The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
that every evening at sundown Bera should ascend to a
spring on the summit of Ben Cruachan, and on the mouth
of that spring place a sacred stone, so as to prevent its
waters from flowing down to cover the face of the valley.
Bera regularly fulfilled her father's instructions after his
death. But one day, weary with hunting the corries of
Cruachan, she fell asleep on the sunny hillside. Not until
the third morning did she awaken ; and by that time her
heritage lay beneath the waters of the loch that since then
has been known as Loch Awe.
And this recalls the next folk-tale.
A Well that Submerged a Castle.
The Norwegian legend of the Folge-Fiord, which is said
to cover the seven districts overwhelmed by snow and ice
for their wickedness, is regarded as having a parallel in
Sutherland, where a well within a castle rose and swamped
the entire inhabitants because of the waywardness of its
owner.
Somewhere in Sutherland there stood the stronghold of
an evil man ; and in the centre of that stronghold there was
a well that unfailingly supplied him and his soldiers with
water, and was of inestimable value when they were
beleaguered. One night it was observed that the well was
rising rapidly. As the stronghold stood in a hollow place,
there were no means of disposing of this overflow. All
next day the water continued to rise, inundating the first
storey of the stronghold. And by the third day the entire
edifice lay submerged, and a deep lake took the place
occupied so recently by the evil man and his bodyguard.
On clear, still days a gable and a chimney or two may be
seen far beneath the water's surface. And the story is told
in Sutherland of a fishing-tenant, who in recent years was
fishing on this lake, when a mannikin stepped out from
among the reeds by the shore, and said to him : " You must
fish here no more, for there are more mouths in
"
this lake
than there are fish to feed them !
Having delivered himself thus, the mannikin disappeared
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