Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs

Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs

No work giving a comprehensive account of Well-worship in Scotland has yet appeared. Mr. R. C. Hopes recent volume, Holy Wells: Their Legends and Traditions, discusses the subject in its relation to England. In the following pages an attempt has been made to illustrate the more outstanding facts associated with the cult north of the Tweed. Various holy wells are referred to by name; but the list makes no claim to be exhaustive. Britannia; or, A Chorographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Islands adjacent, from the Earliest Antiquity. By William Camden. Translated from the edition published by the Author in MDCVII. Enlarged by the latest discoveries by Richard Gough. The second edition in four volumes. 1806. Archaic Nature-worshipDeification of Water MetaphorsDivination by WaterPersistence of PaganismShonySuperstitions of Sailors and FishermenSea SerpentMer-folkSea CharmsTaking Animals into the SeaRescuing from DrowningAncient Beliefs about RiversDead and Living FordClay ImageDunskeyLakesDow LochSt. VigeansSt. Tredwells LochWells of Spey and DrachaldySurvival of Well-worshipDisappearance of SpringsSt. Margarets WellAnthropomorphism of SpringsCeltic InfluenceCream of the Well. In glancing at the superstitions connected with Scottish lochs and springs, we are called upon to scan a chapter of our social history not yet closed. A somewhat scanty amount of information is available to explain the origin and growth of such superstitions, but enough can be had to connect them with archaic nature-worship. In the dark dawn of our annals [2]much confusion existed among our ancestors concerning the outer world, which so strongly appealed to their senses. They had very vague notions regarding the difference between what we now call the Natural and the Supernatural. Indeed all nature was to them supernatural. They looked on sun, moon, and star, on mountain and forest, on river, lake, and sea as the abodes of divinities, or even as divinities themselves. These divinities, they thought, could either help or hurt man, and ought therefore to be propitiated. Hence sprang certain customs which have survived to our own time. Men knocked at the gate of Nature, but were not admitted within. From the unknown recesses there came to them only tones of mystery. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 56034
Author: Mackinlay, James M. (James Murray)
Release Date: Nov 22, 2017
Format: eBook
Language: English