Story summary
Samenvatting van Tragische romances
- 8 min. leestijd
- 8 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A stranger eats a dead man's sins for two half-crowns, and the sea begins to call Neil Ross by name.
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Tragische romances in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 2 h 50 min2 h 15 min fast, 3 h 25 min slow
- Lengte
- 40.900 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Makkelijk short sentences, plain words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1898by Fiona Macleod
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Tragische romances in short
Seven tales, one shore. In each, a love or a grudge meets a doom that has been spoken aloud long before. A Highland farm, a Hebridean island, a Mull farmhouse, a fishing boat and a Skye loch are the stages.
What Tragische romances is about
Would you ride out through a flooded night to stand beside a dying sister? In the first tale of this book, a young Highland woman does exactly that, and what she does next stays with her cousin for life. Seven tales follow, all set among the Scottish Highlands and islands, and nearly every one ends near the edge of the sea.
Tragic Romances was published under the name Fiona Macleod, the pen name of a writer who died in 1905. The stories draw on Gaelic songs, charms and beliefs of the western coasts. Each tale sets a love, a grudge or a guilt against a doom that nobody can step around. The author calls that doom Destiny. You will hear the tunes, the charms and the tide itself.
Voor wie is het?. You will love this book if you enjoy Celtic folklore, ghost stories and old ballads, if the sea and the islands call to you, or if you like tales of love and fate told in a musical voice.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A Sunday's news breaks a Highland family
The first tale, Morag of the Glen, is told by a cousin who comes to live at Teenabrae, the Campbell sheep farm in Strathglas, after her own mother dies. She loves Morag, the fair second daughter, more than anyone in the house. The elder daughter, Muireall, is dark and wild. Their father, Archibald Campbell, is a gaunt, stern man, and his wife Elspeth lives in fear of him.
On a Sunday afternoon, the minister walks over the bog with news he hardly dares to say. Muireall met Jasper Morgan, the son of the new English landlord, in London. Now she is with child and has taken poison at the inn in Kilbrennan. She is dying. Her father answers with curses, will not go to her, and then falls in a stroke. A pencil note in Gaelic comes for Morag.
That night the house waits in the dark. Elspeth tries an ancient charm of three threads. The blind collie snarls at an empty place and at the door, and Elspeth says Muireall is already in the room. Gorromalt, who scorns charms, begins to shake. Out of the rain, a horse comes galloping.
Grief and pride in one house can call down a doom that waits just outside the door.
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A girl swears an oath against the seal-song
The Dan-nan-Ron is set on Eilanmore, a lonely island, where old Robert Achanna has died.
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A stranger sells his own peace for silver
The Sin-Eater begins in a wet wind over the Ross of Mull.
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The sea calls fishermen by a name they dread
The Ninth Wave and The Judgment of God share a frame.
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A swimmer hides beneath green branches
Green Branches follows Sheumais, the youngest survivor of the family from The Dan-nan-Ron.
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Two men and one woman share a still night
The Archer is told by Coll McColl, a Barra man and a poet whom his neighbors call mad.
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Destiny rules these tales more than any person
The epigraph names Destiny as the main character of the Celtic drama.
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A voice of songs, charms and Gaelic names
The book is told in many voices.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Morag Campbell The fair, fey second daughter of Gorromalt, loved by her cousin, who is torn between grief for her sister and her own heart.
- Mànus MacCodrum A sweet-voiced fisherman of North Uist, said to come of the seal people, who sails west with the bride he loves.
- Anne Gillespie A brave Eilanmore girl who swears on her uncle's dirk that she will marry the man she loves despite her cousins.
- Gloom Achanna The clever, cold son of old Achanna, who plays a flute that frightens others and wants a woman who loves someone else.
- Neil Ross A penniless wanderer who returns to Iona full of hatred and agrees to eat a dead man's sins for silver.
- Sheen Macarthur An old, lonely woman who gives food and a bed to a stranger and finds a way to earn him some coins.
- Katreen Macarthur A dark-eyed Skye girl who loves James Achanna and refuses to marry her cousin Ian, whatever her father has promised.
- Silis A fisherman's wife loved by two men who must choose, with both of them standing before her.
How it ends (spoiler)
Morag sends Jasper Morgan into the flooded ford, and the water takes him. Mànus, driven mad by the flute, runs into the sea and is torn apart by seals. Neil Ross, believing he is Judas, is last seen lashed to a spar, drifting out to sea. Ivor Carminish hears the ninth wave at Callernish and is found dead. Murdoch of Bac-Mòr vanishes with his seal. The dead Sheumais appears to Gloom and drives him off. Silis stays with Sheumas, and Isla dies of grief.
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Vragen over Tragische romances
What is Tragic Romances about?
It is a set of seven tales from the Scottish Highlands and islands. Each joins a love, a feud or a guilt to fate, and most take place beside the sea, with ghosts, charms and songs close at hand.
What is a sin-eater in The Sin-Eater?
A sin-eater is a stranger paid to eat bread and salt laid on a corpse, so that the dead person's sins pass to him. In the tale, Neil Ross takes the part for two half-crowns.
What is the Dan-nan-Ron?
It is the Song of the Seal, a cold flute tune played by Gloom Achanna. It recalls the belief that the MacCodrums of Uist descend from seals, and it works as a threat in the tale.
Is Tragic Romances based on real folklore?
The tales draw on Gaelic songs, charms and beliefs of the western isles, such as the sin-eater custom, seal-folk and corpse-lights. The stories themselves are the author's own fiction, written in a lyrical, storytelling voice.
What is the main message of the tales?
They show people bound by destiny, love and guilt, who try to escape and cannot. They also suggest that belief, song and the sea shape a life as much as any choice.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Macleod, Fiona. Tragic Romances. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/tragic-romances.
Macleod, F. (2026). Tragic romances. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tragic-romances (Original work published 1898)
Macleod, Fiona. Tragic Romances. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tragic-romances.
@book{macleod2026tragic,
author = {Macleod, Fiona},
title = {Tragic Romances},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tragic-romances},
note = {First published 1898}
}
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