The Gaelic Otherworld

The Gaelic Otherworld gathers John Gregorson Campbell’s records of Gaelic belief and storytelling from the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Its first part considers fairies, fairy women, tutelary beings, the urisk, blue men, mermaids and water-horses, alongside tales illustrating fairy traditions and beliefs about animals.

The second part turns to augury, premonitions, divination, dreams, prophecies, spells, witchcraft, death warnings and second sight. Campbell presents these materials as traditions collected from oral sources, preserving Gaelic quotations alongside English translations. The volume also includes commentary on the Celtic year, together with biographical material on Campbell and his family, placing the folklore within the life of a 19th-century Gaelic-speaking minister and collector.