The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #160733 Message #3814040
Posted By: GUEST,keberoxu
11-Oct-16 - 11:07 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Sleep Weel My Bairnie (Murdoch Maclean)
Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
Thanks to the online Dictionary of the Scots Language, I cracked this closed door a wee bit further open.
The Dictionary cites Verse 3, Line 2 of the MacLean lullaby:
"the dancers rise and fa',..."
as an example of the Scots meaning of the word "the dancers." To wit:
when used with "the", always with the definite article,
it means "Aurora Borealis," the Northern Lights.
Variations of this Scots usage include:
"the merry Dancers,"
"the pretty Dancers."
From a letter dated 1722, the Dictionary of the Scots Language quotes:
"In the North of Scotland...they are seen continually every Summer in the Evening...they call them the Dancers."
This dictionary citation of "Sleep Weel my Bairnie" by Murdoch MacLean says that the poem was published in the collection
"From Croft and Clachan," dated 1919, seeming published in London rather than Stirling.
"From Croft and Clachan" appears to be the scarcest of MacLean's three books of poems. But plainly Robert Carlyle knows somebody with a copy....