Gaelic literature of Skye: anonymous poetry and song: A

Gaelic Literature of the Isle of Skye: an annotated bibliography

Traditional anonymous poetry and song: Individual items A – B

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‘A bhò mhaol donn’. See: The Kennedy-Fraser Collection (Songs of the Hebrides 2)

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‘A bhricein bhallaich’. See: The Kenneth MacLeod Collection

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‘A dh’aindeoin co theireadh e’. See: ‘Rachainn ‘n ad chòmhail’ in the Johan MacInnes Collection

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‘A Dhe nan Dùl, Athair-ghaoil an Aigh’. See: ‘Duan an Deoiridh’ in the Kenneth MacLeod Collection

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‘Aig toiseach a’ gheamhraidh gur ann a bha sinn’. See: ‘Oran an Eireannaich’

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‘Ailein, Ailein, ‘s fhad an cadal’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Ailein Duinn beul a’ mhànrain’. See: ‘Hó rionn éile’ in the Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Ailein Duinn, nach till thu ‘n taobh-sa’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Ailein Duinn shiùbhlainn leat’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Air do shlàinte Mhàiri ‘n dotair’. See: The Annie Arnott Collection

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‘Air fàill ill éile’. See: The Annie Arnott Collection

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‘Air fàir an là’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Air la do ‘n Fheinn bhi nan suidhe’

TGSI, 54 (1984-1986), 226-229.

A Fenian ballad from Domhnall Robasdan of Elgol. In Neil J. MacKinnon’s ‘Strath, Skye’ (TGSI, 54:208-239).

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‘Alasdair ‘mhic, O-hó’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Alasdair Oig ‘ic ‘ic Neacail. See: ‘Hillin o hi ri horo’

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‘Am faca tu ‘n gobha?’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘A Mhic Iain ‘ic Sheumais’. See: ‘Oran do Mhac-Iain-‘Ic-Sheumais’ in The Frances Tolmie Collection II

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‘A Mhór, a Mhór, till ri d’ mhacan’

An Gaidheal, 52 (1957), 37

A version of this song which the Rev. Tormod Domhnallach got from an old woman. Eight lines: included in his article ‘An t-Each Uisge’ (An Gaidheal, 52: 36-37). For another Skye version of this song, see ‘Cumha an Eich Uisge’ in

the Frances Tolmie Collection I.

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‘A nighneag a’ chùil duinn, nach fhan thu?’

The Gesto Collection of Highland Music. Compiled by Keith Norman MacDonald. Leipzig: For the compiler, 1895, p. 21

According to a note, this is a Skye version of a song composed by James Munro. Eight verse-couplets and a three-line refrain. Music in staff notation.

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‘A nighean righ nan roiseal soluis’

Carmina Gadelica. Edited by Alexander Carmichael. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: T & A Constable, pp. 230-231. 2nd edition. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1928, pp. 232-233

A love poem of three quatrains. The editor believed it to have been composed by one of the MacDonalds of the Isles, possible because of a reference in the first stanza to Duntulm in Skye. There is a close resemblance between this

poem and the final thirteen lines of the heroic ballad ‘Caoilte ‘s am Fomhfhear’ in Leabhar na Feinne (Campbell 1872:56-57).

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‘An téid thu bhuain mheòraich?’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘A Tharmaid ‘Ain mhic Tharmaid’

TGSI, 49 (1974-1976), 393.

From Sorley MacLean’s article ‘Some Raasay Traditions’ (TGSI, 49:377-397). Two quatrains of a love song composed to his great-great grandfather.

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‘Ba-bà mo leanabh’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Ba mo leanabh, ho-hi’. See: ‘Taladh Chalumchille’ in the Kennedy-Fraser Collection (Songs of the Hebrides 3)

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‘Bando Ribinnean’. See: The Kennedy-Fraser Collection (Songs of the Hebrides 3)

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‘A’ Bhean Eudach’. See: ‘Bean Mhic a’ Mhaoir’ in The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Bean Mhic a’ Mhaoir’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Beir soraidh uam gu m’ eòlas’. See: ‘Oran do Throternish’

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‘ B’ fhaide do shleagh na slat shiùil’. See: ‘Laoidh Fhraoich’

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‘Bha mi ‘m dhùsgadh ‘s am chaithris’. See: ‘Oran do MhacLeòid Dhunbheagain’

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‘Bhi ‘g an cuimhneachadh ‘s ‘g an ionndrainn’. See: ‘Oran Ionndrainn’ in the Frances Tolmie Collection II

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‘Bho thaobh an Ear Thròndairnis’. See: ‘Cumha Lachlainn Mhàrtainn’

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‘Bidh Clann Ulaidh’

Gairm, 24 (An Samhradh 1958), 335-337.

A cradle song, with alternating verses and refrains. The refrain and the first two verses are from Lewis and the third and fourth verses are from Skye.

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‘Biodh an deoch so ‘n làimh mo rùin’

i An Gaidheal, 6 (1877), 90.

An t-Oranaiche. Edited by Gilleasbuig Mac-na-Ceardadh. Glasgow: Archibald Sinclair, 1879, pp. 173-174.

ii The MacDonald Collection of Gaelic Poetry. Edited by Revs. A & A MacDonald. Inverness: Northern Counties, 1911, pp. 340-341

iii Mac-Talla (5th August 1893), p.8

iv TGSI, 26 (1904-1907), 236-238

v Songs of the Hebrides. Edited by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and Kenneth MacLeod. London: Boosey and Co., 1909, pp. 42-46

vi Gaelic Songs of Nova Scotia. Edited by Helen Creighton and Calum MacLeod. Ottawa: Dept. of the Secretary of State, 1964, pp. 208-210

vii Beyond the Hebrides. Edited by Donald A. Fergusson. Halifax, Nova Scotia: For the author, 1977, pp. 63-65

viii Tocher, 38 (Spring 1983), 27-31

ix Gàir nan Clàrsach. Edited by Colm Ó Baoill. Translated by Meg Bateman. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1994,

pp. 120-122, 226

x Songs Remembered in Exile. 2nd edition. Edited by John Lorne Campbell. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1999, pp. 124-127

The ultimate origin of this song is difficult to determine. Of the ten printed versions listed above, only two, the second and seventh, appear to have a Skye setting. These two, which probably have their origin in the same manuscript (NLS 3783), include references to Domhnall Gorm Og of Sleat (d. 1643) and to the marriage of his son, Sir Seumas Mór (d. 1678) to the daughter of Iain Mór, sixteenth chief of the MacLeods of Dunvegan which took place in 1661. The remaining eight versions are set in Coll and contain references to Dunvegan, Duntulm and Rum,

There is in the Sound Archives of the School of Scottish Studies in the University of Edinburgh a version of the song recorded by Alasdair MacLeod of Lochgilphead, who was originally of Kilmuir in Skye. He gives an account of the

song’s composition which is very similar to most of the others, except that the girl concerned is a daughter of MacDonald of Duntulm. This recording (SA 1958/7) has been transcribed by Alasdair Grant. The transcription is in his unpublished dissertation ‘A Study of the Origins of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser’s Songs of the Hebrides, Vol. 1’ (University of Aberdeen: Dept. of Celtic, 1969).

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‘Biodh d’ aghaidh-sa ris an àirde ‘n iar’. See: ‘An Tuarisgeal’

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‘Bithidh clann bheag a’ bhaile muigh’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Bonn Beinn Eadarra’

Gaelic Songs of Skye. Cairistìona Mhàrtainn. Taigh na Teud: An t-Eilean Sgitheanach, 2001, p. 77.

A very old song from Uig in Skye. Associated with the ‘Colann gun Cheann’ legend.

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‘Bràigh Uige’

i Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 16 (1911)

[The Frances Tolmie Collection], 240

ii From the Hebrides. Edited by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser

and Kenneth MacLeod. Glasgow: Paterson’s Publications,

[1925], p. xviii

iii Gairm, 11 (An t-Earrach 1955), 239-241

iv TGSI, 49 (1974-1976), 396-397

v Oran an Eilein: Gaelic Songs of Skye. Cairistiona Mhàrtainn.

An t-Eilean Sgitheanach: Taigh na Teud, 2001, p. 90.

The first version, entitled ‘Tha ‘n crodh air na lòin’, is among the milking songs In Frances Tolmie’s collection. The second, very fragmentary version is from Alex. Nicolson of Braes. The third version is from Ceit Anna NicNeacail, who

got It from various people in the Braes district, the greater part coming from Alasdair MacNeacail. This fourth version has five four-line verses, beginning With ‘Tha na féidh am Bràigh Uige’, in a strophic metre; Iain Whyte’s arrangement of the tune is in staff notation. The fourth version is from Sorley MacLean’s ‘Some Raasay Traditions’ (TGSI, 49:377-397). He writes that the song is common to his people in Braes and in Raasay. There are seven verses, beginning with ‘Tha mo shealgair ‘na shìneadh’, and a vocable refrain which he got from his Aunt Flora. The fifth version is from the singer Art MacCarmaig.

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‘Bràtaichean na Féinne’. See: The Kenneth MacLeod Collection

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‘Bràtaichean na Féinne’

An Original Collection of the Poems of Ossian, Orrann, Ulin and Other Bards … . Edited by Hugh and John M’Callum. Montrose: James Watt for the editors, 1816, pp. 118-123.

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‘Brigis fad’ air Mhaighstir Ord’. See: The Keith Norman MacDonald Collection (Puirt-a-Beul)

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‘Brochan lom, tana lom’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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.’Am Bròn Binn – Aisling Righ Bhreatainn’. See: The Frances Tolmie Collection I

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‘Buain na Rainich’

i Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 16 (1911) [The Frances Tolmie Collection], 176-179

ii Celtic Annual: Yearbook of the Dundee Highland Society (1911), 37

iii Coisir a Mhòid I: The Mod Collection of Gaelic Part Songs 1896-1912. Glasgow: Alex. MacLaren & Sons, n.d., p. 44

iv Songs of the Hebrides. Edited by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and Kenneth MacLeod. London: Boosey & Co., 1909, p. 90-93

v Oran an Eilein: Gaelic Songs of Skye. Cairistiona Mhàrtainn. An t-Eilean Sgitheanach: Taigh na Teud, 2001, p. 101

Frances Tolmie notes that this is a very ancient lullaby, known throughout the Highlands. Her version was remembered from her childhood in Uiginish, Skye and has two short verses beginning ‘Tha mi sgìth ‘s mi leam fhìn’. The second version has eight verses, beginning with the second verse of Frances Tolmie’s version: ‘Cùl an tomain, bràigh an tomain …’. The text refers to the legend of an early MacLeod chief having had a fairy sweetheart (see Swire 1967:108-109), but a prefatory note expresses reservations concerning the age of this version.