A Riddle in an Enigma in a Mystery

Largo Law is an extinct volcano near Largo in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland, and there are many legends attached to it.  I was born a few miles away and I remember as a child being told that, in a cave deep in the Law the Knights of King Arthur slept encased in silver armour, ready to be woken by a horn blast to do service to their king, should he come again.

The Law can be clearly seen across the Forth from Edinburgh.  Largo Law, and Law means a hill in Scotland,  was supposed to have been created when the Devil threw a rock across the Firth of Forth.  There's an outcrop near the summit of the Law that is known as the Devil's Chair; presumably because it looks like a gigantic chair with seven steps leading up to it.

Long ago, sheep who grazed on the Law appeared to have yellowish fleeces, and this was supposed to be because they were either grazing over the site of hidden treasure or a long-lost gold mine deep underground.

A spirit was also supposed to haunt the slopes of the Law, and legend had it that this spirit had a secret to share, if only anyone was brave enough to ask him the correct question.  Everybody knew this legend, but nobody had the courage to approach the spirit until one day the shepherd from Balmain farm on the northwest slopes of the Law decided to find out his secret.  He approached the rather frightening spectre and asked him what kept him from his eternal sleep.

The mysterious spirit told him to meet him later that night.  "If Auchendowie cock doesn't craw, and Balmain's herd his horn doesn't blaw, I'll tell where the gold is in Largo Law."

Balmain's shepherd was nothing if not thorough.  He went to Auchendowie and slaughtered every cockerel in the place, and then approached Tam Norrie, the cowherd of Balmain and warned him, on pain of death, that on no account should he blow his horn to call the cows back to their byre that night.

Satisfied that all the conditions had been met, the shepherd set out to meet the spirit at the appointed place.  Just as the spectre was about to tell its secret, however, the noise of Tam Norrie's horn rang out across the foothills of the Law.  Norrie had either forgotten what the shepherd had asked him or had no regard for the request.

The spirit froze on the spot for a moment, then cried, "Woe to the man who blew that horn, for out of that spot he will never be borne."

Tam Norrie dropped dead on the spot in that second and could not be moved away for burial, no matter what efforts were made.  At length, the local people decided to make a mound of stones over him for a burial plot and leave him where he lay.

Now, that in itself is a cracking good story, but, Gentle Reader, it gets stranger.  There is truth in the saying that fact is stranger than fiction, as I'm about to demonstrate.

In the early 19th century someone (perhaps a carrier) dug among the stones and gravel of Norrie's Law.  We'll never know exactly what he found, but he is said to have sold some silver articles of armour to Mr. Robertson, a jeweller in Cupar, the which silver was melted down and lost to us.

Also found on the site were Roman coins, fragments of Viking jewellery and metal inscribed with Pictish symbols.

Sometimes I think we can be too quick to dismiss legends.  Like Chinese Whispers, they can be distorted by time, but they probably do start off with some solid substance...