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The literature of the Highlanders : $b a history of Gaelic literature from the earliest times to the present dayMacNeill, Nigel

History

The literature of the Highlanders : $b a history of Gaelic literature from the earliest times to the present day

Name: The literature of the Highlanders : $b a history of Gaelic literature from the earliest times to the present day
Author: MacNeill, Nigel

MacNeill, Nigel

Scottish Gaelic literature -- History and criticism

I am much indebted to several friends who encouraged me from time to
time. It gives me great pleasure to mention among these the name of
Dr Stoddart, late editor of _The Glasgow Herald_ whose kindness and
generosity to myself personally I will always cherish with gratitude,
and whose sympathies with all that is good and noble in any people
were the natural outcome of the cultured heart of a gentleman and
a Christian. To him I owe the title of this book as well as the
privilege, through the columns of his influential journal, of
showing some of the treasures of our Gaelic literature to the great
English world beyond our Highland Israel. With his name ought to be
associated in this matter that of the able manager of the paper, Mr
Alexander Sinclair, an Argyleshire Highlander. The articles then
published in 1881 were the first of the kind to appear in a newspaper
of such high standing. The names of other gentlemen from whom I have
received kindness occur to me also as I write: Mr D. H. Macfarlane,
ex-M.P.; Mr Fraser-Mackintosh, M.P.; Dr R. Macdonald, M.P.; Mr Duncan
Macneill; and Mr John Mackay, C.E. I have also much pleasure in
acknowledging the readiness with which the Messrs Nisbet, publishers,
London, have granted me permission to use in the following chapters
some articles I contributed to _The Catholic Presbyterian_.

This book may be described as the child of the peaceful Highland
revolution on which the political and Christian genius of the Right
Hon. W. E. Gladstone stamped imperial sanction and approval in the
Crofters Act of 1886. Its growth and delivery in various lectures,
magazine articles and otherwise, during seventeen years, have been
coincident with the workings of the spirit of racial fusion and union
which recent political struggles after a Brito-Irish brotherhood
have well-nigh perfected. On the following pages, therefore, I am
occasionally an advocate of the just rights and claims of a noble
race and an obscure literature; but at the same time I remain a lover
of the great English people. I have learned during a residence of
upwards of ten years to appreciate and love the generous qualities of
my English fellow-citizens.

                                                          N. MACNEILL.

  67 LADY MARGARET ROAD, LONDON, N.W.




CONTENTS.


  CHAP.                                                           PAGE
         INTRODUCTION                                                1

     I.  EARLY GAELIC LITERATURE—PATRICK                            27

    II.  SOUTH ALBIN GAELS—BRIGIT                                   41

   III.  NORTH ALBIN GAELS—COLUMBA                                  54

    IV.  LATIN HYMNS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH                           71

     V.  ANCIENT BALLADS                                            87

    VI.  PROSE ROMANCES                                            120

   VII.  MEDIEVAL BARDS                                            141

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The literature of the Highlanders : $b a history of Gaelic literature from the earliest times to the present day

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