Anecdotes about John
MacCodrum, styled Iain mac Fhearchair ’ic Codruim, especially those that
contain pithy witticisms, spread far and wide throughout the Highlands and Islands.
Here, for example, is quite a well known one taken down on the 17th of August 1946 by Calum Maclean from the recitation of Angus MacDonald, then aged eighty-three, who has been described by John Lorne Campbell (known as Fear Chanaigh) as the last storyteller
or seanchaidh of Canna:
Bha
MacCodrum (Iain MacCodrum) a’ dol le sgothaich às Uibhist a dh’Ghlasacho,
agus thadhaill iad aig Tobar Mhuire. Ann an sin thàinig fear a-nuas agus dh’fhaighneachd
e cò an comaundair a bh’ air a’ luing.
“Tha
a’ stiùir,” orsa MacCodrum.
“A!
chan e sin a tha mi a’ ciallachdh idir, ach cò a’ sgiobair a th’ oirre?”
“Tha
an crann,” ors’ esan.
“Cò
às a thug sibh an t-iomradh?”
“Às
ar gàirdeannan,” orsa MacCodrum.
Thubhairst
a’ fear eile ann an sin:
“An
ann fo thuath a thàinig sibh?”
“Pàirst
fo thuath is pàirst fo thighearnan,” thubhairst MacCodrum.
And
the translation goes something like the following:
John MacCodrum was going by boat from Uist to Glasgow and
they stopped over in Tobermory. There a man came down agus asked who was the
commander of the boat.
“The rudder,” replied MacCodrum.
“Ah! that wasn’t what I meant at all but rather who is
her skipper?”
“The mast,” he said.
“From where did you row?”
“From our shoulders,” replied MacCodrum.
The other man then asked:
“Was is from the north you came?”
“Some of us are commoners and some of us are nobles,”
answered MacCodrum.
References:
NFC MS 1028: 184–85
William Matheson (ed.), The Songs of John MacCodrum: Bard to Sir James MacDonald of Sleat (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1938)
Image:
Angus MacDonald (1865–1949), styled Aonghas
Eachainn, by courtesy of Canna House Archives (National Trust for Scotland)
