The King and the Lamp
Page 33
Linda Williamson was born in 1949 and comes from Madison in the American Midwest. Her early studies were in classical keyboard music and she took a Master of Music degree at the University of Edinburgh in 1974. She met Duncan Williamson while on field trips collecting Scottish songs and ballads and together they realised a critical enthusiasm for the expressive, affirmative and educative power of traditional stories and storytelling. Married in 1977, the couple brought this art to a much wider audience, and scholars, folklorists and traditional performers from around the world visited the Williamsons’ tented home in the late 1970s. The Williamsons have played a key part in the phenomenal revival of interest in oral narrative which has come about in the last two decades. Linda received a doctorate in Scottish Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 1985 while Duncan has become a professional storyteller and a revered seannachie.
Copyright
First published as a Canongate Classic in 2000 by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2009 by Canongate Books Ltd
Copyright © Duncan Williamson and Linda Williamson
‘The Hunchback and the Swan’, ‘The Goat that Told Lies’,
‘The King and the Lamp’, ‘The Boy and the Boots’, ‘Mary
and the Seal’, ‘Jack and the Witch’s Bellows’ first published by
Canongate Books Ltd in Fireside Tales of the Traveller Children in 1983
Copyright © Duncan Williamson
‘The Broonie on Carra’, ‘The Broonie’s Farewell’, ‘The Tramp and the Boots’, ‘The Taen-Awa’ first published by Canongate Books Ltd in The Broonie, Silkies and Fairies in 1985
Copyright © Duncan Williamson
‘The Dog and the Peacock’, ‘Tatties from Chuckie-stanes’, ‘The Dog and the Manger’, ‘I Love you more than Salt’ first published by Canongate Books Ltd in Tell Me a Story for Christmas in 1987
Copyright © Duncan Williamson
‘Death in a Nut’, ‘The Ugly Queen’, ‘The Coming of the Unicorn’, ‘The Giant with the Golden Hair of Knowledge’, ‘The Thorn in the King’s Foot’, ‘The Boy and the Blacksmith’ first published by Penguin Books Ltd in A Thorn in the King’s Foot in 1987
Copyright © Duncan Williamson and Linda Williamson
‘Jack and the Devil’s Purse’ first published by Canongate Books Ltd in May the Devil Walk Behind Ye! in 1989
Copyright © Duncan Williamson.
‘The Cockerel and the Fox’, ‘The Fox and the Goat’, ‘Lion and the Four
Bulls’, ‘The Boy and the Snake’ first published by Cambridge
University Press in The Genie and the Fisherman in 1991
Copyright © Duncan Williamson and Linda Williamson
Introduction copyright © Barbara McDermitt, 2000
Afterword copyright © Duncan Williamson and Linda Williamson, 2000
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
The publishers gratefully acknowledge general subsidy from the Scottish Arts
Council towards the Canongate Classics series and a specific grant towards
the publication of this title
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on
request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84767 505 7
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