Folklore & legend

The Glaistig of the Strontian Smithy

Strontian, Sunart

Told before 1900

He stood behind the door with the hammer on his shoulder, ready to strike whatever came in. The glaistig came to the door with her chick, the Isein, who heard a noise and warned her, but she went in. When the smith had her, the Isein reproached his mother, saying that her old grey head had got a punching and to see if it was the mice.

Before the smith let his captive go, the glaistig left a parting gift that the son should succeed the father as smith in Strontian until the third generation. Campbell says that proved to be the case, and the last was smith there about forty years before he wrote. The place name Strontian itself is Sron an t-Sithein, the nose of the fairy hillock.

Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open ground
Location
56.695, -5.569 (Sited to the village)

Sources: John Gregorson Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1900), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]; Wikipedia, Strontian [other]

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