Highland Lore And Legend

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

Highland Lore And Legend

■ \JO emaH proportion of the H- 1 *' legends and ballade of ScotI land are the work of men whose ■ native tongue was Gaelic. For ■ that reason they are unknown to, ■ the vast- majority of readers of I English literature, including many I Scots people themselves., for ■ though Gaelic 'was the "every-day ■ tongue in large districts north of H the Tweed, quite apart from the ■ Highlands, less than four centuries H ago, it is now a foreign language B to all but a few. IB'- For the benefit of those who are in|S terestcrl in this literary heritage, and H ethers in the far-flung lands of the |B. Kmpire who "may wish to know mineI thin; of the home life and traditions of K the Highlanders of olden days as told U '■ ©r sung by drovers and tinkers and beggars." Sir lan Malcolm of Poltalloeh H- lias paraphrased into English verse. interspersed with Lowland Scots, a selection of those of them having their ecene in his own West Highlands drawing some of them from the prose into |B trhkih they were turned by certain other .Scottish writers. This selection he has published under the title, "Highland H Lure and Legend" (Macmillan). It is not easy to preserve in a translation the qualities of Gaelic literature, but. the judgment of the Rt. Hon. W S. M.P.. (a Highlander), who Bfetit** a foreword. Sir lan has succeeded. HfejlhApok contains twenty one poems of P&P-.'.;tength with their scenes in Egt ; jihe Inner Hebrides. They and amusing. BgjglKijiKlf* another world, figuring in by many • •.-'-". ■'.:*- mB&&&&£&■-'-'-' ' "■ ' — .---""- '.