Mar a fhuair nighean rìgh an duine aice agus a triùir mhac a...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1957.40.B5
Original Tape ID
Summary
How a princess got her husband and three sons back.
A king and queen had three daughters. A nobleman asked to marry one of them and he asked which she would prefer: that he were a dog by day and a man by night, or a man by day and a dog by night. She said she would prefer him to be a man by night and they married, against her parents' wishes.
After a year she had a child, but woke to find a puppy in her arms. [Her mother] had thrown her baby out of the window. The Red-eared Dog took the baby home. The same thing happened twice more. When the three boys grew up they and their father went away and their whereabouts were unknown.
After a year the woman went in search of her children. She reached the house of a man who gave her a thimble that worked by itself. She went to his middle brother's house and he gave her a needle that worked by itself. She went to the eldest brother's house and he gave her scissors that worked by themselves. He told her where she would find the children and gave her a verse to say while using the thimble, needle and scissors. Her husband wouldn't remember her, but the boys might know her.
She reached their house and every night she sewed and said the words she'd been told after her husband had gone to bed. After three nights the eldest son asked his father what the woman meant when she said "I am the mother of three sons". The man took sleeping drops every night, but this time he didn't. He heard the woman's verse, realised it was his wife and kissed her.
He said her sisters and mother were responsible for what had happened and they went home.
The contributor heard the story from his mother.
Recording Location
County - Sutherland
Language
English, Gaelic
Genre
Collection
Classification
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good