A Scottish Fairy Primer

The people of Scotland are a proud people with a rich mythical heritage. It has always been so. In the early days, each and every life was based on a belief in mystical powers--powers of good and evil. A name was given to every hill. Every loch had its particular guardian spirit. Their wells, streams, lakes and rivers were the homes of gods and goddesses.

In some of the more remote areas of the Highlands, such as the isles of the Hebrides, one can still find bards who are happy to tell the tales of heroes and their adventures, of white and dark witches and of the feared bean-sidhe, more popularly known as banshees, who are harbingers of death.

Geographical isolation protected from loss much of the body of Scottish oral and written tales. Because of this, the world has been blessed with a rich store of Scottish folklore. Thanks to John Francis Campbell who saw the need for gathering these materials and carrying them out of the Highlands, Scots who had lost touch with their cultural beliefs such as fairy eggs and corn dollies were able to embrace an interest in their rich traditions.

Highlanders are superstitious folk. Their lives have always been ruled to a certain extent by superstitions, good and bad omens, seers, a large body of tradition and, of course, belief in fairies.

Without doubt, the most fascinating of their lore contains fairy beings followed by black dogs, agressive goats and dangerous bulls. Regarding the fairies, they abhore being given the name fairy. They prefer to be called Fair Folk or Good Neighbors. In the Highlands, the Sith, Sidhe, or Good Folk are names of preference.

Actually, the word fairy, and its variant spellings, is a fairly modern name given to these beings and it was not used prior to the Middle Ages. Faerie originally meant a state of enchantment. Over time it came to be used to describe the creatures who caused the enchantment.

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