Scottish Folk Tales and Legends. By Barbara Ker Wilson. Illustrated
by Kiddell-Monroc. (O.U.P. 12s. 6d.) IN a year when good fairy tales are scarce, Miss Barbara Ker Wilson's Scottish collection is particularly welcome. The Lowland-Scottish and Border versions of folk talcs such as the.
various sly, funny and homely stories of change- lings, animals who get the better of a pack of robbers, fairy-spinners and Lobs, are always good, and she tells them well. But I missed the come- fable bits of verse so legitimate in prose versions of stories such as 'Thomas the Rhymer' or 'Tam Lin.'
She is very good at the specifically Scottish, such as the legend of a most ronlantie castle, 'The Faery Flag of Dunvegan.'
Taken altogether this is an exceptionally good fairy book. Perhaps parents had best possibly read the more Celtic of the stories to themselves before reading them aloud. A few of these may come under the censure of the little, girl who announced: 'Cruel I like, but sad I won't have.'
AMABEL WILLIAM-ELLIS
Previous page
