Legends of the North; The Guidman O' Inglismill and The Fairy Bride Part 1

Legends of the North; The Guidman O'

Inglismill and The Fairy Bride.

by Patrick Buchan.

PREFACE.

The _Guidman o' Inglismill_ was written, not to fill up "hours of idleness," but as a relaxation from the cares of a more important and arduous occupation.

Its object is the encouragement of temperate habits, and the enjoyment of "ane's ain fireside."

It is hoped it will be no less acceptable to the reader as another attempt to a.s.sist in preserving the pure Doric of "auld langsyne," which is fast being superseded by a language less pithy, less expressive, though more fas.h.i.+onable.

Every "toon's laddie"--or he is no true son of the "bruch"--however old, however placed as regards wealth or poverty, or wherever he may be on this habitable globe, can sympathise with the lines to the spot "where we were born." There is a charm in the true Buchan dialect to a child of the district, which neither time, age, nor distance can destroy. When "far awa," it falls on the ear like the breathings of some holy melody, and calls up in the imagination a fleeting panoramic picture of early days, and homes, and play-mates,--swelling the heart and dimming the eyes as they try to gaze down the vista of the past,--dotted, it may be, with the resting-places of those who have gone "to the land o' the leal."

INTRODUCTION.

The superst.i.tion with which the tale is interwoven--

"Of fairy elves by moonlight shadows seen, The silver token, and the circled green"--

has, for unknown ages, and in all countries, been an article of the popular creed. It is impossible to trace the origin of the belief. Some imagine it has been conveyed to us by the tradition of the Lamiae, who took away young children to slay them, and that this, mixed up with the tales of Fauns and G.o.ds of the woods, originated the notion of Fairies.

Others, that the belief was imported into Europe by the Crusaders from the East, as Fairies somewhat resemble the Oriental Genii. It is certainly true that the Arabs and Persians, whose religion and history abound with similar tales, have a.s.signed the Genii a peculiar country.

Again, Homer is supposed to have been among authors the originator of the idea, as, in his third Iliad, he compares the Trojans to cranes when they descend to fight against pigmies or fairies. Pliny, Aristotle, and others give countenance to the belief in a race of fairies; Herodotus described a nation of dwarfs living on the head waters of the Nile; Strabo thought that certain men of Ethiopia were the original dwarfs; while Pomponius Mela placed them far south. But n.o.body believed these stories, which were taken to be either poetical licences or chapters in romance. It is, however, strange that a race called Obongos, about thirty-six inches high, are mentioned as existing near the Ashango country by Paul de Chaillu (the discoverer of the gorilla), in his late work "From the Country of the Dwarfs."

Whatever conjecture may be adopted, it is certain our Saxon ancestors, long ere they left their German forests, believed in the existence of a kind of diminutive demons, or middle species between men and spirits, to whom they attributed performances far exceeding human art. Although we are now a great literary people, yet, in this description of legendary lore, we are far behind the Germans; for this is a peculiar style of writing not exactly fitted for English cultivation, but in which the Germans seem to possess the faculty of invention and contrivance, together with originality of conception and power of execution, in such an eminent degree as to leave the legendary writers of our own and other countries at an immeasurable distance. In fact, we may search the whole range of English, French, Spanish, and Italian literature, and there will not be found one author "who dips so deep into the dark profound,"

or one who is possessed of that magic wand that can give the same vitality to the beings of a shadowy world as the Germans, or one who, can conjure up before the mind's eye, in such enchanting colours, the magical representations of beings and forms of no mark or likelihood, and with whose names even we were previously totally unacquainted.

The Fairies of our own land were, on the whole, a genial, frolicsome, happy race--occasionally given to mischievous tricks--benefiting those who were kindly disposed to them and paid them due honour, but revengeful and doing harm to those who were differently inclined. They were a kind of intermediate beings, partaking of the nature of both men and spirits: they had material bodies and the power of making them invisible, and of pa.s.sing through any opening. They were generally, in their natural state, small in stature, of fair complexion--hence their name in England; while, for their kind dispositions, in Scotland they were called "the good people." Says Dr Rogers, in his work "Scotland Social and Domestic," in which will be found much of interest regarding "Folk Lore":--"The forms of the Scottish fairies were beautiful. The female was a being of seraphic loveliness: ringlets of yellow hair descended upon her shoulders, and were bound upon her brow with gems of gold. She wore a mantle of green silk, inlaid with eider-down, and zoned round her waist with garlands of wild flowers. The male fairy was clad in green _trows_ and a flowing tunic. His feet were protected with sandals of silver, from his left arm hung a golden bow, and a quiver of adder-skin was suspended on his left side. His arrows were tipped in flame. The fairies feasted luxuriously. The richest viands adorned their boards. They frequented human banquets, and conveyed a portion of the richest dishes into their palaces. They were present at funerals, and extracted the liquor and meats which were presented to the company. Some Highlanders refused to eat or drink at funeral a.s.semblages in apprehension of elfin interference. Their habits were joyous. They constructed harps and pipes which emitted delicious sounds. They held musical processions and conducted concerts in remote glens and on unfrequented heaths. In their processions, they rode on horses fleeter than the wind. Their coursers were decked with gorgeous trappings: from their manes were suspended silver bells which rang with the zephyr, and produced music of enchanting harmony. The feet of their steeds fell so gently that they dashed not the dew from the ring-cup, nor bent the stalk of the wild rose." Their haunts on the surface of the earth were groves, mountains, wooded dells, by springs, the southern sides of hills, and verdant meadows, where their diversions were dancing in circles, hand in hand. The traces left by their tiny feet were supposed to remain visible on the gra.s.s, and were called fairy rings, but are now discovered to be the production of an agaric or mushroom.

Science, alas! sadly interferes with these fanciful old legends, but not always without leaving some doubtful explanation of her own.

The unfortunate wight who turned up a fairy ring with the ploughshare became the victim of a wasting sickness--

"He wha tills the fairy green Nae luck again sall hae, And he wha spoils the fairy ring Betide him want and wae, For weirdless days and weary nichts Are his till his deeing day."

The protector of the fairy ring was proportionally recompensed--

"He wha gaes by the fairy ring Nae dule or pains sall dree, And he wha cleans the fairy ring An easy death sall dee."

The kingdom of Fairyland was supposed to be peculiarly beautiful, somewhere in the interior of the earth. The Ettrick Shepherd's description of this fair land is, perhaps, unequalled in Scottish poetry. It occurs in his ballad of "Bonny Kilmeny," embodying the tradition of the removal, to Fairyland, of the daughter of a labourer at Traquair, and her restoration to earth a few weeks after:--

"Kilmeny had been where the c.o.c.k never crew, Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew; But it seemed as the harp of the sky had rung, And the airs of heaven played round her tongue, When she spake of the lovely forms she had seen, And a land where sin had never been; A land of love, and a land of light, Withouten sun, or moon, or night; Where the river swa'd a living stream, And the light a pure celestial beam: The land of vision it would seem, A still, an everlasting dream.

They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away, And she walked in the light of a sunless day: The sky was a dome of crystal bright, The fountain of vision, and fountain of light: The emerald fields were of dazzling glow, And the flowers of everlasting blow.

Then deep in the stream her body they laid, That her youth and beauty never might fade; And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie In the stream of life that wandered bye.

She saw a sun on a summer sky, And clouds of amber sailing bye; A lovely land beneath her lay, And that land had glens and mountains gray; And that land had valleys and h.o.a.ry piles, And marled seas and a thousand isles; Its fields were speckled, its forests green, And its lakes were all of the dazzling sheen, Like magic mirrors, where slumbering lay The sun and the sky and the cloudlet gray; Which heaved and trembled, and gently swung, On every sh.o.r.e they seemed to be hung."

Scottish fairies had a king and queen and royal court, which, in pomp and pageantry, far exceeded that of any earthly monarch. In Poole's "Parna.s.sus," the princ.i.p.al persons are named Oberon, the emperor; Mab, the empress; Perriwiggin, Periwincle, Puck, Hobgoblin, Tomalin, Tom Thumb, courtiers; Hop, Mop, Drop, Pip, Drip, Skip, Tub, Tib, Tick, Pink, Pin, Quick, Gill, Jim, t.i.t, Wap, Win, Nit, the maids of honour; Nymphidia, the mother of the maids.

At one time, the Queen seems to have chosen Thomas of Ercildoune--better known as The Rhymer--with whom to share her royalty. Whether from infidelity to her royal spouse, or from his having fallen into temporary disgrace, tradition sayeth not, but her offer is celebrated in ballad lore--

"An' I will gie to thee, luve Thomas, My han', but an' my crown; An' thou shalt reign o'er Fairylan'

In joy, an' gret renown.

"An' I will gie to thee, luve Thomas, To live for evermair; Thine arm sall never f.e.c.kless grow, Nor h.o.a.ry wax thy hair.

"Nae clamorous grief we ever thole, Nae wastin' pine we dree; An endless life's afore thee placed O' constant luve an' lee."

But, after seven years' residence, he was suddenly dismissed by her majesty, his mistress, and for a very sufficient reason, as told also in ballad lore--

"'Busk thee, Thomas, for thou must be gane, For here no longer may'st thou be; Hie thee fast, with might and main; I shall thee bring to the Eildon tree.'

"Thomas answered with heavy cheer, 'Lovely ladye, thou lat me be; For certainly I have been here Nought but the s.p.a.ce of dayes three!'

"'For sooth, Thomas, as I thee tell, Thou hast been here seven year and more; But longer here thou may not dwell, The skyl I will thee tell wherefore.

"'To-morrow, of h.e.l.l the foul fiend Among these folks shall choose his fee; Thou art a fair man and a hend, I trow full well he wil choose thee!

"'For all the gold that ever might be, Frae heaven unto the worldes end, Thou be'st never betray'd by me; Therefore with me I rede thee wend.'

"She brought him again to the Eildon tree, Underneath the greenwood spray; In Huntly banks was fayr to be, Where birds do sing both night and day."

Having thus restored The Rhymer to earth, he was permitted to remain for a time, to enlighten and astonish his countrymen by deeds resulting from the knowledge, and by his marvellous prophetic powers, acquired during his seven years' residence in the Fairyland; still, however, bound to return to his royal mistress when she should intimate her pleasure.

Accordingly, while Thomas was making merry with his friends in the Tower of Ercildoune, a person came running in, and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading the street of the village.

This being the signal agreed upon for his recall to Elfinland, the prophet instantly arose, left his habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return. According to the popular belief, he still "drees his weird" in Fairyland, and is one day expected to revisit the earth. The village of Ercildoune is situated on the Leader, two miles above its junction with the Tweed, and the ruins of an ancient tower are still pointed out as The Rhymer's castle.

The Eildon tree, from under which he delivered his prophecies, no longer exists; but the spot is marked by a large stone, called Eildon Tree Stone; and a neighbouring rivulet takes the name of the Bogle Burn, from being the spot where The Rhymer's visitants met him.

Hunting was a favourite sport at the Fairy court. They rode to the hunt in three bands. The first was mounted on brown horses; the second rode on grey; while the third, consisting of the king, queen, and chief n.o.bles, sat on white steeds. One member of the court rode on a black charger: this was Kilmaulie, prime councillor of Fairyland. Altogether, they seem to have led a jolly life there, the princ.i.p.al drawback being the liability to pay, every seventh year, one of their number as a tribute or Kain to h.e.l.l. This is described in the ballad of "Tamlane,"

who, while he relates the delights of his home in Fairyland, and even, somewhat selfishly, values them higher than the affection of his true love, fair Janet, does not relish the possible finale in his being made the Kain to h.e.l.l:--

"But we, that live in Fairyland, No sickness know, nor pain; I quit my body when I will, And take to it again.

"I quit my body when I please, Or unto it repair; We can inhabit, at our ease, In either earth or air.

"Our shapes and size we can convert To either large or small; An old nut-sh.e.l.l's the same to us As is the lofty hall.

"We sleep in rose-buds soft and sweet, We revel in the stream, We wanton lightly on the wind, Or glide on a sunbeam.