Perth teacher gives Story of Little Mole a Scottish brogue

A tale that has entertained children around the world has been translated into broad Scots by a Perth teacher.

Matthew Mackie, principal teacher of computing at Perth High, thought the humour of German author Werner Holzwarth’s The Story of Little Mole would work well with a Scottish slant.

Reinvented as The Tale o’ the Wee Mowdie, Mr Mackie hopes it will appeal to all ages.

“I have known the story for a while and thought an adaptation into broad Scots would work,” said Mr Mackie.

“It has been great fun to translate. There are wonderful Scots words for each of the animals in the tale, ‘mowdie’ for ‘mole’, ‘coo’ for ‘cow’, ‘cuddy’ for ‘horse’, ‘grumph’ for ‘pig’ etc and juist aboot aw Scots speakers ken ‘heid’, ‘lug’ and ‘neb’ for ‘head’, ‘ear’, and ‘nose’.

“Other Scots expressions, ‘midgie’s whisker’, ‘sair temptit’, ‘plain as parritch’, all seemed to fit the story so well.

“The book is so far proving popular with adults as well as children.”

As a teacher himself, Mr Mackie hopes the book will be available in schools, where it can be used to support the teaching of Scots language in schools.

There are also plans to work with the Scots Language Centre in Perth to produce educational materials to support the text.

The Scots translation is the latest incarnation for the story, which is already available in dozens of languages. The book is illustrated by Wolf Erlbruch, a past winner of the Hans Christian Anderson Award for Illustration.

Matthew Mackie.