Lyr Add: Sleep Weel My Bairnie (Murdoch Maclean)

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,TheMelindaBeast
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 12:59 PM

Hi! Yes, I do enjoy the visual aspects of dramas and stories, but I also love lyrics. And especially the poems of Murdoch Maclean since he is my ancestor. I also play Scottish fiddle so I'm fairly plugged in with that music scene.

I got some information from my dad. Turns out I was incorrect with what I posted before: he's only my great-grandfather, he's my dad's grandfather. Here's what he said:

Murdoch was born in Strathcarron (I'm asking for the date). He became an orphan and grew up with his aunt and uncle. He spoke Gaelic. He went to Edinburgh University but possibly got kicked out for not attending classes. He couldn't serve in WWI because of a heart valve problem from scarlet fever as a kid. He was engaged to Jean Renwick (my dad's grandmother) for like 15 years before getting married. They moved south to Leeds in the 20's to find work. He worked as a clerk, probably in an insurance office. They had three kids: Murray, Donald, and Jean (my dad's mom - she changed her name to Jeanne in her 60s or 70s). Donald died in the mid-1970s. Murdoch died in 1956 probably from the heart valve issue he had. Apparently (according to my grandma/his daughter): he enjoyed the social life and played fiddle and didn't do much work haha. But he clearly did some because he published three books of poetry!

My dad thought Murdoch's wife was called Jean, but if her headstone says Jeanne then that is probably correct. I'm surprised there isn't more info online, especially from the Clan Maclean website/community. You'd think somewhere along the line someone would have done some genealogical research that connected to his branch of the family. Also, my dad says he might have some pictures of him somewhere and is going to get back to me when he finds them. Thanks for the gravestone information! That looks totally correct!

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 04:31 PM

You know, I am beginning at last to have suspicions
about the "Newcastle" statement.
This statement was strictly hearsay,
reported during a reunion of Clan Macrae and
documented in the clan's newsletter.

The evidence gives Leeds ten times for every Newcastle statement,
where Murdoch Maclean is concerned.

Following the post from the great-great-granddaughter --
thank you, Melinda!! --
I did another search,
and as a result I believe
I have found where Murdoch Maclean and his wife are buried,
with the info engraved on the headstone.
It says:

Murdoch Maclean
1885 - 1956

Jeanne Maclean (identified as Murdoch's wife)
1888 - 1979    (long-lived!)

Lawnswood VW Cemetery
Leeds, Yorkshire, England

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jan 20 - 06:02 PM

Welcome, Melinda!
From what the link shows of your account,
you focus on the visual elements of dramas and stories.

This forum has a number of specialties.
Song lyrics attract a lot of people (like me) to this forum.
Music is important to nearly all of us members.

You should join us!
And yes,
we would be delighted to know
as much as you may disclose about Murdoch Maclean.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,TheMelindaBeast
Date: 25 Jan 20 - 05:37 PM

Hi all! Literally just came across this thread. Murdoch Maclean is actually my great-great-grandfather! His grand-daughter was called Jean (who then changed her name to Jeanne), who was my father's mother.
This site won't let me upload photos to this post (as far as I can tell) but here's a link to the poem as it was actually printed in his book "From Croft and Clachan" from 1919:
https://twitter.com/TheMelindaBeast/status/1221157983725477889?s=20

I will try to find more information about him from my dad to verify the facts. It's just so cool that people outside my family are interested in learning more about him!!! :-D

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 26 Sep 19 - 02:53 PM

OK, I had seen that address on Ancestry. A wife and two lads. I'll get back with more information in due course.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Sep 19 - 06:43 PM

Thanks, Evertype! My statement was misleading, and I'm sorry about that;
let me set the matter straight.

The information about Mr. Maclean's year of birth came from
Who's Who in Literature,
editor Mark Meredith,
Literary Year Books Press, 1924.
Page 258.
I found it through Google Books,
although it can only be glimpsed in
"snippet" form;
Google Books says the digital photocopy came from
a copy collected by Indiana University.

That 1924 publication also gives Mr. Maclean an address of some sort:

17, Hollingwood Lane,
Bradford,
Yorkshire

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 25 Sep 19 - 06:17 PM

As to the copyright to the manuscript it is certainly an "orphaned work" though I might put © Estate of MM. But we are presently doing diligence in finding him.

I couldn't find that Who's Who listing. Is it online?

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 25 Sep 19 - 06:15 PM

I am trying Ancestry.co.uk but not actually having much luck, either with the street address in Headingley or with Newcastle in the 20s and 30s.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Sep 19 - 05:39 PM

I find myself wondering if the author
left descendants/heirs behind,
but I suppose
if the writing was never published in the first place,
then the legal questions are simplified??

Still don't have the author's year of death,
nor where he died or was buried ...
much less, who might have survived him.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 25 Sep 19 - 04:41 PM

Yes, that's the typescript I have; I'm the purchaser. I have been scanning it in the past two days and I have 54 pages to go. :-)

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Sep 19 - 08:58 PM

Still a listing online for something that was just sold:

Is this what you are talking about?

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 24 Sep 19 - 08:56 PM

The tune is either a known tune or a known fictional one. From the entry for 24 August 18114 in the collected memoirs of SIr Walter Scott, vol IV, p 199:

"The chief returns ashore, with his piper playing the Macleod's Gathering, heard to advantage along the calm and placid loch, and dying as it retreated from us."

https://archive.org/details/memoirsoflifeofs04lock_0/page/198

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 24 Sep 19 - 08:47 PM

Ah I've just seen the link to the video. Very interesting.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 24 Sep 19 - 08:45 PM

Typos: MacLeod, followed, drat.

In 1916 he've been 29, in 1931 he'd've been 44.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 24 Sep 19 - 08:22 PM

I haven't seen the Rumpelstiltskin episode.

Oh this must be our man. If born in 1887 then in 1949 he'd've been 63. The novel hss smatterings of both Scots and Gaelic as do his earlier poems.

Headingley is about two and half hours on a (modern) train south of Newcastle.

At the beginning of the typescript are two pages of interest. One states:

While due allowance must be made for the pen of the novelist, many of the events recorded in this book are true in fact. It may be that the narrative has suffered in the English telling, but Hills of Yesterday, nevertheless, is presented as an accurate picture of life in many Highland pariahes during the period of social and theological upheaval that occurred during the first hair of last century. [signed] M.M.

and then:

The bagpipe air referred to in this book as 'The MaoLeod's Gathering' is reproduced below: [gollowed by a question mark as he didn't insert this into the typescript]

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 19 - 10:07 PM

Just scared up, searching online,
a copy of a 1924 Who's Who directory.

It listed
Murdoch Maclean
as the author of
Songs of a Roving Celt,
Wind in the Heather,   and
From Croft and Clachan:

and it gave the year of his birth as
1887,
which I have never found anyplace else.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 19 - 10:02 PM

I don't know about Leeds, Evertype;

the poet searched for here
lived much of his adult life in
Newcastle.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 19 - 09:27 PM

This is why I started this thread in the first place.
The video has been , erm, stolen from
the television show "Once Upon A Time."




Sleep Weel my Bairnie, read by Robert Carlyle

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 23 Sep 19 - 07:19 PM

Typo: I meant "Croft and Clachan". I just had stones in my mind due to the derivation of "clachan".

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Evertype
Date: 23 Sep 19 - 07:17 PM

I'd like to open this thread up again.

I was able to source a copy of both "Songs of a Roving Celt" (London 1916) and "The Wind in the Heather" (Stirling 1931). I haven't found a copy of "From Cloch and Clachan" (London 1916).

The reason I sourced them (after finding this thread) is that I recently purchased a typescript novel by Murdoch MacLean which has some possibly identifying information in it—though there is precious little on the internet and one wonders if he wrote under a pseudonym.

The novel was written in 1949 and there is a rather interesting publisher's rejectino letter in the back. His address in 1949 was in Headingley, Leeds.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 May 17 - 01:18 PM

Still meeting with failure,
in my attempts to find at least
the years of birth and death for Murdoch Maclean the author/poet.

I wonder if he died in Newcastle, where he spent much of his adult life.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 06:31 PM

From where is "From Croft and Clachan" available as print on demand?

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 12:56 PM

What a shame. It is a mystery to me how these limitations operate. In the US, that Hathi link takes me straight to the file and into the text.

I am just now looking at "page ii," just inside the frontispiece.

"AUTHOR'S FOREWORD.
Winds that cry under the misty stars;
silent glens, and breaking waves with the voices of the Great Sorrows in them;
homely clachans where loyal hearts beat with the hopeless longing of the Celt --
these were my early associations
and it is of them I sing.

Songs of the people of my blood they are.

M. M.
Scotswood Works,
Newcastle-on-Tyne,
1916."

How are the earlier posters on this thread doing, inquiring after Murdoch Maclean? If he spent much of his adult life in and around Newcastle, as that Clan MacRae Newsletter article stated, there ought to be some way of finding out more about him. I've searched as far as I know how online, and hopefully someone else can do better.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 05:47 AM

at Hathi I see "This item is not available online ( Limited - search only) due to copyright restrictions" ; I could search for words or phrases and get a result saying which pages the words can be found on, but not view those pages.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Songs of a Roving Celt
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 19 Nov 16 - 01:06 PM

"Songs of a Roving Celt," poems by Murdoch Maclean, can be viewed online using the HathiTrust website. Does this link work?

Songs of a Roving Celt

Subject: Lyr Add: LAMENT FOR EDITH CAVELL (Murdoch Maclean)
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Nov 16 - 01:02 PM

The British Library's Imaging department has filled my order, it was delivered today. From which photocopy, the following.

LAMENT FOR EDITH CAVELL

by Murdoch Maclean

Winds of the dawning, low by her grave
Sigh for the fallen, fearless and brave;
Out in the greyness, lonely and dread,
Waves of the ocean sob for the dead.

Honour and Freedom fled in the night,
Thou wert their glory, thine was their light;
Rest to the faithful -- rest till the day,
Tears of a nation hallow thy clay.

Fainting they bound thee pale in the morn,
Martyr'd the laid thee bleeding and torn,
Calmly unyielding, steadfast and tried
All for thy country guiltless thou died.

Proudly thy story ages shall trace
Martyr of Belgium born of our race --
Wrapt in thy slumber rest till the day,
Tears of a nation hallow thy clay!


Presumed date 1917.
Published in Stirling by Eneas Mackay.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Nov 16 - 12:39 PM

To answer the questions posted at Message_ID=3815019 :

Right this minute, in another window, books.google.com shows Songs of a Roving Celt, and from that window comes this information.

In this edition, "The Noggin" begins on page 33. It is two pages long.
The entire two pages are in Scots. No Gaelic. No English.

Page 35 shows "A Bi-Lingual Ditty," first line "To sing thy praises..." it is one page long.

"All Souls Eve" and "Todlowries Dochter" are two separate poems. As you might guess, the latter poem is entirely in Scots, and has nothing to do with Hallowe'en or All Souls. "All Souls Eve" is in English.

Apart from the phrase "cailin dubh mo rùn," which opens each of three stanzas, "Cailin Dubh" is an English poem.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Songs of a Roving Celt
From: Felipa
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 01:02 PM

All Souls Eve Todlowries Dochter is an enticing title as we gear up for hallowe'en

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 12:59 PM

there is a list at https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=j7NBAQAAMAAJ&pg of 7 poems from the 85 page book. These include a bilingual ditty The Noggin, p 36 - is that or is it not the poem you posted? And is Cailin Dubh, p. 70. in Gaidhlig?

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 12:35 PM

A couple of things about the book online, I am so ignorant about computers and stuff, but let me offer these.

When I bring up the google books page, there is a place to enter a search; maybe your page does not have a search feature? If it does, "Songs of a Roving Celt" will pull up the file.

The "about this book" link on said site, discloses that the source for the digitized book is the University of California -- no link thereto, however.

What is built into the URL for the digitized book file,
is something called a BibTex ID number:
BibTexId=j7NBAQAAMAAJ    I have no idea what it is, though.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 09:37 AM

got the google books page, couldnt find how to access the maclean book however

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 09:21 AM

books.google.com "is not available on this server" (firefox, accessed in UK) and searches for lines of the above macaronic verse (title?) only lead me back to this thread or to other Gaelic verses containing some of the same words

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 08:32 AM

a macaronic verse!
a's muir na'n tonn a'g eiridh ard
Cur eadar mise a's mo gradh
the sea of waves is rising high between me and my love
Ach's ard na beann a's fuar na'n tonn
but the mountain is high and the waves are cold

Subject: Lyr Add: A BI-LINGUAL DITTY (Murdoch Maclean)
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Oct 16 - 09:53 PM

Looking at an online file, through books dot google dot com, of "Songs of a Roving Celt."
Here's a really striking one, I think it's the only one in the volume like this.


on page 35: A Bi-Lingual Ditty

To sing thy praises would I try
    Cha bhard mi gus mo gradh a seinn
    Na m'aonar s'mi ann so leam fhein
So distant from the Isle of Skye.


But though the waves are raging white
    A's muir na'n tonn a'g eiridh ardh
    Cur eadar mise a's mo gradh
To thee my fancy takes its flight.

And hours like fleeting moments speed
    Nuair smaoineacheas mi air do thlachd;
    Ged bhiodh mo chridhe fodh broin 's fodh smachd
What other balm could sufferer need?

Skill'd in poetic art were I
    Air te do chliu gu'n togainn fonn,
    Ach's ard na beann a's fuar na'n tonn
Between me and the Isle of Skye.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,Clannessie
Date: 13 Oct 16 - 01:23 PM

I actually have a Murdoch MacLean born on Skye in 1874. Seems his mother , Catherine MacLean, has no "husband" listed for both her sons. Murdoch had a son also named Murdoch in 1902. Older Murdoch died in 1940 and worked as an Electric Crane Operator.

Catherine's father was a Duncan MacLean born in 1810 but he had no sons named Murdoch. Makes me wonder where Catherine got the name from.

I am going to ask my Scottish cousins and friends about the poet Murdoch MacLean now.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 08:37 PM

Sleep Weel My Bairnie is in "From Croft to Clachan" according to http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/dancers

I see Keberoxu found that out as well. "From Croft to Clachan" isnt the scarcest of Maclean's volumes of poetry; it is the one volume that is now available to purchase as print on demand.

--
contemporary review in The Athabaeum magazine
https://archive.org/stream/p1athenaeum1920lond/p1athenaeum1920lond_djvu.txt

Maclean (Murdoch). From Croft and Clachan. Deane &
Sons, 1919. 11 in. 80 pp. boards, 36 n. 821.9

Mr. Maclean is best in his most Scottish and conversational
pieces, such as " Requiescat in Pace." His serious verse is
often marred bv a stilted traditionalism of language. Lines
like

'Twas you who led my child astray
From virtue's path to ways of death ;
She died beside her infant's clay,
And curs'd you with her dying breath,

might have been written by a minor poet of the eighteenth
century.

Mac Tomais (Peadar). Songs of the Island Queen. Dublin,

Talbot Press (Fisher Unwin), 1919. 6 1 , -in. 39 pp. paper,

1 n. 821.9

Mr. Mac Tomais writes in a post-Swinburnian style tinged
with Celticisms. At moments, too, we are reminded of the
loud emphatic hurdy-gurdy of Rudyard Kipling. He sings
of Ireland oppressed, of

A people begotten of freemen,
Rocked in the cradle of song,
Fondled in the arms of beauty,
Fed on the milk of the stars,
And the food of immortal desire.

His poems will be admired, if they find admirers, not so much
for their literary beauty as for their political fervour.
-----
you didnt mention "The Wind in the Heather" published in 1931
'A new book of Scottish verse from the author of "Songs of a Roving Celt". His rhymes tell of the exiled Scot on the eve of his return to his native land and the thought of being once again in his beloved Highlands. Maclean revives memories of a well-remembered place where life seems always to be sweet, and shows up an old longing to be back there once again. He has Celtic fire and imagination, and possesses the gift of turning into verse these things which most of his countrymen feel.' (quoted on Amazon book page)

I wonder how many of the Maclean poems were set to music.

The Pibroch, Assynt Of The Shadows, The Sobbing Of The Spey, No More and The Call (Charles Villier Stanton composer - interesting article about him on Wikipedia)

A Duan of Barra (tune by Edmund Rubbra) has been recorded by Mark Chambers with The Caractacus String Quartet - Topic

Lament for Nurse Cavell (Malcolm Macfarlane set to music and provided Gaelic translation)

you would think Sleep Weel My Bairnie would be sung as well...
This novel quotes the poem as being sung: "Wild Rose of Promise"
By Ruth Carmichael Ellinger

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 08:21 PM

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, as a composer of songs and song cycles, is of course known for his settings of Alfred Perceval Graves and of other poets connected with Ireland. Stanford did set some of Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry for children to music. And this prolific composer devoted his Opus 157 to Murdoch MacLean's Songs of a Roving Celt -- five poems from the collection. Of these the best known is "The Pibroch."

The other four poems used by Stanford were:

Assynt of the Shadows
The sobbing of the spey
No more
The call

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 07:40 PM

the name Murdoch Maclean lives on in Scottish folk music
https://soundcloud.com/murdo-maclean-1

Murdoch and Maclean are such common Scottish names that the question "Who was he?" is difficult to answer. It would be great to get a look at the books of poetry by Murdoch Maclean.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 07:35 PM

Yes, there is a lot still to be learned about this poet.

I saw that as well, Felipa, the lengthy Scottish Gaelic song. The time period is the same, true. I lean toward thinking that they are two different men, and that the author of "Songs of a Roving Celt" did not emigrate across the Atlantic, although I have seen evidence that his poetry was published in North American periodicals on occasion. I honestly suspect that the MacLean who crossed the ocean was already there, in the West, while our Scots poet was serving in the Great War; I could be mistaken on that point.

I forget how I picked up the notion that Coill an Ríogh had anything to do with a hill, of course my Gaelic is non-existent.

On the WorldCat webpages, at least one of multiple entries was entered by someone who believed that Murdoch Maclean's middle name was Campbell, in a citation of The Wind in the Heather. Could be a conflation with a different author who actually had that name but wrote something other than poetry. Most entries for the Kintail poet give no middle initial or middle name.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 07:06 PM

glossary for Sleep Well My Bairnie is indeed from Rampant Scotland
http://www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_sleep.htm

bairnie=child
munelicht brae=moonlit hillside
her lane=alone
Ayont=beyond
croon=wailing song
bogie man=ghost
howlet=owl
bour-tree=elder tree
shaw=flat ground at the foot of a hill

---
I forgot to comment earlier that Coill an Ríogh would mean the King's Woodland
---
Do you think this is the same Murdoch MacLean, composer of "Mo Shoraidh Leis a' Choigich"? Roughly same time period and was from Wester Ross (a large area and does encompass Loch Long but the Coigich I know of is in the northern part, nearer to Ullapool). The MacRae journal didnt mention a sojourn in Montana. Lyrics, translation and video with singer Fiona Mackenzie at http://www.ambaile.org.uk/detail/en/41303/1/EN41303-mo-shoraidh-leis-a-cha//Am // seems to be a different poet because Ben Mór Coigach of the song is further north than the area of Loch Long and Kintail that we were discussing earlier.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 06:40 PM

there was a 19th century bard from the Isle of Skye named Murdoch MacLean or Murdoch MacIlleathan
http://www.apjpublications.co.uk/skye/poetry/poets10.htm
http://www.apjpublications.co.uk/skye/poetry/poets9.htm

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean country
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 05:24 PM

Kyle of Lochalsh is the last stop before the Skye bridge. Kyle from "caol" meaning "narrow". The bridge to Kyleakin has a foot on the island famed for Gavin Maxwell's otter story "Ring of Bright Water". Plockton and Dornie are on the mainland near Kyle. There is now a traditional music centre at the local high schoolm see www.musicplockton.org/

I helped thatch a cottage in Dornie with Scottish Conservation Projects (later absorbed by Conservation Volunteers. And I helped a friend sail a dinghy on Loch Long - the one you refer to, in Rosshire. Plockton and Dornie aren't mountainous, but nearby areas of Kintail (Ceann tSaile)are indeed. ... I didnt realise I've been at Glen Elchaig, but I hiked to the Falls of Glomach with the friend who owned the dinghy, so I suppose I was (a trip remembered more than 15 years later): http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/kintail/Glenelchaig.shtml
...oh I am getting nostalgic ...

An area rich in bardic tradion ...

a reference to the bard Mac Mhurchaidh Mhic Iain Ruaidh of Glenelchaig: http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=76890560&mode=transcription
As you know, one thing leads to another, and I have just read of an American variant of the song Dean Cadalan Samhach attributed to Iain MacMhurchaidh aka John MacRae who emigrated from Kintail around the time of the American revolution. http://www.academia.edu/12954975/Unsettling_Iain_mac_Mhurchaidh_s_slumber_The_Carolina_Lullaby_authorship_and_the_influence_of_print_media_on_Gaelic_oral_tradition

I was able to locate Killilan on Bing maps page.

[Keberoxu, can you hear Mary O'Hara singing Cró Chinn tSaile on youtube? I can't access the Topic records videos. I've heard other people sing that song, for instance Margaret Stewart and I know the first verse and the chorus, but I think you like Mary O'Hara's singing]

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 05:02 PM

Good heavens. In my searches I just encountered a variation of the first verse of this lullaby, which one inventory of obituaries quotes as a eulogy.

Sleep well [fill in the person's name] sleep
The long long shadows creep
The heather sways on the moonlit brae
And the stars are on the deep

No credit to Murdoch MacLean, however.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 04:52 PM

Since several posts on this thread focus on Scots vocabulary, let me see if I can find the small glossary which I see appended to "Sleep Weel My Bairnie" at sites like "rampant Scotland." I don't know whom to credit for this glossary. Sorry, I would prefer to give credit where due.

munelicht brae = moonlit hillside

her lane       = alone

ayont          = beyond

bour-tree      = elder tree

shaw          = flat ground at the foot of a hill
                [what? no mention of trees?]

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 03:25 PM

The Session website shows a song, recorded by Andy Stewart, called Dancing in Kyle, lyrics by Judy Pritchard. The lyrics name-check both Killilan, mentioned in Murdoch MacLean's sketchy itinerary, and Dornie, which is on the opposite end of Loch Long. This is becoming an edifying inquiry.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 03:02 PM

Regarding the place where Murdoch MacLean came from.

The West Highlands of Scotland, of which I confess a total lack of acquaintance, is one of several regions highlighted on the UK website for "undiscovered Scotland." Because I have heard of Hamish Macbeth, I have heard of Plockton, but didn't know where it was.

Loch Long is distinctive on a map, small as it is. Even maps that label only the big lochs, and neglect to label Loch Long, will at least label Loch Alsh; there is a third loch whose name already escapes me after just looking at it, and these three lochs kind of pour into each other at one place. Ferries preceded bridges for traveling, historically, at that confluence. It is at its southwest tip that Loch Long forms part of the coastline, according to the Bing map online, and encounters the other two lochs.

Murdoch MacLean's native Kintail appears to be at near the part of Loch Long furthest away from Loch Alsh (Kyle?), the tip of the lake at its furthest northeast and inland. Certainly it is mountainous. Killilan, where MacLean went to school, appears to be on the shore of Loch Long. A canal connecting Loch Long to a little loch further inland, to the east, is named for Elchaig.

Coillerigh, also Coil-an-riugh and other variations, seems to be the name of a mountain or the foothills near a mountain. Glen Elchaig, I have yet to discover which trust administers it, it seems to be a preserve for deer. There was a guest resort that claimed to be in Glen Elchaig, which posted a little blurb at Undiscovered Scotland; but the link to the resort's website does not function.

"Songs of a Roving Celt" contains a poem portraying an exiled Highlander, longing for Torridon. Torridon has a loch and a castle; it is north of Loch Long.

This is all reasonably near the Isle of Skye.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 10:58 AM

Another thought about the lullaby which started us off. A shaw is a thicket or small grove. More specifically, a strip of woods next to a field. What I would call a fence row.

Shaw also refers to the (useless)tops of vegetables such as potatoes. I wonder if they are the source of "Oh, pshaw!"

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 10:54 AM

Thanks for explaining that the dancers are the Northern Lights.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Lament for Nurse Cavell
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 07:18 AM

Malcom Macfarlane did indeed set Maclean's to music AND he composed Gaelic lyrics for the song. It was recorded by "celebrated Gaelic tenor" Sgt-Major Colin Macleod

aources - World Heritage Encylopedia, Wikipedia, [uk]National Archives

"'Nurse Cavell Lament. Words by Murdoch Maclean. Music by Malcolm Macfarlane. Edited and arranged by Arthur W Marchant, Gaelic and English words. All profits for the 'Scottish Edith Cavell Fund'. Sung by Sergt. -Major Colin Macleod, celebrated Gaelic tenor. Dedicated with permission to the Heroine's Mother, Mrs L S Cavell'
Recording is held by the Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum

Malcolm Macfarlane also composed lyrics Mo Dhachaidh to an existing air.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 06:37 AM

I don't know about Murdoch MacLean, but the nurse Edith Cavell is well-known. I'd be interested in learning a song about her (especially while we are commemorating ww1 centernary) Imperial War Museum page re Cavell

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11861398/Revealed-New-evidence-that-executed-wartime-nurse-Edith-Cavells-network-was-spying.html