Scottish Studies (E-Journal)
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The Cultivation and Preservation of the Martial Music of the Highlands by the Highland Society of London
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An t-Each-Uisge
No full textTraditional descriptions of the Gaelic water-horse display intriguing similarities to the mysterious ‘Pictish Beast’ or ‘Swimming Elephant’, the most ubiquitous yet least recognisable creature of our symbol-stones, which is dateable to c. AD 700. This paper sets out a typology of water-horse stories and attempts to show that they can be dated to that period. It then considers whether the iconography of the Beast, the ‘head-lappet’ in particular, can be explained in terms of the ethnography of the water-horse, whose principal attribute is its cap or magic bridle. The Torrs Pony-Cap, Adomnán’s river-monster and the ‘kelpie’ of Lowland tradition are taken into account, and it is suggested in conclusion that the water-horse and kelpie are Gaelic and Anglo-Norman reflexes of a leading Pictish deity, the guardian of their otherworld
The School of Scottish Studies and Language Policy and Planning for Gaelic
No full textThe School of Scottish Studies (the ‘School’) was inaugurated on 31 January 1951 as a semiautonomous institution within the University of Edinburgh, with the broad aim of studying ‘Scottish traditional life in its European setting, on lines similar to those developed in several Scandinavian institutes and, more recently, in Ireland and Wales’
‘Có às don Chorra-Ghiullan Ghlas?’
No full textIn oral tradition, as well as in literature, the theme is well known of the young man who takes leave of his betrothed or spouse, with the agreement that she is free to (re)marry if he does not return within a specified period of time. Upon his return after many years, unrecognized, he is told that her wedding will take place that night. He sends the bride a concealed message, they are reunited and he takes possession of his former holdings. The story is central to the Odyssey of Homer, and is likely even older. In its oral versions it is widespread, particularly in Europe from medieval times, and has been given the international tale classification ATU 974 ‘The Homecoming Husband’. Interesting variants of the story have been recorded from Scottish Gaelic storytellers by Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray in Perthshire in 1900, and by the present writer in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1978. The Gaelic variants are described, and situated within their international tale context