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Daniel Allison is a USA Today bestselling author, oral storyteller and creative coach from Scotland. His fortnightly podcast, House of Legends, features myths and legends told by Daniel and guest tellers from around the world.

Daniel’s debut novel, The Shattering Sea, and his story collections, Scottish Myths & Legends, Irish Mythology; The Children of Danu and Finn & The Fianna, are available now.

‘A master storyteller whose words are visions… this is Celtic myths & legends at their fantastic best!’

Jess Smith, Author of Way of the Wanderers

 
 

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I believe that working with tradition is about tending the flames, not worshipping the ashes. I tell stories, I teach storytelling and I take ancient stories into today’s world.

My fiction, story collections, live shows and workshops venture beyond what is known in Celtic mythology. It’s in these places that the old can meet the new, tradition informs creativity and we can give new life to the animistic world of our ancestors. 

 
 
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If you’ve found your way here then you probably love old stories. You sense that they are more than entertainment; they are the hard-won wisdom of our ancestors, passed on in a way that guaranteed their survival.

But does that knowledge hold up today? I believe so. The old stories and the telling of those stories can open pathways to the Lady of the Moon, to antlered men, to winged serpents sleeping in the dreaming caves within you.

The old stories can bring rapturous and radical change to your life. They want you to pick up the burning sun-feathers that land on your path, just to see what happens. Without the ravens of myth whispering into your ear, those feathers tend to get trampled.

 
 
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From The Cailleach:

Darkness.

Silence.

A time before time.

In that time, the Cailleach came.

She came from the north, from further north than North, atop a throne of storms. Blue-skinned and white-eyed, her breath so cold that it shattered stars, she sought a new home.

Beneath her, she spied a mass of rock. It had no shape; no peaks nor valleys, no trees nor rivers, no birds nor four-footed things. 

It had no gods.

The rock called to her. She sang to it, and it roared at her. Make a home here, it said. Sink your hands into me. Make me anew.

The Old Woman of Winter was pleased. She landed on the rocks, making the whole world shake. 

Waves crashed against the shores, leaping up to greet her. Amid swirling storms, the Cailleach set to work.

The crone plunged her hands into the eager rock. Grinding and breaking and pummelling the stone, she forged it anew.

The Cailleach made mountains. Armies of mountains. Legions of mountains. A stone forest of bristling teeth; a galaxy of temples to snow, cold and screaming wind. The wind swirled around her, urging her on, cladding her creation in icy armour.

 After time uncounted, the Cailleach looked about herself. She was nearly finished. All she needed was a seat from which to observe her home. With the last of her strength, she built a shoreside mountain that towered above all the others. Finally, she climbed atop it and lay down to sleep. 


 
 

If you’re curious to learn more, get started by listening to an episode of House of Legends podcast here or using the player below.

Alternatively, you could dive straight into one of my books, the USA Today bestseller Scottish Myths & Legends or Finn & The Fianna.

If you’d prefer a fast-paced fantasy that twists like a viper and keeps many readers up all night, try The Shattering Sea, which is the first part of my mythic fantasy series, The Orkney Cycle. It’s a fan favourite and if you buy it as an ebook, it’s free.

Want to tell stories yourself? Take a look at Myth Singers, my Celtic Storytelling Apprenticeship.

 
 
 
 
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A spellbinding testament to the power of Irish myth

- Sorcha Hegarty, Candlelit Tales


A much-needed telling of the Irish ‘in the beginning’… beautifully written and very accessible

– Sandy Dunlop, Bard Mythologies


Despite the historical remoteness of these ancient tales, Allison’s telling is deeply engrossing; his exuberant style illuminates what is human and deeply relatable in material known for the lofty and the grand… friendship, love, and betrayal alike shine with realism, and moments deeply moving and beautiful arise from the text like healing herbs growing from the dark soil of the past.

- Danica Boyce, Fair Folk Media

Epic battles, shrouded otherworlds and secret sorcery... Daniel Allison's book is a gem

- Paddy O’Brien, Irish Storyteller


 


Finn’s world is superbly portrayed

★★★★★ Reader Review


So engaging, like all of Daniel Allison’s books, but even more so

Stephen McCabe, Oral Storyteller


Utterly brilliant

★★★★★ Reader Review


Deserves to be on every bookshelf in Scotland & Ireland

- Fiona Herbert, Oral Storyteller


I just couldn’t put it down… on one occasion I was minding my baby granddaughter & as she was drifting off to sleep I read a chapter of this book to her. Every time I stopped she awoke

★★★★★ Reader Review


 This book made me fall in love with my favourite stories all over again

- Csenge Zalka, author Dancing on the Blades


 
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GET SILVERBORN, DANIEL’S FREE EBOOK

 
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