The Dreammaker  - folk tale from the Scottish Highlands 

Isle of Skye - zdjęcie własne

Once long ago some young women were gathering blackberries on the lower slopes of The Cuillins on the island of Skye. They were laughing and chattering and singing. The boldest and loveliest of them climbed higher and higher up the slopes of the mountain, seeking the sweetest of the berries. Full of dreams, higher and higher she climbed so caught in the search that she no longer heard the singing and laughter and chattering of her companions. 

Suddenly a chill ran in the air and looking up she saw rolling towards her a blank wall of mountain mist. Alarmed to be alone she turned to find her way back but saw that she was lost. Through the mist she could only see gloomy shapes of rocks. She dared move neither forward nor backwards, upwards nor downwards. 

At that moment she heard the sound of footsteps and saw approaching her, huge ghostly forms, like the legendary giants of the Cuillins. She shrank in terror and could not move but fortunatelly the wind made a momentary clearing in the mist and she laughed out loud to see that her companions were a herd of deer, mostly hinds with young calves. These deer seemed unafraid and so she followed behind them. They would, she hoped lead her to safety. As if they were obeying a voice from the mountain they all pricked their ears and set off purposefully along a narrow track. The track led not down but upwards and came to a cave high in the Cuillins. 

In this cave there were an old man and an old woman seated on two stools gazing into a dark rock pool on the floor of the cave. When the old woman heard the deer she rose to fetch her milking pail and seeing the girl at the entrance she stopped to ask her name and her business in that place.The girl told how she came to lose her companions and offered the old woman her blackberries saying, “Can you give me a shelter for this night?” 

“For a night?” said the old woman and she turned to her husband and together they spoke a while in a strange tongue. At length she replied. “For a night, no, but for a year and a night, yes, we can give you a shelter if you will help me. After that the deer will bring you back to the sea. 

The girl agreed. And the days ran by while she was busy milking and tending the hinds. The old woman taught her too, how to find and gather sweet-scented herbs from the mountainside; thyme, wild mint, sage and myrtle from the swampy peat ground. 

These herbs the old woman dried and sprinkled on the heather fire. Over this she heated the deer’s milk to make cheeses. Making  them was the old woman’s life. 

While she worked at this the old man sat gazing into the pool in which was mirrored the world. When the cheese was prepared he took it and created all the shapes and figures he had seen on the pool’s surface. This was his whole life. For he and his wife were the maker of dreams. 

Each night as the red sun set below the sea the old man carried these dreams out of the cave and held them up to take colour from the setting sun. Some he held in his right hand, some in his left. Those dreams from his right hand were airy and light, beautiful dreams full of comfort and promise. Out of the blue heavens they were carried by birds of good omen: eagles, falcons, larks and swallows. These sweet dreams they carried through the sleepy whole wide world.

But from the left hand of the old man came nightmarish fantasies, dreams full of hate, fear and anger. Out of the dark skies, these illusions were born by birds of evil omen: ravens, crows, and vultures. Through the web of darkness they took these horrors under the eyelids of world. 

When the year and one night of the young woman’s service came to the end, the old woman said to her, “You have served us well.” Then in her strange tongue she spoke to the leader of the deer, a hind grey with age. After that she said to the girl, 

“Go well, 

your reward awaits you.” 

Following the old hind, the deer led her by an easy path down to the seashore, but to no place that she knew. When she tried to walk along the beach the deer stopped her. Desperately trying to find her way, she saw coming out to the sunrise a little 

boat with a handsome 

man. Around his throat glistened a hoop of the finest gold showing him to be the son of a King. She looked upon this prince and he upon her and they fall in love. 

He came ashore,looked at her once again and smiled. “Fair one of dreams,” he said, “night after night I dreamed of you, had seen your face in this place so I came to meet you." 

Already the sun was setting as they sailed happily towards his Kingdom in the west. When she became the queen of that land she taught people the meaning of many dreams and they grew wise. But much is forgotten.