The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9608 Message #777567
Posted By: Joe Offer
05-Sep-02 - 01:29 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Ballad of Glencoe / Massacre of Glencoe
Subject: ADD: FLORA AND DONALD, OR, THE MASSACRE OF GLENCOE
Pavane provided a link to the broadside in another thread, and Calach typed a similar version. I used Calach's typing, and corrected according to what was printed on the broadside. This is the version I will submit to the Digital Tradition. Is there a tune available? -Joe Offer-
FLORA AND DONALD, OR, THE MASSACRE OF GLENCOE
O, dark lowered (loured) the night on the wild distant heather And the wild raven croaked out the bodings of death While the moon hid her beams in the clouds out of woe Disdaining to gaze on the fields of Glencoe
While deep balmy sleep closed each eye in rest And the chieftan he slumbered with peace in his breast Ne'er dreaming that hour that fate seemed to show That bloody and pale, he should lie in Glencoe
But a flash soon denoted - the signal was given And the thunders of death waked the meteors of heaven While Flora, poor Flora, she wandered in woe To seek for her Donald, the pride of Glencoe
O! Sudden a flash on her vision did glare While a cannon's loud thunder pealed through the air Awakened ten thousand brave heroes below And roared through the caverns of mighty Glencoe
The smoke now arose from my dear native glen With the shrieks of the women, and cries of the men Naked mothers were shot with their babes as they ran For the English had risen to murder the clan
O many a warrior that evening was slain While the blaze of the village gleamed far o'er the plain A hundred MacDonalds that night were laid low And their blood stained the heath of their native Glencoe
Then Flora she shrieked while loose hung her hair O where is my Donald, O tell me, O where? But the tempest's loud torrent o'er the mountains did blow And stretched and bloody, he lies in Glencoe
When a sigh of despair then arose from her breast, And memory soon told her he slumbered at rest, He slumbers forever, now free from his woe And left his love, Flora, the pride of Glencoe
Her dark rolling eyes then they kindled in fire, She fell on his body and then did expire, No more lovely Flora again felt her woe, But in death found her Donald, the pride of Glencoe
And now over their heads the green grass it does wave, And the wild flowers nod over their desolate graves, And the strangers that pass shed a tear as they go, For Flora and Donald, the pride of Glencoe.
Source: a broadside on file at the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford Printed between 1840 and 1866 by J. Harkness, Printer, 121, Church Street, Preston. [2806 c.14(26)]
Note: this should not be confused with a modern (1963) song by Jim McLean, also called "The Massacre of Glencoe."
@Scots @murder @history filename[ GLENCOM2 NHJ IH MD JRO Jim McLean, I wondered if you could look at the lyrics above (toward the top of this thread) and give us the correct lyrics to your song. Thanks. -Joe Offer-