92 Gille-Pàdruig Dubh Donald John MacDonald MS 1:53–7. Recorded from his father Duncan MacDonald, South Uist (see above, note to tale No. 18). Translated by Peggy McClements. T25:26–9 (with Gaelic text). This is obviously a variant of the William Tell legend type, too well established in South Uist to be derived from published translations of the Swiss crossbowman’s story in the past 200 years. The striking beginning is in any case quite different, though some people now substitute an apple for the more native egg; Angus MacLellan (SSU:78–81) gives details of how the egg was tied on to the son Iain Dubh’s head with his own long hair and a pit dug so that only the top of his head showed above the ground. Gille-Pàdruig (or Gille Padara) Dubh (‘Black Gilpatrick’) can be identified as a seventeenth-century MacIntyre in South Uist whose descendants are still there. A ‘graddaning hearth’ was the place where grain was threshed and dried by burning off the straw and husks.
93 Gaun Tait and the Bear SA 1978/63 B1. Recorded from Tom Tulloch, North Yell, by AJB. T30:356–7. This is one of the very few Shetland legends which go back to the times when the islands were still ruled from Norway. In this Yell version the hero has the Scots name Gaun (Gavin) rather than the Dutch one Jan as in versions from Fetlar itself (FOS: 175–8), but they are equally close to early Norse Jón, and the surname Tait derives from the Old Norse nickname teitr, ‘cheerful’. Moreover, rents from Orkney and Shetland were largely paid in butter since Norse times, and it was weighed using a heavy beam called a bismar. The opening probably started as a piece of wish-fulfilment like that of the last story, but like the hero’s proof of courage in cutting off lumps from his toes, and strength in carrying the bear over his shoulder, it has much of the flavour of the Sagas of Icelanders. The capture of the sleeping bear, full of butter, on the advice of a typical donor figure, is more like international wonder-tale; and the end with the bear tied up on Lingey (Linga on the Ordnance Survey map) seems to be origin legend – Tom had seen the circle that he described, whatever the real explanation! Band: bound, tied (it up); braa twa’r three year fae syne noo: a good few years ago now; shün: soon; most other forms here are just pronunciations which it should be possible to decipher.
94 (The Earl of Mar a Fugitive) SA 1952/125/4. Recorded from John MacDonald, Highbridge, Lochaber by Calum Maclean. STT 65. John MacDonald (1876–1964, known as ‘Iain Beag’ or more often simply ‘The Bard’), crofter, roadman, song – maker, and a very learned man though he only went to school for two or three years, provided most of the stories Calum Maclean recorded in his first field trip for the University of Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies, starting in January 1951, and he describes their first meeting in Chapter 1 of The Highlands. John recorded hundreds of local historical and supernatural legends and other traditions and songs for Calum, mostly unfortunately erased after transcription. This story is apparently an old local tradition: Irish names such as O’Brien did come to the West Highlands with the retainers of chiefs who married Irishwomen, and see tale No. 95c below for another case – but nobody would put something so unlikely-seeming into an invented story. Killing the only cow, however, is a cliché that recurs in the next story, and the rhyme about the cold barley gruel (Scots ‘crowdie’, Gaelic fuarag) mixed in a shoe is elsewhere attributed to Robert the Bruce after his defeat in 1306 (W&S 1:76–7).
95a Paul of the Thong SA 1971/175 B11. Recorded from Angus MacLellan, Tigharry, North Uist, by Angus John MacDonald. STT No. 64. This Angus MacLellan (Aonghus Lachlainn Bhig), a crofter, former lighthouseman and shopkeeper, is perhaps the last person in the Hebrides who can tell a Fenian hero tale, as well as a bard who has composed a number of popular ‘homeland’ songs. Most of his stories were learned from the famous Alasdair MacCuidhein (MacQueen), who was a regular visitor at the MacLellan home when Angus was young (cf. Arv 37:120–23). This is a classic clan legend of the type defined a hundred years ago as the ‘Celtic Expulsion-and-Return Myth’. Its historical basis is the murder of the two elder sons of Uisdean (Hugh), the first MacDonald of Sleat, by their brother Gilleasbaig Dubh (‘Black Archibald’), who then took the chiefship – this seems to be fact, though the legendary methods of the murders, especially this one, seem less likely. Gilleasbaig was unwise enough to let his nephews live, and come with him on a hunting trip when they were old enough to kill him. In this very local legend, however, he and the chiefship of the clan are ignored, and the second brother (called Dòmhnall Hearach, ‘Harris Donald’, because his mother was a daughter of MacLeod of Harris – all the brothers had different mothers) who inherited North Uist is treated as a chief in his own right. The son’s posthumous birth and upbringing in exile, his recognition by the old woman who kills her wether for him, and the detailed itinerary of the avenging party are all typical of such tales. The arrow in the foot looks like a version of the Achilles heel motif, but perhaps is just a device so that he can be captured and put to a death befitting a traitor and tyrant. Paul of the Thong (Pàl na hÉille) seems to be a historical character, a MacIntosh, though probably a deputy for Gilleasbaig Dubh rather than a usurper in his own right.
95b (Murchadh Gearr’s Birth) SA 1973/67 A5. Recorded from Donald Morrison, Ardtun, Bunessan, Isle of Mull, transcribed and translated by AJB. T24:296–7 (with Gaelic text), part of a feature by Eric Cregeen on this notable tradition-bearer from the Ross of Mull, a stylish storyteller and singer with a prodigious knowledge of local history and Gaelic poetry well into his nineties. The story of the posthumous birth here is turned into a story of a prisoner with little chance to beget a son. There may have been a real feud at this time (the mid-sixteenth century) between the two fines of the MacLeans in Mull, Lochbuie and Duart, but the facts seem to be totally different: Murchadh was not a baby when his father (presumably) died in captivity, but an illegitimate son of Lochbuie, legitimated after the death of his two elder brothers, who inherited in middle age and was kept from his inheritance not by Duart but by his own uncle Murdoch MacLean of Scallastle (T24:295). However, the pattern of posthumous birth and return from overseas (in the next piece) is so well established that it was imposed on the story in oral tradition, though some local antiquaries always knew it was untrue. See note to tale No. 85 above for the Mull Doctor.
95c (Murchadh Gearr’s Return) SA 1976/54B. Recorded from Donald Morrison in English by Eric Cregeen. T24:293–4 (with Gaelic text of the same story from SA 1971 /79B, recorded by Eric Cregeen and Donald William Mackenzie, and historical note). This part of the story brings in Donald’s own family, and was told separately. The earls of Antrim (the title was not created until over fifty years after this) were in fact descended from a younger son of the MacDonalds of Islay (compare the account in the next story), and are always credited with helping their Scottish cousins, though in this case there is reason to suppose that Murchadh Gearr later married a sister of the future earl of Antrim. The Gaelic text says that the thirteen men were recruited from the teams at the traditional New Year shinty match. Donald’s family of Morrisons may actually descend from the Irish bardic family of Ó Muirgheasáin, which also used the name Mac na h-Oidhche, ‘Son of the Night’, and supplied seanchaidhs or historians to the MacLeans of Duart before 1660 (SS 12:71,73).
96 The Battle of Tràigh Ghruinneart SA 1968/98. Recorded from Gilbert Clark, Port Charlotte, Islay by Ian A. Fraser. STT No. 68; T44:110–17 (with Gaelic text and historical note). Gilbert (Gibi) Clark, a joiner and occasional boat-builder in Port Charlotte, was a great enthusiast for the waning Gaelic traditions of the Rhinns of Islay and indeed the whole island. When AJB first met him in 1966, and on later visits with DAM and Ian Fraser and by Mary MacDonald and John MacInnes, he was too self-effacing to tell what he knew himself, but eagerly guided us to record slightly older tradition-bearers, though if he came in he might often prompt them when their memories failed. This is one of the very few recordings made of a story from Gilbert himself – a story that every Islay Gael knew, but Gilbert knew in more detail. The battle of Gruinart was fought in 1598 between Sir Lachlan MacLean of
Duart (Lachainn Mór, originally perhaps physically big rather than ‘the Great’) and Sir James MacDonald of Islay, who had recently imprisoned his own father Angus and taken his place as chief. Sir James was in fact the son of Sir Lachlan’s sister, whom Angus had married as part of an attempted settlement of a long-standing MacLean – MacDonald feud. Sir Lachlan actually came to Islay some time before the battle to claim the Rhinns of Islay, for which he had secured a charter direct from the Crown, though the MacDonalds claimed he held the district from them, and it was only after attempts to discuss the issue had broken down that they came to blows.
In the story, as recorded within a few years of the battle by Sir Robert Gordon (FOC: 134–5) and as still told, the witch’s warnings replace the taboos (geasa) of a pattern common in Old Irish tales such as the death of Cú Chulainn – once these taboos (acquired in youth) are broken the hero’s death follows inevitably, and even in this story as told in Islay Sir Lachlan is clearly a great hero. An arrow under a raised breastplate or visor (neither used in the old-fashioned Highland armour shown on gravestones of the period) is often how a chief is killed in clan legends. The killer’s name Dubh-Sìdh, ‘Black Fairy’, shows he is no common man, and MacLean should not have turned him down. The MacDonalds have the makings of a heroic band of gifted retainers (warrior, doctor, prophet) as well as a totally imaginary contingent of helpers from Arran, which was never MacDonald territory. Various place-names and family origins are accounted for in the course of the story, again in the early Irish manner, there is a church-burning – all too frequent at this period – and even after Sir Lachlan’s death his greatness is emphasised by the episode of the foster-mother killing her own son for mocking the body, and the gravestone with the two hearts, implying double courage (the ‘hourglass’ symbol is probably a chalice carved on a priest’s grave). The ending, however, cannot be happy for Islaymen, since Sir James was imprisoned a few years after he won the battle, and the Campbell earls of Argyll began to move in.
INDEX OF STORYTELLERS
Anderson, Mrs 75
Clark, Gilbert 96
Cockburn, Jack 43
Dix, Kate 1b, 66a, 73a
Durie, Jeannie 6, 21, 37
Findlater, Ethel 46
Finlayson, John 91
Fleming, Christine 13
Gillies, Neil 22
Henderson, Angus 30a
Henderson, James 41, 73b, 77
Higgins, Bella 65
Hunter, Andrew 76, 83b
Jamieson, George 27
Johnson, Donald Alasdair 12, 50
Johnston, Annie 8
Johnston, Calum 3a, 55b, 67
Leith, Mrs 52
MacArthur, Alasdair 35
MacCormick, Peter 61
MacDonald, Duncan 18, 55a, 57, 58, 62a, 66b, 92
MacDonald, John 94
MacDonald, Revd Norman 25
MacDonald, Roderick 47
MacDonald, William 86
MacDougall, Alasdair 64a
MacDougall, Dolly Ann 1a
MacDougall, Donald 63, 68, 74, 90
MacEachen, Donald Alec 60a
MacKenzie, Angus 56
MacKenzie, Roderick 45
MacKinnon, Donald John 30c
MacKinnon, Elizabeth 8
MacKinnon, Hugh 2
MacKinnon, Nan 54, 69b, 72, 82, 87b, 88
MacLean, Mary 60b
MacLellan, Angus (N. Uist) 95a
MacLellan, Angus (S. Uist) 17, 70a, 80
MacLellan, Donald 83a
MacLeod, Angus 49
MacMillan, Angus 71
MacMillan, Mrs 11
MacPhail, Angus John 14, 24
McPhee, Jimmy 5
McPhee, Willie 34
Matheson, Duncan 51
Matheson, William 84
Moncrieff, Tom 42, 87a
Morrison, Colin 31
Morrison, Donald 95b, c
Morrison, Peter 40, 81
Munro, Ann 53
Peterson, George 64b
Ritch, Willie 44a
Robertson, Jeannie 7, 33
Robertson, Malcolm 89
Robertson, Tom 62b
Scott, Sydney 70b
Sinclair, Donald 85
Stevenson, Tom 44b
Stewart, Alasdair 16, 28
Stewart, Alasdair, ‘Aili Dall’ 29
Stewart, Alasdair, ‘Brian’ 19
Stewart, Andrew 9, 15, 69a
Stewart, Geordie 10
Stewart, John 30b
Stewart, Peter 32
Thorburn, Samuel 23
Tulloch, Tom 3b, 4, 36, 38, 55c, 59, 78, 93
Voy, Gilbert 26
Whyte, Betsy 20, 79
Williamson, Duncan 48
Work, David 39
Scottish Traditional Tales Page 49
