Author: Clark McGinn Publisher: Luath Press Ltd ISBN: 1909912344 Category : Humor Languages : en Pages : 265
Book Description
What makes the Ultimate Scot? Is it the ability to identify a tartan pattern from 50 yards? Maybe it's being able to recite the two forgotten verses of Auld Lang Syne? Or perhaps it's knowing your single malt from a double malt? The Ultimate Guide to Being Scottish examines in hilarious detail the history, politics and traditions that make Scots great. Exploring the best of scottish culture, this book focuses on the celebrations that Scots have made their own, from Hogmanay to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Mixing fact and practical hints (like the ideal recipe for boiled sheep's head) with witty banter, The Ultimate Guide to Being Scottish is perfect for injecting Scotland's unique and beloved brand of merriment into life.
Author: Ernest Marwick Publisher: Birlinn Ltd ISBN: 1788852729 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 170
Book Description
The two island groups of Orkney and Shetland have much in common. In each the grey stone houses and treeless landscapes are scoured in winter by stinging gales, and in summer lie under the endless days of the 'simmer din'. Originally Norwegian, they have been part of Scotland for five hundred years, but their many and varied legends, folk tales and customs are still saturated with Norse influences. While this book tells tales and discusses beliefs that are known throughout the northern isles, it also outlines those elements which are unique to each island group. The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland is the standard account of what to this day is one of the richest repositories of lore and custom in Britain. Ernest Marwick not only recounts countless tales which have been transmitted aurally and by writing, but also places these tales within geographical and historical contexts, thus enabling a deeper appreciation of this wonderful material. A bibliography is also included, together with an index of tale types and motifs.
Author: Bruce Sandison Publisher: Black & White Publishing ISBN: 1845025709 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 254
Book Description
Sandison's Scotland is a wonderful collection of stories and tales about some of the country's most wild and evocative places. From dark Loch Ness to the turbulent waters of the Pentland Firth, join Bruce on the path less travelled as he goes behind the scenes of Shetland's Up Helly Aa festival and the raucous Kirkwall Ba' Game, played for generations by the people of Orkney. There are also stops in remote townships - Helmsdale in the east, distant Glenelg in the west - visiting the crofts and castles that make Scotland so special. Throughout these exceptional tales, Bruce Sandison's love for his native land shines through as he brings the people, culture and history of Scotland to life. Sandison's Scotland is full of hidden gems and is a book for all times and all seasons. It will captivate, amuse and delight anyone with a love for Scotland.
Author: James Chambers Publisher: Infobase Holdings, Inc ISBN: 0780813650 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 2004
Book Description
A guide to the legend and lore behind the traditions, rituals, foods, games, animals, and other symbols and activities associated with holidays and holy days, feasts and fasts, and other celebrations.
Author: Callum G. Brown Publisher: Manchester University Press ISBN: 9781901341072 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 244
Book Description
Up-Helly-Aa is Europe's largest and most spectacular winter fire festival. In the biting Arctic wind on the last Tuesday of every January, a Guizer Jarl leads one thousand men in guising costumes with flaming torches through the streets of Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Isles, accompanying a Viking galley to its ceremonial burning.
Author: F. Marian McNeill Publisher: eBook Partnership ISBN: 0948474203 Category : Festivals Languages : en Pages : 403
Book Description
The Silver Bough is an indispensable treasury of Scottish culture, universally acknowledged as a classic of literature. The author, F Marian McNeill, succeeded in capturing and bringing to life many traditions and customs of old before they died out or were influenced by the modern era. The Silver Branch of the sacred apple tree, laden with crystal blossoms of golden fruit, is in Celtic mythology the equivalent of the Golden Bough of classical mythology - the symbolic bond between the world we know and the Otherworld.In the first volume of the Silver Bough, the author deals generally with Scottish folk-lore and folk belief, with chapters on ethnic origins, the Druids, the Celtic gods, the slow transition to Christianity, magic, the fairy faith, second sight, selkies, changelings and the witch cult. In volumes two and three she explored in some depth the foundations of many of these beliefs and rituals through the Calendar of Scottish national festivals, in which we find enshrined many of the fascinating folk customs of our ancestors. This fourth volume turns our attention to the Local Festivals of Scotland. As man makes greater and greater advances in the understanding and control of his physical environment, the river between the known and the unknown gradually changes its course, and the subjects of the simpler beliefs of former times become part of the new territory of knowledge. The Silver Bough maps out the old course of the waterway that in Celtic belief winds between here and beyond, and reveals the very roots of the Scottish people's distinctive customs and way of life. The Silver Bough is a large and important work which involved many years of research into both living and recorded lore. Its genesis lies, perhaps, in the author's subconscious need to reconcile the old primitive world she had glimpsed in childhood with the sophisticated modern world she later entered. "e;I do not believe that you can exaggerate the importance of the preservation of old ways and customs, and all those little things which bind a man to his native place. Today we live in difficult times. The steam-roller of progress is flattening out many of our old institutions, and there is a danger of a general decline in idiom and distinctive quality in our Scottish life. The only way to counteract this peril is to preserve jealously all these elder things which are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. For, remember, no man can face the future with courage and confidence unless it is solidly founded upon the past. And conversely, no problem will be too hard, no situation too strange, if we can link it with what we know and love"e; F Marian McNeill
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 170
Book Description
LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.
Author: Tom Weir Publisher: Steve Savage Publishers Ltd ISBN: 1904246826 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
From the Solway Firth in the south to Shetland in the north, from remote St Kilda to the west to St Abbs in the east, Tom Weir explores Scotland as a walker and climber, and along the way introduces his readers to the range of wildlife and people living in the countryside, and historical aspects of various places. To his vivid descriptive writing he adds memories of some absent friends, and also retraces the path of Bonnie Prince Charlie on the run after Culloden. Tom Weir became a household name in Scotland as a result of the television series in which he explored his native country, but the book 'Weir's Way' is, to quote the author, 'not about every "e;Weir's Way"e; programme ... it is a broader vision of Scotland using the medium of written words'.
Author: Alan Garner
Author: Clark McGinn
Author: Ernest Marwick
Author: Bruce Sandison
Author: James Chambers
Author: Callum G. Brown
Author: F. Marian McNeill
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Author: Tom Weir