This is a true story – I mean, it actually happened.
By which I mean, a real person told it, much as I'm
telling it to you now.
But is it a True History in the sense that the story
she was telling was true?
This is where it becomes difficult. She herself thought it was true, and – however absurd if not incredible and so
probably untrue as it may sound to us to us now – those who heard it treated it
as definitely true.
With dreadful consequences.
So, listen now to Bessie Dunlop of Lyne in Ayrshire.
What happened as a result follows.
A
True History
He helped me on my way
as I was lost and it was dusk.
He looked an honest older man,
grey bearded, in a long grey coat –
the sleeves were of the Lombard sort,
old fashioned, and he wore a hat –
broad brimmed and black, tied down below
his chestnut face which creased and cracked
around his eyes. A wand of white
he carried. There is no more that I can tell
except to say his speech was sung
and in another, different tongue
and he was only three feet high.
The path appeared. I started off
then turned to thank him, but he’d gone –
he’d vanished. There was nothing left
except this wand I’m using now
to heal, give succour and to help
all those I meet who’ve lost their way.
Burnt in 1576 for witchcraft and communing with fairies.
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