Lyr Add: Sleep Weel My Bairnie (Murdoch Maclean)

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Oct 16 - 11:51 PM

Maybe this link will work. Somebody got a little clip from the episode into a video; I just played it at YouTube. We'll see if I can link to it.

Robert Carlyle says "this is for our child, a little verse I like"

NO IT DOESN'T GO THROUGH.
However you can cut-and-paste (I still don't know how to do that. The mouse does it??),
and maybe the video will play that way.
Or maybe not....

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 11 Oct 16 - 11:33 PM

related to "The dancers rise and fa', " about the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights:

here's a funny thing! We have a Mudcat thread for a song, written and published in England, called "The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen."

The first verse of the song speaks of
"heavenly dancers, Merry dancers in the sky," and an earlier line makes clear what this refers to:
"Go see the Northern Lights my boy!"

Funny that the Dictionary for the Scots Language took absolutely no notice of this popular song lyric.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 11 Oct 16 - 11:07 PM

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....

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Oct 16 - 08:21 PM

And about the original post:

The television episode ("The Other Shoe") from the sixth season of "Once Upon A Time," featured Robert Carlyle (Rumpelstiltskin) reading Murdoch MacLean's lullaby, "Sleep Weel my Bairnie." Like many other viewers, hearing Robert Carlyle recite the poem on network television was my first acquaintance with both poem and poet.

One of the writers of the episode, Jane Espenson, has her own Twitter account (as has Robert Carlyle). Regarding this Scottish lullaby, this exchange of tweets appeared on Jane Espenson's Twitter:

fan, to Jane Espenson.
I loved the episode last night!
Who picked the verse that Rumple[stiltskin] recorded?
[note: He records it on a cassette tape to send to his estranged, pregnant wife, Belle from "Beauty and the Beast."]

Jane Espenson tweeted in response:
Bobby picked that out himself!
Wasn't it perfect?

Now, Robert Carlyle's Twitter account alone has roughly 500,000 followers (probably more than that). "Once Upon A Time," although routinely sneered at by critics, has a large, affectionate, international audience of viewers.

So "Sleep Weel, my Bairnie" was introduced to an incalculably large number of people this past Sunday evening.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TARTAN (Murdoch Maclean)
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Oct 16 - 01:10 PM

This poem of MacLean's is often quoted. The version in this post is at the Herald Scotland website , 26 April 1996, byline Gavin Bell.


THE TARTAN -- here's to it!
The fighting sheen of it,
The yellow, the green of it,
The white, the blue of it,
The swing, the hue of it,
The dark, the red of it,
Every thread of it!

The fair have sighed for it,
The brave have died for it,
Foemen sought for it,
Heroes fought for it,
Honour the name of it,
Drink to the fame of it -- THE TARTAN!

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Oct 16 - 07:53 PM

Thanks for the good poetry, keberoxu. As for the poet, the Clan McRae Newsletter you quoted has enough information for me to go on.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 10 Oct 16 - 12:35 AM

This Murdoch MacLean may also be the author of a "Lament for Nurse Cavell," which was set to music by someone named Malcolm MacFarlane.
This refers to Edith Cavell. She is new to me, but the UK Mudcatters must know who she was.

Subject: RE: Murdoch Maclean: Sleep Weel My Bairnie
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 16 - 11:37 PM

The North American branch of the Clan MacRae Newsletter....sheesh, Google is trawling some far shores for me. Back in the day, it seems, Murdoch MacLean was beloved; but there is little online about him. This online newsletter has some remarks by a Mr. MacRae of Glasgow.

"Murdoch was born in Coillerigh, near Killilan, at the head of Loch Long, and was educated in the small school of Killilan.
After leaving school at the age of 14, he served as a clerk to a firm of lawyers in Newcastle, and later saw service in the First World War.
He wrote three books of poems which deal with conditions in his native Kintail and the Highlands. His poems are still available and most of them are worthwhile reading. Although he worked all his life in the Northeast of England, he returned each year to his native Glen Elchaig in Kintail."      

Mudcatters, who knows more about this poet?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LADYE OF THE MIRK (Murdoch Maclean)
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 16 - 10:58 PM

And this one was printed in "The Celtic Monthly."

The Ladye of the Mirk

"Why sit ye neath the dew, ladye?
The hour is growin' late,
The gloam hath hameward brocht the bee
And kine hae ta'en the gate."

"Oh! weel the season kens the bee
Tae hasten tae its mate,
But I maun mark the hour," said she,
"when I sall tak' the gate."

"But dark the clouds menacing frown
Before the hornéd moon,
An' yonder firespark on the downe
Betoken tempest soon."

"I fearna skaith frae tempest cloud
Nor yet frae hornéd moon,
For calm's the couch an' close the shroud
Whaur I sall lay me doun."

"But, ladye, mirk's the tempest's froun
Your message sure can bide?
For fear o' skaith e'en horse dragoon
This nicht wad never ride."

"Oh! why should mortals strive tae rede
Such tidings as I bear?
To distant spheres the wind's my steed
Beneath the shroud I wear.

"There's omen in yon lunar sign
Frowns death upon the glen,
There's treasure in this breast of mine
Sall ransom a' its men."

The win' rose on the mountain brow,
And raved adoun the birk.
I trembled at her accents howe
-- the ladye o' the mirk.

But hark! The peal frae kirkyaird tow'r
Knelled tae the silent dead;
"The bell hath tolled the mystic hour
An' I maun go," she said.

Subject: Lyr Add: A DUAN OF BARRA (Murdoch Maclean)
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 16 - 10:37 PM

Here's another of his poems. In an anthology. Who the heck was he?

Trim the cruisie's failing light
The Son of God shall pass tonight
shall pass at midnight dreary
The Son of Mary, weary

Lift the sneck and wooden bar
And leave the stranger's door ajar
Lest he may tarry lowly,
the Son of Mary holy

Sweep the hearth and pile the peat
And set the board with bread and meat
The Son of God may take it
The Son of Mary, break it

I think the title is "Duan of Barra."

Subject: Lyr Add: SLEEP WEEL MY BAIRNIE (Murdoch Maclean)
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 16 - 10:14 PM

I just watched "Once Upon A Time" on network television, which ended with Robert Carlyle reciting a lullaby poem by Murdoch Maclean. Rather than watch the presidential debate, I hurried to look up the poem, so as to share it with Mudcat.

Sleep Weel My Bairnie

Murdoch Maclean

Sleep weel, my bairnie, sleep
The lang, lang shadows creep
The fairies play on the munelicht brae
An' the stars are on the deep.

The auld wife sits her lane
Ayont the cauld hearth-stane
An' the win' comes doon wi' an eerie croon
To hush my bonny wean.

The bogie man's awa',
The dancers rise and fa',
An' the howlet's cry frae the bour-tree high
Comes through the mossy shaw.

Sleep weel, my bairnie, sleep
The lang, lang shadows creep
The fairies play on the munelicht brae
An' the stars are on the deep.



I'm defeated in my attempts to discover which volume of poetry this comes from. It's not in "Songs of a Roving Celt." Maybe "From Croft to Clachan," but I can't find that book online to peek into.
For that matter, I'm getting nowhere in my attempts to find anything on Murdoch MacLean -- of course, the name is common enough.

His poetry was published during the Great War period, by Year Book Press; some poems were printed in the Glasgow Herald; and -- ??