EARLIEST SCOTTISH SONGS AND WOMEN, 12TH TO 16TH C
The earliest Scottish songs that tell of women are in Gaelic. ‘Deirdre’s Farewell’ is a millennium older than any lyrics we have that tell in Scottish women’s voices of their lives in Broad Scots, but in about the 12th C stories told in Irish and Scots Gaelic of the Fianna heroes began to be versified and sung as the songs of Ossian, the son of Fionn and bard of the Fianna. At least two of them were made in Scotland, and they both feature female figures.
DEIRDRE S’ FAGALL NA H-ALBANN
Ionmhainn ftir, an tir ud thall, Albain choillteach lingeantach
Goirt mo chridhe bhi ‘gad fhagail, ach nach ‘eil mi fagail Naois
O Gleann Eite, o Gleann Eite, ann do thogas mo cheud tigh
Alaiann a fiodh iar ‘neirigh, buaile greine Gleann Eite
Gleann da Rua, Gleann da Rua, mo chion gach fear da na dual
‘S binn guth cuach ar craoibh cruim, ar am binn os Gleann da Rua
First verse traditional, 2nd and 3rd from Glenmaven M.S. of 1238
DEIRDRE’S FAREWELL TO SCOTLAND
Dearest Alba, land o’er yonder, thou dear land of wood and wave
Sore my heart that I must leave thee, but tis Naoise I may not leave
O Glen Etive, O Glen Etive, where they builded my bridal hold
Beauteous glen in early morning, for the sun a cattlefold
Glendaruel, Glendaruel, my love on all whose mother thou
From thy clifftree calls a cuckoo, and I think I hear it now
A dated but poignant transliteration by Gaelic scholar the Rev Kenneth MacLeod into an art song of a fragment from ‘Deirdre’s Farewell To Scotland’, part of the tale of Deirdre Of The Sorrows, which is in turn part of the 5th Century Ulster Cycle of Irish Gaelic heroic poetry. Deirdre and her lover Naoise had escaped across the sea from King Conchobar of Ulster, to live in various named Argyllshire glens, but were lured back by a treacherous promise of safe return. Many Scottish households must have held the 78rpm disc of Neil Maclean in 1928 singing this art song lyric with a piano accompaniment.
In Scottish Pageant Agnes Mure Mackenzie gives a closer translation of the Glenmaven ms, beginning
Beloved land of the East, Alba of marvels
O that I might not leave it, but that I go with Naisi
Beloved Dunfidhgha and Dun Finne
Beloved of the Dun above them, and beloved Dun Suibhe
All the above place-names are Scottish, and Collechuan, Glenlaidhe, Glenmasan, Glenurchain and Draighen are also lauded. Here is MacKenzie’s version of the 2nd and 3rd Glenmaven verses.
Gleneitche, O Gleneitche, there stood my first home
Fair its woods as I rose when the sun touched Gleneitche
Glendaruadh, O Glendaruadh, my love on each man that hears it
Sweet the cry of cuckoo on the swaying branch on the hills above Glendaruadh
DUAN NA MUILGHEARTAICH (The Lay of the Monster Sea Hag of Norway)
There was dew [blood?] on the points of the spears by McCumhail of the sides so white. The side of her shoulder was on the ground, there was a shower of her blood on the heather.
The Hag sailed to Ireland to avenge the death of her mate, the Smith of the Oceans, at the hands of the Fianna, but they killed her too, and fought off the avenging King of Norway. Sung by Mrs Penny Morrison, Lochdar, collected in 1953 by Shaw and Collinson
LAOIDH FHRAOICH (The Lay of Fraoch)
He went on his unpropitious way, and gracefully he swam the loch, and found the monster fast asleep, with her great mouth up near the cluster of fruit.
Maeve desires Fraoch, who loves her daughter Fionnsabhair. Maeve sends him on a fatal quest for medicine and he is killed by an island monster.
Sung to Frances Tolmie in 1870 by Margaret MacLeod, Portree cottar, who also sang her Comhairl’ Oisein dha ‘Mhathair (Ossian’s Warning to his Mother).
Even older is An Bron Binn, (The Sweet Sorrow’), a version of the Arthurian tale of Sir Galahad.
The King of Scotland saw in a dream the woman of fairest hue under the sun. Fios-falaich said to Fionn, ‘I shall go seek her for you, I and my servant and my dog’.
Sung to J L Campbell by Mrs Kate MacCormick of Benbecula.
We know of the above songs because they were held in oral memory, but we can only find our oldest Scots ballads and traditional songs through written sources. How old are these? The ballad of 'Tam Lin', who was taken by the Queen of Elfland to serve her 7 years, is among the song titles listed ‘as sung by shepherds’ in The Complaynt Of Scotland of 1550, along with songs of love – ‘Allace i vyit zour tua fayr ene’ [Alas I wipe your twa fair een], ‘lady help zour presoeir’ [Lady help your prisoner], ‘trolee lolee lemmen dou’ [Trolee lolee sweet love].
An alleged fragment of a song sung by Scottish maidens in derision of their English sisters who are mourning their dead on the 1314 Field of Bannockburn is preserved in a 1559 English manuscript by Fabyan.
Maydens of Englonde, sore maye ye morne
For your lemmans ye haue loste at Bannockisborne, with heue a lowe.
What wenyth the kynge of Englonde,
So soone to haue wonne Scotlande, with rumbylowe
How authentically Scots is this? Eileen Finlayson of the ‘Scots National Dictionaries’ points out that the terms Heuealowe [heave and ho] and Rumbylowe are in fact English, and used as refrain lines in nautical shanties.
The lyrics of ‘The Gude and Godlie Ballatis’ of 1567 are religious adaptations of then popular songs, giving us these tune names that tell of romance – ‘Johne Come Kiss Me Now’, ‘Quho [Who] Is At My Window’, ‘All My Hart This Is My Song’, and ‘My Lufe [Love] Mournis For Me’.
In the 1568 Bannatyne manuscript are the lyrics of ‘The wowing [wooing] of Jock and Jenny’ and ‘The Ballat of Evil Wyffis [Wives]’. In the 1591 report of the North Berwick witch trial their songs are named as ‘Cummer goe ye before’ and ‘The silly bit chicken’.
Cummer [woman] go ye before, Cummer go ye
Gif ye will not go before, Cummer, let me
Ring-a-ring-a widdershins, linkin lithely widdershins
Cummer, carlin, crone and queen, roon go we