Reissue of the Shorter Stories of Fiona Macleod

Fiona Macleod, 1855 -1905
Reissue of the Shorter Stories of Fiona Macleod, Rearranged with Additional Tales
Patrick Geddes & Colleagues: Edinburgh, 1897. First Edition.
Originally on loan from the collection of William F. Halloran

Fiona’s short stories were reissued in a three-volume paper bound format as follows: Volume One, Spiritual Tales; Volume Two, Barbaric Tales; Volume Three, Tragic Romances. “The Archer” is the last story in volume three. The story, framed as a legend told by fisherman Coll McColl, is a tale of unrequited love that resembles Sharp’s relationship with Edith Rinder. The visionary archer appears in a short conclusion which may have been appended to the story after the receipt of Yeats’s letters from Tullyra. A woman sees a vision of a female archer shooting a fawn which escapes “its heart suspended, arrow-pierced, from the white stem of a silver birch.”

Sharp may have felt guilty about the deception surrounding Fiona’s archer vision. He omitted the ending and retitled the story “Silis” in 1905, although the full version was chosen by Elizabeth Sharp for inclusion in the complete edition of the Writings of Fiona Macleod published in 1910.