Scottish Folk Tales

The Story of Puirt a Beul

Once in the Land Under Wave there lived a king who had a daughter of great beauty. The king was loved by all his people but this was nothing compared to the love they had for the Princess who inspired them so. Her presence made a glow under the sea like the glow of the sun. She had a most beautiful singing voice, far beyond any music that came from any of the musicians' instruments, skilled as they were in that land.

She had many suitors, but none interested her until the Prince of Lochlann arrived, wooed her and won her love. When the day of the wedding was fixed there was both rejoicing and sorrow on the people, for she was going away to leave them.

The Princess was full of joy, and she opened her lips to sing. The tunes she sang had no words to them, they were tunes of the music known as Puirt a Beul -Mouth Music. They woke all the echoes in the Land under Wave and they woke all the courtiers, who began to dance. The fishes began to leap for joy and even the birds above the waves skimmed the surface of the waters, listening to that joyous music. Then they soared high into the sunshine, for they too had heard the magic music of the daughter of the king of the Land Under Wave. The echoes carried her music far, far away, and spread it as the ripples spread on the surface of a still pool into which a pebble has been dropped.

Away in Western Argyll there lived a fierce old giant named Fionn, who that morning was sitting by a loch, washing his feet. The echoes of that joyous sound reached him from the Land under Wave, and he lifted his head to listen. He grunted and growled, but in spite of himself his feet began twitching in the water in time to the music. Then he rose up and his whole body began to dance and sway, and the waves rose high with his swaying and broke on the island shores. Then Fionn, the fierce giant, danced as no-one had ever dreamed he would, and jumped, laughing, until one great leap took him right over the Cuillins of Skye. And still the king's daughter sang.

Next Fionn leapt over the Cuillins of Rhum and landed in "Cuan Siar," the Western sea, in a spot to this day called "the spot where Fionn washed his feet". And still the king's daughter went on singing, and Fionn continued to dance, but now he was beginning to grow tired. Evening fell and he was dancing feebly now, so that by night time the great giant Fionn collapsed, lay down in the sea and was drowned.

And there was great rejoicing all through the isles, for Fionn had harassed them for so long.

And since that time the islanders have kept the memory of the wonderful singing of the daughter of the king of the Land Under Wave.

[(c) Dalriada Celtic Heritage Trust, Isle of Arran]

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