Brae Lochaber Gaelic Oral Tradition and the Repertoire of John Macdonald, Highbridge

Wiseman, Andrew Esslemont MacIntosh (1996) Brae Lochaber Gaelic Oral Tradition and the Repertoire of John Macdonald, Highbridge. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to give as broad a prospectus as possible of the Gaelic oral tradition of Brae Lochaber. No one exemplifies the Gaelic tradition of the Braes better than John MacDonald who belonged to Highbridge. Our purpose here, then, is not simply to delineate John MacDonald as a story-teller but rather to analyse the representative content of his repertoire. By far the greater part of this corpus consists of historical traditions and supernatural tales. For that reason this study has attempted to give these aspects greater prominence and has included examples from other local tradition bearers and accounts from the literature, and thus John MacDonald is not exclusively foregrounded in the chapters dealing with historical legends and supernatural tales. Also, in order to reflect the content of John MacDonald's repertoire these particular tales are the ones studied in greatest depth. John MacDonald can be described as the last Lochaber seanchaidh as he was the last person of a long line who not only composed over a hundred songs but had a vast knowledge of Lochaber traditions, passed on from his father, James MacDonald. Somewhat unusually John only learnt these traditional tales later in life, shortly before his father died.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Adviser: Donald MacAuley
• Keywords: Folklore, Linguistics, Music history
• Date of Award: 1996
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1996-74593
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 27 Sep 2019 17:38
• Last Modified: 27 Sep 2019 17:38
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74593