Origin: Killiecrankie

Subject: RE: Origin: Killiecrankie
From: cnd
Date: 12 Jul 25 - 03:18 PM

Here's a very different version of the text (I think) that I stumbled upon by happenstance today, as related by Roanoke, Virginia resident Lycurgus Drumheller in 1939:

I know you have played ‘Killyme Kranky.’ It was more like a march and went like this:

Farewell Dick and farewell Tom,
Farewell old Aunt Franky;
Every time I think of you
I’ll wind up Killyme Kranky.

If you have been where I have been,
And seen the sights that I have seen;
Four and twenty girls,
All dancing Killyme Kranky.

Roanoke, story of county and city p. 126

Subject: RE: Origin: Killiecrankie
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Jul 25 - 03:33 PM

It's nae shame to shank ye-o
There's sour slaes on Athol braes

I mentioned up there that this seems to refer to disembowelling, as in the "soor plooms o Galashiels". Additionally, "shank" means to stab, deeply rather than a superficial slash.

Subject: RE: Origin: Killiecrankie
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Jul 25 - 10:12 AM

Just so we're all on the same page, here are the lyrics as published by Burns, for the first time, in Johnson's "Scots Musical Museum" in 1787:

                THE BRAES O' KILLIECRANKIE

Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad.    [sic]
Whare hae ye been sae brankie O?
Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad?
Cam ye by Killiecrankie O?

An ye had been whare I hae been,
Ye wad na been sae cantie O;      [sic]
An ye had seen what I hae seen,
I' th' braes o' Killiecrankie O? [sic]

I faught at land, I faught at sea,
At hame I faught my Auntie, O;-
But I met the Devil and Dundee
On th' Braes o' Killiecrankie, O. [sic]
    An ye had been, &c.

The bauld Pitcur fell in a furr,
An' Clavers gat a clankie, O;
Or I had fed an Athol Gled
On th' braes o' Killicrankie, O.
    An ye had been, &c.


And James Hogg's version as originally printed in "The Jacobite Relics of Scotland" (1819):

                KILLICRANKIE    [sic]

Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad?
Whare hae ye been sae brankie, O?
Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad?
Cam ye by Killicrankie, O?


An ye had been whare I hae been,
Ye wadna been sae cantie, O;
An ye had seen what I hae seen,
I' th' braes o' Killicrankie, O?   

I faught at land, I faught at sea,
At hame I faught my auntie, O;
But I met the devil and Dundee
On th' Braes o' Killicrankie, O.
    An ye had been, &c.


O, fie Mackay, what gart ye lie
I' the bush ayont the brankie, O?
Ye'd better kiss King Willie's loof
Than come to Killicrankie, O.
    It's nae shame, it's nae shame,
       It's nae shame to shank ye, O;
    There's sour slaes on Athol braes,
       And deils at Killicrankie, O.


The Scots National Dictionary defines to "shank" as " To use the legs, to walk, go or cover on foot, march."

"Shank it" was a common expression, even used by Burns in 1786. "Shankie" appears nowhere else. I believe Hogg was representing the pronunciation "shank i'."

To the upthread discussion, I should add that a "brankie" appears in the comprehensive, multi-volume "Scottish National Dictionary" solely as "a wooden board for turning cakes on a griddle," recorded only from the 1920s.

In other words, not even the Scots' answer to the OED knows what Hogg's "brankie" means.

I'll stick with my original contention: Hogg meant to print "bankie."