Stories from South Uist

By Angus MacLellan

Book Overview

This is an extraordinary collection of tales from one of the very greatest Gaelic storytellers, Angus MacLellan, and translated by one of Scotland's finest Celtic Scholars, John Lorne Campbell. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1874744262
• ISBN13: 9781874744269
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Hebridean Homer

Imagine sitting back, and listening to a storyteller telling tales from the days of yore, one after another, until a mesmerising rhythm sets in and holds you spellbound. MacLellan is a storyteller of consummate ability and the tales he tells are almost flawless in their pitch. Most were recorded in South Uist, transcribed, then ably translated from the Gaelic by the Scot historian John Lorne Campbell. The best, without a doubt, is `The Three Questions and the Three Burdens', a clever tale with a sharp twist at the end, telling how a crofter's daughter first married, then outwitted her Laird--who never again crossed her. Others there are too, none dull--tales of ghosts, Scot legends, local fare, straight from the lips of master. The oral tradition has almost vanished: a few pockets remain in Eastern Europe, but readings are very few these days. The stories are best read to friends, over tumblers of whisky, next to a peat fire, in the dead of winter.