In Border Scots lore it would seem that the Feast of St Martin has something
of the same connotations of Hallowe'en:
viz
"It fell about the Martinmas
When the nights were lang and mirk,
The carlin wife's three sons came hame,
And their hats were of the birk ..."
The Wife of Usher's Well.
The point is that the three sons are revanants as we learn in the second
verse of the ballad that the three sons were all drowned at sea and the
purpose of their visit it to offer some comfort to their bereft and widowed
mother who has cursed the weather until her three sons should come home "in
earthly flesh and blood"....
The birchwood of which their hats are made grows at the gates of Paradise...
Any parallels to this in more refined sources ????
Any other comments ?
BMC
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