Scottish Fairytales

Everybody loves a good fairytale.  As a child, you fantasize about being the romantic princess being saved, or being the knight to comes to her rescue.  As adults, we muse about the origins of these and laugh at their subtle metaphors and the ‘moral of the story.’  As like many of our European neighbours, Scotland has lots and lots of fairytales.  Here are a few favourites.

Tales from George MacDonald

George MacDonald, from near Aberdeen, was a Christian minister who also wrote fairytales and poems throughout his life in the late 1800s.  C.S. Lewis, famed author of books like the Chronicles of Narnia, Edin Nesbit, J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the Lord of the Rings, claimed he was a major influence on the works.  Lewis went so far to say MacDonald was his ‘master.’

A few of MacDonald’s most famous tales include:

• The Golden Key:  A wee boy follows a rainbow and at the end of it finds a key, but doesn’t know what the key is for.  There’s somewhat of a spiritual link as the boy goes on a very long journey, only to find the door his key unlocks from “the old man from the sea.”
• The Light Princess:  A dark tale of jealousy, when a princess is cursed by a bitter woman.  The curse means that the princess loses her gravity, so she often floats and can float away.  Water is the only cure, so the princess becomes an avid swimmer.   It turns out crying is a cure for the curse, which the princess is only able to do after nearly loosing her lover.

MacDonald’s son, Greville MacDonald, was friends with Lewis Carroll and encouraged Carroll to finally publish the novel Alice in Wonderland.

Popular Tales of the West Highlands

Another popular set of fairy tales is the four-volume grouping of tales called The Popular Tales of the West Highlands. It was published by John Campbell Frances from Islay in 1862, and was also published in Gaelic.  Volume Four was a mythological tale called Ossian, which became very popular despite a fierce debate on the authenticity of the translation.  That didn’t seem to matter, as even people like Napoleon claimed it to be a favourite.

Some famous tales in the earlier volumes:

• The King Who Wished to Marry his Daughter:  A king loses his spouse and declares that only the woman that fits in her clothes he would marry.  His daughter tries them on and they fit, so he says he will marry her.  The king does marry but only after a very long journey…
• The Tale of the Shifty Lad, the Widow’s Son:  A widow decides that her son must now learn a trade, so she forces him into the trade of thievery.  Someone has to pay in the end – will it be her or the son?

For More Tall Tales

If you’d like to hear more Scottish stories and fairy tales, I’d highly recommend you visit the Scottish Storytelling Centre (map), where you’ll bound to hear all the stories you can handle.

Photo by kennymatic