Iain Lom : text, translation, variant readings and commentary

• Main Author: MacKenzie, Annie M.
• Published: University of Aberdeen 1956
• Subjects: 891.6
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.592994

The poetry of John Macdonald, bard of Lopchaber, is not readily accessible, as it is scattered for the most part throughout various collections, anthologies and periodicals, many of which are now out of print. In 1895, Nov. 4. Maclean Sinclair of Pictou Nova Scotia, published an edition of the bard's works which is also out of print. While this is an extremely useful book it is not always reliable as the Editor did not hesitate on occasion to edit certain portions of the text, re-write others, and insert stanzas of his own composition. Several important sources, manuscript and printed, have not been consulted. The purpose of this thesis is to collect the "disiencti membra paotae". The text of each poem is based on the source which seemed to provide the soundest. Version - as a general rule the oldest source. This is often supplemented by readings from other sources. For conjectures have been admitted, and the fusion of different versions has been avoided. In each case the source is indicated in the notes to the poem in question. In the English translations which are attached, an attempt has been made to adhere as closely as passible to the written text, although it is difficult to convey the impression of the graphic and vigorous style which characterises the original. The poems have been arranged charonologically in as far as this is possible, and/ and an attempt has been made to place each poem in its historical setting and establish and circumstances which gave rise to its composition. The sources on which our knowledge of the band's works depend are later then his our time. As a result it is often difficult to determine what his exact compositions were, because of Interpolations in the course of oral transmission, and later additions to the text. The variant readings quoted in the Apparatua Critious show the extent to which the sources differ and the disprosporous which frequently occur. In the case of four of the poems, versions which differ from those adopted in the text have been insorted in Appendices, in preference to the normal procedures of quoting in the Apparates critions the variant readings for each line. I am deeply indebted to Mr. John Macdonald, needer in coltid at Abordean University, for constant help and guidance. To Mr. Angus Matheson, lecturer in Celtic at Glasgov University, my thanks are due for leindly permitting me to consult his tranneriptions of the poems by lain dom in the Hell. MSS., end in the MS. Of hecter Maclean, and else for many references Bearing directly on this study. For the many defents which may remain I am embirely responsible.