Commonplace Folklore: Reflections

Folklore as definition of life.

This season took some time to compile and prepare, not because I wasn’t sure what to say, but because there were so many interesting texts I could have referenced. Even after I decided on the texts, I sat down to choose the exact excerpts and got delightfully lost in them all over again. Should I choose George Mackay Brown musing on the origin of the name “Brinkie’s Brae”? I settled for his solstice thoughts in the end.

Some of the books pre-dated my research studies (Martin Martin, for example, was actually a text from my MLitt in Highlands and Islands Literature), and some are very recent editions (I bought the Hugh Miller text only a few weeks ago in a fantastic little bookshop in Dingwall - one of those that are filled to the brim, with books perched on anything and everything available). Many of the texts I chose weren’t referenced in my thesis at all in the end, but the ones I owned at that point were a fantastic resource to dip into whilst I was studying, and to look to for inspiration.

Folklore is important. It is a key part of all of our lives, and I ensure that I welcome it as much as possible. As an example, nine years ago today, Euan and I were married on the shores of Loch Morlich in the Cairngorms. We had chosen the day very deliberately, and even ensured that we would be married before noon, so we could be April Fools. We didn’t have too many guests and told very few other people in advance about our wedding, so to this day I have friends who aren’t entirely sure whether we’re legally married.

Folklore doesn’t just add an extra dimension to our lives, it is the way in which we understand and map life, both individually and collectively. I will close this season with the final words of my thesis:

At the beginning of this thesis, I quoted Warren Ellis:

“Folklore as operating system. Language as spell. Landscape as definition of life.”
(Ellis 2015)

Analysing the physical, human, and online environments of Orkney, as evidenced within the research, a revised version of this statement seems more appropriate:

“Landscape as operating system. Language as spell. Folklore as definition of life.”

I’ll be back on the first day of May with an update on the theme for my next seasonal notebook, which will run throughout June.

Lydia Crow
The Highlands, Scotland