folklore Archives - Page 4 of 4

April 8, 2015 / 2 Comments

The Tale of Jessie Macrae and the Ghillie Dhu

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Ghillie Dhu is a dark-haired tree sprite that lives in woods or thickets, with a preference for birch. Scotland’s forests were once heavily populated by these fairies, but they are now rare and confined to the are surrounding Loch Gairloch. They are shy creatures and dress in foliage and mosses to camouflage themselves from the human eye, though they do love the company of children, as evidenced in the story of Jessie Macrae and the Ghillie Dhu.

April 7, 2015 / 2 Comments

Am Fear Liath Mor: The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui

Reading Time: 5 minutes

From the late 1800s, climbers have been reporting encounters with Am Fear Liath Mor, a tall Yeti-esque monster that stalks those descending from the summit of Ben Macdui, the highest mountain in the Cairngorms and the second highest mountain in Scotland.

At the 1925 meeting of the Cairngorm Club, respected mountaineer and scientist John Norman Collie spoke of an experience he’d had on Ben Macdui in 1890, one that had scared him so thoroughly that he hadn’t spoken of it for thirty-five years.

April 6, 2015 / 5 Comments

The Much Feared Spirit of the Lochs: The Each-Uisge

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Each-Uisge is a Scottish water spirit, thought to be the most vicious of all the water-dwelling creatures in Scotland. Its name literally means water horse, and it can be found in Scotland’s sea inlets and lochs, unlike the Kelpie that inhabits rivers and streams. It’s described as being much larger than an ordinary horse, with wide, staring eyes, webbed feet, and a slimy black coat, tinged with green, and it can take on the form of a regular horse, or a man.

April 4, 2015 / 2 Comments

The Tale of The Cailleach, The Fox, and the Sun Goddess

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Back in the days when the world was young and men and animals spoke the same language, there was a king and a queen, and they lived happily together and had a much-beloved son, Brian, but the queen fell ill and passed away, and so the king devoted himself to his boy and brought him up to be wise in all the ways of the world.

April 3, 2015 / 13 Comments

The Caoineag: Mournful Spirit of the Glens

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Caoineag (KHOO-nyak) is a Scottish spirit similar to the Irish banshee. Her name derives from the Gaelic caoin, meaning weep, and caoidh, meaning mourn. She is one of the Fuath, the malevolent spirits or fairies that inhabit Scotland’s waters.

April 2, 2015 / 4 Comments

Wordsmiths of the Waters:The Blue Men of the Minch

Reading Time: 4 minutes

When the tide is at the turning and the wind is fast asleep,
And not a wave is curling on the wide, blue deep,
Oh, the waters will be churning in the stream that never smiles,
Where the Blue Men are splashing round the charmèd isles.

from Wonder Tales From Scottish Myth And Legend by Donald Alexander McKenzie

The Blue Men of the Minch are a group of mythological humanoid creatures that inhabit the waters of the Minch, a strait in the north-west of Scotland that separates the mainland from the northern Outer Hebrides.

April 1, 2015 / 7 Comments

The Tale of Assipattle and the Stoorworm

Reading Time: 12 minutes

Long, long ago, in the lands to the north, a prosperous farmer lived with his wife and their children: seven sons, and a daughter. The youngest of their sons was named Assipattle. He was a lazy boy, held in great contempt by his brothers whose toil on the farm was increased by his refusal to work the land. Instead, his mother made him sweep the floors, fetch peat for the fire, and all the other menial tasks around the farmhouse that she could persuade him to do, though he would much rather have been lying in the ash pit, daydreaming of adventure.