The legends of the Borders, in ballads and tales, are engrossing not only for their rich variety of love tales and fairy lore but also for the dominant place of magic and witchcraft in the region’s heritage. More common than the legendary noble princes or benevolent princesses are powerful witches and warlocks. They are the servants and agents of the devil, with whom the lowland Scots are more than a little familiar, as is shown in the variety of nicknames given him : Auld Hornie, Auld Cloutie (cloven-hoof), Auld Nick, and in the half-jesting curse : Devil tak ye. Whether to address the Prince of Darkness in terms of fear and awe or disrespect and mockery is never resolved.

This book introduces and retells thirty-one tales which were first collected by nineteenth-century folklorists such as Walter Scott, James Hogg and William Henderson. Marion Lochhead argues that the ‘black’ influences became even stronger after the Reformation when the banishment of Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, left the way clear for the Queen of Elfdom, who is neither of heaven nor hell. This is seen in ‘The Witches of Traquair’, set at the time of the transition from the old faith to the new, where Our Lady appears as rescuer.

This wide-ranging and thought-provoking collection takes the reader into a world of magic characteristic of the Borders and very different from that of the Celtic regions.