English literature -- Scottish authors; Scottish literature
It is still a moot point as to whether in narration, Gaelic names should
be given as they are, or be anglicised--or Gaelic exclamations to
phrases in their original spelling, or more phonetically to an English
ear. I think it should depend on circumstances, and within the writer's
tact. I have myself been taken to task again and again, by critics eager
with the eagerness of little knowledge, for partial anglicisation of
names and presumed mistakes in Gaelic spelling, when, surely, the
intention was obvious that a compromise was being attempted. Let me give
an example. How would the English reader like a story of, say, a Donald
Macintyre and a Grace Maclean and an Ivor Mackay if these names were
given in their Gaelic form, as Domnhuil Mac-an-t-Saoir and Giorsal nic
Illeathain and Imhir Mac Aodh--or even if simple names, like, say, Meave
and Malvina, were given as Medb or Malmhin?
It is a pity there is not one recognised way of spelling the legendary
name of Setanta, the chief hero of the Gaelic chivalry. Probably the
best rendering is Cuchulain. The old form is Cuculaind. But colloquially
the name in Gaelic is called Coohoolin or Coohullun; and so Cuculaind
would mislead the ordinary reader. The Scottish version is generally
Cuchullin--the _ch_ soft: a more correct rendering of the Macphersonian
Cuthullin, a misnomer responsible no doubt for the common mistake that
the Coolin (Cuthullin) mountains in Skye have any connection with the
great Gaelic hero (see p. 155). Setanta, a prince of Uladh, was taught
for a time in the art of weaponry by one Culain or Culaind, and after a
certain famous act of prowess became known as The Hound of Culain--_Cu_
being a hound, whence Cuculain, or with the sign of the genitive,
Cuchulain. Every variation of the name, and all the legends of the
Cuchullin cycle, will be found in Miss Eleanor Hull's excellent
redaction, published by Mr. Nutt. The interested reader should see also
the classical work of O'Curry: the vivid and romantic chronicle of Mr.
Standish O'Grady; and the fascinating and scholarly edition of _The
Feast of Bricrin_, recently published as the second volume of the Irish
Texts Society, by Dr. George Henderson, the most scholarly of Highland
specialists.
_Page 162 seq._ No one has collected so much material on the subject of
St. Michael as Mr. Alexander Carmichael has done. Some of his lore, in
sheiling-hymns and fishing-hymns, he has already made widely known,
directly and indirectly: but in his forthcoming _Or agus Ob_, already
alluded to, there will be found a long and invaluable section devoted to
St. Micheil, as also, I understand, one of like length and interest on
St. Bride or Briget, the most beloved of Hebridean saints, and herself
probably a Christian successor of a much more ancient Brighde, a Celtic
deity, it is said, of Song and Beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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