About this ebook
These are tales and stories in which something 'Fairy' or magical occurs, something extraordinary--fairies, giants, dwarfs, speaking animals, or simply the remarkable stupidity of some of the characters. But these aren't just a collection of amusing and entertaining stories. In the days before schools these are the tales that were used to teach the lessons of life. The story of MURCHAG A'S MIONACHAG, for example, is legendary among the Gaelic tales. It is the infant ladder to learning about the chain of cause and effect, and fully as sensible as any of its kind. It used to be commonly taught to children of five or six years of age, and repeated by school boys, and was often recalled by grownups in all parts of the Highlands.
So take some time out and travel back to a period before television and radio, a time when tales were passed on orally--at the drying kilns, at the communal well or in homes, where families would gather around a crackling and spitting hearth and granddad or grandma or uncle or auntie would delight and captivate the gathering with stories passed on to them from their parents and grandparents from time immemorial.
A proportion of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities, schools and special causes.
About the author
JOHN FRANCIS CAMPBELL (29 December 1821 – Cannes, 17 February 1885), also known as “Young John of Islay” was a renowned Scottish author and scholar who specialised in Celtic studies. Campbell was known as an authority on Celtic folklore and of the Gaelic peoples in particular. His most well-known published works are the bilingual Popular Tales of the West Highlands (4 vols., 1860–62) and The Celtic Dragon Myth, published posthumously in 1911.
He was a descendent of Daniel Campbell of Shawfield. Educated at Eton and Edinburgh, he became Secretary to the Lighthouse Commission. Campbell also invented the sunshine recorder that bears his name as the Campbell–Stokes recorder. He travelled extensively throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands with his scribes, scrupulously recording West Highland tales, Fenian ballads, songs, charms and anecdotes.
He was proficient in Gaelic, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Lapp, Italian, Spanish and German. In 1874 he embarked on a year-long world tour that took him to America, Japan, China, Java, Ceylon and India. He is buried under a replica of Islay’s treasured Kildalton Cross in a cemetery in Cannes.
