3. The History of Creating Scottish Folk Tales

In comparission to English culture the culture of the Scots has a far lonf history. It reflects the the historical fate of Scotland. The war of independence had a huge impact on the national political consciousness of its people and culture. National traditions continue to exist in a kind of Scottish folklore, especially as stated above, in the tales and ballads, which are carefully collected and published by Scottish writers and folklorists.

In the XVIIIth century the first attempts to record English and Scottish folklore were made. Scottish folklore was gathered mainly by aristocrats, who would like to stress the independence of Scottish culture from the English.

In Europe there are not so many places that can boast of such a rich and extensive collection of folklore, as in Scotland, which has been reflected since Celtic culture. First Scottish folklorists dedicated themselves to collecting folk music, poetry, songs, tales and legends.

One of the first folklorists was the poet Alexander Ramsey, who published folklore collection "Evergreen Songs” (1724). He got interested in the Gaelic folk poetry due to D. McPherson who published “Ossian songs” (1760-63), a set of Scottish folk ballads and tales. A huge collection of Scottish folklore, created by Hugh Miller is still a valuable source for studying Scottish culture. He wrote some 350 fairy tales and legends, and became the first person who made a systematic collection of folklore in the north of Scotland. His collection of tales and legends can be found in drawings and legends of the North Scotland "Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland”, (1835) and "Tales and Sketches "(1863).

Two of the most famous collectors of Scottish folklore are Anne Ross and John Francis Campbell (1821-1885). Their main aim was to attract public attention to Scottich national culture. Their work was continued by Alexander Carmichael, John Devarim and later by Margaret Fay Shaw and Kalam McLean.

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We can’t but mention the collections, made by Walter Scott ("Songs of the Scottish border” (1802-1803) and Frederick Childe “English and Scottish ballads” (1882 - 1898).

During the last two centuries, Scottish folklore was not only collected but studied throughly . Professional linguists had been engaged in the study of Scottish folklore since the second half of the XIXth century.

The best-known researchers and collectors of Scottish fairy tales and legends are Thomas Crofton Croker, Horace Shkuder, Thomas Rolleston, Matthew Arnold, Joseph Yakobbs and Hugh Miller.

Isolation of the British Isles and the mountainous landscape helped to safe Scottish legends in their original form. But, to a great regret, a lot of stories, tales and legends had been lost.

Nowadays Scottish folklore is carefully preserved. In the University of Edinbugh serious studies of national folklore are carried out. As a result, an electronic collection of Scottish folklore was made thanks to the project “Kist o”.

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