Writer sought to gather Dumfries and Galloway folklore

August 17, 2013 by Daniela Leave a comment

A writer is being sought to gather and retell folklore, myths, legends and tales about Dumfries and Galloway. Keyboard

The initiative is being organised by the Wigtown Book Festival with funding from Fresh Start for the Arts.

It has been loosely inspired by John Mactaggart’s work of 1876, the Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopaedia.

Festival director Adrian Turpin said the region was “rich in stories and legends” and people still enjoyed telling such tales.

“We are working with Fresh Start to find one, or more, authors who can gather up these stories, a little like Mactaggart did in the 19th Century, and retell them for a 21st Century audience,” he said.

“Back then the printed page was the main way of recording stories, but these days we have all sorts of other options such as web publications, so this could take all sorts of exciting forms.”

Candidates need to be published authors and will be expected to meet people across the region, in Wigtownshire, The Stewartry, Nithsdale, Annandale and Eskdale to gather source material.

They will also attend this year’s Wigtown Book Festival.

Kathleen O’Neill, Fresh Start project manager, said: “We love this idea; it’s hugely imaginative and a great opportunity to really uncover the essence of Dumfries and Galloway.

“It’s exactly the kind of project we want to encourage because it promotes local arts and creativity and shines a light on the culture of the whole region.

“We are also very pleased to be working with the Wigtown Book Festival, one of the international cultural events for which Dumfries and Galloway is famous.”

Author: Daniela

I will forever be grateful that I was introduced to the utility and beauty of hand crafted products early in life - from the symbolic motifs sewn into the coarse linen fabric of Croatian traditional wear to the colorful Kilim carpets that decorated the parquet floors in my grandmother's living room. I treasure the memories of my grandfather teaching me how to protect myself against the "evil eye," the smell of the flower stalls in the open air market where my grandmother bought produce early every morning for the day’s meals and the summers spent at my great grandmother's where the village wags would come to gossip over thick, black Turkish coffee in her cool stone kitchen. Someone noted that "For all of us that want to move forward, there are a very few that want to keep the old methods of production, traditions and crafts alive." I am a fellow traveler with those who value the old traditions and folk wisdom. I believe the knowledge they possess can contribute significantly to our efforts to build a more sustainable world - one that values the individual over the corporation, conservation over growth and happiness over wealth.