Ancient Scottish myths and legends
Since long before written records, cultures have been passing stories on down throught the generations by word of mouth. Stories for entertainment and some to answer meaningful questions. Luckily somewhere along the line people began to write their stories down, which gives us the chance to research and confer about them and what they contain. Mainly for entertainment purposes, ancient storytellers created the beings we know as monsters. These sometimes scary beasts came in many forms, such as giants, cyclops or even the seductive Baobhan Siths. Giants appeared in the story of "Lod the farmer's son" in which a boy, Lod, begins work as a cattle herder and ends up saving the cattle from a family of Giants, "He was not long in the thicket before the hillside shook with a mighty tread, a terrible giant came before him." The Baobhan Siths were female monsters that dwelled in the woods of the highlands, they were ghost-like vampires that would take the shape of beautiful women and invite men to dance with them so to drink their victims blood. In the story of "How Fionn found his Sword," a cyclops appears but does not make a big scene for he is only an inconsequential character in the story. One thing that is used many times i
To cross the river the Bannock was tricked into riding the fox across and ends up being eaten along the way. As in almost all stories, the ancient Scottish tales contained heroes. Personification, the giving of human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects was used frequently long ago. In the story "The Blue Cap," a man stays with a group of witches who use a blue cap to go where they please. There was also the sighting of another Elfin Queen, which could possibly be the same Elfin Queen, in the story, "Tamlin. A storyteller created some very unbelievable animals in "How Micheal Scot went to Rome," they wrote about horses that could travel at great speeds, faster than any known horses of today. Caolite, also known as the thin man, could react, run, move or pretty much do whatever task he wanted to at great speed. The Curse in the "The Faery flag of Dunvegan" had strong magical powers for it protected the clan that held it for hundreds of years until they misused it and that brought their demise. " In "Ainsel" there is a creature named Ainsel, who comes to clean folks homes during the night and who is controlled by yet another Elfin Queen. In "The Cock and the Fox," a fox steals a cock but to add a twist to the story, the animals begin to talk to one another which in the end wins the cock his freedom. The idea of a boy talking to birds is truly mystical, but that is what happened in "The legend of Elean Donan Castle," a boy was blessed as an infant to possess magical powers which in turn gave him the power to speak the language of the birds. One of these type of characters were the "Little folks" in the story of "The Piper of Keil," for example in this quote from the story, "In Kintire there is a great cave. The story was more focused on the man and his curse rather than the girl.
Common topics in this essay:
Elfin Queen,
Baobhan Siths,
Fox Bird,
Micheal Scot,
,
Siths Giants,
Curse Faery,
Haired Diarmid,
Donan Castle,
Blue Cap,
elfin queen,
magical powers,
scottish legends myths,
mystical creatures,
baobhan siths,
human characteristics,
legends myths,
scottish legends,
queen story,
equivalent hercules,
elfin queen story,
possibly equivalent hercules,
blue cap,
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Acceptance Essays
