Scottish Legends and Folktales
| 1 › 1 › 27 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Blacksmith's Wife of Yarrowfoot
Some years back, the blacksmith of Yarrowfoot had for apprentices two brothers. Both were steady lads and fine healthy fellows on arriving. After a few months, however, the younger of the two began to grow pale and lean, lose his appetite, and show other marks of declining health. His brother, much concerned, often questioned him as to what ailed him, but to no purpose.
At last, however, the poor lad burst into an agony of tears, and confessed that he was quite worn-out, and should soon be brought to the grave through the ill-usage of his mistress, who was a witch, though none suspected it. "Every night," he sobbed out, "she comes to my bedside, puts a magic bridle on me, and changes me into a horse. Then, seated on my back, she urges me on for many a mile to the wild moors, where she and other creatures hold their hideous feasts. There she keeps me all night, and at early morning I carry her home. She takes off my bridle, and there I am, but so weary I can ill stand. In this way I pass my nights while you are soundly sleeping."
The elder brother at once said he would take his chance of a night among the witches, so he put the younger one in his own place next the wall, and lay awake himself till the time when the witch-woman usually arrived. She came, bridle in hand, and flung it over the elder brother's head, and up sprang a fine hunting horse. The lady leaped on his back, and started for the trysting-place, which this time chanced to be the cellar of a neighbouring laird.
While she and the rest of the crew were regaling themselves with claret and sack, the hunter, who was left in a spare stall of the stable, rubbed and rubbed his head against the wall till he loosened the bridle, and finally got it off. Thereby he recovered his human form. Holding the bridle firmly in his hand, he hid himself at the back of the stall till his mistress came within reach. Then in an instant he flung the magic bridle over her head, and, behold, a fine grey mare! He mounted her and dashed off, riding through hedge and ditch, till, looking down, he perceived she had lost a shoe from one of her forefeet. He took her to the first smithy that was open, had the shoe replaced, and a new one put on the other forefoot, and then rode her up and down a ploughed field till she was nearly worn out. At last he took her home, and pulled the bridle off just in time for her to creep into bed before her husband awoke to get up for his day's work.
The blacksmith arose, but his wife complained of being very ill, and begged him to send for a doctor. He accordingly aroused his apprentices. The elder one went out, and soon returned with one. The doctor wished to feel his patient's pulse, but she resolutely hid her hands and refused to show them. The doctor was perplexed; but the husband impatiently pulled off the bed-clothes, and found to his horror that horseshoes were tightly nailed to both hands. On further examination, her sides appeared galled with kicks, the same that the apprentice had given her during his ride up and down the ploughed field.
The brothers now came forward, and related all that had passed. On the following day the witch was tried by the magistrates of Selkirk, and condemned to be burned to death on a stone at the Bullsheugh. The sentence was promptly carried out.
The younger apprentice was at last restored to health by eating butter made from the milk of cows, a sovereign remedy for the effects of being weary and witch-ridden.
[Retold from "The Blacksmith's Wife of Yarrowfoot", in George Douglas, Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales.]
The Mermaid Wife
A Shetlander was walking on a sandy shore when he saw several mermen and mermaids dancing by moonlight, and several seal-skins strewed beside them on the ground. When he approached, they at once fled to secure their garbs. Then they got seal shapes and plunged at once into the sea. But the Shetlander noticed that a skin remained on the shore. It lay close to his feet, so he snatched it up, bore it swiftly away, and hid it carefully.
When he returned to the shore, he met the fairest woman. She lamented the robbery, for now she could not divne into the water to her friends in the deeps, and had to stay on the ground above water. She begged them man in vain to give her back her skin, but the man had drunk deeply of love and could not be swayed to give back the skin. However, he offered to protect her beneath his roof as his betrothed spouse.
The merlady understood that she had to live on earth, and found it fit to accept the offer, and the couple had several children. The Shetlander's loved his merwife without bounds, whereas the lady would often steal alone to the desert strand, and give a signal. At that a large seal would appear, and the two of them talked together in an unknown tongue.
Years passed in this way. Then it happened that one of the children, in the course of his play, found a seal's skin hidden beneath a stack of corn. Delighted he ran with it to his mother. Her eyes glistened with rapture, for she knew he had found the means for her to get back to the ocean and her native home. Her bursts of joy was only toned down at the thought of leaving her dear children. She hastily embracing them, however, and then fled with all speed towards the seaside.
The husband returned home at this very moment, and learnt from the children what had taken place. He ran briskly to the shore, hoping to overtake his wife, but too late. She had already turned herself into a seal and bound from the ledge of a rock into the sea. The large seal that she had used to talk with on the shore, soon appeared and congratulated her in the most tender manner on her escape.
But before she dived out of his sight, she cast a parting glance at the miserable Shetlander, and said to him, "Farewell, and may all good attend you. I loved you well when I lived on earth, but I always loved my first husband better."
[Retold from C. T. J.,
USER'S GUIDE to abbreviations, the site's large bibliography, letter codes, dictionaries, site design and navigation, tips for searching the site and page referrals. [LINK]
© 2007–2009, Tormod Kinnes. All rights reserved. [E-MAIL] — Disclaimer: LINK]
