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Sgeulachd mu dheidhinn fear a phàigh cuideam nighean rìgh an...

Date June 1957
Track ID 34141
Part 1
Part 2

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1957.43.B4+44.A1

Original Tape ID

SA1957.043

Summary

How a man got a princess by paying her weight in gold, how they were separated, and how they got back together.

A king had three daughters. He said one daughter could be had plus her weight in gold, another could be had for nothing and the other one could be had by paying her weight in gold. Nobody could afford that.

A widow's son said he would have her, but he was three sovereigns short of her weight in gold. He borrowed three sovereigns from a swineherd, added a shirt to the gold similar to the one she was wearing, and the scales balanced. The swineherd said he would take three strips of skin from his back unless he was reimbursed by a certain day. He didn't pay up and the swineherd came to take his skin, but his wife said he would be killed if he spilled a drop of his blood and so he couldn't carry out his threat.

One day a sea captain came to visit and invited them aboard his ship. When the man looked out they were in the middle of the ocean. The captain wanted to take his wife, but she refused to go with him and she was put in a box with a year's provisions and thrown into the sea. Her husband was put off the ship somewhere. She reached land and a shepherd pulled her box ashore. He gave her some of his clothes and cut off her hair at her request and now she was a boy. She worked with the shepherd for a time and then became a coachman at an inn.

The innkeeper's wife took a fancy to this pretty boy, but he wouldn't go with her. She told the innkeeper the boy had taken liberties with her and he was to be imprisoned. She proved she was a woman and the innkeeper took a fancy to her and wanted to get rid of his wife. He threw her in boiling tar.

The coachman was now with the innkeeper and didn't know how to escape. One day a beggar came and she recognised him as her husband. She asked the beggar if he could ride and they rode off on the estate's two best horses and never returned. Their pursuers used every horse in the stable, but couldn't catch them. They rode day and night until they reached their own place. The man said it was his estate and she asked how he had lost it. He told what the sea captain had done to him and his wife and she revealed her identity. He bought an old horse and killed it.

The king was going to punish him because he hadn't seen his daughter since he had taken her away, but he agreed that she belonged to him because he had paid for her, just as the horse he had killed belonged to him. He told the king how a ship had picked him up after the sea captain had thrown him overboard, what had become of his wife and how they had got back together.

Recording Location

County - Sutherland

Parish - Farr

Village/Place - Armadale

Language

Gaelic

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good