Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - Scottish Myths and Legends

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Starting point is 00:00:46 please go to sleepcove.com slash support. That's sleepcove.com slash support. If you can't support the show right now, please subscribe with a bell to get alerts on all new free content thank you have you ever gazed in wonder at the great pyramid have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun

Starting point is 00:01:16 or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti if you have you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast every week we explore tales of this ancient culture The history of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt. To Sleep Cave with me, Christopher Fitten. This week I've been invited to a Burns night. It's a celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns,

Starting point is 00:02:01 where people remember his poetry and also celebrate Scottish culture. With that in mind, I decided to read a couple of Scottish mythical tales out on the podcast. The Fairies of Murden's Crang About 200 years ago, there was a poor man working as a labourer on a farm in Nanickshire. He was what is known as an aura man. That is, he had no special work, mapped out for him to do. He was expected to undertake odd jobs of any kind that happened to turn up.

Starting point is 00:02:57 One day, his master sent him out to cast Pets on a piece of Morland that lay on a certain part of the farm. Now this strip of Morland ran up at one end to a curiously shaped crag, known as Merlin's crag. Because, so the country folk said, that famous enchanter had once taken up his abode there. The man obeyed, and being a winning fellow, when he arrived othermore, he set to work with all his might, and he had lifted quite a quantity of peat from near the crag, when he was startled by the appearance of the smallest woman that he had ever seen in his life. She was only about two feet high, and she was dressed in a green gown and red stockings, and her long yellow hair was not bound by any ribbon, but hung loosely round her shoulders.

Starting point is 00:04:13 She was such a dainty little creature That the astonished countryman stopped working Stuck his spade into the ground And gazed at her in wonder His wonder increased when she held up One of her tiny fingers And addressed him in these words What whilst thou think

Starting point is 00:04:39 If I was to send my husband To uncover thy hand You mortals think that you can do aught that pleaseth you. Then, stamping her tiny foot, she added in a voice of command, Put back that turf instantly, or thou shalt rue this day. Now the poor man had often heard of the fairy folk, and of the harm that they could work to unthinking mortals who were faced, them, so in fear and trembling he set to work to undo all his labour, and to place every divot

Starting point is 00:05:24 in the exact spot from which he had taken it. When he was finished, he looked round for his strange visitor, but she had vanished completely. He could not tell how, nor where. But he up his spade, he wended his way homewards, and going straight to his master, he told him the whole story, and suggested that in future the peace should be taken from the other end of the mall. But the master only laughed. He was a strong, hearty man, and had no belief in ghosts or elves or any, that he could not see. Though he laughed,

Starting point is 00:06:22 he was vexed that his servant should believe in such things so to cure him as he thought of his superstition. He ordered him to take a horse and cart and go back and all the peace

Starting point is 00:06:41 and bring steadying. The poor man obeyed with the much reluctance and was greatly relieved. as weeks went on, to find that, in spite of his having done so, no harm befell him. In fact, he began to think that his master was right, and the whole thing must have been a dream. So matters went smoothly on. Winter passed and spring and summer until autumn came round once more, and the very day arrived on which the piece had been lifted the year before.

Starting point is 00:07:29 That day as the sun went down, the aura to his cottage, and as his master was pleased with him because he had been working very hard lately, he had given him a little can of milk as a present to carry home to his wife. So he was feeling very happy, and as he walked along, he was humming a tune to himself. His road took him by the foot of Merlin's cry, and as he approached it, he was astonished to find himself growing strangely tired. His eyelids dropped over his eye. He was going to sleep, and his feet grew as heavy as lead. I will sit down and take a rest for a few minutes, he said to himself. The road home never seemed so long as it does today.

Starting point is 00:08:41 So he sat down on a tuft of grass right under the shadow of the crag. And before he knew where he was, he had fallen into a deep and heavy slumber. When he awoke, it was. near midnight, and the moon had risen on the, and he rubbed his eyes, when by its soft night he became aware of a large band of fairies, who were dancing round and round him, singing and laughing, pointing their tiny fingers at him, and shaking their wee fists in his face. The bewildered man rose and tried to walk away from them. But in turn, in whichever direction he would, the fairies accompanied him,

Starting point is 00:09:36 encircling him in a magic ring, out of which he could in no wise go. Shrieks of elfin laughter led the prettiest and daintiest of their companions up to him. Treader measure, tread a measure, O man. then wilt thou not be so eager to escape from our company, all labourer was but a clumsy dancer, and he held back with a shame-faced air. But the fairy, who had been chosen to be his partner, reached up and seized some strange magic,

Starting point is 00:10:34 seemed to end for in a moment. he found himself waltzing and whirling, sliding and bowing, as if he had done nothing else but dance all. And the strangest thing of all, he forgot about his home and his children and felt so happy that he no longer had the slightest desire to leave the fairies company. The merriment went on,

Starting point is 00:11:14 Their little folk danced and danced as if they were mad, and the farmman danced with them, until at last a shrill sound came. It was the cock from the farmyard, crowing its loudest to welcome the dawn. The referee ceased, and the fairies with cries of alarm, crowded together and rushed towards the corner.

Starting point is 00:11:48 Craig, dragging the countryman along in their mist. The rock, a mysterious door, which he never remembered having seen before and shut again, with the crash as soon as the fairy host had drooped, their little folk sank to rest, while the good man sat down on a piece of rock in the room. But there seemed to be some kind of. spell thrown over his senses, for even when the fairies awoke and began to go about their household occupations, and to carry out certain curious practices, which he had never seen before, and which, as you will hear, he was forbidden to speak of afterwards. He was content

Starting point is 00:13:13 to sit and watch them without in any way attempting to escape. As it drew toward evening, someone touched his elbow and he turned round with a start to see their little woman with a green dress and scarlet stockings, who had remonstrated with him for lifting the turf the year before, standing. by his side. The dinnets which thou tookest from the roof of my house have grown once more, she said, and once more it has covered with grass.

Starting point is 00:13:59 So thou canst go home again, for justice is satisfied. Thy punishment have lasted long enough, but first thou take thy solemn, oath, never to tell to mortal ears what thou hast seen, whilst thou hast do. The countryman promised gladly, and he took his solemn oath. When the door was opened, he was at liberty to depart. His can of milk were standing on the green just where he had laid it down when he went

Starting point is 00:14:42 to sleep. And it seemed to him, as if it were only yesterday night that the farmer had given it to him. And when he reached home, he was speedily undeceived, for his wife looked at him as if he were a ghost, and the children whom he had left away, toddling things were now well-grown boys and girls, who stared at him as if he had been,

Starting point is 00:15:14 an utter stranger. Where hast thou been these long, long years? cried his wife, when she had gathered her wits, and had seen that it was really he, and not a spirit, and how couldest thou find it in thy heart, to leave the wee barns and me alone, and when he knew that the day he had passed in fairyland had last, and thus He lasted seven whole years, and he realised how heavy the punishment had been with the wee folk, the mermaid wife. A story is told of an inhabitant of Ernst in the northern Shetland Eye, the Sunday margin of a vow, saw a number of mermen dancing by moonlight, and several seal skins strewed besides.

Starting point is 00:16:29 them on the ground. At his approach, they immediately fled to secure their garbs, and taking upon themselves the form of seals plunged immediately into the sea. But as the Shetlander perceived that one skin lay close to his feet, he snatched it up, bore it swiftly away, and placed placed it in concealment. To the shore, he met the fairest damsel that ever gazed upon the mortal's eyes. Lamenting the robbery by which she had become an exile from her submarine friends and a tenant of the upper world, she implored the restitution of her property. The man had drunk deeply of love and... But he offered her protection beneath his roof

Starting point is 00:17:39 as his betrothed spouse. The man-lady, perceiving that she must become an inhabitant of the earth, found that she could not do better than accept of the offer. This strange attachment subsisted for many years, and the couple had several children. The Shetlander's love for his mere wife was unbounded, but his affection was coldly returned. The lady would often steal alone to the desert strand being given a large seal would with whom she would hold in unknown years had thus glided away when it happened that one of the children in the course of his play

Starting point is 00:18:47 found concealed beneath a stack of corn, a seal skin, and delighted with a prize. He ran with it to his mother, eyes glistened with rapture. she gazed upon it as her own, as the means by which she could pass through the ocean that led to her native home. She burst forth into an ecstasy of joy which was only moderated when she beheld her children, whom she was now about to leave, and after hastily embracing them, She fled with all speed towards the seaside. The husband immediately returned, learned the discovery that had taken place,

Starting point is 00:19:47 ran to overtake his wife, but only arrived in time to see her transformation of shape completed. To see her in the form of her seal, bound from the ledge of a rock into the sea, the large animal of the same kind with whom she had held a secret converse soon appeared and evidently congratulated her in the most tender manner on her escape but before she dived to unknown deaths she cast a parting glance at the wretched shetlander whose despairing looks excited in her breast a few transient feelings of commiseration. She said to him, I loved you very well when I resided upon earth.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - Scottish Myths and Legends

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