Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan

'Now chap off my head, my hinnie, my heart, Now chap off my head, my ain true love'

A nation rich with superstitions and storytellers, Scotland has a grand tradition of folk and fairy tales, and this collection provides an insight into the curses, blessings and creatures - both widely recognisable and peculiarly Scottish - that populate it. It includes the great Scottish writers and collectors of fables, from Robert Burns' supernatural masterpiece 'Tam o' Shanter' in which a man interrupts a midnight dance of witches; Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Through the Veil', a glimpse across lives previously lived; and the classic Victorian fairy tale 'The Gold of Fairnilee' in which fairies are both an excuse for cowardice and a real, sometimes sinister presence; as well as tales by John Buchan, Robert Louis Stevenson and James Hogg, among others.

This volume includes an introduction on the history of folk tales in Scotland and the superstitions surrounding them, and notes on the authors.