The Pirate is an 1821note historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. It's the fifteenth book of the Waverley novels.
In the 1680s a ship is wrecked on the Shetland coast. Mordaunt Mertoun rescues Cleveland, the ship's captain, and brings him to stay in a nearby village. A local girl called Minna Troil falls in love with Cleveland. Unfortunately for Minna, Cleveland is really a pirate wanted by the government.
The book can be read on Gutenberg
.
Has nothing to do with the film of the same name.
Contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Norna is about to elope with her lover, but she's afraid her father will hear her. So she closes his bedroom door as she passes. The next morning he's found dead. She doesn't explain exactly what happened, but the room filled with suffocating vapour that killed him.
- Aerith and Bob: Played with. Most of the names are unusual but not to the point of unbelievability... with the notable exception of Triptolemus, whose name is acknowledged to be unique in-universe. Made especially obvious because Triptolemus's sister is called Barbara.
- Affectionate Nickname: Barbara is often called "Baby", even by the narrator.
- Alliterative Name: Mordaunt Mertoun and Clement Cleveland.
- Antagonist Title: Cleveland, not Mordaunt, is the pirate.
- Contrived Coincidence: That shipwrecked stranger who Mordaunt rescues? He's really Mordaunt's half-brother!
- Have a Gay Old Time: An unusual case of this applying to titles. Barbara Yellowley, who isn't married, is often referred to as "Mrs. Yellowley" because she runs the household.
- Heroic Bastard: Mordaunt briefly believes he might be this. His parents weren't married in a church, but they went through a ceremony to prove their devotion to each other, and his mother considered herself married to his father afterwards. Then, of course, it's revealed that Norna was mistaken. Mordaunt isn't really her son, but Cleveland is.
- Kissing Cousins:
- Norna and Magnus are related, possibly first or second cousins, and when they were younger there was talk they'd marry each other.
- Because of this, Cleveland and Minna are also related. They're probably only second or third cousins, though, and they certainly aren't aware of it during their brief relationship.
- Long-Lost Relative: Cleveland is the son of Basil Mertoun and Ulla Troil (better known as Norna of the Fitful Head). This makes him and Mordaunt either half-brothers or step-brothers, because it's uncertain if Basil is Mordaunt's biological father.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Norna believes she is Mordaunt's mother and tells him so. Later she learns she's actually his step-mother... but she's Cleveland's mother.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Basil Mertoun's second wife was blatantly unfaithful to him. Because of this, he has no idea if Mordaunt is really his son, and he treats poor Mordaunt badly because of it.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Everything about Norna's powers.
- Norna tells the storm to stop, and it does. Tronda and Bryce believe she made it stop. Mordaunt notes that she has spent years studying the weather and would be able to tell when the storm is about to stop anyway, so her "powers" are more likely using her own knowledge and playing on people's superstitions.
- Norna claims she was visited by a dwarf. Minna believes her. Brenda points out that Norna fell asleep during a storm in a cave that was supposedly built by a dwarf, so the whole thing could have been a superstition-induced nightmare. Even the dwarf's curse, which came true, isn't proof it was real; Norna admits she didn't remember the curse until after her father's death, and Brenda takes this to mean she subconsciously invented a memory of the dwarf foretelling the future.
- Meaningful Name: Played for laughs. Mrs. Yellowley dreams of a plough pulled by three yoke of oxen and decides this is a vision of her unborn son's importance. While she's ill after giving birth, she asks her husband to give the baby a name that reflects her idea of his future. This leads to the poor baby being named Triptolemus (after a character in Greek mythology). Mrs. Yellowley is not pleased when she finds out.
- Missing Mum: Minna and Bertha's mother died when they were very young.
- Running Gag: Claud Halcro mentions John Dryden every chance he gets. Every chance.
- Sacred Hospitality: The Shetlands version of it is why no one questions Mr. Mertoun about his past; everyone is wildly curious about him, but it would be extremely rude to ask.
- Self-Made Orphan: Norna did this accidentally. She closed her father's door so he wouldn't hear her elope with her lover. Unfortunately, this made the room fill with "suffocating vapour" — probably fumes from an oil lamp — and her father died in his sleep.
- Sibling Rivalry: Mordaunt and Cleveland. Not that they know they're brothers at the time...
- Sibling Triangle: Played with; everyone assumes there's a love triangle between Minna, Mordaunt and Brenda, then later between Cleveland, Minna and Mordaunt. In reality Cleveland loves Minna and Mordaunt loves Brenda. Minna and Brenda are sisters, and Cleveland and Mordaunt are half-brothers or step-brothers.
- Stage Names: Jack Bunce decides his real name isn't impressive enough for an actor-turned-pirate, so he renames himself Frederick Altamont.
- Thrifty Scot: Barbara Yellowley is so thrifty that she doesn't want to let Mordaunt take shelter from the storm in her house, because she'll be expected to feed him. She only agrees to give him food when she sees he has a gold chain. Later the narrator summarises Barbara's idea of economy:...the old lady launched forth into a lecture upon economy, according to her own idea of that virtue, which seemed to include a system of privations, which, though observed with the sole purpose of saving money, might, if undertaken upon other principles, have ranked high in the history of a religious ascetic.
- Unknown Relative: Mordaunt has no idea that his father was married twice. He's shocked to learn Norna is his stepmother and Cleveland is his half-brother.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Cleveland is loosely based on a real pirate named John Gow.
