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    The Land of the Seal People
    Unavailable
    The Land of the Seal People
    Unavailable
    The Land of the Seal People
    Ebook225 pages3 hours

    The Land of the Seal People

    By Duncan Williamson

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    No stories were more potent, more engaging, more subtle or profound than these half-animal, half-human tales of the sea. Time and time again listeners enthralled by Duncan Williamson's lore would ask him for the silkie tale. Duncan grew up with the seals, slept nights stranded by the tide in their colonies, heard countless stories from crofters, fishermen and travellers alike about the strange people who were related to the seal; the silkie stories magically link the two worlds, animal and human, sea and land. This new and expanded edition contains twenty-four stories, including thirteen that are previously unpublished, with a new introduction by Linda Williamson which examines the background of the West Highland belief in the seal people. 'The Land of the Seal People' is a work of a master narrator, Scotland's greatest contemporary storyteller. The book is adult fiction of high intellectual and literary standards, and, as Scottish folk tales, suits children and adults alike. From the oral tradition of the West Coast, these stories are a vital part of Scotland's heritage.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBirlinn
    Release dateJul 5, 2017
    ISBN9780857909657
    Unavailable
    The Land of the Seal People
    Author

    Duncan Williamson

    Duncan Williamson was one of the last, best-known of Scotland's traveller storytellers. The son, grandson and great grandson of nomadic tinsmiths, basket makers, pipers and storytellers, he became known as one of the world's finest oral story-tellers, with over 3,000 stories committed to memory. He died in November 2007.

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    • 4/5
      I read "The Land of the Seal People" having just finished David Thomson's excellent "The People of the Sea: Celtic Legends And Myths". I was hoping it would match it for warmth and wonder, but I was to be slightly disappointed.Although each tales comes with a paragraph explaining where it was heard and a description of the teller is included, names not always included for obvious reasons, the atmosphere in which the tales were told is missing and the attachment gained from learning more about the teller is lost. To that end, I could not warm to these tales as much as I could to those told by Thomson."The Land of the Seal People" doesn't just focus on the selkie, but includes encounters with others of the supernatural kind and, as much as I enjoy these, I was a little disappointed as I was hoping to learn more about the seal people and/or selkies. I was also put off by the overuse of the character name Jack, which featured heavily about 3/4 of the way through the book. It seemed to me that in every tale, Jack has lost his father young and was left an only child supporting his mother. True, each of Jack's adventures was different, but I started to become disinterested the moment I saw the name Jack.Because I did not get the same feeling reading "The Land of the Seal People" as I did "The People of the Sea: Celtic Legends And Myths", I doubt I will be re-reading it and I am unsure as to whether I should read Duncan Williamson's other books on a similar topic.I did enjoy reading both books and seeing the connection to the film "The Secret of Roan Inish" though I did learn that the book on which the movie is based was originally set in Scotland.Overall, I enjoyed the book but I think it might have endeared itself to me more had I read it first, and then Thomson's book.