Green Ladies Of The Forest (Bedtime Story) Scottish Folktale

The green ladies are different from the fairies,

Who are called weefolk.

They are of human size.

Some of them are withered old hags resembling Beera,

Winter season,

And some of them are as fair as Beera in her summer girlhood.

They have power to change their forms at will.

Beera,

Of course,

Is the goddess of all creation.

The greenfolk have the power to change their forms at will.

A green lady may sometimes deceive a traveller by appearing before him in the form of his lady love,

And after speaking to him in for a time turn away with mocking laughter and vanish from sight.

Perhaps too,

She may appear as a dog and torment shepherds by driving their sheep higher and tighter in white confusion,

Or in a green knoll,

A forest,

Or a deep ravine.

One is rarely seen in daytime.

The green lady wanders about in the dusk of late evening.

In moonlight or in darkness,

She is ever a deceiver and woe to the traveller who has not the knowledge how to overcome her spells.

Or she may drown him at the river fort,

Or lead him to the woods.

It is difficult to fight against her,

For if she asks what weapon he has and he names it,

She can,

By working magic,

Make the weapon quite harmless.

One evening a smith was riding homeward from battle on his horse,

And when it was growing dusk he reached a fort.

Suddenly a green lady rose out of the water in front of him.

Stop,

She cried.

You cannot ride across,

Said the man.

Be gone,

O evil one,

Or I shall smite you.

What have you to fight with,

She asked,

Said the man.

I have my sword.

Immediately he named his sword.

It lost its power to do her injury.

The green lady laughed mockingly and then asked,

What else have you to fight with,

Said the man.

I have my spear.

When he named the spear it became as useless as the sword.

The green lady laughed again,

A shrill mocking laugh.

Have you room for a rider behind you,

She asked.

Said the man,

Yes,

And there is room also for a rider in front.

As he spoke he seized the green lady,

Lifted her up in front of him,

Threw the reins over her head and said,

Now I have you in my power.

You will never leave the fort,

She answered,

Because your sword and spear have been made useless to you,

Said the man.

I have still one weapon left.

Which one is that,

She asked,

Said the smith,

The sharp bright weapon against my leg.

He meant the dirk in his right stocking,

But as he did not mention its name the green lady could not make it useless.

Then I will leave you,

Cried the lady in alarm,

Said the smith.

You cannot leave me until I choose to let you go.

The reins are about you and you cannot move beyond them,

For the magic power has now been taken from you and has passed to me.

The green lady knew well that this was so.

She knew also that she would have to do whatever the man ordered her to do before he would set her free.

The horse was urged forward by the smith and the fort was crossed in safety.

The animal trotted across the moor as the moon rose over the hills,

Shining fair and bright.

Let me go,

Please,

The green lady cried,

And I shall give you a herd of speckled cattle.

Said the man,

You will have to give me a herd of cattle,

But still I shall not let you go.

The horse went on and the green lady wept tears.

Let me go!

She cried,

And I shall build you to-night a house which fire will not burn,

No water or storm-wind injure,

And it shall be charmed against all evil beings.

The man reined up his horse and said,

Fulfill your promise and I shall set you free.

He dismounted,

And the green lady dismounted also.

The smith tied the reins around her,

And he repeated his command.

Your wish will be fulfilled,

She said.

Then the green lady uttered a loud cry,

Which was heard over the seven hills.

The cry was repeated over and over again by the big Agnes of the Rock.

Ekko,

A lonely spirit who is at everyone's service.

Big Agnes is a son of Bera,

And it is thought he does not want to cause his mother much trouble by contradicting her orders and giving orders of his own,

For he desired to be king of the universe,

Although he was weak-minded and light-headed.

To punish him,

Bera shut him inside a rock,

And compelled him ever after to repeat any words that were said in his hearing.

Ever since that day,

Big Agnes has had to repeat over and over again everything he hears in his lonely rocky prison.

So big Agnes repeated the cry of the green lady,

Which was a command to fairies and goblins to come to her aid.

As these little people fear all green ladies,

They answered her cry without a delay.

They came from the hilltops,

And from inside cliffs,

From green knolls in lonely moors and deep forests,

And from every other haunt they loved.

Those that were dancing ceased to dance,

And those that were setting out on journeys turned back.

They crossed the moors,

Jumping like crickets and came through the air like birds,

And gathered round the green lady,

Waiting to obey her.

She set them to work at once,

To her wood and gather stones.

They cut down trees in the row and wood,

And quarried stones below a waterfall.

As they went on working,

The green lady cried out,

Two stones over one stone,

One stone over two stones.

Work speedily,

Bring every timber from the wood.

But mulberry,

But mulberry.

The house was built very quickly.

Across the moor the fairies stood in the rows,

One row from the house to the waterfall and one from the house to the row and wood.

The stones that were quarried were passed along from hand to hand,

And so were the pieces of timber that were hewed down and sawed and dressed.

When the dawn was beginning to appear in the eastern sky the house was ready,

And all the fairies and goblins vanished from sight.

Set me free,

Cried the green lady.

The smith said,

I shall set you free when you have promised not to do me any injury.

I promise that readily,

Said she.

Said the smith,

Promise also that neither I nor my children will ever be drowned by you in the fords of the three rivers.

They named the three rivers he referred to,

They all flowed near his home.

The green lady promised that also.

Then the smith set her free,

And she cried,

You have not named the fourth river.

Let you and your children beware.

As she spoke she went past the smith like a green flame.

He never again saw her,

But seven years afterwards one of his sons was drowned in the ford of the fourth river,

And then he knew that the green lady had taken her revenge.

Other green ladies have made friends with certain families and have kept watch over their houses,

Shielding them from harm.

Once a poor fisherman lost his boat and sat down on the beach at the river mouth lamenting his fate.

A green lady appeared before him and said,

If I give you a new boat will you divide your fish with me?

Said the fisherman,

I promise to do so.

Next morning he found a new boat lying on the beach.

He went out to sea and caught many fish.

When he returned to shore he left half of his catch on a green knoll on the river bank.

The green lady was well pleased and helped the man to prosper.

One evening,

However,

He left no fish for her.

He went out to sea next day as usual,

But did not catch anything.

Sad was his heart when he returned home empty-handed,

But it was even sadder next morning when he found that his boat had smashed to pieces during the night in a storm which had risen suddenly and raged until daybreak.

He never again saw the green lady,

And he had a reason to be sorry that he had not kept his bargain with her.

There was once a green lady who received favors from a boat pirate whose name was Mac-Ian-Year.

She kept watch over him on sea and land,

So that he was always able to escape from those who pursued him.

The green lady advised him to paint one side of his boat black and the other side white,

So that watchers on the shore would see a black boat passing to the north and a white boat passing to the south,

And thus be deceived,

Thinking the boat which went out to attack a gully was not the same one as they saw returning.

In time when the people came to know the trick,

They said of deceitful persons,

He is black on one side and white on the other,

Like the boat of Mac-Ian-Year.

Mac-Ian lived to be an old man,

And when he died the green lady shrieked aloud and passed northward.

The shriek was heard in Mull,

And here the echoes died away.

She had reached the cooling hills in Skye.