The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #28904 Message #3501144
Posted By: Allan Conn
09-Apr-13 - 06:50 PM
Thread Name: Origin: Killiecrankie
Subject: RE: Origin: Killiecrankie
"I grew up understanding brankie to be a reference to violence"
I think the word has two different meanings in this song. In the Fie Mackay verse I think you are right - but in the first verse it has a completely different meaning. The Chambers Scots Dictionary gives the meaning as being "vain, puffed up, to prance".
Basically the narrator is a Hanovarian soldier who in the aftermath of the battle meets another Hanovarian soldier who hasn't been at the battle. He is saying that he wouldn't be so vain, or in the chorus so cantie (ie cheerful) if he had been at Killiecrankie.