Sheena Blackhall - Scottish Urban Myths and Ancient Legends

Ruth, Esther, Peter and Josh, thanks for listening!
Love Mum

Dedicated with thanks to Alan Spence for the support given.

Stories paint colour, texture and depth
onto a flat, blank landscape.

Expression, emotion and the senses give
characters life, breath and movement.

Everybody loves an urban legend, an urban myth. Weve all heard them, usually told by someone who insists the story is true, 100 per cent it happened to the cousin of a friend of somebody they know. These myths are an important part of our oral tradition, along with (and often including) the ghost story, the yarn, the tall tale.

These stories are universal, the same themes and motifs occurring in many different cultures, and they tend towards the archetypal, the apocryphal. They reflect something profound, those deep structures by which we frame and understand experience. But what gives them their power, their magic, their charm and recurring appeal, is the particular detail, the locale, setting the story in time and place.

Scotland has a rich history of such tales, and two of our finest storytellers, Sheena Blackhall and Grace Banks, have joined forces to set down their own versions of their personal favourites. There will be tales here you recognise, stories youve been told (with that assurance that theyre absolutely true!) and others that are new to you. There are stories from all over Scotland rural myths as well as urban from centuries past and from the present day. There are stories to make you laugh and stories to chill your spine, told (or retold) with a freshness thats invigorating.

The art of storytelling is alive and well.

Alan Spence, 2014

When asked to write Urban Legends as part of the UK series, we were told one book would cover the whole of Scotland. We were asked to include the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. Not exactly an urban myth you might say! So this book has become a mix of both urban myths and local legends. And only a few of many are covered here.

This book will take you on a journey around Scotland, to a variety of places where you will meet characters and creatures, some kindly, many not. We just wish there had been room for more!

Grace Banks, 2014

Anecdotes, rumour, gossip urban myths can straddle all those categories. Often they are short like fables and can be told quickly in a paragraph or two. Originally, I became hooked on urban myths after reading Paul Smiths Book of Nasty Legends . He stated that in the real world, not just a single, oral medium transmission is utilised to communicate folklore but any available and relevant media is employed.

Recently scholars have examined how legends are formed and spread through popular print media and other non-oral methods. I like to think of urban myths as little acorns desperate to grow into oaks where I provide them with knots, gnarls and leaves (see the Chimera Institute 2011). Most writers in this genre draw on global examples, but this book is different; the tales and urban myths are specific to Scotland. It is the land of the mysterious Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui and murderous clowns loiter in transit vans to inflict the infamous Glasgow smile upon their victims.

Sheena Blackhall, 2014

Alan and Cathy Low run a B&B in Ballater. Each night, guests are privileged to enjoy a bedtime story from Cathy. After staying three nights, one woman asked Cathy if she could take her voice away with her. Listening to the rhythm of story, this lady had relaxed and rested mentally and physically for the first time since childhood.

What a simple life-giving remedy to share a tale, yet such a rare commodity in our screen-fixated world.

Simple fireside evenings

Eyes meet, gleam with treasures shared

Tales warmly spoken, familiar, alive

Cherished, polished with use

Known. Loved. Timeless.

Rhythm of life

Stories, vibrant, significant

gave shape, colour and depth

To their surroundings

But unspoken, they

Fade, wither and vanish.

Now silenced.

Words hidden

on dusty, tired pages.

Leaving the land, the people

More bereft. Barren.

But not many see.

Yet in this winter,

Green shoots appear

Caressed into life

Valuing of wisdom

Lessons from nature

Beauty, joy, sorrows

Words, giving shape, colour and depth

To their surroundings.

Timeless.

Rhythm of life.

Grace Banks

We are grateful to all of you who have told us your stories; much of this book has come together due to your open-handed generosity. Thank you!

Certain myths and legends grip the human mind with almost obsessive belief or scepticism. In this collection we hope that amidst the strident well-aired tales, some of those that have become whispers may regain their voice and become familiar and loved once more. May they whet your appetite to listen for or seek out the tales around you, the little and the larger, and encourage you to tell them to others.

Grace Banks, 2014

Heroes of Old

While exploring books of myths, legends and folk tales I have frequently come across stories of the Fenian or Fian heroes. I was confused how Finn or Fionns name came up repeatedly as being a Scottish hero of old, yet I had always associated him with Ireland as the giant hero, Fionn Mac Cumhail. And the name Ossian or Oisn came into the mix, known as the son of Fionn. I have discovered there are overlaps between these two and there appear to be landmarks, some of which have association to both. This whole book could be dedicated to these ancient warriors whose origins are certainly Irish. As priests brought religion west, so legends and stories spread. In Scotland the Fionn and Oisn stories abound in the Gaelic-speaking areas of the country, popularised by MacPherson who claimed to have collated ancient manuscripts and written down the oral form of the poet Oisns words.

To me the backgrounds of Eirinn (Ireland) and Alba (Scotland) seem almost synonymous in the tales, as if there were no sea in between; the uniting element being their chief enemy, the Lochlannaich, the Vikings whom they fought against for their High King.

In this short account, I give a little flavour of the Fenians, in the hope that readers might be encouraged to burrow deeper into the fascinating and rich lore of these heroes, handed down through generations in one way or another. These tales span legend and myth with a few grains of possible fact from the distant past. GB

The Beginning

Many tales are told of Fionn and his great deeds. This simple story is an account of where it all began.

Cumhal was the chief of the Fenians. In a battle between the Fenians and the powerful clan Morna, Cumhal was killed, and Goll, the one-eyed leader of the Morna, became chief of both clans.

Cumhals wife had just given birth to a son, and knowing Goll would be merciless towards his vanquished foes newborn, she hid the child away, to be raised in secret.

His guardians named the fair-haired boy Fionn, and as he grew, he flourished and became straight, tall and fearless. As Fionn grew in stature, his deeds were spoken of with awe; he was as fleet as a deer, and deadly accurate with the sling.