Scottish Myths, Legends & Tales
Changelings - a changeling is a fairy child that has been left in place of a human child that the faeries have taken. Changelings cry a lot and don't thrive or grow. If a changeling is left outside on a fairy hill overnight the faeries will take it back and leave the human child in its place (Outlander, chapter 24)
Dame Aliset - a Scottish white witch. Jamie tells Lord Lovat that Claire is a white lady like Dame Aliset and any man who takes her in an unholy embrace will have his privates blasted like a frostbitten apple and his soul will burn in hell forever (DIA, chapter 40)
Fionn and the Feinn - Mrs Baird mentions the days of the giants, Fionn and the Feinn (Outlander, chapter 1)
Leap O' the Cask - Brianna finds this legend which tells the story of the Dunbonnet, a Highland laird who hid in a cave for seven years after escaping Culloden. The legend gets its name because a small boy delivering a cask to the Dunbonnet was stopped by soldiers. Refusing to give up his cask, he dropped it and it bounded down the hill into the burn below (V, chapter 3)
Loch Ness and its Monster - Claire and Frank are told some of the stories about Loch Ness and its monster while on their boat trip on Loch Ness (Outlander, chapter 2)
Mary Grant and her lover Donald Donn - Claire and Frank are told the legend of Mary Grant, daughter of the laird of Urguhart Castle and her lover Donald Donn, while on their boat trip on Loch Ness (Outlander, chapter 2)
Plovers and the souls of young mothers - Jamie tells Claire the tale that plovers have the souls of young mothers who die in childbirth (Outlander, chapter 17)
Silkies - mythological creatures said to live as seals in the sea but to become humans on land. Brian Fraser was said to have hair like a silkie (Outlander, chapter 24) sometimes a silkie comes ashore and casts off its skin revealing a beautiful woman inside. If a man hides the skin the silkie will not be able to return to the sea and will be forced to stay with the man as his wife (V, chapter 9)
St Bride and the Geese - Jamie tells his nephews and nieces the story of St Bride and the geese (V, chapter 38)
The Sprightly Tailor - Roger tells Claire that after listening to his father's stories on Hallowe'en as a child, he could never sleep as he used to think he could hear ghosts talking outside his window, saying "See'st thou this great gray head, with jaws which have no meat" (V, chapter 22) This is from a Celtic fairytale which tells the story of a tailor who is hired by the MacDonald of Castle Saddell to make him a pair of trews. The MacDonald tells the tailor that if he will sew the trews at night in the church he will be rewarded handsomely, as the church is haunted by fearsome things. The tailor takes up the challenge and bravely continues sewing when the ghost appears, managing to finish the trousers and escape back to the castle before the ghost can eat him
Waterhorse of Loch Garve - Rupert tells this story about a waterhorse who forces a builder to build a hearth and chimney for his human wife to keep her warm which is why that end of Loch Garve never freezes (Outlander, chapter 18)
Wee Folk - Another name for faeries. Gwyllyn the bard tells the story of the Wee Folk who tried to steal Ewan MacDonald's wife to be a wetnurse to their own fairy children (Outlander, chapter 8)
Wife of the Laird of Balnain - Gwyllyn the bard tells the story of the wife of the Laird of Balnain who returned through rocks on a fairy hill (Outlander, chapter 8)
Dame Aliset - a Scottish white witch. Jamie tells Lord Lovat that Claire is a white lady like Dame Aliset and any man who takes her in an unholy embrace will have his privates blasted like a frostbitten apple and his soul will burn in hell forever (DIA, chapter 40)
Fionn and the Feinn - Mrs Baird mentions the days of the giants, Fionn and the Feinn (Outlander, chapter 1)
Leap O' the Cask - Brianna finds this legend which tells the story of the Dunbonnet, a Highland laird who hid in a cave for seven years after escaping Culloden. The legend gets its name because a small boy delivering a cask to the Dunbonnet was stopped by soldiers. Refusing to give up his cask, he dropped it and it bounded down the hill into the burn below (V, chapter 3)
Loch Ness and its Monster - Claire and Frank are told some of the stories about Loch Ness and its monster while on their boat trip on Loch Ness (Outlander, chapter 2)
Mary Grant and her lover Donald Donn - Claire and Frank are told the legend of Mary Grant, daughter of the laird of Urguhart Castle and her lover Donald Donn, while on their boat trip on Loch Ness (Outlander, chapter 2)
Plovers and the souls of young mothers - Jamie tells Claire the tale that plovers have the souls of young mothers who die in childbirth (Outlander, chapter 17)
Silkies - mythological creatures said to live as seals in the sea but to become humans on land. Brian Fraser was said to have hair like a silkie (Outlander, chapter 24) sometimes a silkie comes ashore and casts off its skin revealing a beautiful woman inside. If a man hides the skin the silkie will not be able to return to the sea and will be forced to stay with the man as his wife (V, chapter 9)
St Bride and the Geese - Jamie tells his nephews and nieces the story of St Bride and the geese (V, chapter 38)
The Sprightly Tailor - Roger tells Claire that after listening to his father's stories on Hallowe'en as a child, he could never sleep as he used to think he could hear ghosts talking outside his window, saying "See'st thou this great gray head, with jaws which have no meat" (V, chapter 22) This is from a Celtic fairytale which tells the story of a tailor who is hired by the MacDonald of Castle Saddell to make him a pair of trews. The MacDonald tells the tailor that if he will sew the trews at night in the church he will be rewarded handsomely, as the church is haunted by fearsome things. The tailor takes up the challenge and bravely continues sewing when the ghost appears, managing to finish the trousers and escape back to the castle before the ghost can eat him
Waterhorse of Loch Garve - Rupert tells this story about a waterhorse who forces a builder to build a hearth and chimney for his human wife to keep her warm which is why that end of Loch Garve never freezes (Outlander, chapter 18)
Wee Folk - Another name for faeries. Gwyllyn the bard tells the story of the Wee Folk who tried to steal Ewan MacDonald's wife to be a wetnurse to their own fairy children (Outlander, chapter 8)
Wife of the Laird of Balnain - Gwyllyn the bard tells the story of the wife of the Laird of Balnain who returned through rocks on a fairy hill (Outlander, chapter 8)