Scotland's Storybook: stories in English (1.1 - Education Scotland

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As soon as the guard heard this he jumped from the boat and pushed Assipattle away and started to dig in the dirt like a dog. Assipattle picked up his pot with the peat in it and ran to the boat, casting off the rope and hoisting the sail. He looked around in time to see the king and his men arrive, and he saw them dancing with rage on the shore. Assipattle sailed the boat close to the Stoor Worm’s mouth, just as the first rays of the rising sun kissed the monster’s eyes and it started to wake up and it yawned the first of its seven great yawns. Assipattle positioned the boat next to the great mouth so that when it yawned again the boat was swept right into the monster’s mouth and down its huge throat. Down, down, deeper and deeper into the Stoor Worm went Assipattle and his boat, right down deep inside the Stoor Worm. Now the inside of the Stoor Worm was like one great huge tunnel, but every now and then there were other smaller tunnels leading this way and that, and some water gurgled down this tunnel, and some down that one, until the water got shallower and shallower and the boat grounded. The inside of the Stoor Worm glowed with a green phosphorescent light, so Assipattle could see what he was doing. He picked up the pot with the burning peat in it and he ran and he ran until he found what he was looking for; the Stoor Worm’s liver! Now, you know how much oil there is in fish livers, so imagine how much oil there would be in the Stoor Worm’s liver. Assipattle took out his knife and he cut a hole in the liver, then he dropped the burning peat into the hole. He blew and he blew and he better blew until he thought his head was going to burst, but eventually the oil in the liver caught fire and started to burn fiercely. Assipattle ran back to the boat as fast as his legs would carry him. Now the king was having a bad day. Not only did he have to get up really early to fight the Stoor Worm and face certain death, but he arrived at the bay just it time to see some idiot steal his boat and sail off to be swallowed by the Stoor Worm. Things just couldn’t get any worse, he thought, as he paced to-andfro on the beach. Suddenly, one of his men said, ‘Your Majesty, I’ve never seen the Stoor Worm do that before.’ ‘Do what?’ said the king angrily. ‘Well,’ said the man, ‘he’s sort of… smoking.’ ‘Smoking!’ bellowed the king. ‘Yes, see for yourself,’ said the man. Sure enough, when the king looked he saw that thick, black smoke was billowing out of the Stoor Worm’s mouth and nose. The Stoor Worm was feeling very ill, in fact it felt very sick indeed and it wretched up all the water that was inside of it. A huge tidal wave of water flowed from the Stoor Worm’s mouth, and there on top of it was Assipattle in the boat. The king and his men, the old 70
woman and her cat from the cottage (who had gone out to see what all the noise was about) and all the horses ran up the hillside to safety as the wave crashed on the shore below. Assipattle and the boat was cast up high and dry among them, and they stood together to watch the death of the Stoor Worm. As it died the Stoor Worm thrust out its huge tongue into the sky so high that it caught hold of the moon. They said that it would have pulled the moon from the sky, but the fork of the Stoor Worm’s tongue slipped over the horn of the moon and it fell back to earth with a great crash. The tongue cut a huge hole in the face of the earth, and water flowed into this hole which cut off the lands of Norway and Sweden from Denmark. There it remains to this day, only we now call it the Baltic Sea and the two great bays at either end are the forks of the Stoor Worm’s tongue. As it died the Stoor Worm raised its huge head, and when it fell back to earth with a resounding crash, some of its teeth were knocked out and landed in the sea. These teeth remain there to this day, but now we call them the Orkney Islands. It raised its head again, and once more it fell back to earth, casting more of its teeth into the sea, creating the Shetland Islands. A third time the great head rose, and more teeth were cast into the sea, forming the Faroe Islands. Then the Stoor Worm curled itself up into a tight lump and died, and there it remains to this day, only now we call it Iceland. The hot water that boils out of the ground and the fires that leap from the mountains there are caused by the liver of the Stoor Worm, which is still burning. The king was delighted, and he took Assipattle in his arms and he called him his son. He strapped the magic sword Sikkersnapper to Assipattle’s side, and he said, ‘My boy, my sword and my kingdom are yours, as is my daughter’s hand in marriage, if she will have you.’ The Princess Gem-de-lovely stepped forward and looked into the eyes of this strange young man who had saved the world from the evil Stoor Worm, and love flowered in her heart. Assipattle also fell in love with the beautiful princess, and they were soon married to the great joy of everyone. They lived in happiness and prosperity, and if they are not dead then they are living yet. Tom Muir, Orkney 71
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Scotland’s Storybook A magical co
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FIONN MAC CUMHAIL AND THE SALMON OF
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said to contain all the knowledge o
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‘Then what is it; the answer to t
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The mist parted and there before hi
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with a huge emerald in the centre o
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what had happened to Fionn and the
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As the party rode through the fores
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eautiful woman walking over the sur
Page 20 and 21: ANGUS AND BRIDE Beira was old, as o
Page 22 and 23: The old man handed the fleece to Br
Page 24 and 25: ode west, back to the Green Isle wh
Page 26 and 27: people to the new religion as had d
Page 28 and 29: Scotland and imprisoned in a castle
Page 30 and 31: that this must be the Blessed Virgi
Page 32 and 33: Thomas used his gift of prophesy to
Page 34 and 35: sadness that would engulf their lan
Page 36 and 37: prophesy that foretold death and ru
Page 38 and 39: e careful of how he acted until his
Page 40 and 41: Without looking up she replied: ‘
Page 42 and 43: ‘Why Willie, my dear,’ said his
Page 44 and 45: ‘What was that?’ he asked his w
Page 46 and 47: So, Rashie Coat went back to the ki
Page 48 and 49: again. When she got home the fairy
Page 50 and 51: problems about saying yes. They wer
Page 52 and 53: her knee and she wept bitter tears
Page 54 and 55: mouth up under her right ear and sh
Page 56 and 57: the branches of the trees as they t
Page 58 and 59: him; it was the greedy laird. He ga
Page 60 and 61: THE SELKIE HUNTER The Pentland Firt
Page 62 and 63: speed. The hunter held on tight to
Page 64 and 65: disappeared, and he was once more t
Page 66 and 67: who eventually arrived to offer the
Page 68 and 69: that the king was to fight the Stoo
Page 72 and 73: MALLIE AND THE TROW Mallie and her
Page 74 and 75: The next morning the trow said his
Page 76 and 77: The Little Brown Calf There was onc
Page 78 and 79: sound outside. She went to the wind
Page 80 and 81: upset at having lost sight of her,
Page 82 and 83: in the black kitchen.” The prince
Page 84 and 85: The Salmon of Knowledge Fionn MacCu
Page 86 and 87: MacCodram and his Seal-Wife Many ye
Page 88 and 89: Although the fisherman was sorry fo
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Scotland's Storybook: stories in English (1.1 - Education Scotland

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