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Sgeulachd mu thriùir mhac aig triùir bhanntraichean.

Date March 1971
Track ID 32863
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1971.52.B3

Original Tape ID

SA1971.052

Summary

A story about three sons of three widows.

There were three widows who each had one son, named Rob, Iain and Donald. Donald was clever and the other two did not like him as a result. They killed his cattle. When Donald saw this, he skinned them and set off with their hides. He spent the night in the woods and a flock of birds lay on him as he slept. He caught one of the birds and sold it to a man by pretending that it was a prophet. When he went home, he told the others that he made the money by selling the hides. Rob and Iain killed their own cattle and tried to sell the hides, but were put in prison.

When they were released, they killed Donald's mother. He took her body and propped it up by a well near a big house. He told the man of the house that she was deaf. When the man prodded her she fell into the well. The man thought he had killed her and gave Donald money to keep quiet. Donald told the others that he had sold his mother's corpse. They then killed their own mothers and tried to sell them, but they were put in prison again.

When they were released again, they put Donald into a barrel with the intention of drowning him. They stopped at an inn and Donald tricked a passing shepherd into swapping places with him. Rob and Iain threw the barrel over the cliff but, when they got home, Donald was there before them with the shepherd's flock. He told them that he'd been allowed back from the dead and had been given the sheep. The others wanted to do the same, so he put them both into barrels and threw them into the sea.

The contributor heard this story from his father and others.

Language

Gaelic

Collection

SoSS

Classification

AT1535

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good