A fiddler visited the trows and was gone for a hundred years...

Original Track ID

SA1974.204.B1

Original Tape ID

SA1974.204

Summary

A fiddler visited the trows and was gone for a hundred years; others learned a tune from him before he crumbled to dust.

One night a man went to the craigs [rocks] to fish and was coming home with his wand [rod] and buddie of sillocks [basket of young saithe] when he saw a light coming from a knowe [hillock]. There were trows [trolls, fairies] dancing inside. Being a fiddler, he went in, and the ground closed up behind him. Next morning a search party hunted for him, but concluded that he fallen into the sea.

A century later, a different family lived in the croft. They were sitting by the fire when the door opened and an old man dressed in rags and carrying a fiddle came in. He demanded to know what they were doing there and where his family was. The old grandfather at the fireside asked his name, and told him that a man of that name stayed there long, long before and had disappeared without trace. His folk were all dead. The man replied that he would go and join them. Followed by the eldest boy, he went out to an old well, looked over the knowe [hillock] to where the merry dancers [northern lights] were shining, and played a tune on the fiddle. Then he collapsed, dead. At the well the boy found the remains of a man who had been dead for a hundred years, together with a little fiddle. The boy remembered the tune, which has been handed down to this day as the 'Trowie Reel'.

This story came from Sandness, where George Peterson's father was from.

Recording Location

Item Location

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Story Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good