Aberdeenshire Folk Tales

Folk Tales

by Grace Banks, Sheena Blackhall

The folklore of the north-east has provided a rich tapestry for the tales within; from Celtic and Pictish origins meet witches, selkies, smugglers, fairies, monsters, despicable rogues, riddles and heroes. Tragic events, spellbinding characters, humour, romance and clever minds are bound together by two well-established storytellers living and working in the city and shire of Aberdeen. Some of the tales in this collection are based on historical fact while others are embedded in myth and legend. All the stories are set against the backdrop of this lovely and varied landscape; the silver city and surrounding farm lands, the forested and mountainous terrain through which the River Dee flows, the rolling, gentler land surrounding the meandering River Don and the beautiful but sometimes forbidding Aberdeenshire coastline.Sheena and Grace have both been inspired in their storytelling and singing by the traveller, raconteur and balladeer, Stanley Robertson.

Genres: Folklore, Scotland

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2013

About the author

Grace Banks is a storyteller, singer, and clarsach player. She researches local history mainly and currently works for Reading Bus. She was a guest at the International Story Festival, Scotland 2012 and in previous years.

Reviews

[Ian]

One of the best in the Folk Tales of the United Kingdom series. Many of these stories were passed down by the late, great storyteller Stanley Robertson, to whom the book is dedicated. Standout tales are the eerie, disturbing "Tattiebogle", the mystical "Auld Creuvie", and the "The Seely Cap."

[Teresa]

A mixed bag. Some of the tales are perfunctory, others lack context. A book to dip in & out of.

[michelle lindsay]

Some interesting folk tales in this book and gave me a good insight into the mythological history of Aberdeen (where I'm from) and the shire.

[Nick]

This was a fairly good compilation of folktales, folksongs, and riddles from the Abderdeenshire region. The book largely focusses on the tales of Stanley Robertson, a well-known Northeastern bard. While the writing was generally entertaining and comes from an authentic source, I was a bit let down as the book didn't delve as deeply as I'd liked into the authentic folktales themselves. Some stories were also a lot more entertaining than others.

Pros:
- Varied collection of folktales from an authentic source, working from the tales of Stanley Robertson
- Genuinely unique and terrifying stories. My favorites were "Legend of the Maidenstone", "The Strange Coachman", "Tattiebogie", "The Key Pool", "Auld Creuvie", "Power from Beyond the Grave", and "Wee Wee Aipplies an’ Wee Orangies"

Cons:
- Some of the stories were incredibly boring. Many could have also used more historical context to make sense of the time periods and the actual sources for the stories themselves
- I sometimes got the impression that some of the stories were Stanley Robertson's inventions or his inventive takes on more traditional tales. This is fine, but I was ideally looking for older tales and how they would have been authentically told in centuries past.
- As someone who doesn't speak Scots, many of the Scots passages would have been more accessible if they were translated.
- Some stories were general Scottish tales (such as the Kelpie and Selkie stories) that were repackaged with Aberdeenshire "flavour". There was even a repackaged Yugoslavian story, which is not what I was looking for. I would have preferred more stories that were more specific to the region