MYTHS & TALES
MYTHS & TALES
In Scotland tales of fairies and mermaids, peculiars (imp's and goblins), ghosts, witches and
devils abound from the borders region right up to the most northern of the Shetland Isles and across the country from east to
west, there is a great depth of mystery and atmosphere in all these places making it all the more easy to understand how these
tales came to be! I wil take a small selection of these tales for you to read and provide the places they originate and any
translation necessary will be made, I did not write these stories they have been passed on by way of oral tradition from generation to generation, I have only written, in my words, the stories as I remmember them ............ The soutar of Selkirk : In Selkirk
in the borders there was once a hard working soutar (shoemaker) who arose each and every morning before the break of day
to begin his trade, on one of those mornings a customer dressed in a black cloak came in to his workshop and tried on a shoe
that he took from a bench, the shoe fitted well so the stranger paid for it in gold and said that he would be back on the morrow
before the cock crows to purchase the second of the pair. The soutar did not trust the stranger though as he noticed
when being paid by him that there were worms amongst his gold coins. The next morning the strange man returned and paid
for the other shoe and left, this time however overcome with curiosity the shoemaker followed the man who walked in to the
local churchyard and disappeared in to a grave, on seeing this the soutar left. Later on the soutar returned with some friends to
the grave and proceeded to dig it up and were startled to find a corpse wearing the brand new pair of shoes, the soutar seeing
that the corpse had no need for them removed them. At dawn the following morning the soutars wife heard a harrowing
scream from her husbands workshop and ran to find out what had happened, when she got there she found that her husband
had vanished. The grave was reopened soon after where it was found that the corpse was wearing the new shoes and was also
clutching the soutars night-cap. The soutars wife never saw her husband again. The fairy boy : In Leith there was a little boy who as legend would have it was given the power to
prophesies accurately by fairies, he would visit them in underground caves in Carlton hill through an entrance which only the
boy could see with his fairy power, he would go there to party with them and to play a drum while they danced, they would
then fly to France and Holland and enjoy those places before returning the same night. One man who was so obsessed with
finding out the boys secret that he would follow the boy to the hill only to be expertly evaded by him every time and to return with
more news of future events. Glaistig : Glaistig was a mortal woman
who lived on the Island of Arran (which is off the west coast of the Firth of Clyde) but she was no ordinary woman as she
took on the ways of a fairy although she still liked being around the human Inhabitants of the Island and would sit on the Hill's
at night keeping watch over their livestock until one day an unfriendly farmer offended her with his rough and nasty treatment,
so much offended she decided to leave the Island. She decided to get to the mainland by using the smaller Island of Beinn
Bhuide and the rock Ailsa Craig in the Firth as steppingstones but as she was doing so a ship with three masts was passing and
caught her foot, she slipped and fell in to the water and was never seen again, she is sorely missed now by the people of the
Island who no longer have Glaistig to oversee the safety of their animals.
Storm Witches :Some witches in the far north of Scotland are said to possess a
unusual power of weather control conjuring up huge storms and gales,one such witch from a place called Scourie made a good
living from the local fishermen by selling them winds to get them where there was good fishing,to do this she would stand on a
high point above the bay and point her staff in the direction the wind was needed and then chant a spell in Gaelic called a
geasan one day a ships captain came to her and asked her for an east wind which he got but then refused to pay saying
that the wind was going to change in that direction anyway,the witch allowed the boat to set sail but as soon as it got a
reasonable distance from the shore she conjured a westerly wind and brought the boat up on some rock's where it lay
stranded. So humiliated was the captain that he swore an oath never to try and trick the storm witch again.
St mungo's ring miracle : In Glasgow a long time ago a King gave his wife a gift of a
ring, which she in turn gave to a handsome soldier. The king was informed of this and went to find the soldier, he found him
sleeping by the river bank ,he then took the ring from the soldiers finger and threw it in to the river.
The King now wanting to trick his wife asked her to see the ring he had given her so she sent for the soldier who no longer had
the ring,the Queen now dismayed asked St.Mungo for help. St.Mungo quickly found the ring in the belly of a salmon and
returned it to the Queen who presented it to the King who when seeing the ring was safe in her possession thought the Queen
had been falsely accused and rounded up and punished the accusers.
The Laird of Co' : Hundreds of years ago the Laird of Co' who owned Culzean castle in Aryshire was visited by a small boy with a tiny wooden cup.He came to beg for some ale saying that it was for his sick mother, the Laird then asked his butler to fill the boys cup. To the butlers astonishment the half the barrel
failed to fill the boys cup and he was loathed to open another barrel but the laird ordered him to fill the cup no matter how much ale was spent so th butler opened another barrel and just as the first drop landed the cup was full,the boy thanked the laird and went on his way. Some years later during wars in Flanders the laird was caught and taken prisoner and sentenced to death.The night before he was to be executed the door of his dungeon swung open and the boy appeared saying,"Laird o' Co', rise an go".Once outside the little boy(who was a fairy) took the laird apon his shoulders and whisked him back to his castle in a flash, a he set the laird down on the ground he said"Ae guid turn deserves another.Tak ye that for being sae kind to my auld mither".
