GAELIC ELEGIES AND LAMENTS BY WOMEN

Where old song narratives were expressed in women’s voices, some if not most must have been made by women. To give surer dates we must wait till we can know of the first named women song-makers, and Gaelic tradition tells us of some. Scottish Gaels honour the women makers long before Scots-speakers name their ballad and song makers. Anne C Frater says ‘The vast majority of the Gaelic poems composed by women that survived from before 1750 date from the 16th and early 17th centuries. There are almost 200 songs from this period composed by women, with over thirty named authors, illustrating the lasting appeal of these old songs and the skill of those who made them.’ Many of the songs were elegies or laments, and songs praising the living were often disguised as lullabies or croons so that the maker would not be accused of ‘straying into Bardic territory’, considered to be the province of men only.
Frater uses the terms poem and song interchangeably, for up until the 20th Century lyrics were made to be sung. ‘Their libraries were in their heads, and their often ex tempore compositions display a thorough knowledge of Clan history Gaelic legend, while their memories of other songs were used as a framework on which to build their own.’ [Frater]
As with later women known for their compositions in Scots, Frater says the earliest dateable songs ‘were composed by members of the literate aristocracy’. She tells us that the earliest known vernacular Gaelic song by a woman dates from the early 16th Century.

One very early song still widely sung, printed and recorded is the bitter lament by his wife for Gregor Roy MacGregor of Glenstrae, executed in about 1570 as an outlaw at the hands of her own brother and father, Campbell of Glenlyon. She voices the song as a lullaby for her baby who also witnessed the barbarity.

GRIOGAL CRIDHE (Beloved Gregor, aka The Glenlyon Lament)
Many a night whether wet or dry, in extreme terrible weather, Gregor would find find a rocklet so that I would be sheltered.
I went to the high rooms and I would say the souterrain too, and I couldn't find darling Gregor sitting round the table.
Ohvan ohvan eeri, ohvan eeri oh. Ohvan ohvan ohvan eeri, my sorrow is great, it is great.
I would rather be with darling Gregor driving cattle down a valley, than with the great Baron of Dall with white silk round my head.
From lyricstranslate.com

Performer collector Dr Anne Lorne Gillies tells us that women were excluded from the elite hereditary ranks of the classical bards. The great 17th Century poetess Mary MacLeod was banished by her Dunvegan chief to a faraway island apparently for composing verse in praise of her noble kinsmen, her lively vernacular panegyrics encroaching on bardic territory. She defended herself, saying her lyric was not a song but a croon. The Mull poetess Mairearad Ni Lachlainn was said to have been buried face downward ‘as an eternal rebuke’ for her misguided compositions.

A MHIC IAIN ‘IC SHEUMAIS (Son of John son of James)
This was originally a threnody for a fallen warrior, but survived as a waulking song. Tradition says the battle happened in 1601 near Carinish in North Uist. The MacDonald leader, Donald, was injured and his foster-mother,Nic Coiseam, ‘let out an unearthly howl’ which summoned a boat to carry her over from Eriskay, composing a song of praise to Donald on the journey which she and an accompanying band of girls sang to take the hero’s mind off his pain. More verses tell of the arrow that injured him, and the medic who had to be thrashed to make him would clean the wound.
Son of Iain, son of Seumas, news of you weighs heavy. The day of the Battle of the Ceith my nursling was needed. The day of the Battle of the Runnel your shirt was blotted.
From Celtic Lyrics Corner

TALADH DHOMHNAILL GHUIRM (Lullaby for Donald ‘Gorm’ of Sleat)
This lullaby was composed by Donald’s foster mother, probably at the end of the 16th Century.
The sun she is rising, she is without blemish amongst the stars. When the son of my king will go under full sail may the might of the sun be with you. Donald's ship has three masts of willow on her, she has a well of wine on her and a well of springwater on her.
From lyricstranslate.com

MO ROBAIRNEACH GAOLACH (My Beloved Brigand)
Said to have been composed by a lady of the family Sleat on Skye.
Oh would that my beloved smart boy would come with his galley and stalwart men. Indeed I would be happy and who dare say that I would not be? I would be joyful if the wind did not turn him back. If you would be coming I’d wish and desire that hundreds be watching, how happy I’d be then. How handsome you are when you stand on the dance floor, winner at dancing and loved by the company.
From Celtic Lyrics Corner

CAIRISTIONA (Christina)
A ‘slow-waulking’ song, composed by the foster-mother of dead Cairistiona.
Won’t you answer, Cairistiona? If you’d answer I would hear you. Ships I see in the Sound of Islay, they are seeking Cairistiona, not to make a wedding for her, in deep clay they’re going to lay her.
From Celtic Lyrics Corner

AILEIN DUINN, O HI, SHIUBHLAINN LEAT (Brown-haired Allan, I would go with you)
Said to have been made by Anne Campbell, daughter of the proprietor of Scalpay. Allan Morrison of Bragar in Lewis was sailing to Scalpay to formalise their marriage plans. His boat was caught in a terrible storm. Anne died of grief, ‘a hole in her heart the size of an egg’.
How sorrowful I am, early in the morning rising. O, I would go with you brown-haired Alan if your pillow is the sand, if your bed is the seaweed, if the fish are your bright candles, if the seals are your watchmen. I’d drink, though all abhor it, of your heart’s blood after your drowning.
From Celtic Lyrics Corner

LUINNEAG MHICLEOID (Macleod’s Ditty)
Anne Lorne Gillies tells us Mary MacLeod (Mairi Nighean Alasdair Ruaidh) of Dunvegan was born in Rodel, Harris, ‘in the early part of the 17th Century. However she lived for most of her life in Skye, acting as nurse to the family of her kinsmen, the MacLeods of Dunvegan. She composed Luinneag MhicLeoid some time after 1675. Her poetry is almost entirely devoted to praising the MacLeods.’ Frances Tolmie believed this song resulted in the maker being banished to Jura, because it was thought to have given too much praise to the infant children of the clan chief, and as a result they suffered severe illheath. Mary MacLeod sends greetings to ‘great, noble Sir Norman’ praises his abilities and lineage, in the Clan of Roderick of the banners.
As I sit on the knoll, forlorn and unquiet, gazing on Islay, what causes me to marvel now is that there was a time I never thought, till my times took a change, that I would come here to view Jura from Scarba. That I would come here to view the gulls of Scarba: bear my greetings to the land which lies in the shadow of the rugged peaks, to the strong and renowned Sir Tormod who has won headship over an armed host, for it was said in every part that one of your name was worthy of that.
From Facebook, Calum I Maclean

MARBHRANN DO DH’IAIN GARBH MAC GILE CHALUIM RATHARSAIR (Elegy for John ‘Garve’ MacLeod of Raasay)
Mary MacLeod (Mary daughter of Auburn Alasdair), having been allowed back to Skye, wrote this six verse song in ‘vernacular high-style panegyric mode’ for her kinsman who was drowned between Stornaway and Raasay in 1649. Gillies says ‘As a mere woman, Mary was either formally trained nor traditionally permitted to use the complex metres of the professional bards, yet her songs rank among the finest of clan poetry.’ She was called a great innovator, establishing a new vernacular poetic form.

THA MI AM CHADAL, NA DUISGIBH MI (I am asleep, don’t waken me) [lyric to come]
This song is addressed to the army of King James 7th and 2nd, after the Jacobite had won the Battle of Sheriffmuir but lost the campaign because their leader Bonny Dundee was killed. The song was made by Sileas na Ceapaich (Julia MacDonald, c1660-1727), daughter of Archibald, chief of the Keppoch MacDonalds. She tells of the hardships of the soldiers, the sorrowing widows, the wickedness of the enemy, she then tries to rally the troops. She wrote 23 poems, many of them Jacobite political, others laments for fallen friends, humorous advice to unmarried women [she herself had at least eight children] and a few devotional songs.

NACH TRUAGH LEAT MI’S TU ‘N EIRINN (Don’t you pity me while you’re in Ireland)
Made by Katherine Douglas (1893-1965), bard of Trotternish, Skye
You don’t care much for me while you’re in Ireland. They say to me since you went over that you are often at fairs, and that you talk lovingly to red-haired Maili. Although you were to sail all over the ocean, and although you would reach Egypt, I would not forsake you because of your reputation and I would not heed lies.
From Celtic Lyrics Corner

Other makers named by Frater are Mairearad nighean Lachainn and Dirbbhail Nic a’ Bhruthainn.