The literature of the Highlanders

The present state of our knowledge does not enable us to assign an exact date to the first beginnings of Gaelic literature. The most ancient ballads have certainly come down to...

It has been usually taken too much for granted that the early Christian preachers of Britain and Ireland succeeded in fully Christianising the districts in which they laboured,...

The presence of the Romans in Scotland produced very little effect in the Highlands. Fringes of the eastern counties had been occupied for brief periods of time; but the influen...

The following entry among the Irish Charters in the famous Book of Kells illustrates the fate of much of our ancient Celtic literature, especially in Scotland: “Anno Domini m^o...

It has been well remarked that each of the literatures of the two branches of our Celtic population was chiefly the utterance of feeling stirred by a great struggle for independ...

It may be thought by some that too much has been said concerning the ballads and the character of the Féinne. Others may be quite dissatisfied with the fragmentary notices which...

“Gach fili ’s bard, gach léigh, aosdan is draoi, Gach seanachaidh fòs, gach eoladhain shaor is saoi; Na diadhairean môr bu chliú, ’s bu ghloir do’n Chléir B’ ann leath’ gu tarbh...

A retrospect of the remains of ancient Gaelic Literature establishes the following among other facts:—1. That the Scottish Gael of the first centuries of the Christian era was n...

“That is what I always maintained. He has found names, and stories, and phrases, nay passages in old songs, and with them has blended his own compositions, and so made what he g...

After the Celtic poems and translations of the Bard of Badenoch had begun to realise fame and fortune for their author, other writers of varying gifts sought to enter into simil...

“It is easy to disparage the study of these scanty remains of a literary language which, though it be not dead, is more of an unknown tongue to our modern men of letters than al...

“Land where Religion paves her heavenward road! Land of the temple of the living God! Yet, dear to feeling, Scotland, as thou art, Shouldst thou that temple e’er desert, I would...

The authors whose works come under notice in this chapter may be described as belonging to the Anglo-Gaelic era of Highland history, when the influence of English thought, movem...

“Ho gur toigh leam! he gur toigh leam! Ho gur toigh leam féin a’ Ghàilig! ’S toigh leam i ’sgach àit am bi mi; Bheir i ann am chuimhn’ a’ Ghàidlh’ltachd.” —CHORUS OF POPULAR SONG.

Before the plough of cruel eviction from their homes cut deep furrows into the Highland heart, the bards, such as Duncan Bàn, loved to sing of the pleasures of the chase; but th...

assumed patriotism into which, however, he sought to thoroughly work himself, like some others of his countrymen of the present day. It can scarcely be denied that an element of...

The religious Highlander of the present day is known to be stubbornly opposed to the use of hymns of human authorship in public worship. His prejudice was deepened and played up...

“Dùisg a leoghain euchdaich, ’s dean éirich gu faramach, Air brat ball-dearg, breid-gheal, ’s fraoch sleibhe mar bharan air; Tog suas do cheann gu h-eutrom, ’s na speuraibh gu c...

The fourth part, assigned to Dr Smith, contained the Prophets, which had afterwards to be revised, Smith’s version being more poetical than literal. Dr Stuart was a son of the t...