Some Scottish Red Weddings
The theme of sacrosanct hospitality being murderously abused looms large in Scottish history and legend. Content note: murder; spousal...
A series of improbable kings
We've looked at the legend of King Galdus, and how it relates to the fragmentary older legends of Cairbre Riata and other supposed...
The many legendary founders of Scotland
One remarkable thing about Scottish legend is just how many beginnings the country's pseudo-history seems to have. In my article on the...
King Galdus
The fourth book of Hector Boece's History of the Scottish People tells the epic story of the hero-king Galdus. (A still more stirring...
The Legend of Canonbie Dick
The Canonbie Dick story is one of Scotland's best known folk tales. In its usual form, it goes like this: a horse-trader, from Canonbie...
The Giant and the Dwarf
I investigate a story from Angus that may not be all it seems. Content note: kidnapping; slavery; objectification of disabled people....
The Dragon-Slaying Bishop of Caithness
Image: Dornoch Cathedral. Credit: undiscoveredscotland.co.uk N.B. This post has been updated to reflect my further researches into this...
Old Tales Retold: Sprites and Goblins
I've finally published the first volume of Old Tales Retold. (Volume II, Here Be Dragons, should follow in 2017.) It didn't seem the...
Pirate Corner: The Red Reiver
As a proud Scot, fascinated since toddlerhood by all things medieval and all things piratical, it was inevitable that I'd be attracted by...
Did tenth century Scotland have a Black King?
In a few esoteric corners of the Internet, one will come across the assertion that Kenneth III, King of Scots from 997 to 1005, was of...
