Eachdraidh-beatha

Linda Williamson is an American-born academic who specialises in the lore of Scotland's travelling people. She is credited with bringing the stories of traveller Duncan Williamson to a wider audience.

Linda was born in Madison, Wisconsin, where from an early age she studied classical music, sang in choirs, performed as a pianist, and chamber music. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, she married and settled in Edinburgh, where her husband could pursue his academic career. While living in Edinburgh, Linda entered an interdisciplinary program at the School of Scottish Studies, where she worked with several academics, including Hamish Henderson.

Linda began collecting traditional music, songs, stories, and lore of Scotland's Travelling People. She travelled with ethnomusicologist Peter Cooke, and folklorist Alan Bruford, to interview and record the Stewarts of Blair, Betsy Whyte of Montrose, and Jane Turriff of Mintlaw. Through these contacts, she learned of Argyllshire Traveller Duncan Williamson, a widower with seven children, and sought him out as a source in 1975. Over the course of her work with him, the two fell in love; she sought a divorce from her husband and married Duncan in 1977.

Linda and Duncan lived in the traditional 'gelly camp', a Scottish Traveller tent structure. While raising their two children in this rugged lifestyle, she completed her doctoral degree in 1985 for the School of Scottish Studies. Her recordings of Duncan's songs and stories, in addition to her collected lore, music, and history of Scotland's Travellers from Argyllshire, Perthshire, and Fife, were deposited in the School of Scottish Studies Sound Archives, catalogued with her commentary from 1975-1993. She worked to write verbatim from Duncan's narrations and secured publication of his stories in Edinburgh, New York, Cambridge, Oxford, London, and Milan.

Their relationship continued until 1993, after which they separated, but Linda continued to work with Duncan on new books and further editions of his stories. She returned to stay with him during the final months before his death from complications of a stroke in 2007.

More recently, Linda has worked on myth and starlore in the ancient astronomies of Native America and India and performed at Edinburgh's Scottish International Storytelling Festival. She has also continued working as a professional storyteller through the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.

A selection of publications of Duncan's stories, edited by Linda:

Fireside Tales of the Traveller Children (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1983)
The Broonie, Silkies and Fairies (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1985)
Tell Me a Story for Christmas (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1987)
A Thorn in the King's Foot (New York: Penguin, 1987)
May the Devil Walk Behind Ye! (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1989)
Don't Look Back Jack! (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1990)
The Genie and the Fisherman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
Tales of the Seal People (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1992)
The Horsieman: Memories of a Traveller 1928-1958 (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1994)
Rabbit's Tail (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
The King and the Lamp (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2000)
The Land of the Seal People (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2010)
Jack and the Devil's Purse (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2011)
The Coming of the Unicorn (Edinburgh: Floris, 2012)
The Flight of the Golden Bird (Edinburgh: Kelpies, 2013)

A doctoral dissertation based on Linda's collections of her husband's stories was completed by Javier Cardeña Contreras for Universidad de Alcalá in 2014, and a selection of Duncan's stories, La Bruja del Mar: Y Otros Cuentos de los Hojalateros Escoceces, was translated to Spanish by Contreras and published by Calambur Narrative (Madrid) 2012.

See http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/authors/linda-williamson (accessed 03 April 2025).