07/03/2022
Tam O’ Shanter - A legendary Scots poem written by Robert Burns. It focuses on the main character, Tam, as he travels home from the market (and the pub) after a night of drinking. On the way, it begins to rain and storm, and he has a supernatural encounter riding past the local church.
He notices the lights on inside the building, and as a nosy person, it’s only natural that he goes to check what’s going on. Through the window, Tam sees witches and warlocks dancing a ceilidh, while the Devil himself plays the bagpipes. The church had a reputation for being haunted before this, but it’s decorated with all sorts of gory, gruesome artefacts.
As the dancing speeds up, Tam notices a witch in a short dress and drunkenly calls out, “Weel done, cutty-sark!”
The party goes dark at once.
All those witches and creatures at the dance started to chase after him. Tam pushes his horse, Meg, into a gallop, trying to get to the River Doon and cross it before he’s caught. In folklore, witches can’t cross running water.
At the front, the witch ‘Cutty Sark’ begins to gain on him just as he reaches the bridge. Just as Tam reached the bridge, he looked back and saw that the witch had ripped off poor Meg’s tail.
