Folk Tales of Scotland

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Folk Tales of Scotland Page 22

by William Montgomerie


  He shouted again for the cup, or for battle. They sent out twice eight hundred men, and in three hours Diarmid had killed them all.

  He shouted again for the cup, or for battle, and they sent out twice nine hundred heroes, and in four hours Diarmid left no man of them alive.

  ‘Where has this man come from?’ said the King. ‘He has brought my kingdom to ruin. If it is this hero’s pleasure, let him tell me where he comes from!’

  ‘It is this hero’s pleasure,’ shouted Diarmid. ‘I am one of the Feinne. I am Diarmid.’

  ‘Why didn’t you send a message to say who you were?’ said King Mag. ‘I would not have spent my realm on you, for you would have killed every one of my men. This was written in the books of prophecy, seven years before you were born. What do you want?’

  ‘The cup of healing from your own hand,’ said Diarmid, and the King of the Plain of Wonder gave him the cup, and offered him a ship. But Diarmid said he had a ferry of his own, and departed with the cup. He suddenly realised that he had forgotten the little red man, and had possibly offended him. But the little man again lifted him over the river.

  ‘I know that you are going to cure the daughter of the King under the Waves. She is the girl you love best in the world. You will go to a well you will find in that direction. By the side of the well you will find a bottle. Fill the bottle with water from the well and take it with you. When you have reached the Princess’s room, you will put some water in the cup, and a clot of blood in the water, which she will drink. You will do this a second time, and a third time, and she will be well. But when that happens she will be the girl you love least in all the world.

  ‘I am the messenger of the other world. I helped you because your heart is warm to do good to someone else. You will take no reward of gold or silver from the King under the Waves, but the King will send a ship to take you where you came from.’

  Diarmid did everything the little red man had said. He cured the Princess with the three clots of blood in the water in the cup given him by the King of the Plain of Wonder. But he lost his love for the Princess. He refused the King’s reward for curing the Princess, and he refused to marry the Princess. All he took was a ship to carry him home to the Feinne, who were very pleased that he had returned.

  GLOSSARY

  AIN own

  ALOOR! alas! alack! (Orkney)

  ASSIPATTLE one who is loath to leave the fireside to do any work (Orkney)

  BAIRN child

  BANE bone

  BANNOCK oatcake

  BARQUE three-masted sailing ship

  BEN (1) mountain; (2) the ‘front room’ of a but and ben, a two-roomed cottage

  BICKER bowl or dish

  BIDE dwell

  BOGLE hobgoblin

  BONNACH STONE a stone, usually round, on which bannocks were baked before a fire

  BRAE hillside

  BRAW handsome, beautiful

  BREE water in which food has been cooked or preserved

  BROSE oatmeal or peasemeal mixed with boiling water

  BUDDO (a term of endearment)

  BURD (poetic) woman or lady

  BURN stream

  BUT kitchen or outer room

  BYRE cow-house

  CANNILY cautiously

  CARLE man

  CARLIN an old woman

  CLEW a ball of yarn

  CLOGGIRS goose-grass

  COG, COGIE a wooden vessel for milk etc.

  COLLOP portion

  CORRIE hollow on a mountain side

  CREEL basket

  CROFT small piece of land adjoining a house

  DEIL devil

  DIRK dagger

  DOO dove, pigeon

  ETIN a giant

  FIN-FOLK mythical sea-folk

  FULLING-WATER water in which cloth is fulled (milled) and cleansed with soap and fuller’s earth

  GIEN given

  GILLIE man-servant, boy

  GIRNAL chest for meal, salt etc.

  GLOAMING twilight

  GRUAGACH a kind of brownie with long hair and beard

  HALY WATTER holy water

  HECKLE a comb for dressing flax and hemp

  HILDA-LAND Fairy-land

  HOODIE carrion crow

  HYN-HALLOW Holy Island, between Rousay and Orkney mainland

  ILKA each

  INARY a woman’s name

  KITCHEN (vb) to season, give a relish to food

  KNOCKING STONE stone-mortar, or flat stone

  KNOWE knoll, small hill

  KYE cattle

  LAIRD squire

  LAMMAS the beginning of August

  LAP-BOARD a board laid across the lap for working on used by tailors, etc.

  MALISON curse

  MIDDEN dunghill

  MIND remember

  MIXTER-MAXTER confused, jumbled

  MOOR-STONE a granite standing stone

  ODIN STONE a stone sacred to the Norse god Odin; there is one in Shapinsay

  PARLEY BOAT a small boat of a particular rig

  PEAT-HAG a hole from which peat has been cut; a heap of peat

  PEERIE small

  ST CRISPIN saint of shoemakers

  SASSENACH Saxon, foreigner

  SELKIE seal

  SHINTY game played with stick and ball in the Highlands

  SKIRL a shrill cry

  SMIDDY smithy, smith’s workshop

  SPEY-WIFE fortune-teller

  SPEIR ask, enquire

  SPORRAN purse

  STANE stone

  STRATH a wide valley

  THRAFT OR FORETHRAFT front rowing seat across (athwart) a boat

  TOCHER dowry

  URUISG water hobgoblin

  WARLOCK wizard

  WAULKING treading cloth

  WHIN gorse

  WHUPPITY STOORIE a brownie

  WIDDERSHINS anti-clockwise

  WITHIES willow branches

  YILL ale

  STORY SOURCES

  THE WELL AT THE WORLD’S END Popular Tales of the West Highlands, orally collected with a translation by J. F. Campbell (3 vols., Alexander Gardner, Paisley and London, 1890-93), II, xxxiii, p. 140.

  RASHIE COAT Popular Rhymes of Scotland, collected from tradition by Robert Chambers (2nd ed., Chambers, Edinburgh and London, 1870), p. 66.

  PRINCE IAIN ‘Mac Iain Direach’ in Campbell, II, xlvi, p. 344.

  THE FLEA AND THE LOUSE County Folklore, III, printed extract no. 5 (Orkney and Shetland Islands), collected by G. F. Black (Folklore Society Publications 49, London, 1903, reprinted 1967), p, 226.

  WHUPPITY STOORIE Chambers, p. 72.

  THE FAIRY-WIFE AND THE COOKING-POT Campbell, II, xxvi, p. 52.

  THE MAIDEN FAIR AND THE FOUNTAIN FAIRY ‘The Paddo’ in Chambers, p. 57.

  THE TALE OF THE SOLDIER Campbell, II, xlii, p. 290.

  THE FECKLESS ONES Campbell, II, xlviii, p. 388.

  PIPPETY PEW ‘The Milk-White Doo’ in Chambers, p. 49.

  THE BLACK BULL OF NORROWAY Chambers, p. 95.

  ROBIN REIDBREIST AND THE WRAN Oral source: from the recitation of Mrs Begg, youngest sister of Robert Burns. She believed her brother made it.

  THE BATTLE OF THE BIRDS Campbell, I, ii, p. 25.

  THE GOOD HOUSEWIFE Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, Argyllshire series, edited by Lord Archibald Campbell (5 vols., David Nutt, London, 1889-95); V, Clan Traditional and Popular Tales, collected from oral sources by the Rev. J. G. Campbell, p. 83.

  THE KING OF LOCHLIN’S THREE DAUGHTERS Campbell, I, xvi, p. 344.

  THE WIFE AND HER BUSH OF BERRIES Chambers, p. 57.

  BROWNIE THE COW Oral source.

  HOW THE COCK GOT THE BETTER OF HER FOX Campbell, III, lxiii, p. 105.

  THE SMITH AND THE FAIRIES Campbell, II, xxvill, p. 57.

  THE GAEL AND THE LONDON BAILLIE’S DAUGHTER Campbell, I, xvii, p. 289.

  THE WEE BANNOCK Chambers, p. 82.

  THE BROWN BEAR OF THE GREEN GLEN Campbell, I, ix, p. 168.

  FATHER WREN A
ND HIS TWELVE SONS Waifs and Strays, V, p. 120.

  MALLY WHUPPIE Campbell, I, xvii, p, 259.

  THE WHITE PET Campbell, I, xl, p. 199

  BIG FOX AND LITTLE FOX Oral source.

  THE TALE OF THE HOODIE Campbell, I, iii, p. 64.

  THE STOOR WORM W. Traill Dennison in Scottish Antiquary, V (1891), p. 130.

  THE MERMAID ‘The Sea Maiden’ in Campbell, I, iv, p. 72.

  THE WINNING OF HYN-HALLOW W. Traill Dennison in Scottish Antiquary, VII (1892), p. 117.

  THE GOODMAN OF WASTNESS W. Traill Dennison in ibid., p. 173,

  TAM SCOTT AND THE FIN-MAN W. Traill Dennison in op. cit., VIII (1893), p. 51.

  FARQUHAR THE HEALER Campbell, II, xlvii, p. 377.

  JOHNNIE CROY AND THE MERMAID W. Traill Dennison in Scottish Antiquary, VI (1892), p. 118.

  THE WIDOW’S SON Campbell, II, xliv, p. 307.

  OSCAR AND THE GIANT Campbell, I, lxxx, p. 311

  FINN AND THE YOUNG HERO’S CHILDREN Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, III: Folk and Hero Tales, edited, translated and annotated by the Rev. J. MacDougall, p. 1.

  FINN AND THE GREY DOG ibid., p. 17.

  FINN IN THE HOUSE OF THE YELLOW FIELD ibid., p. 56.

  GREEN KIRTLE ‘The Fair Gruagach’ in Campbell, II, li, p. 424.

  THE LAST OF THE PICTS Chambers, p. 80.

  MURCHAG AND MIONACHAG Campbell, I, viii, p. 161.

  PEERIE FOOL County Folklore, III, p. 222

  THE HEN Campbell, III, lxiv, p. 106.

  THE YOUNG KING ‘The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh’ in Campbell, I, i, p. 1.

  THE RED ETIN Chambers, p. 87.

  THE EAGLE AND THE WREN Waifs and Strays, V, p. 120.

  IAIN THE SOLDIER’S SON Campbell, III, i, p. 9.

  THE LEGEND OF LOCH MAREE Waifs and Strays, V, p. 74.

  DIARMID AND GRAINNE Campbell, III, lx, p. 49.

  CHILDE ROWLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, with contributions from R. Jamieson, H. Weber, and Sir Walter Scott (James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1814), p. 398.

  CUCHULAINN AND THE TWO GIANTS Oral source.

  DAUGHTER OF THE KING UNDER THE WAVES Campbell, III, lxxxvi, p. 421.

  INDEX

  Battle of the Birds, The, ref 1

  Big Fox and Little Fox, ref 1

  Black Bull of Norroway, The, ref 1

  Brown Bear of the Green Glen, The, ref 1

  Brownie the Cow, ref 1

  Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower Came, ref 1

  Cuchulainn and the Two Giants, ref 1

  Daughter of the King Under the Waves, ref 1

  Diarmid and Grainne, ref 1

  Eagle and the Wren, The, ref 1

  Fairy-Wife and the Cooking-Pot, The, ref 1

  Farquhar the Healer, ref 1

  Father Wren and His Twelve Sons, ref 1

  Feckless Ones, The, ref 1,

  Finn and the Grey Dog, ref 1

  Finn and the Young Hero’s Children, ref 1

  Finn in the House of the Yellow Field, ref 1

  Flea and the Louse, The, ref 1

  Gael and the London Baillie’s Daughter, The, ref 1

  Good Housewife, The, ref 1

  Goodman of Wastness, The, ref 1

  Green Kirtle, ref 1

  Hen, The, ref 1

  How the Cock got the Better of the Fox, ref 1

  Iain the Soldier’s Son, ref 1

  Johnnie Croy and the Mermaid, ref 1

  King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters, The, ref 1

  Last of the Picts, The, ref 1

  Legend of Loch Maree, The, ref 1

  Maiden Fair and the Fountain Fairy, The, ref 1

  Mally Whuppie, ref 1

  Mermaid, The, ref 1

  Murchag and Mionachag, ref 1

  Oscar and the Giant, ref 1

  Peerie Fool, ref 1

  Pippety Pew, ref 1

  Prince Iain, ref 1

  Rashie Coat, ref 1

  Red Etin, The, ref 1

  Robin Reidbreist and the Wran, ref 1

  Smith and the Fairies, The, ref 1

  Stoor Worm, The, ref 1

  Tale of the Hoodie, The, ref 1

  Tale of the Soldier, The, ref 1

  Tam Scott and the Fin-Man, ref 1

  Wee Bannock, The, ref 1

  Well at the World’s End, The, ref 1

  White Pet, The, ref 1

  Whuppity Stoorie, ref 1

  Widow’s Son, The, ref 1

  Wife and Her Bush of Berries, The, ref 1

  Winning of Hyn-Hallow, The, ref 1

  Young King, The, ref 1

 

 

 


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