Scottish writer William Sharp (1855–1905) had already attained celebrity as a poet, critic, and fiction writer (including such weird stories as “The Gypsy Christ” and “The Graven Image”) when, in the 1890s, he fashioned an alternate literary personality for himself: Fiona Macleod.
Sharp came to believe that the soul of a woman lived within him, and he used this conception to produce an abundance of stories and poems that draw upon ancient Celtic myth. Oftentimes these works ventured into the realms of fantasy, terror, and the supernatural. Most famous is “The Sin-Eater,” an unforgettable story of a man who ritually eats a cake laid upon the body of a dead man, thereby taking away his “sins,” with unexpected and horrifying results.
Other tales, such as “Silk o’ the Kine” and “Ula and Orna,” are tales of romance that end with a supernatural climax. “By the Yellow Moonrock” tells of a woman “who could suck the soul out of a man through his lips.” Still other tales utilize Norse myth to create battle scenes reminiscent of Lord Dunsany and Robert E. Howard.
The work of William Sharp/Fiona Macleod is a distinctive contribution to weird literature. This volume has been edited by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on the history and theory of weird fiction.
Table of Contents
Introduction, by S. T. Joshi
Stories by William Sharp
The Gypsy Christ
The Graven Image
Poems by William Sharp
The Weird of Michael Scott
The Deith-Tide
The Willis-Dancers
A Dream
The Twin-Soul
The Isle of Lost Dreams
The Death-Child
Stories by Fiona Macleod
The Sin-Eater
The Anointed Man
The Dàn-nan-Ròn
Green Branches
Silk o’ the Kine
The Washer of the Ford
The Last Supper
Cathal of the Woods
Mircath
The Laughter of Scathach the Queen
Ula and Urla
By the Yellow Moonrock
The Herdsman
Appendix
By the Yellow Moonrock [beginning]
Bibliography
