In The Dark

In the Dark: or Scottish Faerie tales for

Copyright Children By

Caitlin Beaumont

Bath Bath Spa Publishers First Published by Bath Spa Publishers 2018

IN THE DARK

or Scottish Faerie- tales for Children

caitlin beaumont

IN THE DARK In the dark of the forest A bird made a nest, It was pinned with a diamond And gold hung from its crest.

The greeneyed vagabond crowed Its loud and joyful jest, For it had found all these treasures On the hat of a lady at rest.\

THE GREAT TREE In the forest grows a great tree One that stretches infinitely taller than me, Older than any other, The forest's gentle mother: It seldom has time to look down At the faeries making home In between its twisted roots.

A FISHERMAN A fisherman told me some years back He was out at sea and heard a fishtail smack He cast his net and reeled it in And looked down at the spoils within.

The woman he saw entangled he swore He'd never seen the like of before, More beautiful than he ever could wish But with the scaled tail of a fish.

He tried to grab her but to his surprise She shook off his grip and jumped over the side To this day he said he still felt numb In the place of her four webbed fingers and thumb.

WULVER STONE That there, my child, is the Wulver's stone, The Wulverfishes there while the wind makes moan Until the moon in the sky is overthrown, While you are sleeping in your home.

All it has to call it's own: A rod and a cave it lives in all alone.

But every now and then it has been known To leave gifts of fish to some old crone.

It is kindhearted, dear, if you leave it alone, Just remember to never sit on that stone.

THE KELPIE Stop traveller, do you see down there?

Do you see that horse with all that hair?

It's a kelpie, a shapeshifter, I swear, I was almost hypnotised by its red-eyed stare.

It tried to lure me into the loch, its lair, I almost drowned, it gave me quite the scare!

Don't laugh! Stop. If for your life you care Listen to me, that is no normal mare.

Some of the best classic tales from the world of Scottish faeries are reinvigorated in short poems with accompanying illustrations.

They include: The Fisherman The Kelpie Wulver Stone The Helpful Brownie