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Popular Tales of the West Highlands Vol. 2
This book was especially republished to raise funds for these charities & many more...
33% of the publishers profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.
This second volume of Tales of the West Highlands has been especially republished to raise funds for the Prince's Trust. It contains thirty ursgeuln, or tales, fifty riddles plus a few extra stories. As always, these are tales and stories in which something Fairy or magical occurs, something extraordinary -fairies, giants, dwarfs, princes, princesses, kings and queens, speaking animals and the remarkable, but hilarious, stupidity of some of the characters.
But these arent just a collection of amusing and entertaining stories. Just 20 years after the Elementary Education Act of 1870 these are the tales that were still being used in those far-flung reaches of the Highlands to teach the young the lessons of life.
Also included are Seanachas--those old Highland stories which in their telling resemble no others, whose origins are lost in the mists of the Highlands, if not the midst of time.
So take some time out and travel back to a period before television and radio, a time when tales were passed on orally--at the drying kilns, at the communal well or in homes, where families would gather around a crackling and spitting hearth and granddad or grandma or uncle or auntie would delight and captivate the gathering with stories passed on to them from their parents and grandparents and from time immemorial.
33% of the publishers profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the Princes Trust.
Excerpt from Popular Tales of the West Highlands Vol. 2
XXVI. SANNTRAIGH
From Alexander M'Donald, tenant, and others, Barra. July 1859.
Once upon a time, THERE was a herd's wife in the island of Sanntraigh, and she had a kettle. A woman of peace (fairy) would come every day to seek the kettle. She would not say a word when she came, but she would catch hold of the kettle. When she would catch the kettle, the woman of the house would say--
A smith is able to make
Cold iron hot with coal.
The due of a kettle is bones,
And to bring it back again whole.
The woman of peace would come back every day with the kettle and flesh and bones in it. On a day that was there, the housewife was for going over the ferry to Baile a Chaisteil, and she said to her man, "If thou wilt say to the woman of peace as I say, I will go to Baile Castle." "Oo! I will say it. Surely it's I that will say it." He was spinning a heather rope to be set on the house. He saw a woman coming and a shadow from her feet, and he took fear of her. He shut the door. He stopped his work. When she came to the door she did not find the door open, and he did not open it for her. She went above a hole that was in the house. The kettle gave two jumps, and at the third leap it went out at the ridge of the house. The night came, and the kettle came not. The wife came back over the ferry, and she did not see a bit of the kettle within, and she asked, "Where was the kettle?"
"Well then I don't care where it is," said the man; "I never took such a fright as I took at it. I shut the door, and she did not come any more with it."
"Good-for-nothing wretch, what didst thou do? There are two that will be ill off--thyself and I." "She will come to-morrow with it." "She will not come."
She hasted herself and she went away. She reached the knoll, and there was no man within. It was after dinner, and they were out in the mouth of the night. She went in. She saw the kettle, and she lifted it with her. It was heavy for her with the remnants that they left in it. When the old carle that was within saw her going out, he said,
Silent wife, silent wife,
That came on us from the land of chase,
Thou man on the surface of the "Bruth,"
Loose the black, and slip the Fierce.
The two dogs were let loose; and she was not long away when she heard the clatter of the dogs coming. She kept the remnant that was in the kettle, so that if she could get it with her, well, and if the dogs should come that she might throw it at them. She perceived the dogs coming. She put her hand in the kettle. She took the board out of it, and she threw at them a quarter of what was in it. They noticed it there for a while. She perceived them again, and she threw another piece at them when they closed upon her. She went away walking as well as she might; when she came near the farm, she threw the mouth of the pot downwards, and there she left them all that was in it. The dogs of the town struck (up) a barking when they saw the dogs of peace stopping. The woman of peace never came more to seek the kettle.
Table of Contents for Popular Tales of the West Highlands Vol. 2
| XVIII. THE CHEST |
| XIX. THE INHERITANCE |
| XX. THE THREE WISE MEN |
| XXI. A PUZZLE |
| XXII. THE RIDERE (KNIGHT) OF RIDDLES |
| XXIII. THE BURGH |
| XXIV. THE TULMAN |
| XXV. THE ISLE OF PABAIDH |
| XXVI. SANNTRAIGH |
| XXVII. CAILLIACH MHOR CHLIBHRICH. |
| XXVIII. THE SMITH AND THE FAIRIES. |
| KIRKCUDBRIGHT version |
| SUTHERLAND version |
| BADENOCH version |
| ROSS version |
| BEARNAIRIDH version |
| MAN version |
| DEVONSHIRE version |
| CONCLUSION version |
| XXIX. THE FINE |
| XXX. THE TWO SHEPHERDS |
| XXXI. OSEAN AFTER THE FEEN |
| THE SUTHERLAND VERSION |
| XXXII. THE BARRA WIDOW'S SON |
| XXXIII. THE TALE OF THE QUEEN WHO SOUGHT A DRINK FROM A CERTAIN WELL |
| XXXIV. THE ORIGIN OF LOCH NESS. |
| XXXV. CONALL |
| XXXVI. MAGHACH COLGAR |
| XXXVII. THE BROLLACHAN. |
| XXXVIII. MURACHADH MAC BRIAN |
| XXXIX. THE THREE WIDOWS. |
| XL. THE SON OF THE SCOTTISH YEOMAN WHO STOLE THE BISHOP'S HORSE AND DAUGHTER, AND THE BISHOP HIMSELF |
| XLI. THE WIDOW AND HER DAUGHTERS |
| XLII. THE TALE OF THE SOLDIER |
| XLIII. THE SHARP GREY SHEEP |
| XLIV. THE WIDOW'S SON |
| XLV. MAC-A-RUSGAICH |
| XLVI. MAC IAIN DIREACH |
| THE BIG WOMEN OF JURA |
| AN SIONNACH, THE FOX |
| XLVII. FEARACHUR LEIGH |
| THE OLLADH ILEACH |
| XLVIII. THE TALE OF SGIRE MO CHEALAG |
| XLIX. THE CAT AND THE MOUSE |
| L. THE THREE QUESTIONS |
| RIDDLES |
| GLOSSARY |
| LI. THE FAIR GRUAGACH, SON OF THE KING OF EIRINN |
| LII. THE KNIGHT OF THE RED SHIELD |
| LVII. THE TAIL |
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