originally Posted by luv4horses

It might be an alternative idea to the Selbyville Swamp Monster in southern Delaware. Delmarva is a concatenation of Del Mar Va for delaware, maryland, and virginia. Your elders were just having fun turning it on its head.

https://shorebread.com/2014/05/27/se...ct-or-fiction/

"Since the early 1960’s legend has it that a grotesque creature know as the “Selbyville Swamp Monster” lurks in the murky terrain of the Great Cypress Swamp in Selbyville, Delaware. Whether you believe in the legends or not, there may be a more obvious explanation to the fabled tale. Over 40 years ago Ralph Grapperhaus, the appreciated editor of the Delmarva News willingly admitted to creating the hoax, producing the story of a monster that inhabited the Great Cypress Swamp..."

Now that's more likely , though all references that I've heard made to said Delmarva Swamp God were of a benevolent nature , i.e. " May the Delmarva Swamp God be with you " a phrase that I've used even on this very forum .

Benevolence and swamp monsters are quite obviously mutually exclusive terms , so I wonder how that could have gotten twisted .