Black Bull of Norroway

Recording by Nan Dodge.

The Black Bull of Norroway.

In bygone days, long centuries ago, there lived a widowed queen who had three daughters.

And this widowed queen was so poor and had fallen upon such evil days that she and her daughters had often much ado to get enough to eat.

On the third day, however, what should she see but a great black bull coming rushing along the road, bellowing as it came, and tossing its head fiercely in the air.

In great alarm the little princess shut the door and ran to the henwife to tell her about the furious animal that was approaching.

Hech, Hinnie, cried the old woman, holding up her hands in dismay, and who would have thought that the black bull of Norroway would be your fate? At the words the poor little maiden grew pale.

She had come out to seek her fortune, but it had never dawned upon her that her fortune could be anything so terrible as this.

It was already being called an old story in Scotland in fifteen forty-eight when it was first documented.

It is called The Black Bull of Norroway.

It carries medicine about the shapes that our fortunes take, about what we must lose in order to walk on our own feet, and about the long labor of becoming ourselves when nothing yet confirms that it's working.

Let's begin.