Scottish Fairies

For the past week, I've been working on the 1000-word paper due for my Witchcraft in Scotland class. She gave us a couple of questions to chose from, and I went with one about, "To what extent can Scottish fairies be considered evil." It was actually really interesting, because fairy belief was a very long-standing bit of folklore for Scots, but after the Reformation it got linked with demons and witches. It pops up a lot in witch trial confessions. I think it's also a way to tie in the role of Scottish folklore to the the history of the witch phenomenon by understanding how and why such a previously unquestioned belief was suddenly changed and even attacked by some. I think this could correlate with the fact that the Christian religion seemed to people to be something equally as unquestioned a belief, only to fall from grace to the attacks of Luther, Calvin, Knox and other Protestants. So working on the paper was actually pretty helpful-- even though it's really hard to convince yourself to work on a paper when Scotland is just outside...

On Friday, we took our class excursion. We went to Aberfoyle, which is were Rev. Robert Kirk lived and preached for his adult life, and also where he is said to have had encounters with the fairies. He's the one that went seeking answers about the fairies, and published "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies" in the late 1600s. Obviously, it's incredibly rare that a Protestant minister would also not only believe in the fairies, but attempt to share their world with other Scots. In the essay, he pretty much just tries to lay out the 'facts' about fairies and their realm in a very scientific way, explaining their bodily make-up, the hierarchical society, their weapons, their lifespans, etc. So in Aberfoyle, we saw Robert Kirk's grave, and we walked up Doon Hill (aka, the Fairy Hill), where he supposedly walked up every morning and communed with the fairies. The legend is that one morning during his walk he collapsed/vanished, and his soul was taken by the fairies (as is a common fairy behavior). Apparently when his grave was unearthed a long time ago his body was gone, therefore meaning he is still trapped within the fairy realm. The walk up Doon Hill was really cool. It's covered in green forests, ideal for fairy life I guess. At the top is a clearing, which is supposed to be where he came in contact with the fairies, and people have lefts "clooties" all over the trees in the clearings. Clooties are cloth or ribbon that have been tied to trees as an offer to the fairies, and usually have the person's wish written on them.

Clooties

Kirk's grave

Minister's tree

Maggie Wall's Monument

After that, we drove along to where there is a stone monument just next to the road. It's inscribed with the words, "Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch." My professor said that nobody is sure who originally built the monument, or even who currently maintains it (every so often the words are painted over to keep them from wearing off). She also said that nobody has yet found any records of a witch named Maggie Wall from that area, so she thinks that either the records are waiting to be found, or else that the monument is meant for witches in general under a fictional name. Either way, it's pretty cool, and it's also interesting that 1657 is just before the really intense witch panics occurred in Scotland following the Restoration.