Folktober: Faeries, Folklore and Unexpected Lessons

A Tangle with the Sìthichean

Down through time, the Sìthichean or faeries have had an uneasy relationship with the people of Scotland. This week, they have certainly tangled up my life. It all began when I read about an artist’s attempt to do Folktober last year. It sounded wonderful. The bestiary on our website (a project I share with my husband) SpookyScotland.net sported about six creatures for about two years. Teaching had taken over my life and finding time to add new content was extremely difficult. Folktober seemed a great idea for adding content.

Folktober Plans

I made a list of creatures and decided that for each day in October, I would add a creature, spirit or God or Goddess to our bestiary. That aspect isn’t too time-consuming when you have a lot of basic information to hand and you are using a template. Since October culminates in Halloween, I decided to end with a post about the Cailleach, the Goddess of Winter whose reign is ushered in with Samhain. In September, I wrote several posts in advance and left them as drafts in our website’s dashboard. Then I used Meta Business Suite to set up my social Media Posts in advance. I was feeling very pleased with myself. Meanwhile, I was still hard at work writing my novel.

A Big Mistake

Perhaps if I had just stuck with writing the short bestiary articles, things would have been okay, but I announced to the world that I would also write three long form articles about the Sìthichean, about Scotland’s Loch Monsters (The Loch Ness Monster is our most famous but she not alone!) and about Scotland’s Giantesses- the Goddesses of our past. I started writing about the Sìthichean- then realised how huge the subject is. Fourteen pages later and with lots of stories still to be told, I realised I was totally away with the faeries! I’d had to drop my novel writing to get the article finished on time.

However, all is not lost. I will split my article into three web posts which is great news for the website! I should have this completed by the end of today. Our website is doing well. If I ever go back to teaching, the bestiary will be a fantastic resource when I teach about Scottish Myths and Legends.

Invaluable Lessons

I’m still on track for Folktober, and the process has been invaluable. Setting deadlines and actually meeting them has sharpened my focus. It’s a transferable skill I need to apply to my novel: set clear goals, then commit.

Another important lesson, I feel, is a modern parallel. Often in Scotland, cultural differences can exist between the Gaelic-speaking world (the Gàidhealtachd) and the Lowlanders. However, in the past faerie belief was universal. One of the biggest differences perhaps is that faerie-faith was eroded quicker in the Lowlands due to the Protestant Reformation and the resulting Scottish Witch Trials during the Early Modern Era. Europe experienced a “Little Ice Age” during this period, characterised by colder temperatures and more rain, leading to crop failures, hunger, and famine. Famine quickly highlights the dichotomy between the rich and poor. The Elites needed to divert the discontent away from themselves and with the help of the church, they chose to focus the blame on some of the poorer members of society -the practitioners of folk-magic, the herbalists and mid-wives. A lot has been written about how women were targeted but it was more than just a gender issue. It was a social issue where the working classes bore the brunt of a horrific time in Scottish history.

We can see echoes today: a widening gap between the ultra-wealthy and those with fewer resources; women’s rights under strain; migrants scapegoated as threats to jobs and prosperity. I truly believe that instead of creating a blame culture and replacing it with a problem-solving culture, our world would be a wonderful place. Climate change, wars and poverty could all be addressed.

Novel Update

It feels like I have done a whole lot of writing this week, but very little has been centred around my novel. When I decided to consign most of what I had already written to backstory, my momentum stalled. I had to replan my story beats, and I got confused by all the different conflicting plot advice that is out there. I finally got things worked out and began writing.

Only to hit another wall! My protagonist spends part of our early life in a Sanctuary where the ‘Nine maidens’ are trained. Nine Maidens is a motif found not only in Celtic and Arthurian Myth, but also worldwide- think of the Nine Muses! As I wrote, I needed to visualise what kind of buildings they might have had. So I got to work. I designed a map using Inkarnate. I feel that this is a time of deep learning for me, centred around creativity! Not just my writing, but about using tools like Canva to help me grow a following and to visualise and organise my thoughts. My skills are growing, and so am I.

Once I had the map, my writing began to flow …until those pesky faeries came along and ruined it all! But shhh! We'd better treat them with respect, for Scottish Faeries are not Tinkerbell! Who knows what they might do to me if they feel slighted!

Pictish Arts Society

On Saturday and Sunday, I attended the Pictish Arts Society’s online annual Conference. As always, As always, there were fresh discoveries and new ideas. Saturday focused on metalworking, with several talks from staff at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh..

Sunday was all about the latest finds and theories in the world of the Picts. A highlight was Professor Gordon Noble of the University of Aberdeen sharing updates from the Northern Picts project. Their work is changing what we know about the Picts and bringing them out of obscurity.

Perhaps one of the most exciting things for me was discovering that the beautifully carved bone pins from Burghead are not made from bird bone but from deer, cattle or horse bone. How did they manage to carve such fine detail without magnifying glasses?

So Finally…

So yes! The Sìthichean have tangled my week, but they’ve also reminded me why I do this. Folktober has become more than a content sprint; it’s a practice in showing up for the stories that shape us. From faerie paths to Pictish pins, from scheduling posts to redrawing my novel’s map, I’m learning to balance wonder with discipline- deadline by deadline, page by page.

If the old beliefs teach us anything, it’s that unseen forces are always at work: weather, history, power, imagination. We can choose whether to blame or to build. I’m choosing to build—our bestiary, my book, and a small corner of the internet where Scottish myth lives and breathes.

Here’s to the rest of Folktober, to respectful dealings with the Good Folk, and to the steady magic of finishing what we start.