Category: Folk Tales
-
Ireland’s First Witch Burning: Petronilla de Meath
Cover art by dawndraphoto.com There is a famous Jonathan Swift quote about how the law impacts upon the rich and poor in unequal measure which reads… “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but lets wasps and hornets break through.” This interpretation was certainly the case three centuries earlier when Irish law decreed…
-
Greenlandic People and Goddesses
I tell stories for a living, not just folk stories, historical ones too. I use historical objects to help me to tell these stories and travel all over Scotland with the Travelling Museum, telling the stories related to objects and traditions of Scotland. In December the Travelling Museum received a wonderful donation: an article with…
-
King of the Birds
“Come to the Greenwood, Golden-haired maiden! Where the bird-minstrels Carol love-laden. Thrush with his fluting Charms every carper, Black-bird, the poet, He is our harper! Wren with his lute-notes Lightens all labour; Finch has the fiddle, Linnet the tabor.” Seán O’ Neachtain, Bards of Gaeilge, 1925 In Ireland, the 26th of December is celebrated as…
-
The Legend of the Lost Island of Hy-Brasil
“There is now living, Morogh O’Ley, who immagins he was himself personally on O’Brasil for two days, and saw out of it the iles of Aran, Golamhead, Irrosbeghill, and other places of the west continent he was acquainted with.” Roderick O’ Flaherty, A Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught, 1872 Here Be Monsters… I…
-
Mermaids: The Sailor’s Doom
“The belief in the mermaid is common. There are many mermaid stories throughout the Isles. I took down several of these, some of which may be mentioned. Colin Campbell, crofter, saw, as he thought, an otter on Barra. The otter was holding and eating a fish, with his eyes closed, after his manner. The man…