“Wandering Willie’s Tale” was written by Walter Scott and first appeared in Redgauntlet (1824). Scott (1771-1832) has fallen considerably in stature since the nineteenth century. Seldom read today, Scott was phenomenally popular during his lifetime and was acclaimed as a poet, novelist, and critic of brilliance. “Wandering Willie’s Tale” is the most influential of Scott’s supernatural stories.

“Wandering Willie’s Tale” is the story of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, an English lord of the mid-seventeenth century. He moved to Scotland to put down the Whigs and the members of the Solemn League and Covenant, and he made himself hated and feared for his actions. Many in Scotland thought he had made a contract with Satan, for he was touched by neither steel nor bullets. Willie’s grandfather, Steenie Steenson, lived on Redgauntlet’s land, and because Steenie was a merry piper he was a favorite with Redgauntlet and often played for him. Sir Robert’s butler, Dougal MacCallum, was especially fond of the pipes. When Cromwell took power Sir Robert was not killed, but the amount of fines he took decreased and he became more keen about collecting rent from his tenants. Steenie is not a good man with money, and he falls two terms behind in his rent. When he is eventually summoned to pay what he owes he is hard-pressed to gather it all. Steenie pays his rent to Sir Robert, and Sir Robert sends Dougal to get Steenie a cup of whiskey while Sir Robert counts Steenie’s money and writes out a receipt. But while Dougal is out of the room Sir Robert begins screaming in pain, and soon he is dead. Unfortunately, Steenie does not get his receipt, and no one saw Steenie pay Sir Robert the money. The night before the funeral Dougal bids goodbye to his friend Hutcheon, for “though death breaks service...it shall never break my service to Sir Robert; and I will answer his next whistle, so be you will stand by me, Hutcheon.”¹ At midnight Sir Robert’s whistle can be heard, and when Hutcheon goes to investigate he sees the Devil himself crouched on Sir Robert’s coffin. Dougal is found dead two steps from his bed, and the whistle cannot be found, although it is later heard at the top of the house and among the chimneys.

When Sir Robert’s son, Sir John, begins going over Sir Robert’s affairs, he finds no evidence that Steenie has paid his rent. Nor does Sir John believe Steenie’s claims that the rent has been paid. Steenie continues to assert that the rent money is in the house, even after the house has been searched and the money not found. Eventually Steenie tells Sir John that the rent money is “in hell, if you will have my thoughts of it...in hell! With your father, his jackanape, and his silver whistle.”² Steenie runs from the room, knowing that Sir John will have him killed for his words. Steenie rides through the dark wood of Pitmurkie, and stops at an inn and drinks two toasts:

the first was, the memory of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, and might he never lie quiet in his grave till he had righted his poor bond-tenant; and the second was, a health to Man’s Enemy, if he would but get him back the pock of siller, or tell him what came o’t, for he saw the haill world was like to regard him as a thief and a cheat, and he took that waur than even the ruin of his house and hauld.³

Steenie rides on through the forest and meets another horseman, who prompted Steenie to tell him his troubles. The stranger tells Steenie that he can help:

I could lend you the money on bond, but you would maybe scruple my terms. Now, I can tell you, that your auld Laird is disturbed in his grave by your curses, and the wailing of your family, and if ye daur venture to go to see him, he will give you the receipt.⁴

Steenie is frightened, but he is “bauld wi’brandy, and desperate wi’distress, and he said, he had courage to go to the gate of hell, and a step farther, for that receipt.”⁵ They ride to what seems to be Redgauntlet Castle. Dougal MacCallum greets them, and warns Steenie to take nothing from anyone, neither food, drink, or silver, but only the receipt. Dougal leads Steenie to Sir Robert, who is in the middle of a “set of ghastly revellers,” all of Sir Robert’s old friends, and all bad men. Steenie greets Sir Robert and demands that Steenie play his pipes in exchange for the receipt. Steenie does not have his pipes with him, and conscious of Dougal’s words, refuses the offer of a set of pipes to play as well as offers of food and drink. Sir Robert gives Steenie the receipt, but demands that Steenie return a year later “to pay your master the homage that you owe me for my protection.”⁶ When Steenie says, “I refer myself to God’s pleasure, and not to yours,”⁷ the world goes dark and Steenie faints. When Steenie awakens, he is in a churchyard, and has the receipt in his hand. Sir John is forced to accept the receipt, and Steenie does not need to pay the missing rent.

“Wandering Willie’s Tale” has been called a classic ghost story, but it is good rather than great. Its primary flaw is the Scottish dialect, which, while not as impenetrable as that of “Thrawn Janet,” is still heavy-going. The story does not read quickly or easily because of the narrative voice. “Wandering Willie’s Tale” lacks the sophistication of Scott’s contemporary ghost writers and even earlier writers, such as Ludwig Tieck (see: “Fair-Haired Eckbert”). “Wandering Willie’s Tale” is much more a recreation of traditional Scottish folktales–it was based on a story which Scott had heard in his youth–than it is the type of story that other writers were telling in the 1830s. But “Wandering Willie’s Tale” is a faithful recreation of Scottish folktales, and is enjoyable on that level. It has the feel of folklore, is well-crafted if not completely original, and has some moments, such as Redgauntlet’s posthumous call to Dougal for his slippers, which even modern readers will find pleasantly chilling.

Part of the reason “Wandering Willie’s Tale” is regarded as a classic ghost story is that it began the development of the ghost story tradition as separate and divorced from the Gothic tradition. Before Scott the ghost story in English literature was still heavily influenced by the Gothics. Ghost story authors generally used Gothic settings, tropes, and motifs. Scott took the ghost story away from the Gothic and invested it with authentic, native folklore, creating a more English genre. Later ghost story writers did not imitate Scott’s use of folklore but did follow him in creating ghost stories that had nothing to do with the Gothics.

Print: Italo Calvino, ed., Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday. New York: Penguin Books, 2009.

¹ Walter Scott, Wandering Willie’s Tale (Farmington, ME: D.H. Knowlton, 1907), 11.

² Scott, Wandering Willie’s Tale, 17.

³ Scott, Wandering Willie’s Tale, 18.

⁴ Scott, Wandering Willie’s Tale, 20.

⁵ Scott, Wandering Willie’s Tale, 20.

⁶ Scott, Wandering Willie’s Tale, 25.

⁷ Scott, Wandering Willie’s Tale, 25.