Legends of Newfoundland and Labrador

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta,
co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views of
Canada, 1880-1914, and co-editor of The Collected Works of E.J. Pratt.

Though seemingly prepared for Newfoundland schools, this collection of
eight local legends will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in
folklore or a fondness for legendary romance. Some of them are familiar:
the legends of Sheila Na Geira Pike, Marguerite de Roberval, and the
White Eskimo; others are less so, and deserve to be retold: “The
Legend of Ben’s Rock,” “A Romance of Port Aux Basques,”
“Will-o-the-Wisp,” “Legend of Piper’s Creek,” and “The
Coming of Ungava.” Wisely, Ryan has selected legends from widely
separated locales (from Cape Onion to the Ungava Peninsula) and, more
wisely still, he has not interfered with the original tellings.

The variety here is quite appealing. Both Na Geira’s story and de
Roberval’s have a historical basis. The former was an Irish princess
fated by a clandestine love for Gilbert Pike, to spend her life in
Newfoundland, where she bore the first white child to be born in the
colony. Marguerite was cast ashore with her lover on the ghost-ridden
Belle Isle, where she alone miraculously survived after unbearable
hardship. The other legends are more-typical ghost stories, tales of
encounters with the devil, the legends that account for special
geographical features of the island and Labrador. Along with P.K. Devine
and Joey Smallwood, Don Ryan has been among the faithful few who have
worked valiantly all their lives to preserve the folklore of
Newfoundland. This book is a fine acknowledgment of his efforts.