Legends of the Scottish Kings

By Angusfolklore

A complementary folkloric musing companion to my Scottish royal legends blog.

  • 718 reads

Island Queens - The Hebridean Tradition

By Angusfolklore on Sat, 26 May 2018

Traditions of female rulers in the Hebrides are more evident, albeit tantalising in detail, than anywhere else in Scotland. An Irish writer, writing...
Other Non-fiction
Non-fiction
Certificate U

Murder at the Feast, The Treachery of Scone

By Angusfolklore on Sat, 16 Jun 2018

Primary among the bedrock stories of the formation of Scotland is the legend that the Gaelic king Cináed mac Ailpín, or Kenneth mac Alpin, murdered a...
Other Non-fiction
Non-fiction
Certificate PG

Canmore - Who was Big Head?

By Angusfolklore on Sun, 15 Jul 2018

The head that wears the crown has to be large. But what exactly does this mean - symbolically big, physically huge, an appellation with mystical...
Non-fiction
Certificate PG

Bring Back the King, But Find Him First

By Angusfolklore on Sun, 22 Jul 2018

Some kings are not supposed to lie easily in death. Take Mary Queen of Scots. At first she was put to rest, if not ignominiously, then without full...
Unclassified
Non-fiction
Certificate U

Bruce and the Spider

By Angusfolklore on Sat, 11 Aug 2018

At the risk of being anachronistic, you can see the modern day tabloid versions of the headline: EERIE ARACHNID INSPIRES WANNABE ROYAL...KING THANKS...
Non-fiction
Certificate U

The Cradle and the Crown, Birth Tales of Royals

By Angusfolklore on Mon, 27 Aug 2018

The mystery over the actual births of kings and queens is intimately associated with the mystery and legends of their ancestry, which in many cases...
Non-fiction
Certificate U

Who Was King Karl Hundasson?

By Angusfolklore on Sun, 17 Feb 2019

In the medieval Orkneyinga Saga , one of the primary sources for the history of Scandinavian Scotland we are presented with a character who opens the...
Miscellaneous
Non-fiction
Certificate PG

Descent from Kings - The Royal Clans

By Angusfolklore on Sun, 17 Feb 2019

It is perhaps human nature to claim descent from important or significant people. The heritage of clan and kindred names in Scotland is notoriously...
Non-fiction
Certificate U

Dubh, The Dark King and the Strangest Death

By Angusfolklore on Sun, 17 Feb 2019

Three Dark Secrets This is one of the strangest, most convoluted tales ever associated with a king in Scotland, so bear with me while I pick out some...
Non-fiction
Certificate PG

Did Satan Issue a Roll-Call of the Scottish Dead Before Flodden?

By Angusfolklore on Thu, 01 Aug 2019

The substantial quote below is from Robert Pitscottie's History and it relates how, a short time before the slaughter of the Battle of Flodden, a...
Miscellaneous
Non-fiction
Certificate PG

When the Saints are Against You... The King Arthur-James IV Link?

By Angusfolklore on Thu, 01 Aug 2019

It was a bare few weeks before the Battle of Flodden between England and Scotland in the autumn of 1513. King James IV was determined to enter...
Non-fiction
Certificate PG

The Thistle King (From A Portrait of King James IV)

By Angusfolklore on Sat, 22 Aug 2020

In his hand he held not a rose in glory, but a crooked thistle, thorn in flesh, and dressed about his middle no glowing golden belt, but a chain of...
Poem
Certificate U
Cherry

Bonnie Prince Charlie in London, 1750

By Angusfolklore on Wed, 04 May 2022

Years after Culloden, in the despondent London fog, the fat, failed, drunken Stuart indulged his ancestral homeland with an unbidden visit. The Young...
Poem
Certificate U
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