Customer Reviews

The Silver Bough: Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk-Belief (Canongate Classic)

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F. Marian McNeill, in the tradition of Alexander Carmichael (Carmina Gadelica) and Anne Ross' The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands, has done an immense service in her writing The Silver Bough Series. These books are currently out of print, unfortunately. If you can find a copy of the first volume you will not be sorry. Little known are the other three volumes which explore a number of very ancient Scottish customs and beliefs, from Selkirk to Orkney to the Isle of Mull to Aberdeen and Fife, which survive to the present day in many cases. In an era of "Celtic" insta-books some of these classical ethnographic sources are deeply refreshing.

This book is excellent for ethnologists and the curious alike! Although it is out of print, it is a book worth finding! Written in 4 volumes, each takes a look at different parts of the Scottish folk beliefs -from witchcraft and second sight, to songs and stories told over time, this book has it all, and in an easy to read-straight forward fashion. Definitely a book for anyone remotely interested in Scotland or non-christian customs!

This work contains a great summary of many elements of Scottish folklore, but there are some areas where McNeil accepts the sources a little too uncritically. For example, I didn't find her discussions of the druids particularly enlightening, and there were several points where I saw a great deal of Germanic material and the author didn't seem interested in sorting Germanic from Celtic.

This being said, I found the discussions of magic, witchcraft, and fairy folk to be of interest and adding considerably to my knowledge in the field of folklore.

On the whole, though, this is a useful resource for understanding uniquely Scottish folklore. I would generally recommend it with the above reservations.