Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend

Beira, Queen of Winter

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Revolving around deities and the acceptance of certain characters like the strong headed Beira or the Winter Queen, or The Powers that were responsible for change in seasons, Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend provides a fascinating account of folklore through a gripping narrative. The author starts with the Beira and moves on to other important deities, locations and forces that were central to Scottish legends.

Replete with illustrations and an enchanting mix of prose with poetry, Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend is bound to captivate the reader with its magical tales. As Mackenzie points out, unlike Greek or other cultures, the gods and goddesses of Scottish tradition have not been sculpted or preserved for posterity through other forms of art.

It is only literature as seen in this work that keeps the legends alive and helps in recounting the many anecdotes and incidents of the past. Of all the sections in the book, the author brings out the role of Beira as the Winter Queen the best. He is able to move the reader with an acute sense of immense power and fear while describing her in all her glory. Written in sanguine language, this book is perfect for the casual enthusiast looking for a starting point on Scottish history and legend while it is bound to bring a smile to the faces of those who have had the privilege of already knowing some of the stories found within this volume.

In other stories we find female water Spirits who wait at fords, threatening travellers with disaster. They also could be thwarted by those who had the necessary knowledge which made it possible for them to secure protection. Registered in England and Wales.

Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend

Terms of Use Privacy Policy. On a calm morning they might sail past its shores and yet never know it was near at hand, for oft-times it lay hidden in a twinkling mist. Men have caught glimpses of it from the shore, but while they gazed on its beauties with eyes of wonder, it vanished suddenly from sight by sinking beneath the waves like the setting sun.

Beira, however, always knew where to find Green Island when the time came for her to visit it. The waters of the Well of Youth are most potent when the days begin to grow longer, and most potent of all on the first of the lengthening days of spring. Beira always visited the island on the night before the first lengthening day--that is, on the last night of her reign as Queen of Winter.

All alone in the darkness she sat beside the Well of Youth, waiting for the dawn. When the first faint beam of light appeared in the. It was necessary that she should drink of this magic water before any bird visited the well and before any dog barked. If a bird drank first, or a dog barked ere she began to drink, dark old Beira would crumble into dust. As soon as Beira tasted the magic water, in silence and alone, she began to grow young again. She left the island and, returning to Scotland, fell into a magic sleep.

When, at length, she awoke, in bright sunshine, she rose up as a beautiful girl with long hair yellow as buds of broom, cheeks red as rowan berries, and blue eyes that sparkled like the summer sea in sunshine. Then she went to and fro through Scotland, clad in a robe of green and crowned with a chaplet of bright flowers of many hues. No fairer goddess was to be found in all the land, save Bride, the peerless Queen of Summer.

As each month went past, however, Beira aged quickly. She reached full womanhood in midsummer, and when autumn came on her brows wrinkled and her beauty began to fade. When the season of winter returned once again, she became an old and withered hag, and began to reign as the fierce Queen Beira.

Editorial Reviews

From a drawing by John Duncan, A. The aged Beira was fearsome to look upon. She had only one eye, but the sight of it was keen and sharp as ice and as swift as the mackerel of the ocean. Her complexion was a dull, dark blue, and this is how she sang about it: Why is my face so dark, so dark?

Her teeth were red as rust, and her locks, which lay heavily on her shoulders, were white as an aspen covered with hoar frost. On her head she wore a spotted mutch. It is told that in the days when the world was young Beira saw land where there is now water and water where there is now land.

But I shall tell you what I have seen. Yonder is the seal-haunted rock of Skerryvore in the midst of the sea. I remember when it was a mountain surrounded by fields. I saw the fields ploughed, and the barley that grew upon them was sharp and juicy.

Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie

Yonder is a loch. I remember when it was a small round well. In these days I was a fair young girl, and now I am very old and frail and dark and miserable. It is told also that Beira let loose many rivers and formed many lochs, sometimes willingly and sometimes against her will, and that she also shaped many bens and glens. All the hills in Ross-shire are said to have been made by Beira. There was once a well on Ben Cruachan, in Argyll, from which Beira drew water daily. Each morning at sunrise she lifted off the slab that covered it, and each evening at sunset she laid it above the well again.

It happened that one evening she forgot to cover the well.

As soon as the sun went down the water rose in great volume and streamed down the mountain side, roaring like a tempest-swollen sea. When day dawned, Beira found that the valley beneath was filled with water. It was in this way that Loch Awe came to be. Beira had another well in Inverness-shire which had to be kept covered in like manner from sunset till sunrise.

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One of her maids, whose name was Nessa, had charge of the well. It happened that one evening the maid was late in going to the well to cover it. When she drew near she beheld the water flowing so fast from it that she turned away and.

Beira watched her from the top of Ben Nevis, which was her mountain throne, and cried: Now you will run for ever and never leave water. The maiden was at once changed into a river, and the loch and the river which runs from it towards the sea were named after her. That is why the loch is called Loch Ness and the river the river Ness. Once a year, when the night on which she was transformed comes round, Ness Nessa arises out of the river in her girl form, and sings a sad sweet song in the pale moonlight.

It is said that her voice is clearer and more beautiful than that of. In the days when rivers broke loose and lochs were made, Beira set herself to build the mountains of Scotland. When at work she carried on her back a great creel filled with rocks and earth.

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