Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di Folclore dei loch e delle fonti scozzesi
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Folclore dei loch e delle fonti scozzesi, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Go deeper: the whole of Folclore dei loch e delle fonti scozzesi
About 5 h 40 min to read.Inizia {{ days }} giorni gratisA chi è rivolto
You will love this book if you enjoy legends of saints and water spirits, old Highland customs, travellers' tales, and finding a pagan past hidden in place-names and holy days.
Che cos’è questo libro
Picture a mother at St Anthony's Well near Edinburgh at sunset. Two old women dip cups in the pool and drink, then wrap a wet linen bandage around a pale child's head while the mother weeps quietly. A visitor saw exactly this about ten years before James M. Mackinlay finished Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs.
Mackinlay wrote in Glasgow and dated his preface December 1893. Finding no full account of Scottish well worship, he drew on travellers, church records and scholars to supply one. His claim is that beneath the saints' names lies a far older belief that water is alive. You will meet sea gods, kelpies, strange cures and wishing wells.
In questo riassunto
- 1Early Scots treated water as a living powerFree
- 2Rivers and lochs demanded respect and offerings
- 3Christian saints took over the pagan wells
- 4Saints' lives left a well in nearly every district
- 5Wells were trusted to heal body and mind
- 6Some cures at sacred pools were harsh
- 7Wells foretold the future and judged the guilty
- 8Kelpies, water-horses and mermaids guarded the waters
- 9Gifts left at wells carried sickness away
- 10The calendar and the sun explain when wells mattered
Punto chiave 1 di 10
Early Scots treated water as a living power
Mackinlay begins with a simple claim. Our ancestors did not separate the natural from the supernatural, so for them water was alive. Its powers could help or harm, and they had to be kept friendly.
The clearest case comes from Martin, who visited the Western Isles near the end of the seventeenth century. On Lewis, each Hallowtide, one man waded into the sea up to his waist and threw a cup of ale to a sea god called Shony, asking for seaweed to enrich the land. In Shetland, the Sea-trows rose as seals and slipped off their skins on the beach. A man who stole a skin could keep a sea wife, but she would go home the moment she found it.
Even the belief that saving a drowning man brings harm to the rescuer fits. The rescuer snatches a victim from the water spirit.
Early Scots treated water as a being to be fed and feared, and many customs still carry that belief.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Go deeper: the whole of Folclore dei loch e delle fonti scozzesi
About 5 h 40 min to read.Inizia {{ days }} giorni gratisPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
Questions about Folclore dei loch e delle fonti scozzesi
What is Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs about?
It gathers the beliefs and customs attached to Scottish wells, lochs, rivers and the sea, from saints' springs and healing pools to water spirits, offerings, pilgrimages and wishing wells, and links them to older nature worship.
What is a kelpie in Scottish folklore?
A kelpie is a water spirit, often shaped like a horse, that waits by a ford or loch. It lures travellers onto its back and plunges into deep water. The book gives several tales of how people outwitted one.
Why were rags and pins left at holy wells?
Mackinlay explains them as gifts to the spirit of the well and as a way of leaving a disease behind. Taking an offering away was thought to bring the sickness to the person who took it.
Is the book based on real sources?
Yes, it is a study written in 1893. It draws on travellers such as Martin and Pennant, church session records, antiquarian papers and scholars of folklore, and it quotes their accounts directly.
What is the main message of the book?
Mackinlay argues that well worship is a survival of ancient nature and sun worship. Christian saints took over the old springs, and customs that look odd today are traces of older belief.
Cite this edition
Mackinlay, James M. Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs.
Mackinlay, J. M. (2026). Folklore of Scottish lochs and springs. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs (Original work published 1893)
Mackinlay, James M. Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs.
@book{mackinlay2026folklore,
author = {Mackinlay, James M.},
title = {Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs},
note = {First published 1893}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Folclore dei loch e delle fonti scozzesi, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
