Wednesday, February 19, 2025
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Scottish Fairytales

Scottish Words: A Fairy Tale Glossary

Language is not just a means of communication but a tapestry woven with the history and folklore of the people. Each term here, from the mundane to the mystical, carries the whisper of tales told by the fireside and legends passed down through generations. Compiled to aid readers in understanding the language found in Scottish fairy tales, this glossary serves as a bridge to the rich oral traditions that continue to captivate and enchant. As we explore these words, we not only learn their meanings—like "bairn" for child and "eldritch" for weird—but also open a door to the fairy-tale landscape...

Farquhar MacNeill

Once upon a time there was a young man named Farquhar MacNeill. He had just gone to a new situation, and the very first night after he went to it his mistress asked him if he would go over the hill to the house of a neighbour and borrow a sieve, for her own was all in holes, and she wanted to sift some meal. Farquhar agreed to do so, for he was a willing lad, and he set out at once upon his errand, after the farmer's wife had pointed out to him the path that he was to...

Katherine Crackernuts

There was once a King whose wife died, leaving him with an only daughter, whom he dearly loved. The little Princess's name was Velvet-Cheek, and she was so good, and bonnie, and kind-hearted that all her father's subjects loved her. But as the King was generally engaged in transacting the business of the State, the poor little maiden had rather a lonely life, and often wished that she had a sister with whom she could play, and who would be a companion to her. The King, hearing this, made up his mind to marry a middle-aged Countess, whom he had...

Thomas the Rhymer

Of all the young gallants in Scotland in the thirteenth century, there was none more gracious and debonair than Thomas Learmont, Laird of the Castle of Ercildoune, in Berwickshire. He loved books, poetry, and music, which were uncommon tastes in those days; and, above all, he loved to study nature, and to watch the habits of the beasts and birds that made their abode in the fields and woods round about his home. Now it chanced that, one sunny May morning, Thomas left his Tower of Ercildoune, and went wandering into the woods that lay about the Huntly Burn, a little...