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blairstales · 11 months

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Fairy Deer 🦌

While some fairy folk in Scottish folklore were said to have Fairy Cows, for much of Scotland, the fairies instead raised fairy deer.

“Everywhere in the Highlands, the red-deer are associated with the Fairies, and in some districts, as Lochaber and Mull, are said to be their only cattle.” Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell (1900)

The fairies would milk and tend to these deer carefully, and would punish humans for killing a deer.

“When a dead deer is carried home at night the Fairies lay their weight on the bearer’s back, till he feels as if he had a house for a burden. On a penknife, however, being stuck in the deer it becomes very light.” Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell (1900)

There are also some fairies that are said to transform into deer (which is not to be confused with a Baobhan Sith, which has the legs of a deer, but the upper body of a woman). In these stories, a fairy is in the guise of a deer.

“In their transformations it was peculiar for the Fairy women to assume the shape of the red-deer, and in that guise they were often encountered by the hunter. “ Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell (1900)

Historic Audio Recordings:

(link) This song is a fairy lullaby. The composer sees a big strong man passing by with a bow and arrow, and is afraid that he will kill the mother of the young one to whom she sings.According to tradition, the composer was singing to a young deer

(link) This song belongs to the fairy song tradition and was used as a milking song or lullaby. Colin's cattle referred to in the song are the deer.

(link) Ailean Donn spent a year hiding in a cave. He was looked after by a woman who herded the deer. She later saw him in Glasgow, dressed like a gentleman. When she spoke to him, he said she had mistaken him for someone else.

English: Woman carrying a bouquet in the woods, with deer beside her. Date: 1920 Source: The Book of Fairy Poetry

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fillmoremum · 6 years

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#scottishfairytales #scottish #scottishfairy #morrismeredithwilliams

#morrismeredithwilliams #scottishfairytales #scottish #scottishfairy #scottish fairy tales #scottish fairy #morris meredith williams

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urbanfaeriecottage · 4 years

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New fairies are coming to town! . . #fairiesofinstagram #fairy #faefolk #fae #fairylife #fairydoll #fairyprincess #scottishfairy #christmasfairy #estyseller #etsystore #buyhandmade #handmadegifts #fancyfairy https://www.instagram.com/p/CFsVdSslVHY/?igshid=habwaiy67b45

#fairiesofinstagram #fairy #faefolk #fae #fairylife #fairydoll #fairyprincess #scottishfairy #christmasfairy #estyseller #etsystore #buyhandmade #handmadegifts #fancyfairy

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wellfuckyoutookindsir · 4 years

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Let me guess only child or military/theatre kid?

Mmm kinda wrong hey @biunicorn-scottishfairy wanna edumacate them on yourself a little?

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blairstales · 1 year

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Waulking Songs and the Loireag | Scottish Folklore

A waulking song is a traditional song that was sung for a group to keep in sync while rhythmically beating newly-woven fabric on a surface. This motion shrinks the fibers of the fabric, which makes it better at repelling water.

“There would often be 24 of them at one table, singing songs for four to five hours at a time, during which 300-400 yards of cloth would be waulked.” Audio Recording Transcript: “WAULKING THE CLOTH, ” Track ID: 65191, Date: 1961. Source: tobarandualchais.co.uk

This could be done sitting around a table and moving the fabric with your hands, but in some places the fabric was waulked using feet.

As they sing, they both beat and move the fabric a clockwise direction.

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Related to this practice is a water fairy called Loireag(lorryack). She was a rather mischievous fairy that is often described as having an obsession with tradition.

“The ‘loireag’ presided over the warping, weaving, waulking, and washing of the web, and if the women omitted any of the traditional usages and ceremonies of these occasions she resented their neglect in various ways.” Carmina Gadelica, Volume 2, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]

Not only did she make sure things were done in the right order, but she also disliked people singing out of tune, and hated hearing the same waulking song twice.

” If a song were sung twice at the waulking, the ‘loireag’ would come and render the web as thin as before, and all the work of the women of no avail. They had to begin anew and waulk the web over again, taking special care not to repeat the offence. “ Carmina Gadelica, Volume 2, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]

The loireag had such a great love of milk that people would leave out offerings of it for her. If this was forgotten, she would take matters into her own hands by enchanting the milking animals to be as still as a statue while she drank her fill.

In one story where this occurred, a girl in Benmore discovered a loireag sucking a cow. The girl tried to drive the fairy away, but nothing worked so she went to fetch her father. It turns out her father was a Carle. Carle can be a derogatory term for a commoner man, but it can also be an alternative name for the "Bodach," which they may be intending in this case.

“The little Carle leapt out at the door in sparks of red fire, swearing at the impudent ‘loireag,’ and at the cow. He threw a boulder at the ‘loireag,’ wishing to kill her, but struck the cow instead and nearly killed her!” Carmina Gadelica, Volume 2, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]

He then grabbed the very point of one of the cows horns in the name of “Columba the kindly,” who was “the best leech of man and beast in Alban in his day.” With those words, the cow broke from the enchantment and leapt away. At the same time, the loireag took off running while singing back insults.

“Little carle of Corrie-foot, Little carle of the short coat, Little carle of the foot of the Pass Much I praise your aim.” Highland Mythology by Watson, E. C. (1908)

WAULKINGS SONG EXAMPLES:

(link) In this waulking song a man mourns the fact that another is courting his beloved while he sails the seven seas.

(link) This is a short fragment from a waulking song with a love theme.

(link) The composer describes going through the strath and seeing a herd of hinds. A man was driving them down the hill. He had a bow and arrow and a gun.

(link) This is a waulking song of the type found at the start of a waulking. The chorus refers directly to waulking the tweed, which is unusual in waulking songs.

(link) In this waulking song a sailor tells of his feelings, as the girl he loves is unfaithful. He expresses the hope that his beloved will not take the tailor, the shoemaker, the shepherd or the herdsman.

(link) In this waulking song, the composer lists by their occupation the men who are unsuitable, and then gives details of the one she would accept.

(link) In this waulking song, a woman longs for the man she loves, but his family disapprove of the relationship.

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blairstales · 1 year

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What Fairies Wear

The colors fairies where can change depending on where they are, but most commonly in historical Scottish folklore(though not always), the color was green.

"Both, likewise, wore green garments, and were believed to take a spite against ordinary mortals who presumed to wear their colour. Among Highlanders, as doubtless among other peoples, there is a tendency to avoid selecting clothing of a green colour. Indeed, many women of our own day definitely refuse to wear anything that is green, on the ground that it is the colour in which the faeries specialise, and is, therefore, unlucky." The Peat-Fire Flame: Folk-Tales and Traditions of the Highlands and Islands by Alasdair Alpin MacGregor (1937)

Because of it being such a common color for them, in stories the color can act as a warning sign that someone might not really be human.

"A ploughman while engaged at his work heard, or fancied he heard, a sound of churning, and said he wished his thirst “was on the dairymaid.” In a short time after a woman appeared and offered him a drink of buttermilk. Her green dress and sudden appearance made him refuse the offer, and she said that next year he would not need the drink. When the twelve months were nearly out the man died." Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell (1900)

However, green is not always the case. On Skye, only the women fairies tend to wear green, while the men wear whatever they want, but were often described in red.

"The Fairies, both Celtic and Teutonic, are dressed in green. In Skye, however, though Fairy women, as elsewhere, are always dressed in that colour, the men wear clothes of any colour like their human neighbours. They are frequently called daoine beaga ruadh, “little red men,” from their clothes having the appearance of being dyed with the lichen called crotal, a common colour of men’s clothes, in the North Hebrides." Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell (1900)

This red colour sometimes applies to fairies on the boarder and into England.

Brownies are also a type a fairy, though commonly clothed in brown, and they are not the only ones.

"The usual dress of the Fairies is green; though on the moors they have been sometimes observed in heath-brown, or in weeds dyed with the stoneraw, or lichen." Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales – Sir Walkter Scott(1893)

(Illustration from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang)

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