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

NORSE AND VIKING FOLK-TALES
the warrior was what would be her fate in days to come.
" Thou shalt yet have a son; and thou
To this Til replied :
shalt call him Coinneach (Kenneth). And thy son shall
possess the gift of the seer."
Thereupon she removed her distaff, and permitted Til to
return to his lair once more.
About a year after these strange happenings, the old
woman, to the astonishment of her acquaintances, was as
Sarah, for she bare a son in her old age. And she named
him Coinneach ; and this Coinneach, on account of his sallow
complexion, was called Odhar. Soon Coinneach Odhar
manifested signs of divination; and in later life he became
well known throughout Scotland for his gift of the
second-sight.
Such is the story of the traditional Coinneach Odhar as
I got it some years ago at Kilchoan, in Dunvegan, and from
the lips of that lovely woman, the late Frances Tolmie,
whose cottage nestled beside the loch, and in the shadow of
the slope known as Creag a' Chlachain, where the rooks
used to call at sundown.
The Isle of Skye is rich in folk-tales about the Norse and
Vikings ; and few reach as far as Kyle of Lochalsh without
hearing the tradition about ruined Castle Maol, perched
above the shore at Kyleakin, and said to have been built
during the time of the Norse occupation by " Saucy Mary,"
the daughter of a Scandinavian king. By the maintenance
of a great chain stretching across the kyle from a point
below the Castle, she is said to have prevented all foreign
vessels from passing through, until they had paid toll. To
this day the older inhabitants point out a boulder by the
Skye shore, to which they believe this chain to have been
attached, and also the impress made on this boulder by the
grating of that chain.
Tradition in Lewis has it that in ancient times a similar
chain was suspended across the narrows between Lundale
and the Isle of Bernera, to enable a Norse princess to collect
dues from vessels passing through the strait. As evidence
of strength and prowess, every stranger presuming to be
a fit and proper person to set foot on the Great Bernera was
required to swing this chain ; and at low tide the ferryman
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