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Scottish Traditional Tales here!
Vol 17 - Scottish Traditional
Tales
CDTRAX9017
(May 2000) 10 tracks: One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three Eyes; Daughter Doris; The
Three Feathers; The Humph at The Fit o' The Glen and The Humph at The Head
o' The Glen; The Angel of Death; Silly Jack and The Factor; The Boy and
The Bruni; Keeping Out The Sea Man; The Fiddler o' Gord; The Greenbank
Pony.
In most modern European cultures the longer
types of wonder-tale, or fairy-tales as they are often called, are the
aristocrats of traditional storytelling, as the older ballads are of
singing. These stories share the atmosphere of mediaeval romance -
timelessly vague, but with such material properties as must be described
supplied from the wardrobe of the Middle Ages. They are the fireside
dreams of ordinary people who overcome foes and misfortunes to live rich
and happy ever after: escapism, in fact. Storytelling was a common evening
entertainment for the whole community, and only increasing competition
from printed books gradually restricted the wonder-tales to country
people, and eventually led to the idea in some places that they were only
fit for children.
On this double album nearly half the tales,
including most of the longer ones, are from travellers: all of them have
international parallels. The tales which the non-Gaelic-speaking
travellers have kept alive represent a part of Scots tradition which has
almost vanished among the settled population for lack of occasions for, or
interest in, its performance. The remaining stories come from Shetland and
Orkney, not because it would have been impossible to find examples of
similar legends and anecdotes among the settled population of the
mainland, but because in Shetland especially they are told with such
enthusiasm and artistry that the islands inevitably attract the
fieldworker
Jeannie Robertson, the great ballad singer,
was the first of the modern traveller storytellers to be recorded by the
School of Scottish Studies, to be followed by fellow travellers Davie
Stewart, Stanley Robertson, Andrew Stewart and Betsy Whyte. The Shetland
and Orkney storytellers are represented here by Tom Tulloch (two stories),
James Henderson and George Peterson.
This double CD collection is accompanied by
a 68 page booklet of text which provides not only extensive background
information on the stories and storytellers but also includes the text of
the full stories to assist the listener. |
