John Francis Campbell in Highland dress, from a volume labelled ‘West Highland Tales vol. XVII’, which contains mainly versions of ‘The Story of O’Cein’s Leg’ and notes.
This article was originally published in 'Discover' magazine, issue 48, summer 2023.
Words: Ulrike Hogg.
Artist, mythologist, amateur geologist, polyglot, polymath and, by all accounts, all-round top guy John Francis Campbell (1821 to 1885) was a man of means who meant well, and did well. Without his work, many tales in the Gaelic folktale tradition would be lost.
To understand what compelled him to do so, we can point to his unorthodox upbringing for someone of an aristocratic background. He was born in London and would go to school at Eton and later study law at the University of Edinburgh. But before that, he spent his childhood on Islay, in the care of the family piper (whom Campbell called his 'nurse').
Campbell's piper-come-nurse took him to places that someone of Campbell's social stature would not normally access – crofts, bothies and community storytelling gatherings. Simply being around people's day-to-day lives in the Highlands and Islands meant Campbell had a deep appreciation for Gaelic culture and a strong command of the language.
After his studies, Campbell first became private secretary to the Duke of Argyll before being appointed secretary to a number of scientific royal commissions in succession. This seems to have left him with plenty of one of the most coveted of resources – free time.
He had too many interests to list here but, beside his fascination for scientific subjects, such as rock formations and plate tectonics, he also had strong cultural interests largely focused on communities and their stories. Campbell always had an interest in fairy tales and folktales. He was given a copy of the collection of stories 'One Thousand and One Nights' (then known as 'Arabian Nights') when he was six and devoured them. He was living on Islay at the time and we can only assume he was beginning to make connections between the themes from the international fairy tales and folktales he was reading and those he was listening to by the fire.
Later in life, Campbell became aware there were people carrying out research in comparative literature or mythology on the European continent. They were exploring common themes and motifs between stories, as well as the idea that all stories originated in the East and migrated West only to wash up on the Irish coast. These theories and discussions appealed to Campbell and he set about contributing by collecting the Gaelic stories which developed in Scotland.
Gaelic stories come in two categories – one is the hero sagas, the Fenians, which feature Fionn Mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) and his band of warriors – also much celebrated in Irish mythology. The other is the 'newer' tales, more akin to the Grimms' folktales, featuring the usual, such as witches and giants – with more malevolence than wonder. Campbell was most concerned with the latter. These were mainly preserved through the oral tradition and were at risk of dying out.
There are several possible reasons why these stories were fading. Local ministers and schoolmasters at the time had fundamental religious leanings and considered these stories in competition with those of the Bible. They decried the folktales as lies and their negative attitude indirectly suppressed storytelling events. At the same time, emigration was taking off in earnest in the region, slowly decimating communities in the Highlands and Islands. Literacy was also on the rise, meaning people had more choice and were perhaps choosing to read other stories.
Campbell's childhood in Islay left him well-equipped to save these stories. The Gaelic-speaking Highlanders respected him – there were not many people from his background who could converse in their language.
He was a likeable, affable man by all accounts, with a wry sense of humour. He was self-deprecating, evidenced by his self-portrait caricatures in which his portliness – or awkwardness in the Highland landscape – were exaggerated.
He documented everything – his notebooks suggest he collected folktales at every opportunity. He once gathered a tale from a tailor, who told him that he got it from a heather rope maker while they happened to be working side by side. He learned it from him after only one telling. This was how people passed the time – they told tales.
There were not many young people telling stories any more when Campbell and his helpers were collecting them. But Campbell reports on traditions that show it was still an intrinsic part of life for many, especially on the Outer Hebrides.
If someone from outside the community was visiting a house, this visitor had a task ahead of them. News spread and people would flock to the host's house seeking entertainment in the form of news and stories. The host would tell the first story, followed by the main attraction for the evening – the visitor. This visitor was expected to go on all night. Some individuals were particularly renowned or well-liked as storytellers. They typically had a huge store of stories which they performed vividly and they were known for a guaranteed entertaining evening.
Storytellers during this time had a remarkable ability to retain information. A person did not need much by way of repetition to commit a story to memory. It was not uncommon for someone to hear it once and be able to retell it in full and verbatim.
These stories, well told, had a profound effect on their audience, similar perhaps to what people experience after seeing an adventure movie today. Several accounts exist where people said the stories were so vivid that they were scared to walk home lest they encounter a giant or some other malicious creature. In many of these storytelling settings, Campbell would be found listening and taking summaries in English. He employed others to write the stories verbatim as he did not trust his proficiency in written Gaelic. His most important helpers were Hector Maclean, a schoolmaster at Ballygrant, Islay, and Hector Urquhart, gamekeeper at Ardkinglas, Loch Fyne.
Some storytellers were understandably thrown by this and it often affected the speed and rhythm of their performance. But many saw the value in the stories' preservation – especially as storytellers were decreasing in number.
Campbell must have felt he was in a race against time because he worked extremely fast, while applying a high degree of scholarship to his pursuits. His work – making a contribution to what he called 'storyology' – began in 1859 and the first two volumes of stories were printed in 1860. He dissected some of the tales, enabling him to compare the versions known in one region of the Highlands to another.
He was most excited when he came across parallels to tales from other countries such as 'The Frog Prince' or 'The Town Musicians of Bremen' in the Grimms' tales. He was a keen traveller. To meet all of his interests – storytelling, art, geology – he travelled extensively around Scotland, to most corners of Europe, including to both Iceland and Italy in pursuit of volcanology. In 1875 he travelled the world, visiting China, Japan, Russia and North America.
A gifted visual artist, Campbell captured the Highlands and other breathtaking landscapes around the world in watercolours. He also experimented with peat and whisky for a series of sketches that bring some of the Gaelic folktales to life.
He sketched as many people as he could, but some of the people he wanted to capture did not have what he had – the luxury of time.
In all his travels, the Sami people – who lived in the very northern reaches of Scandinavia and Russia – as well as the Gaelic communities of the Highlands and Islands, were the most difficult to pin down. They were too busy with work to sit still for long enough.
We can assume some people did not want to be featured in his drawings. Few portraits exist of the storytellers but they are brought to life through Campbell's notes and observations.
Without the generosity of the Gaelic people who shared their stories, we would not have the legacy we have today. Without Campbell's dedication to story, some of the tales that enthralled generations of Highland communities might not exist on record today. These, you can experience at our library.
'Sgeul | Story: Folktales from the Scottish Highlands' opens on 9 June 2023 and runs until April 2024 at our George IV Bridge building in Edinburgh. Entry is free. More events will be added over the summer, details of which will be made available on our website.
Read the full 'Discover' issue:
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'Discover' issue 48 pages 1 to 21 (PDF) (4.17 MB; 21 pages)
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'Discover' issue 48 pages 22 to 36 (PDF) (3.34 MB; 14 pages)