Many of the items recorded
by Calum Maclean from John MacDonald of Highbridge were historical legends or
anecdotes. Such tales contain motifs that have been grafted onto real historical
episodes and subsequently became the stock in trade of any storyteller worth
his salt. To quote the late Alan Bruford, “Among Gaelic folktales the clan
legends occupy a unique place: there is nothing quite like them this side of
Africa, even in Ireland, because the clan society which produced them was
unique in modern Europe.” The following historical tale was taken down by Calum
Maclean from John MacDonald’s recitation on the 20th of January 1951:
Alasdair Crotach MacLeòid anns an Eilean Sgitheanach,
bha e a’ fàs gu math sean ann an Dùn Bheagain. Agus bha gille aige a bha na
chuideachda on a bha e glè òg, an gille. Agus chaidh e a-staigh a’ mhadainn a
bha seo is am bodach na shuide taobh an teine is feusag mhòr air sìos gu
ghlùinean. ’S ann a shaoil leis gun do shluig e each agus dh’fhuirich an
t-iorball a-mach, an coltas a bh’ air a’ bhodach. Agus thuirt an gille ris:
“Dè a tha a’ cur oirbh, a dhuine?”
“Tha mi a’ fàs sean is tha mi grànda agus tha croit
orm. Agus mura pòs mi an ùine ghoirid, bidh Cloinn ’ic Leòid, cha bhi sliochd
nan dèidh.”
“Ma-tà,” ors’ an gille, “na bithibh a’ falbh fon
bheachd sin. Gheibh sibh bean fhathast. Thèid sinn a choimhead air Loch Iall an
Loch Abar. Agus tha triùir nighean aige agus tha e iongantach mura faigh sibh
tè dhiubh.”
Dh’fhalbh iad an ceann latha na dhà leis a’ charbad.
Fhuair iad thar an aiseadh. Ràinig iad Loch Iall. Chaidh fàilte is furan a chur
orra dar a ràinig iad. Chaidh an gille a chur a-staigh do sheòmar san taigh is
chaidh am bodach a thoirt a-staigh a-measg nan uaislean. Ach cha do
dh’fhaighneachd am bodach de Loch Iall guth mu dheidhinn na h-ingheannan. Dar a
bha iad a’ falbh dhachaigh an dèidh treis a thoirt an sin:
“Ciamar a chaidh dhuibh?” thuirt an gille.
“O! cha tuirt mi facal.”
“Ud! cha dèan sin an gnothach. Chan eil sinne a’ dol
don Eilean Sgitheanach gun bhean gun leanabh agus an turas air a bheil sin.
Agus tillidh sinn air ais.”
“Saoil an till?”
“Tillidh. Cha tèid mise nas fhaide,” thuirt an gille.
“Agus bristidh mise an deigh, ma chuireas sibh-se ur casan roimhe. Deàna’ fhèin an cuid eile.”
Thill iad. Shaoil le Loch Iall gur h-ann a
dhìochuimhnich iad rudeigin:
“Na dhìochuimhnich sibh dad?” thuirt Loch Iall.
“Cha do dhìochuimhnich e mòran,” thuirt e. “Ach dhìochuimhnich
e bruidhinn. Thàinig e an seo airson bean.”
“Thig a-staigh,” thuirt e. “Thig a-staigh. Tha triùir
nigheann ann. Agus bheir sinn a-nuas an tè as sine an toiseach feuch dè their
ise.”
Chaidh a toirt a-nuas don t-seòmar agus faighneachd
dhith am pòsadh i MacLeòid. Thuirt i nach pòsadh. Ma bha an liop aig a’ bhodach
ìseal an uair sin, bha i tur, dona dar a chaidh a dhiultadh. Bha tè eile ann.
Thug iad a-nuas an tè eile. Cha ghabhadh.
“O! tha seo dona.”
Thug iad an sin a-nuas an tè a b’ òige agus thuirt iad
rithe:
“An gabh thu an duine seo airson ceile pòsda?”
“Gabhaidh,” thuirt i.
“Tha mi grànda,” thuirt e, “agus tha croit orm.”
“Tha mi coma,” thuirt i. “Chan fhaca mi croit na cnoc
fhathast nach robh fasgadh air taobh air choireigin deth.”
Agus phòs iad agus ’s ann mar sin a chaidh an teaglach
aig MacLeòid a chumail a suas an Dùn Bheagain. Agus chaochail Alasdair Crotach
ann an 1547. Agus tha e air a thìodhlacadh thall an Roghdal anns na Hearadh.
And the translation goes
something like this:
Alexander Crotach MacLeod was in the Isle of Skye and
was growing quite old in his home of Dunvegan. He had a servant who accompanied
him from a very young age. He went in one morning and the old man was sitting
by the fire with his long beard reaching down to his knees. He thought that the
old man looked as if he had swallowed a horse and had left its tail hanging
out. The servant asked him:
“What’s wrong, man?”
“I’m growing old and I’m ugly and I’m humpbacked. And
if I don’t marry in a short while, there’ll not be a Clan MacLeod, there’ll be
no progeny to follow.”
“Well,” said the servant, “don’t thinking like that.
You’ll get a wife yet. We’ll go to visit Cameron of Lochiel in Lochaber for he
has thee daughters and it would be amazing if you don’t get one of them.”
They set off after a day or two in a vehicle. They got
over on the ferry and they reached Cameron of Lochiel. On reaching they place
they were made very welcome. The servant was put into a room in the house and
the old man was taken in with the company of the noblemen. But the old man
never asked Cameron of Lochiel about his daughters. When they leaving for home
after a little while:
“How did you do?” the servant asked.
“Oh! I didn’t say a word.”
“Od! that won’t do. We’re not going back to the isle
of Skye without a wife or a child as this is the business we came on. And we’ll
go back.”
“Do you think we should return?”
“Yes. I’ll not go any further,” said the servant. “And
I’ll break the ice if you’ll put your feet through. The rest will take care of
itself.”
They went back. Cameron of Lochiel thought that they
had forgotten something:
“Have you forgot anything?” asked Cameron of Lochiel.
“He didn’t forget a lot,” he said, “but he forgot to
speak. He came here to get a wife.”
“Come in,” he said. “Come in. I have three daughters
and we’ll take down the older one to begin with to see what she has to say.”
She was taken down to the room and asked if she was
willing to marry MacLeod. She said she wasn’t willing to marry him. If the old
man’s lip was low then, it was far lower when he was reject. There was another
one. The took down the other one. She refused to marry him as well.
“Oh! this is bad.”
They took down then the youngest one and they asked
her:
“Will you take this man for you husband.”
“Yes, I will,” she said.
“I’m ugly,” he said, “and I’m humpbacked.”
“I don’t care,” she said, “I’ve never seen a hump or a
hill yet where there isn’t
shelter on one side or another of it.”
And they were married and that his how MacLeod’s
family kept going in Dunvegan. Alexander Crotach MacLeod died in 1547 and he is
buried over in Rodel in the Isle of Harris.
Lord Alexander (not
mentioned in any sources until 1498) is better known as Alasdair Crotach
MacLeod (c. 1450–1547), or ‘hunchbacked’, which may have been caused by a
wound at the Battle of Blood Bay (1480) in which his father, Uilleam Dubh, was
slain. He succeeded to the chiefship in that year and was one of the longest
serving MacLeod chiefs. Alasdair
Crotach did indeed marry a daughter of Cameron of Lochiel. The nineteenth-century
Bannatyne manuscript relates of how Alasdair Crotach was still unmarried even
though he was no longer a young man. Cameron of Lochiel had ten daughters and
offered him one any of them as a wife. Alasdair Crotach married the youngest of
them and she lived to an old age and was buried beside her husband. Alasdair
Crotach and his wife had issue: three sons and two daughters.
References:
Calum I. Maclean, The Highlands (London: Batsford, 1959)
SSS
NB 1, pp. 40–43
Image:
Detail
of Alasdair Crotach MacLeod’s tomb, Rodel, Harris. The MacLeod chieftain is portrayed
wearing bascinet, an aventail and hauberk of mail, with two ankle-length
undergarments and holds a claymore with a long-handled axe
