The Dean’s MS. was put into the hands of the present translator a few
years ago by Mr. Cosmo Innes, with a view to a correct account being
given of its contents. After a considerable time spent on deciphering
the difficult handwriting, and resolving the strange and irregular
orthography, he gave a fuller account of it than had been given before,
in a paper read before the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. He was
aware that a transcript of the MS. had been made by a Gaelic scholar of
the highest reputation, the late Mr. M‘Lachlan of Aberdeen; but that
transcript was altogether unknown save by one or two individuals, and
was at the time thought to be lost. In December 1860, the publishers
proposed to the writer that he should undertake transcribing and
translating the MS. with notes, Mr. Skene undertaking to write a
historical introduction, with additional notes. There was good reason
for reluctance in undertaking such a work. There was immense difficulty
in the task itself, consisting very much in an exercise of ingenuity,
the results to be tested by comparison, in guessing the meaning of
words phonetically spelled; there was the labour of writing the same
thing in three different forms; and there was in all this large demands
upon time otherwise engrossed by the duties of a profession, whose
calls the keeping of a good conscience, and duty to a Divine Master,
would not admit of being neglected or postponed. The work itself,
however, was very congenial, as contributing somewhat to the literature
of the Celtic countrymen of the writer, the literature of a period,
too, of which few other literary remains of theirs exist. He therefore
undertook to devote his spare hours for a season to the work, which is
now laid before the public.
The difficulties did not become less than was anticipated when they
came to be practically dealt with. There was first the transcription
of the original. A facsimile specimen of the writing is given in this
volume, from which some idea may be formed of its character. The
handwriting is the current English hand of the fifteenth century, with
a few additional peculiarities borrowed from the Gaelic writing of the
same period, as practised both in Scotland and Ireland. As is common
in the writing of the period, the same sign is used both for _c_ and
_t_. There is often no distinction between _o_ and _e_, _u_ and _n_,
or _ƒ_ and _s_; and in the hurry of writing the Dean often wrote _m_
for _n_, and _vice versâ_; and the letter _z_ stands for all the sounds
resembling the consonant _y_. Besides, there are numerous contractions,
the same sign being often used for _in_, _im_, and _ir_, and the Irish
dot (·) is often used as a substitute for _h_. The MS. is in many
places much decayed, and the writing in consequence much obscured,
while the orthography is by no means quite regular. The transcript
has, however, been carefully made from the original, and compared
again in proof, and the reader, with the allowance necessary in the
circumstances already described, may feel assured that in the original,
as printed, he has a correct copy of the Dean’s work.
The work, however, was not beyond the threshold when the transcription
was complete. It was in interpreting the Dean’s phonetic Gaelic, so as
to form the modern Gaelic edition, that the chief difficulty arose;
and here the translator was left altogether without guide to lead
the way, except in the case of a few of the Ossianic poems. There
were three peculiar difficulties to be encountered here,--first, the
frequent occurrence of obsolete words,--words not to be found in any
dictionary of the Scottish Gaelic,--and the meaning of which could only
be learned from some acquaintance with the ancient MS. writings of
Scottish and Irish scribes; secondly, there was the introduction into
the Dean’s grammar of the Irish eclipsis, turning in his orthography
_f_ into _w_, _c_ into _g_, _b_ into _m_, and _d_ into _n_, without
any hyphen; and there was, last of all, the accentuation, which, in
a number of the pieces, lays the emphasis on the latter syllable of
dissyllabic words, and thus alters to a Scotch reader the whole rhythm
of the lines. Many of these pieces will not read as poetry at all,
unless read in accordance with the Irish method of accentuation. It was
known to all acquainted with early Gaelic literature, how much there
was that was common to the literature of Scotland and Ireland. This
miscellany fully establishes the fact, while it also shows that, in the
fifteenth century, Scottish Gaelic, as exemplified in some of these
compositions, especially those of Finlay M’Nab, had its own distinctive
features. There is nothing more interesting than the weight given in
the allusions in these poems to the existence and influence of the
Bardic schools at the period, and the large prizes usually conferred by
the wealthy on successful poets.
The translation into English was, upon the whole, a less arduous
process than the previous one. It might have been otherwise had the
attempt been made to translate into English poetry. This, however, has
been carefully avoided. The rendering has been made so literal as that
the meaning of every sentence in Gaelic is conveyed in English, so far
as the editor has been able to do it; and the translation is merely
somewhat lightened, and the reading made more agreeable, by having the
baldness of mere literality removed, and the lines made somewhat smooth
and flowing.
In some cases the spelling and handwriting together have so obscured
the words, that the editor has been quite unable to give anything like
a satisfactory rendering; hence there will be found, in a very few
instances, what are apparently different words in the original and
modern version. Some instances will also be found of words written in
the modern version according to the analogy of the Dean’s orthography,
while the precise word intended has not been identified. The editor has
only to say regarding these and any other cases of doubtful rendering,
which in such a work must be numerous, that he will be happy to receive
through the publishers any suggestions from Gaelic scholars which may
help to secure greater accuracy.
It is only necessary to say farther, that in extending the modern
Gaelic version of these poems, it was perfectly impossible to exclude
all the older forms of the language. In many places to do so would
have been to destroy the whole poetical structure of the composition.
It was essential to retain the “da,” _if_, the “fa,” _on_, or _under_,
and the “co” or “go,” _with_, besides numerous forms of the verb,
which it is the practice now to call Irish, but which were common at
an early period to the literature of both countries. It was perfectly
impossible, with anything like justice to these compositions, to bring
them into exact conformity with the rules of modern Scottish Gaelic.
The present volume contains every line of Ossianic or Fenian poetry
in the Dean’s MS. It also contains every composition having reference
to Scotland, with the exception of five; two of these being so much
defaced, and so many of the words obscured by time and exposure, that
it is impossible to give anything like an accurate version of them.
The other three are eulogies on the clan Gregor chiefs, so much of a
piece with those already given, that they would not contribute to the
literary value of the work. The purely Irish poems of the O’Huggins,
the O’Dalys, etc., are not given in this work, whose object is to
illustrate the language and literature of the Scottish Highlands at an
early period. A few specimens, such as the laments of Gormlay, wife of
Nial Glundubh, and daughter of Flann Sionna, Queen of Ireland, have
been transcribed as specimens, which may be not uninteresting either
to the Scottish or Irish reader. The Irish compositions are, with few
exceptions, of a religious character.
T. M‘L.
EDINBURGH, _December 1861_.
* * * * *
In a note at p. 43, it is said that an edition of the poem by Allan
M’Rory, there translated, would be given at the close of the work, as
taken down from the recitation of an old woman, Christina Sutherland,
in Caithness, in the year 1854. It is now given, but without a
translation, which is not thought necessary.