{"product_id":"2940013756120","title":"The Far Islands","description":"When Bran the Blessed, as the story goes, followed the W white bird on\u003cbr\u003ethe Last. Questing, knowing that return was not for him, he gave gifts to\u003cbr\u003ehis followers. To Heliodorus he gave the gift of winning speech, and\u003cbr\u003estraightway the man went south to the Italian seas, and, becoming a\u003cbr\u003escholar, left many descendants who sat in the high places of the Church.\u003cbr\u003eTo Raymond he gave his steel battle-axe, and bade him go out to the\u003cbr\u003ewarrior's path and, hew his way to a throne; which the man forthwith\u003cbr\u003eaccomplished, and became an ancestor in the fourth degree of the first\u003cbr\u003eking of Scots. But to Colin, the youngest and the dearest, he gave no\u003cbr\u003egift, whispering only a word in his ear and laying a finger on his\u003cbr\u003eeyelids. Yet Colin was satisfied, and he alone of the three, after their\u003cbr\u003emaster's going, remained on that coast of rock and heather.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the third generation from Colin, as our elders counted years, came one\u003cbr\u003eColin the Red, who built his keep on the cliffs of Acharra and was a\u003cbr\u003emighty sea-rover in his day. Five times he sailed to the rich parts of\u003cbr\u003eFrance, and a good score of times he carried his flag of three stars\u003cbr\u003eagainst the easterly vikings. A mere name in story, but a sounding piece\u003cbr\u003eof nomenclature well garnished with tales. A master-mind by all accounts,\u003cbr\u003ebut cursed with a habit of fantasy; for, hearing in his old age of a land\u003cbr\u003eto the westward, he forthwith sailed into the sunset, and three days\u003cbr\u003elater was washed up, a twisted body, on one of the outer isles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo far it is but legend, but with his grandson, Colin the Red, we fall\u003cbr\u003einto the safer hands of the chroniclers. To him God gave the unnumbered\u003cbr\u003esorrows of story-telling, for he was a bard, cursed with a bard's\u003cbr\u003efervours, and none the less a mighty warrior among his own folk. He it\u003cbr\u003ewas who wrote the lament called \"The White Waters of Usna,\" and the\u003cbr\u003eexquisite chain of romances, \"Glede-red Gold and Grey Silver.\" His tales\u003cbr\u003ewere told by many fires, down to our grandfathers' time, and you will\u003cbr\u003efind them still pounded at by the folklorists. But his airs--they are\u003cbr\u003eeternal. On harp and pipe they have lived through the centuries; twisted\u003cbr\u003eand tortured, they survive in many songbooks; and I declare that the\u003cbr\u003eother day I heard the most beautiful of them all murdered by a band at a\u003cbr\u003eGerman watering-place. This Colin led the wanderer's life, for he\u003cbr\u003edisappeared at middle-age, no one knew whither, and his return was long\u003cbr\u003elooked for by his people. Some thought that he became a Christian monk,\u003cbr\u003ethe holy man living in the sea-girt isle of Cuna, who was found dead in\u003cbr\u003eextreme old age, kneeling on the beach, with his arms, contrary to the\u003cbr\u003efashion of the Church, stretched to the westward.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs history narrowed into bonds and forms die descendants of Colin took\u003cbr\u003eRaden for their surname, and settled more firmly on their lands in the\u003cbr\u003elong peninsula of crag and inlets which runs west to the Atlantic. Under\u003cbr\u003eDonald of the Isles they harried the Kings of Scots, or, on their own\u003cbr\u003eauthority, made war on Macleans and Macranalds, till their flag of the\u003cbr\u003ethree stars, their badge of the grey-goose feather, and their on-cry of\u003cbr\u003e\"Cuna\" were feared from Lochalsh to Can-tire. Later they made a truce\u003cbr\u003ewith the King, and entered into the royal councils. For years they warded\u003cbr\u003ethe western coast, and as king's lieutenants smoked out the inferior\u003cbr\u003epirates of Eigg and Toronsay. A Raden was made a Lord of Sleat, another\u003cbr\u003ewas given lands in the low country and the name Baron of Strathyre, but\u003cbr\u003etheir honours were transitory and short as their lives. Rarely one of the\u003cbr\u003ehouse saw middle age. A bold, handsome, and stirring race, it was their\u003cbr\u003efate to be cut off in the rude warfare of the times, or, if peace had\u003cbr\u003ethem in its clutches, to man vessel and set off once more on those mad\u003cbr\u003ewestern voyages which were the weird of the family. Three of the name\u003cbr\u003ewere found drowned on the far shore of Cana; more than one sailed\u003cbr\u003estraight out of the ken of mortals, One rode with the Good Lord James on\u003cbr\u003ethe pilgrimage of the Heart of Bruce, and died by his leader's side in\u003cbr\u003ethe Saracen battle. Long afterwards a Raden led the western men against\u003cbr\u003ethe Cheshire archers at Flodden, and was slain himself in the steel\u003cbr\u003ecircle around the king.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079720583408,"sku":"2940013756120","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013756120_p0.jpg?v=1763589849","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013756120","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}