When I was growing up, my grandmother had a book on Scottish folk tales. It was a hardcover, with a whitish cover; illustration on the front cover was of a little old scribe like fellow, seen from the back, with a tam and a candle as he wrote.
Any chance this rings a bell with anyone?
tried Amazon and ABE but didn’t find it.
Look for George MacDonald. I think that might the author.
Piper–give us a date that it must have been published before.
That will winnow things a bit.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I looked through his wiki page and didn’t see it in the list of works. I agree it’s in his neck of the woods, though.
I know I read it before 1976.
The massively prolific old-timey Scottish collector of folk tales was Andrew Lang. Doing a Google image search on his name, etc., throws up endless examples of his book covers. I’d suggest scrolling through those to see whether anything rings a bell.
Was that Claymore and Kilt? With the legend of St Columba and the tale of the Gaberlunzie Man and all? I had that book when I was a kid too.
The author of Claymore and Kilt, (pen name) Sorche Nic Leodhas, wrote a bunch more books of Scottish folktales too (Heather and Broom, Thistle and Thyme, etc.).
Dollars to donuts that this is the author the OP is thinking of.
If any of this hits home, post a link.
Yeah, I looked up how to spell “Gaberlunzie” and everything. I need closure, dammit. :mad:
Of course, maybe none of these suggestions has panned out and the OP’s still patiently waiting for that madeleine moment of recall.
been following the different links, but haven’t found it so far.
i remember that it had a couple of tales about Sir Michael Scot in it; one about how he lost his shadow to the Devil, and another about how he cursed some farmers into dancing for failure to feed him once.
That’s it! Thanks, LC Strawhouse!
How did you find it?
Being an Ontario boy can be helpful, I thought I remembered that book from a primary school library or something. I put a few keywords into google search and there it was.
Thanks very much!
After all this, I added it to my Amazon Wish list.
Hurray! Thanks for the follow-ups.