The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #15970   Message #414619
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
10-Mar-01 - 10:44 AM
Thread Name: Origin: Scotland the Brave
Subject: Lyr Add: SCOTLAND THE BRAVE
Found at The John McDermott Fan Club:

SCOTLAND THE BRAVE (LET ITALY BOAST)

Let Italy boast of her gay gilded waters,
Her vines and her bowers and her soft sunny skies;
Her sons drinking love from the eyes of her daughters,
Where freedom expires amid softness and sighs.
Scotland's blue mountains, wild where hoary cliffs are piled,
Towering in grandeur are dearer tae me:
Land of the misty cloud, land of the tempest loud,
Land of the brave and proud land of the free.

Enthroned on the peak of her own highland mountains,
The spirit of Scotia reigns fearless and free;
Her green tartan waving o'er blue rock and fountain
And proudly she sings, looking over the sea.
Here, among my mountains wild, I have serenely smiled
When armies and empires against me were hurled:
Firm as my native rock, I have withstood the shock
Of England, of Denmark, or Rome and the world.

But see how proudly her war steeds are prancing;
Deep groves of steel trodden down in their path.
The eyes of my sons like their bright swords are glancing;
Triumphantly riding through ruin and death.
Bold hearts and nodding plumes wave o'er their bloody tombs,
Deepeyed in gore is the green tartan's wave.
Shivering are the ranks of steel, dire is the horseman's wheel;
Victorious in battlefield, Scotland the brave.

Unfortunately, McDermott seems to have named no source for this text, saying merely that it is "much older than Cliff [Hanley]'s." The two "versions" on the DT are both Hanley's well-known lyric (written around 1955, I think), though neither credits him:

Full transcription, a little marred by somebody's insistence on omitting final -g on many words.

Scotland the Brave A better transcription, though it lacks the final verse.

In the Forum:

Parody as recorded by The Corries

Cliff Hanley's lyric -final verse omitted.

Malcolm