Blue Men Of The Muir (Bedtime Story) Scottish Legend

In Scottish folklore, mermaids and mermen are known as "merrows" or "merfolk". These mythical creatures are said to inhabit the coastal waters of Scotland, particularly in the Hebrides, the Highlands, and the Islands.

According to legend, merrows are beautiful and alluring, with shimmering scales and long, flowing hair. They are said to possess magical powers and are often associated with the sea and its secrets. Mermen are depicted as strong and handsome, with beards and a commanding presence.

Transcript

The Blue Men,

The Blue Men of the Mere A Bedtime Story from Scotland Among the children and descendants of Bera are the nimble men,

Or merry dancers,

Also known as the Northern Lights,

The Blue Men of the Minch and the Green Ladies.

The nimble men are divided into two clans.

The heroes of one clan are clad in garments which white as hoarfrost,

And the heroes of the other clan in garments of pale yellow.

Brighter and more varied colours are worn by the ladies of the clans.

Some are gowed in green,

Some in red,

And some in silvery white,

And a few wear royal purple.

On winter nights when there is peace on land and sea,

The nimble men and merry maidens come forth to dance in northern sky.

They are all of giant stature,

But commonly of form,

And their dances are very graceful.

The men bow to the maids,

And the maids courtesy the men,

And when the dance is at its height,

Some of the men leap high and whirl around about.

So merry do they become.

Fairy pipers play enchanting music,

While the merry couples dance across the northern sky.

There was once a prince of the white clan of nimble men,

And his name was Lightfoot.

He loved the princess Commerley,

Who was the fairest of all the merry maidens,

And he had a rival named Green Eyes,

The chief of the yellow clan.

Princess Commerley liked best to dance with Lightfoot,

Because among the nimble men he was without an equal as a dancer.

One dark night when the mountains were white,

With new fallen snow and the valleys glistened with hoar frost,

All of the northern sky was lit up in splendor by the nimble men and merry maidens,

Who came out to dance in honor of Queen Bera.

It was the first great gathering of the winter season,

And all the dancers were clad in new and dazzling garments.

They began to dance soon after darkness set in,

And it was night to midnight,

Ere they sank down the rest.

Princess Commerley had danced all the time with Lightfoot,

And when she sat down he knelt before her,

Whispering softly,

''Fairest of the fair,

O be my bride!

'' said Princess Commerley,

''Your bride I shall be!

'' The words were heard by Green Eyes,

Who was crouching near at hand.

His heart was filled with anger,

And leaping up he called upon the members of his clan to throw their swords and fight Lightfoot and his followers.

Then all was confusion.

The warriors of both clans sprang at one another,

Brandishing their gleaming weapons.

Up leaped Lightfoot to fight against Green Eyes.

Rising to full stature,

He darted across the sky to smite him down.

Up leaped Princess Commerley and all the maidens,

And ran away shrieking.

Then a battle royal began to rage between the rival clans.

The sound of swords striking swords reached the earth,

And seemed like the rustling of rusted twigs when the wind rises suddenly and scampers through the forest.

For hours the fearsome fight was waged with fury,

And men and women came forth to watch it with wonder and in silence.

They saw the warriors leaping white with anger,

Hard and swift where the blows and many were slain.

At length below the feet of the nimble men there appeared a cloud which was red with the blood that flowed from many wounds received in the battle royal.

From the sky the blood drops fell like dew on the green stones of the mountain which were thus forever stained with red spots.

That is why the red speckled green stones are called blood stones.

When the night was almost spent,

Princess Commerley returned to the battleground and found that the conflict had come to an end.

As she drew near,

Few wounded warriors rose up and staggered away.

She began to search among the fallen warriors for Lightfoot,

And at length she found him lying cold and dead.

A cry of sorrow broke from her lips and was wafted towards the earth on the first breath of dawn.

Those who heard it knew,

Then,

That the prophecy of the seer was being fulfilled and they sang the song he had made.

When a young lady seeks her lover in the coat and pearly morning,

She will find that he has fallen by the hand that she did scorn.

She will clasp her arms about him and into her anguished eye,

Or never again will trip the train across the northern sky.

The Blue Men are found only in the Minch and chiefly in the strait which lies between the island of Louis and the Shantle Isles,

Also known as the Charmed Islands,

And is called the sea-stream of the Blue Men.

They are not giants like the Nimble Men,

But of human size,

And they have great strength.

By day and by night they swim round and between the Shantle Isles.

The Blue Men wear blue caps and have grey faces,

Which appear above the waves,

That they raise with their long restless arms.

In summer,

Whether they skim slightly below the surface,

But when the wind is high,

They revolt the storm and swim with heads erect,

Splashing the waters with mad delight.

Sometimes they are seen floating from the waist out of the sea,

And sometimes turning round like porpoises as they dive.

Here is a boatman's song about the Blue Men.

When the tide is at the turning and the wind is fast asleep,

Another wave is curling on the wide blue deep,

Or the waters will be churning in the stream that never smiles,

Where the Blue Men are splashing round the Charmed Isles.

As the summer wind goes drowning over the sun-bright seas,

And the minges all a-dazzle to the Hebrides,

They will skim along like salmon,

You can see their shoulders gleam,

And the flashing of their fingers in the Blue Men's stream.

But when the blast is raving and the white tide raises,

The Blue Men are breast-high with foam-grey faces.

They'll plunge along with fury while they sweep the spray behind,

Or they'll be low over the billows and well upon the wind.

And if my boat be storm-tossed and beating for the bay,

They'll be howling and growling as they trench it with the spray,

For they like to heel it over till after when it lits,

Or crack the keel between them,

Or stay with their fists.

Awary on the Blue Men,

Their anger and their wiles,

The whole day long,

The whole night long,

They're splashing round the Isles.

They'll follow every fissure,

Ah!

They'll haunt the fissure-stream when billow-toss,

Or who would cross the Blue Men's stream?

In days of old the Blue Men's stream was sometimes called the Current of Destruction because ships were swamped in it.

The people blamed the Blue Men who dwelt in caves.

They said,

At the bottom of the sea,

Their sentinel were always on the lookout,

And when a vessel came in sight,

Word was sent to the men in the caves to get up.

Sailors were afraid of them,

And many sailed around the Shand Islands,

Instead of taking the shortcut between these and the big island of Lewis.

When the chief of the Blue Men had all his men gathered about him,

Ready to attack a ship,

He rose high in the water and shouted to the skipper two lines of poetry,

And if the skipper did not reply at once,

By adding two lines,

To complete the verse,

The Blue Men seized the ship and upset it.

Many a ship was lost in days of old because the skipper had no skill at verse.

True is the Gaelic saying,

However,

There comes with time what comes not with weather.

One day,

When the wind was high,

And the billows rough and angry,

The Blue Men saw a stately ship coming towards their sea-stream under white sails.

Royally she cleft her way through the waves.

The sentinels called to the Blue Fellows,

Who were on the sea-floor,

And as they rose,

They wanted to see the keel-pass overheard so swiftly.

Some seized it and shook it as if to try their strength,

And were astonished to find it so steady and heavy,

It carried on straight as a spear in flight.

The chief of the Blue Men bobbed up in front of the ship,

And when raised high among the tumbling waves,

Shouted to the skipper,

Man of the black cap,

What do you say,

As your proud ship cleaves the brine?

No sooner were the words spoken than the skipper answered,

My speedy ship takes the shortest way,

And I'll follow you line by line.

This was at once an answer and a challenge,

And the chief of the Blue Men cried angrily,

My men are eager,

My men are ready,

To drag you below the waves.

The skipper answered defiantly in a loud voice,

My ship is speedy,

My ship is steady,

If it sank it would wreck your caves.

The chief of the Blue Men was worsted,

For he never before had a seaman answered him so promptly and so well.

He had no power to injure the ship,

Because the skipper was as good a bard as he was himself,

And he knew that if he went on shouting half verses until the storm sped itself,

The skipper would always complete them.

He signaled to his followers to dive,

And down below the wave ridges they all vanished,

Like birds that dive for fish.

The big ship went on proudly and safely under wind-tight sails,

While the sea wind through the cordage sang,

With high and wintry merriment.

Once upon a time,

Some fishermen who were crossing the sea-stream of the Blue Men in calm weather found one of the Blue Fellows sleeping on the surface.

They seized him and lifting him into the boat,

Bound him tightly with a rope.

He slept so soundly that,

Although the fishermen let him fall out of their hands,

He did not awake.

They resolved to take him to the shore,

But they had not gone far when two Blue Men bobbed above the clear waters and shouted,

''Duncan will be one,

Donald will be two.

Will you need another year?

You reached the shore!

'' The skipper of the boat was about to shout two lines in reply,

But before he could speak,

The Blue Man in the boat opened his eyes,

And with a quick movement,

He snapped the rope that bound him,

As easily as if it had been only an old straw,

And answered,

''Duncan's voice I heard.

Duncan's voice I hear.

Donald,

Too,

Is near,

But no need of helpers as strong he and more.

'' As he spoke,

He leapt out of the boat into the sea.

That was how the fishermen came to know that all the Blue Men have names of their own.

The End