The Dancing Fiddle

Once there was a pawnbroker who lived in the north country area of Scotland and owned a shop in town. One day a woman comes into his shop to try to sell her fiddle that she wanted to make money for because she was living in a poor situation. The pawnbroker looked over the fiddle and says “it’s a fine-looking fiddle, with its maple spruce color.” He told the woman that he would go to his good friend, Tom Anderson, the next morning, who knows everything about fiddles, to see what he says about her fiddle. The woman would come back the next day at noon when the pawnbroker has all the details from his friend. When she left the fiddle with the pawnbroker, he took it home for the night and placed it in the dark corner of his room. When he goes to bed that night and falls asleep, the fiddle comes to life in the middle of the night by dancing and makes music with its strings vibrating. At one point the fiddle grabs the pawnbroker by the throat choking him. His wife woke up to see him getting choked by the fiddle, so she grabbed it from him and knocked it to the floor, which made the fiddle calm down. After getting choked, the pawnbroker got out of bed to open a window to breathe some fresh air from outside. The next day arrives, so the pawnbroker takes the fiddle straight to his shop instead of going to see Tom Anderson for details. He placed the fiddle at the farthest corner when he got to his shop so it wouldn’t bother him. The woman comes back at noon that day and asks him about the fiddle. He told her “I don’t want anything to do with this fiddle, it’s no good, it almost killed me last night. I had to open a window and everything.” The woman ends up taking the fiddle with her and the pawnbroker never sees her again. 

• music
• short story
• storytelling