Content Warning: Brief mention of colonization and death.
In this episode, I tell a short folktale from Scotland entitled "The Doomed Rider". This entertaining myth is likely quite old and functioned as a campfire-style ghost story throughout Scottish history. The tale surrounds a prophecy spoken by the Kelpie, a mythical creature associated with Celtic stories. Much of the language is in antiquated English which I have modernized for your listening pleasure. The story was initially published in 1889 by Charles John Tibbitts in one of his many collections of folktales. Little information is available concerning this editor's life despite his relatively enormous impression left on folklore studies, as he published numerous stories in multiple anthologies from across Eurasia.
We'll analyze how this story comments on fate, the indigenous connection to the land, and the dangers of "false fords". Furthermore, we'll make sense of the position of mythical creatures in etiological analysis of myth and how the trope of the "encroaching beast" remains in our entertainment today.
Thank you for listening!
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