Folklore & legend

The Midwife Who Opened Her Eye in Trowland

Wick of Groten, Fetlar (site not located)

Undated; recorded by 1899

John Spence printed this tale in 1899. Catherine Tammasdaughter practised midwifery at Fraam Gord. One dark stormy night a messenger from the trows came to the bedside. Her husband was thrown into a deep sleep by magic and did not wake as she left.

She was taken to the shore, where a small boat waited, and carried across the dark sea at a great speed to the Wick of Groten on Fetlar. She was led into a large cavern where a great company of strange beings were gathered. When her work was done she was given a small jar of ointment to anoint the newborn child.

While doing it she touched one of her own eyes with the ointment, and at once saw a woman she knew who had died some time before. She called the woman by name and asked what she was doing there. One of the trows asked which eye she saw with. She answered, the left, and an elf-shot struck that eye blind.

The motif of the midwife and the ointment that opens the eye is widespread in British fairy lore. I have not found the Wick of Groten on a modern map, so the pin is only at the island.

Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open ground
Location
60.597, -0.849 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: John Spence, Shetland Folk-Lore (Lerwick, 1899) [public-domain]

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