Thou Harp of My Music: Love Songs from the Gaelic

by Alexander Carmichael (Editor), C.J. Moore

A pocket-sized selection from the Carmina Gadelica, a collection of lyric poems and prayers from the Gaelic tradition of oral poetry, gathered from the highlands and islands of Scotland.

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Alexander Archibald Carmichael (Gaelic: Alasdair Gilleasbaig MacGilleMhìcheil) was a Scottish exciseman, folklorist, antiquarian, and author. Between 1860 and his death Carmichael collected a vast amount of folklore, local traditions, natural history observations, antiquarian data, and material objects from people throughout the Scottish Highlands, particularly in the southern Outer Hebrides where he lived, worked, and brought up his family between 1864 and 1882. Alexander Carmichael is best known today for Carmina Gadelica, an influential compendium of Highland lore and literature published in six volumes between 1900 and 1971.

Reviews

[Lanea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right, so, this is one of those books I had to have once I found out it existed. Carmichael was born in 1832 on a little island in Scotland called Lismore--it's near Oban, where they make very good single-malt. He was a traveling civil servant who loved to collect songs and poems. The title is a bit misleading--only a few of the poems are actually love songs in the modern sense. The book is divided into actual love songs; waulking songs (my fiber-artist's heart sings!); curse songs; laments, and invocations of saints/gods, particularly Brigid/St. Brigid aka St. Bride. Also, "Gaelic" is one of those words that stymies people--unless you're really into philology or Celtic studies, you probably think "Gaelic" is synonymous with "Irish." It's not, unless, ironically enough, you're speaking Irish ( "i nGaeilge" translates to "In Irish," not to "In Gaelic" I could explain, but I'm pretty sure I've already lost most of you. Also, my tea is getting cold). In this instance, the poems were transcribed from singers and tellers who had learned them through the oral tradition in Scotland, Cornwall, and Ireland, and then translated from Cornish, Irish, Scots Gaelic or Broad Scots into English.