Ellen Emma Guthrie

Ellen Emma Guthrie was a 19th-century author remembered mainly for writing about Scottish tradition, folklore, and history. The clearest confirmed detail is her authorship of Old Scottish Customs: Local and General, published in 1885, a survey of customs and beliefs from across Scotland.

She is also credited with Tales, Legends, and Historical Reminiscences of the Scottish Covenanters, an earlier work that points to her interest in Scottish religious and historical memory as well as popular storytelling. Although readily available biographical details about her life are scarce, her books suggest a writer deeply engaged with preserving older customs and oral tradition for later readers.

That relative obscurity is part of her appeal today. Guthrie’s surviving work feels less like formal history and more like a collected record of how people marked festivals, explained misfortune, and passed down local beliefs from one generation to the next.