I really enjoyed reading tales and legends from
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
In Book 1 of the Trilogy -
THE DREAM CATCHER - my heroine's first experience of Scotland
is a terrible storm as her ship sails through the Minch - the body of water
stretching between the north-west Highlands , the northern Inner Hebrides and the Outer Hebrides .
 |
| Photo courtesy of Pixabay |
They were said to live in caves at the bottom
of the sea but their sentinel were always on the look out and alerted the
others when a ship was sailing through the Minch .
The chief of the Blue Men then gathered his men, ready for the attack. Before
attacking the ship he would rise high in the water and shout to the skipper two
lines of poetry. If the skipper was unable to respond immediately by adding two
lines to complete the verse, the Blue Men would take the ship and drag it down
to the bottom of the sea. If the skipper could complete the verse, his ship
would be allowed to carry on safely.
Here is a boatman's song about the Blue Men:
When the tide is at the turning and the wind is fast asleep,
And not a wave is curling on the wide, blue deep,
Oh, the waters will be churning in the stream that never smiles,
Where the Blue Men are splashing round the charmèd isles.
As the summer wind goes droning o'er the sun-bright seas,
And the Minch is all a-dazzle to the Hebrides,
They will skim along like salmon--you can see their shoulders gleam,
And the flashing of their fingers in the Blue Men's Stream.
But when the blast is raving and the wild tide races,
The Blue Men are breast-high with foam-grey faces;
They'll plunge along with fury while they sweep the spray behind,
Oh, they'll bellow o'er the billows and wail upon the wind.
And if my boat be storm-toss'd and beating for the bay,
They'll be howling and be growling as they drench it with the spray--
For they'd like to heel it over to their laughter when it lists,
Or crack the keel between them, or stave it with their fists.
Oh, weary on the Blue Men, their anger and their wiles!
The whole day long, the whole night long, they're splashing round the isles;
They'll follow every fisher--ah! they'll haunt the fisher's dream--
When billows toss, Oh, who would cross the Blue Men's Stream!
(taken from http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tsm/tsm08.htm)
So where does the legend of the Blue Men of the
The obvious explanation is of course that the Blue Men are in fact not magical creatures at all, but porpoises which are often seen in the seas around
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
Historians also suggest two
other possibilities. Firstly, the tales of Blue Men may refer to the ancient
Picts who used to paint their body and may have used kayak-like boats to cross
the waters of the Minch , therefore giving the
impression that they were only half human.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Pixabay |
Another explanation
links the Blue Men to the time of the Vikings who around the 9th century took Moors
captured in North Africa to Ireland Minch , and some historians believe the blue men are in
fact "marooned foreign slaves" (Mackenzie
(2013), loc. 1391). More
specifically, these Moors may be Tuaregs, who were always called the 'Blue Men
of the Desert' owing to their indigo clothing and headscarves.
THE DREAM CATCHER and BLUE BONNETS are available from
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dream-Catcher-Dancing-Devil-Book-ebook-y/dp/B017D73N0Q/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Bonnets-Dancing-Devil-Book-ebook/dp/B019E15RTE/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
And watch out for SWORD DANCE, Book 3 in the Trilogy, to be released on March 31st!
