Matter of the Greenwood: Guy of Gisburne
Content note: violence including mutilation. Image: Paul Dickey as Sir Guy in the 1922 film Robin Hood. In modern times, Guy of Gisborne...
Hamlet's voyage
Content note: familial murder and attempted murder; bigamy. "Thus set it down," decrees Claudius of his wayward nephew in Hamlet: "he...
Hail Éarendel!
In which I examine the connections of one of Tolkien's most famous characters to Shakespeare, Norse myth, and a local legend from...
Some Scottish Red Weddings
The theme of sacrosanct hospitality being murderously abused looms large in Scottish history and legend. Content note: murder; spousal...
A series of improbable kings
We've looked at the legend of King Galdus, and how it relates to the fragmentary older legends of Cairbre Riata and other supposed...
Matter of the Greenwood: The Silver Arrow
One of the most famous stories about Robin Hood, featured in almost every adaptation (at least, until recently), is that his enemies...
The many legendary founders of Scotland
One remarkable thing about Scottish legend is just how many beginnings the country's pseudo-history seems to have. In my article on the...
King Galdus
The fourth book of Hector Boece's History of the Scottish People tells the epic story of the hero-king Galdus. (A still more stirring...
Pirate Corner: Captain Misson and Libertalia
Was there really a revolutionary pirate Utopia in seventeenth century Madagascar? Content note: slavery, colonialism, forced marriage....
Beregonium, Scotland's lost capital
There is a legend of a fallen city, once the glorious capital of the ancient Scots, before it was destroyed in fire. But where did the...
