Peter Haining – The Clans Of Darkness

[dem bones]

Peter Haining (ed.) – The Clans Of Darkness: Scottish Tales Of Terror (Sphere, 1972: originally Victor Gollancz, 1971)

Acorn Litho, Feltham

Foreword – Angus Wilson
Introduction – Peter Haining

Traditional – Thomas the Rhymer
Robert Kirk – The Secret Commonwealth
George Sinclair – Satan’s Invisible World Discovered
Sir Walter Scott – A Night In The Grave
John Galt – The Black Ferry
James Hogg – The Brownie Of The Black Haggs
Allan Cunningham – The Ghost With The Golden Casket
J. F. Campbell – The Sea Maiden
John Mackay Wilson – The Doom Of Soulis
Robert Louis Stevenson – The House Of Eld
W. E. Aytoun – The Man In The Bell
Neil Munro – Red Hand
Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle – Through The Veil
John Buchan – The Outgoing Of The Tide
Algernon Blackwood – The Wolves Of God
Neil M. Gunn – The Clock
Hugh MacDairmid – Tam Mackie’s Trial
A. J. Cronin – The Strange Meeting
John Keir Cross – Music When Soft Voices Die
Eric Linklater – Sealskin Trousers
Alex Hamilton – Dead Men Walk

Blurb
THE BEST OF SCOTTISH FANTASY
werewolves - demons - elves - ghosts - zombies - & spirits
all these creatures of the netherworld wander the pages of this collection of 21 superb stories by the masters, past and present, of the Scottish supernatural.
Amongst the distinguished cast of authors are: Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, A. J. Cronin, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Algernon Blackwood

Traditional - Thomas the Rhymer: The Queen of Elfland, who takes the form of either a beautiful young woman or the most hideous hag as it suits her, escorts Thomas from the Eildon Hills to her castle in the fairy realm where a party is in full swing. As a parting gift, she bestows him with a tongue that cannot lie, leading to his reputation as a great prophet. Impossibly cute.

George Sinclair - Satan’s Invisible World Discovered [extract]: William Barton's pact with the Devil specifies that no man can kill him. So they get the hangman's wife to do it. Barton's wife gives testimony that she didn't once realise her husband was a warlock, even though she herself is a witch (Satan seduced her by shoving a candle up his arse and breaking into a jig). Both are burnt at the stake.

Sir Walter Scott - A Night In The Grave: Truncated version of Wandering Willies Tale, but worth having as Haining provides a useful glossary at back of book.

James Hogg - The Brownie Of The Black Haggs: As mentioned on previous thread, this fine story ends on a note of proto-S & M, Gothic style.

John Galt - The Black Ferry: ... aboard which, one of the shortest, least joyful marriages in fiction is violently terminated. Mary Danby revived the story for Realms Of Darkness

W. E. Aytoun - The Man In The Bell:Jack climbs into the Cathedral belfry to unmuffle a clapper while his friend keeps watch below. Unfortunately, said friend is easily distracted and wanders away in pursuit of a pretty passer by. The bell-ringers arrive and, unaware of Jack's current activities, begin their work.

And then there was 'The Man in the Bell' - a paper by-the-by, Miss Zenobia, which I cannot sufficiently recommend to your attention. It is the history of a young person who goes to sleep under the clapper of a church bell, and is awakened by its tolling for a funeral. The sound drives him mad, and, accordingly, pulling out his tablets, he gives a record of his sensations. Sensations are the great things after all. Should you ever be drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations - they will be worth to you ten guineas a sheet. If you wish to write forcibly, Miss Zenobia, pay minute attention to the sensations."

"That I certainly will, Mr. Blackwood," said I.

Edgar Allen Poe - The Psyche Zenobia AKA How To Write A Blackwood Article, American Museum, Nov. 1838.

Neil Munro - Red Hand: Duelling bagpipes. Ingrate son, Tearlach, sets out to prove he's a finer player than his legendary father, blind Paruig Dall, causing much ill-feeling across Skye in the process. His mother, Giorsal, steps in with a sharp knife to settle the matter for good. Without the benefit of Haining's glossary, I'd have found this story completely impenetrable.

[dem bones]

Arthur Conan Doyle- Through The Veil: (The Strand Magazine, Nov. 1910). To celebrate their first wedding anniversary, John and Maggie Brown visit the excavations of a Roman fort at Newstead. Both experience vivid flashbacks which almost kill their happy marriage there and then. Several incarnations ago, John was among the savage hordes who torched the settlement, butchered the men, and ravished the women. It was his cruel sword accounted for the life of Maggie's lover, beautiful Marcus! Slight, but alright.

The Doom of Soulis. Detail from a typically beautiful Jan Parker illustration (Peter Haining, Witchcraft And Black Magic, Hamlyn, 1971).

John Mackay Wilson - The Doom Of Soulis: (Tales of the Borders, 1834). This is more like it - and it's all true! A full-on Gothic horror romp, pitching a fiend in human form, Lord Soulis of Hermitage Castle, Roxburgshire, versus Walter, the noble young heir of Branxholm, and his bride-to-be, the fair Marion. Soulis is almost indestructible on account of his compact with the demon in the casket. "Steel cannot wound thee - cords cannot bind thee - hemp hang thee - nor water drown thee." But his Lordship has overlooked one potentially deadly hazard - fire. "Beware of a coming wood!" snickers the ghastly demon, adding that he is not to be disturbed again for seven years. What can he mean?

Soulis is too busy adducting Marion to pay the cryptic warning any heed, and with both the girl and her lover safely manacled to the dungeon wall, surely, he has little to fear? Marion will soon warm his bed, even if first he has to lynch her along with her lover! But what is this? The trees are storming the castle!

The followers of the house of Branxholm, each brandishing a rowan branch as a charm against his sorcery, make short work of Soulis, rolling him in sheets of lead and boiling him alive, this, apparently, on the advice of King Robert who, tired of hearing complaints about the man, had only suggested the punishment "as a joke"!

Animal lovers are advised that his Lordship's demon-raising ritual features cruelty to a cat, a dog and a bull and is most certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Hugh MacDairmid – Tam Mackie’s Trial: To all outward appearances, Maria is hale and hearty, but mother insists she'll not see out the night, and the girl herself agrees. Young Tam is charged with sitting at her bedside while Ma runs an errand. He feels a little scared, but very important. Three and a bit pages of dialect. Probably a literary classic, but did nothing for me.

John Keir Cross – Music When Soft Voices Die: A spurned lover's revenge/ bongo horror masterpiece. I kid you not. See the Stories From The Other Passenger and Cries Of Terror threads.

[dem bones]

After a rip-roaring start, subtlety creeps in and, for this reader at least, The Clans Of Darkness starts to drag a little ....

A. J. Cronin – The Strange Meeting: Midway across the Atlantic, a Doctor is reunited with a former patient. Twenty-five years earlier, a country lad, new to London, fell in with a bad crowd, amassed a gambling debt, and attempted suicide. Between them, the Doctor, a policeman and the boy's landlady covered up the incident and helped him rebuild his life. Which he has, to the benefit of poor kids the world over. Has a ring of truth about it, but as if anybody wants to read life-affirming stories in a horror anthology?

Neil M. Gunn – The Clock: The Caithness landlady was widowed within a week of her wedding day when her husband leapt into the bay to save a drowning, and very drunk, local farmer. The farmer - with whom the landlady already a beef - did not long survive the incident, though the circumstances surrounding his death remains a mystery ... until the night she sleepwalks into our narrator's room and reaches for his razor.

Alex Hamilton - Dead Men Walk: Yes, zombies in Orkney, but don't get too excited because there is "quiet horror" and there is this story, in which the chill is so subtle you're likely to be left wondering is that it? Based on Hamilton's experiences when he visited the island to interview George Mackay Brown. Aside from the poet, 'Smithson' meets a painter, a publican, a farm girl and her baby sister who locks him in a crypt, and ever the uneasy feeling that there's another Orkney on the periphery of his vision that only he is blind to. Eventually he gets a glimpse of this hidden world when he sleeps with the landlord's beautiful daughter. His editor rejects the story on the grounds it will make the readers' flesh creep. That a very timid audience you have there, Mr. The Times!

[humgoo]

Aug 2, 2015 12:44:37 GMT dem bones said:

W. E. Aytoun – The Man In The Bell

Is this a misattribution? W. E. Aytoun wasn't the same person as William Maginn, was he? (Haining seemed to get it right in his Edgar Allan Poe Bedside Companion. Strange.)