The Anthology

In this collection are Scottish folktales and legends that once delighted grown-ups and children. These often fascinating old stories come from various parts of Scotland. I have culled them from six works works, added word explanations, and updated the language a bit. Book references are found at bottom of the page.

Most of the following is drawn from the introduction of George Douglas, and a little from a preface by Elizabeth W. Grierson.

Folklore of "a nation of pessimists"

Like other stories that were told among people, these were designed to hold the attention of the listener or reader. Mermaids and men meet, ogres and princesses mingle, and so on. In the Scottish tradition there were story-tellers that went from village to village, telling their stories, and it was a great event when a story-teller entered a village. Also, young people were used to gather at night to hear old ones recite the tales they had learned from their forefathers. The practice still lingered in remote districts when some of the tales and legends were written down in the 1800s, mainly.

Douglas discerns between well outlined lowland tales with depth of human significance, and Highland tales. Highland tales show what understanding had got of nature, farm animals, and human relations, and includes an abundance of supernatural elements, with a high degree of fancy. A rustic and poetic vein runs through so many.

Douglas writes, "Perhaps the deepest thinkers . . . are to be found among the hill shepherds," and points to one of them, the Ettrick Shepherd James Hogg, and considers him "master in the weird tale," for his writings about fairies, who in Scotland are told of as man-stealers, and not delicate, joyous revellers, as in England.

A rather gloomy view of Nature has tinged many superstitious beliefs, and the beliefs have left their marks on the tales of a nation of pessimists, if Douglas has seen the light. The fairies and the humoursome, good-natured brownie get but a small space in the popular mythology compared to shapes of awe, terror, of ill-omen, such as ghosts. Such tragic remains in all likelihood signal something of the broodings of a people and its overriding conditions.

Another division is between Celtic stories and "simpler tales":

Wild and fantastic Celtic stories are about some dangerous quest, meeting with giants, echantment and charms. In the West Highlands, Celts had a penchant for giants, and the giant of the West Highland tales is always "fair game".

Such tales are contrasted with simpler tales about goblins, bogies, witches, fairies, and tales about mermaids and mermen in the sea. They can talk with humans if they so wish, and present themselves as seals too. The shaggy brownie figures in some such tales too. And the trolls, trows, "hill-folk," or "grey neighbours," of the Norsemen of the Shetland Islands have a character of their own. The seal people, selkies, have a prominant place in the folklore of the Orkney and Shetland islands and other islands.

Writers: James Hogg, born in the Arcadia, Ettrick Forest; Allan Cunningham, born in 1784; Campbell of Isla, born in 1822, who went about on foot among the people of the West Highlands and Islands and got them to tell him stories that he noted down accurately.

Then, why spend time on rude "old-wives' tales"? They could reflect significant workings of the human mind. They give vent to poetic and literary ores, and stood the test of time during the centuries before modern technology allowed for other forms of entertainment and other night activities, including watching TV. Stories of farmers and fishers and some of the notable story-tellers have backed up other writers, such as Sir Walter Scott, by their keen sense of central sides to the art of catchy story-telling.

And, as the psychologist Jerome Bruner is into, culture is transmitted by stories.

Tormod Kinnes