The Book of Clanranald

The Book of Clanranald is found in two manuscripts, at present known respectively as the Red and the Black Books. Dr Cameron was engaged in transcribing from the Black Book of Clanranald when his last illness came upon him; and he had copied out only about a third of what is here extracted from that Book and placed before the public. He had got the MS. from Dr Skene, whose property it then was; and, on Dr Cameron's death, it was returned to Dr Skene, who, in his turn, restored it to the family of Clanranald.

The Black Book is a thick little paper MS., strongly bound in black leather boards: it could not be better described as to appearance and chief contents than in the words in which Ewan Macpherson, the coadjutor of Ossian Macpherson, describes its sister volume, the Red Book of Clanranald, viz., A book of the size of a New Testament and of the nature of a common-place-book, which contained some accounts of the families of the Macdonalds, and the exploits of the great Montrose, together with some of the poems of Ossian. The exact dimensions of the Black Book, a specimen page of which is herewith given in its full size, are as follows: — Length, 5 1/2 inches; breadth, 3 1/2 inches; and thickness slightly over an inch; all exclusive of the thick leather boards. It contains 232 leaves, or 464 pages, of which 36 are blank. The rest of its pages are in various hands, Irish and English, of the 17th and 18th century. Indeed, the Book appears to have been made up of some three or more separate MSS., written at different times by different persons, and ultimately bound together in one volume some time last century. The cutting of the edges in the process of binding proves this; for in the Macdonald History, the first few leaves have letters half and even almost wholly clipped away, but the reading is quite clear, and the letters can be supplied from manifest indications of their former presence. Almost all the last half of the MS. is in English, written last century, and dealing chiefly with the praises and exploits of the Marquis of Antrim, the friend of Charles I. and Montrose. The Macdonald History forms altogether less than one-sixth of the Book (some 72 pages), and the rest of the Gaelic material extends to a like amount (74 pages), made up chiefly of poetry, with 14 pages of Irish kingly genealogies; but many of these Gaelic pages contain only disconnected jottings. A full account of the contents of the Black Book will be given further on.

The history of the Book itself is very obscure. Upwards of thirty years ago, Dr Skene disclosed his discovery of the Black Book to the present Clanranald (Admiral Sir Reginald Macdonald), informing him that he had picked it up among some old Irish MSS. at a book-stall in Dublin, when he at once bought it. Dr Skene, as already said, restored the errant volume to the representative of its ancient possessors after Dr Cameron's death, and the MS. is now safe in Clanranald's possession. By the kindness of Clanranald, who lent both the Red and the Black Book to the Bank of Scotland, Inverness, to be consulted and transcribed by Mr Macbain, we are enabled to complete Dr Cameron's transcription of the Macdonald History, with the addition of one or two heroic poems. The rest of the Gaelic, or rather, Irish material, as will be seen from our detailed account of the contents of the Book, is not of interest to Scotch readers, and abundance of similar poetry and prose exists in manuscript and print on Irish soil already. No portion of the English materials is reproduced here.

The famous Book of Clanranald is, of course, the Red Book, which figures prominently in the Ossianic controversy. The relationship between the Red Book and the Black Book is exceedingly close; they are both common-place-books, as Ewan Macpherson said, and the Black Book, as regards the Macdonald and Montrose histories, is but a curtailed form of the similar histories in the Red Book. Indeed, the former omits some of the best episodes recorded in the latter, and wherever a condensation seemed necessary or possible, it takes place in the Black Book narratives.

The writers of these books were the Mac Vurichs, the hereditary bards and historians of the family of Clanranald. They traced their descent to Muireach Albanach, circ. 1200, who was famous as a poet both in Ireland and in Scotland. They had as perquisites of their office till about the middle of last century the farm of Stailgarry, and the four pennies of Drimsdale in South Uist, close to one of the seats of their patron, Clanranald. The Mac Vurichs were learned in all the lore of the Gael, and it is even said that they studied in the colleges of Ireland. In any case, even to the last of the direct line, Donald of Stailgarry (floruit 1722), they were scholars of no mean repute, capable in Irish, English, and Latin. The early history of the Macdonalds down to about the year 1600 was probably composed by different and successive members of the family, but the history of the Montrose wars and of the events thereafter is clearly the work of Niall Mac Vurich, who lived till a great age, his youthful recollections being, as he himself says, of the reign of Charles I., while his latest efforts were elegies on the death of the brave Allan of Clanranald, who fell at Sheriffmuir in 1715. The Montrose history seems to have been written before the year 1700, and the avowed object of its author is to vindicate the part which the Gael played in the brilliant escapades of Montrose's campaigns. The hero in Mac Vurich's page is Alaster Macdonald, not Montrose, and, undoubtedly, Alaster did contribute, to an extent much underestimated, to Montrose's success.

The Red Book, as, already said, figures largely in the Ossianic controversy. James Macpherson, accompanied by his clansman Ewan Macpherson, visited Clanranald in 1760, and, at Clanranald's direction, received the Red Book from Neil Mac Vurich, nephew of the last great bard, and himself described as not a man of any note, though capable of reading and writing Gaelic in the Irish character. But here our authorities begin to disagree. Rev. Mr Gallie in 1799 had given a graphic description of Macpherson on his return from the Isles to Badenoch wrestling with the difficult Gaelic of beautifully written and embellished MSS. on vellum, received, as he understood, from Clanranald, and written by Paul Mac Vurich, the 14th century Clanranald bard. Now, Ewan Macpherson said, in a declaration made a year after Mr Gallie's statement, that Macpherson got from Clanranald only the common-place-book detailing the history of the Macdonalds and Montrose (which is now extant, and known as the Red Book), but that he did not get the Red Book or Leabhar Dearg from him: Macpherson only got an order for it on a Lieutenant Donald Macdonald at Edinburgh, who then possessed it. This Leabhar Dearg contained, so Clanranald told them, some of the poems of Ossian; but Ewan Macpherson never saw it nor did he know whether James Macpherson ever got it. In the same year (1800) Lachlan Mac Vurich, son of the Neil that gave Macpherson the book, declared that his father had a book which was called the Red Book, made of paper, which he had from his predecessors, and which, as his father informed him, contained a good deal of the history of the Highland clans, together with part of the works of Ossian ... that it was as thick as a Bible, but that it was longer and broader, though not so thick in the cover. His father, he said, gave this Red Book to James Macpherson, and he further denied having an ancestor named Paul. Gallie, Macpherson, and Mac Vurich are in considerable disagreement, as we see, as to what book or books Macpherson received from Clanranald, and, what is very singular, the only MS. which was recovered after Macpherson's death was the Clanranald MS. got from Neil Mac Vurich, be it the Red Book or not. Malcolm Laing in his famous dissertation on the Ossianic question says (1800): It is in vain to deny the identity of the Red Book, when it was restored as such to the Clanranald family by Macpherson himself. The present Clanranald believes that he has the veritable Red Book in his possession, and, considering the amount of hard swearing that took place over the Ossianic Reports and Dissertations, and, having regard to the further fact that the Book has been denuded of its covers, whether purposely or not, we think that he is right in so believing. The late Dr Skene, who in 1840, it would appear,See Preface to Mark Napier's Montrose, page ix. was inclined to believe that the Leabhar Dearg was a different MS. from the extant Red Book, calls the latter work, in the last Volume of Celtic Scotland, the Red Book of Clanranald.

The Red Book, as we will call it, after passing from the possession of James Macpherson, was much consulted, not only by the Ossianic disputants, but also by the historians of the country. The Rev. Donald Mackintosh, of Gaelic Proverb fame, made a transcript and translation of, at least, its historical portions; and this was the translation used by the various writers who quoted the book until Dr Skene's latest work on Scotland. Sir Walter Scott quoted largely from the early portion of the history of the Macdonalds in the notes to his Lord of the Isles, and Mark Napier made use of it in his Montrose to throw light upon the obscurer points of Highland conduct in the Montrose wars. Mackintosh's translation does not appear to have been very accurate, and he certainly misled both Laing and Napier in making it appear that the writer of the MS. (Niall Mac Vurich) was present at the battle of Auldearn. The translation, which with some obvious corrections we here reproduce with the Gaelic text, was made for Dr Skene by an Irish scholar (O'C.) from Mackintosh's transcript of the Red Book, corrected by the light derived from the use of the Black Book. Dr Skene himself publishes several pages of this new translation in his Celtic Scotland (Vol. III., pp. 397–409).

Character and Contents of the Red Book

The Red Book of Clanranald is, like the Black Book, a paper MS., but slightly longer and broader than the latter; its exact dimensions are 5 7/8 inches long, 3 7/8 broad, and 5/8 thick, as it stands at present. Its covers have been cut off, and it has lost the first 32 pages. How much it has lost at the end it is now impossible to say. That it once contained Ossianic poetry is certain; it now contains none. The Rev. Donald Mackintosh, who translated it, speaks of it in the 1807 Ossian in connection with the Edinburgh MS. 48, which has been printed in Vol. I. of the Reliquiae Celticae. After remarking that the poem Se la gus an de appears in MS. 48, Mackintosh says: — This poem is also in Clanranald's book; it gives a description of Fingal's palace and heroes. I have compared both this and the other poem (Cnoc an Air) with those in Clanranald's book; but the leaves on which they were written were loose and detached, five in number, and given to Dr Donald Smith, when assisting Mr Mackenzie in making out the report on Ossian, and who died before the report was quite finished; and unless the leaves are found in the possession of Dr John Smith at Campbelltown, the brother of Donald, they must be lost. These leaves contained two other short poems ascribed to Ossian. I have copied these two last some years ago; the one is a genealogy of Fingal, the other an account of the ages of the Fingalian heroes.

The leaves referred to by Mackintosh are, of course, lost; but fortunately the interesting poem on the Ages of the Feinne is preserved, along with Cnoc an Air, in the Black Book, and is printed in our present volume further on. The poem on the genealogy of Fionn is, we fear, lost.

As at present preserved, the Red Book begins at page 33, and ends with page 310. The first 32 pages, containing the history and genealogy of the Macdonalds from Milé (1700 B.C.) of Spain down to the year 1234 A.D., is lost. It is clear that the Edinburgh MS. 50, which is a congeries of several manuscript debris, has incorporated in it 6 of the lost Red Book pages, detailing events from the death of Colla Uas in 335 to the middle of the exploits of Gillebride, father of Somerled, marked as pages 11–16. Fortunately the Black Book furnishes a complete though curtailed version of all the historical portions of the Red Book, and in the earlier part it is practically as full as the latter work. The contents of the Red Book as far as page 274 deal with the history of the Macdonalds, especially of Clanranald, and with the wars of Montrose and Alaster Colkitto, interspersed with elegies of various chiefs, one or two poems of praise, and a prose description of the last Lord of the Isles' array for battle, after the fashion of the older romantic school. Pages 275 and 276 contain a satire in English on Bishop Burnet; this is the only English in the Red Book. After some blank leaves, on page 282, appears an Irish satirical medley of Rabelaisian tinge by Fergal Og Mac an Bard; it is very indistinct in some parts owing to damage done to several pages of the MS. by the action of water. The piece extends to 11 pages; we reproduce none of it. There follows on page 293 a song in praise of love, and on page 295 another by Cathal (M'Vurich) in dispraise of the same, followed by a vigorous poem by Niall Mor M'Vurich wishing the prolongment of love's long night: — Let not in the morn; Rise and put out the day! These poems are printed further on. Then on page 298 there comes the first part of a poem by Diarmad M' Laoisighe M' an Bhaird on the armorial bearing of the Red Hand; this poem and the reply to it by Eogan O'Donnelly are given in full in the Black Book. Here Niall M'Vurich answers both the Irish claims for the Red Hand in two poems of 23 verses each.

There are three handwritings in the Red Book. Up till the beginning of the story of the Montrose wars is in one handwriting, both prose and poetry, possibly written, as the historian Laing said, by Cathal M'Vurich; while the Montrose wars and the rest of the history is the work, and doubtless the handwriting, of Niall M'Vurich. Cathal's handwriting reappears in the poem of O'Henna and the immediately subsequent description of the arming of the Lord of the Isles. The following poems are written in an ugly coarse hand: — Elegies on Allan of Clanranald (1715), on Norman Macleod (1705), and on Sir James Macdonald, and the poem about the exile of Ranald of Clanranald (1715–1725). The rest of the poetry is in Niall M'Vurich's handwriting. The contractions in the Red Book are comparatively few, in this contrasting strongly with the Black Book; but, when they exist, they are the same in kind in both MSS.

Contents of the Black Book

We here give a short account of the varied contents of the Black Book of Clanranald. The first 14 pages contain a mixed gathering of scraps and jottings, English and Gaelic, half of the number of pages, however, being blank. There is little connection or interest in them, and the writing is mostly of the 17th century. The 15th page abruptly begins — the first portion evidently being lost — circles are two, viz., greater and lesser. The greater are six, &c., describing the zones of the earth, and proceeding to give a concise account of the globe and its divisions and, with the interruption of a blank page, a concise geography of the world ending on the 42nd page. All this is in English, and in the 17th century script. Then follows a chronology extending to 13 pages; the Age of the World when Christ was born is given as 5199, which is the same as the date implied in the chronology of the Macdonald History, and also the same as the chronology of the Irish Annals of the Four Masters. The handwriting is like the one on the previous pages, and it is followed by 4 pages of a chronology in an 18th century hand. The chronologies are all in English. On the 69th page begin the Irish genealogies in Irish, which develop the offspring of the mythic Eber, Ir, and Eremon, the sons of Milé, through long lines of kings down to contemporary Irish chiefs like Se'an O' Neill of Tyrone and the Macdonalds of Antrim. There is also given the descent of Milé from Adam downwards. The whole extends to 14 pages. After scraps of chronology and a blank page, we light upon 12 pages of Irish poetry, forming 6 pieces in all. In the first, Diarmad mac Laoisighe mhic an Bhaird proves in 17 verses that the Red Hand belongs to Clann Rughruidhe, the descendants of Ir, and the Ulster men, citing mostly the exploits of Conall Cernach (circa year 1 of our era), who placed two thousand heads on one withe in revenge for Cuchuluin. In the second poem, of equal length, Eogan O'Donelly denies and ridicules this, claiming the Red Hand for Conn and his descendants, whereof are Clann Colla, whence, as we have it, the Macdonalds are descended. We have already noted that Niall Mc Vurich replies to both poets in the Red Book. The third poem consists of 4 (not 5) verses of advice à la Cormac's Advice to His Son in our ballads. These verses are: — No 5 rainn dhuit a Dhonnchaidh deuna mar adera síad diogha rainn ni bhfuighir uaimsi crainn go ttorrthaibh uaisle íad. Brath haignidh abhair beagan bi go réidh fo rachadh ort na beir breith re gáol do ghaire go breithe don taobh eile ort. Na hob síth na seachan cogadh na creach ceall gion bus beó na bi do gniomh tenn os tengaidh na dena feall no gealladh gleó. Bi go mín accríochaibh carad a ccrioch biodhbhadh na bi tais bi go cáoin re deoraidh Chriost a leomháin do shiol Chormaic chais. No. The fourth poem is a lament for a young lady's death, in eighteen verses, beginning — Buan an leunsa air Leith Chuinn.

The fifth poem is ascribed to Deirdre, and we print it further on.

Then follows a poem of ten lines, an address to a flagstone, <frn lang="sga">sinnt ar dháoi</frn>, over a bad person, with its underlying contingent of maggots, beetles, and mortal remains.

On the 97th page, and attached to these Irish poems by being on the same sheet, are the three pages of Macdonald History detailing, with genealogies, the Macdonald Chiefs contemporary with the writer's time, written in Allan of Clanranald's chiefship (1686–1715). This will be found printed further on, practically where the Red Book places it. Five blank pages, when we enter on a new sheet of paper, and we have the History of the Macdonalds, as hereafter printed. It extends to 63 consecutive pages. But abruptly, on the 63rd page, and in the same handwriting, there begins, with the last two lines of the page, a treatise on Gaelic grammar and prosody, thus: — Madh aill fios dfhaghail ciunnus is cóir Gaoidheilg do sgriobhadh &ersir; do leighedh ni fular dhuit fios na guidhuidhibh &ersir; na consonuibh do bhi agad.

The latter portion discusses prosody with examples, closing with the two heroic poems of the Ages of the Feinne and Cnoc an Air, which we print. There are only four pages of this grammatical material, exclusive of the poems. Then follows the genealogies of the clans Maclean, Mackenzie, Macbeth, and Campbell, which are, with equal abruptness and in a different hand, followed, on the reverse of the page, by the genealogies of the Antrim Macdonalds, extending to six pages. All these genealogies and histories will be found in our text.

On page 187 begins a poem of forty verses on Siol Colla — the Descendants of Colla, which details their glory and privileges — these same being detailed with more definiteness and less obscurity in an Irish extract in Skene's Celtic Scotland, Vol. III., pp. 462–466. On pages 194 and 195 is a poem of seven verses, condoling with a Bean, or Wife, at a Grave, and conjuring all the Fenian heroic wives to her assistance. After some blank pages come seven pages, in a large coarse hand, of Gaelic proverbial philosophy, founded on Solomon's Proverbs and the Wisdom of Ben Sirach. The following is the first page and a half: — Ataid se neithe as beág ar dhia, et an seachtmadh ní as ro bheag air é . eadhon suile toileamhla &ersir; teanga cealgach, et lamha ionnalta le fuil, &ersir; cosa luath chum uilc do dheanamh, &ersir; croidhe smuaineas droch ghniomha no dhroch bhearta, agus fiadhnaisi bhreagach, &ersir; an tí cuireas imreasuin eidir adhearbhraithreachaibh. Ataid trí neithe nach eidir shasadh et an ceathramh ní nach abair ataim sathach eadhon bean dhruiseamhail, &ersir; talamh tirim, &ersir; ní sástar iffrionn &ersir; ni faghann an tine asaith connaidh choidhche.

A taid trí neithe nach uras eolas dfagail orrtha et an ceathramh ní heidir eolas dfhaghail air .i. lorg iolar isin áer, et lorg aithreach nimhe ar carraig mar ambí na chomhnaidhe, &ersir; casan luinge isin muir et beatha dhuine attuchd oige.

On page 207 begin 31 verses on the sufferings and passions of Christ. After three blank pages there begins a poem on the history and present (17th century) state of Ireland, beginning — Nuar a smúainm ar saoithibh na h-Éirionn sgrios na ttíortha is díth na cléire díoth na ndúine is luighead agreidhthe bí mo chroidh im chlídh da ráoba. There are 73 such verses, 54 of which detail the history from the Flood, and the other 29 the muster roll of Irish chiefs and the unhappy state of the country in the 17th century. Then follow five pages of odds and ends in Irish, mostly verse. From the Proverbial Philosophy to page 242 is all in the same large, coarse handwriting, slightly improving as it progresses.

At page 243 we may say that a new book begins. This is the praise of the Marquis of Antrim. The title runs: — Antrim's Trophee or five panegyrick speeches Dedicated to the Marquis of Antrimes Excellence. Written att his excellences arriving in Scotland anno 1646. The first of the justice of his armes, the second of the fortitude of his armes, the third of his excellence true nobility, the forth of religion and superstition, the fifth of his lordships constancy and perseverance.

The work is by his excellences devoted and true servant G. G. After the five Panegyrics come accounts of the two escapes of the Marquis from Carrickfergus. The whole, which extends to 153 pages of florid English, is written in an 18th century hand, and doubtless is a copy of the original. In the same handwriting, and in English also, follows a chronology, with geography appended, extending to 33 pages. This is followed by a poem, which is the prototype of the song of the Vicar of Bray, some 20 quatrains. After eight pages of blank we find the 445th page upside down. The fact is, that from this point to the end the book is written from the last page backwards. There are only five lines of Gaelic, which are rude and shaky. Some astronomical jottings are followed by twelve pages of a letter describing the deathbed of James VII. at St Germains (year 1701). The Book concludes by a satiric poem of twelves lines, comparing King William's conduct to Satan's rebellion against God, and entitled The Legacy. Such are the varied contents of the Black Book of Clanranald.

There are four hand-writings presented in the Gaelic portions of the Black Book, none of which can be identified with any of the three scripts in the Red Book, though there is a strong family resemblance between Niall Mc Vurich's writing in the Red Book and the chief scribe's of the Black Book, who wrote the Macdonald and Montrose histories; it is this writer's hand-writing that is reproduced in our facsimile. The genealogies — Irish and Scotch — present a hand-writing of their own; so do the Irish poems, the two sets, that which begins with Diarmad Mc Laoisige and that which begins with Siol Cholla. The fourth script is the coarse, large one already noticed as characterising the Proverbs and subsequent poetry. It may be mentioned that Neil, father of the illiterate testimony-giver of the Ossianic reports, could write the Irish character, while his uncle, Donald, who may be looked on as the last of the Mc Vurich bards, was the son of the Niall Mc Vurich to whom we owe the most of the Red Book. The genealogy runs thus: — Donald (floruit 1722 and later), son of Niall, son of Donald, son of Lachlan, son of Niall Mor Mc Vurich, who sings the praises of the famous Sir Rory Mor Macleod (chief from 1590 to 1626), his contemporary.

The Printed Text

The text of the Macdonald and Montrose histories here printed is primarily that of the Black Book; but the omissions in it, which are numerous in the Montrose portions, are supplied from the Red Book. The text is therefore continuous and full. There is only one historical poem in the Black Book — that of O'Henna. The Red Book text, on the other hand, is interspersed with elegies and eulogies, which have been here reserved to the end of the historical parts of the text.

The contractions are shown by the use of italics, and the character of these contractions may be understood by a reference to the facsimile and the printed page. The Red Book, as already said, has the same class of contractions as the other, but it uses them more sparingly. There is practically no punctuation in the Red Book, but the Black Book is well punctuated. The real difficulty in this matter is with the capital letters; it is almost impossible to say when t, d, c, g, p, b, and l are capital, while the only vowel that presents a capital form is a. Size alone must decide in such cases.