Manuscript containing two Bruidhean tales: ‘Bruighean Chaorthuinn’, and ‘Bruidhean Bheag na halmhaine’, written by Eoghan Mac Pháill, Dunstaffnage.
Scope and Contents
The manuscript written in circa 1603 by Eoghan Mac Pháill, Dunstaffnage, is in varying styles of handwriting. These may be described as styles 1, 2, 4 and 5. Another style (3) appears in Adv.MS.72.2.2. Style 5 is secretary, while the rest are Gaelic. It appears at pages 24, 41, 42, 45 and 47, and in a word (?‘Duntrone’) scribbled at page 13 lower margin. Style 4 is found only in unimportant marginalia (pages 39 and 41).
Donald Mackintosh (1743-1808) transcribed ‘Bruidhean Chaorthuinn’ into what is now Adv.MS.72.3.11 for the Highland Society of Scotland.
The contents (text) are as follows.
(i) Bruighean Chaorthuinn. Beginning ‘Ri uasal oireadha ro gabhusa flai [theas ⁊ f]orlamhus ar na ceithre treabhaibh Lochlannach’. Style 1. Eoghan Mac Pháill wrote the first 4 lines of page 20 upside-down at foot of page, then scored these through and restarted correctly. (Page 1, line 1.)
(ii) (Style 5) ‘This buik perteining to ane honorable mane callit eowin mak phaill wretter heireof he or sche that staills this buik fra me god nor he be hangit one ane trie and sch[ ] be drownit upone ane sea amen for me amen for ye amen for all the companye ‘Eowin is his name [ ] home I do pertin [ ] name quyther I live or [ ]’. (Page 24, line 13.)
(iii) Bruidhean Bheag na halmhaine. Beginning “Fleadh mhor chaoin moradhbhal do commoradh le [Fionn] mac Cubhaill mhic Treunmhoir Í Bhaoiscne a nEalmhuin l[eth] ainmhor laocha ar magh Laighean”. Style 1. (Page 38, line 22) “...gonadh hí sin Fleagh na hEalbun go nuige sin”. (Page 25, line 1.)
(iv) ‘Ca hainm ata ar Fhearghal og’, 11 quatrains. Style 2. Satirical rebuke to Fearghal Óg mac mac an Bháird for courting instead of practising his craft. Copy Z, folio 5. Cf. Adv.MS.72.1.1, folio 25 verso. (Page 39, line 1.)
(v) Page 40 blank.
(vi) (Style 1:) “Beannacht ⁊ (?)frithbendachtus cugad Eóin Ui Conchubhair ⁊ biodh a fhios agad nach ar sgriobh me ach beag don leabhar fós. ⁊ gur é is adhbhar do sin nach roibhe agum caibideal do bí uaim isin leabhar. oir is olc leam a beith uaim” (Style 5:) ‘na man bot I no [ ]mittes committees yow to God frome Dunsteffiniche the xxij day of October the yeir of God 1603 yeires friend [ ]ritt guid Eouin Mak Phaill’. (Page 41.)
(vii) Also marginalia in styles 1, 4 and 5, including ‘EOUIN MAK PHAILL with my hand at [the] pene’.
(viii) Incomplete letter in Scots on certain legal matters, 25 lines. Mac Pháill advises the recipient to communicate with a special friend such as the Laird of Grant, and asks him to accede to a request made by his (Mac Pháill’s) father. Style 5. (Page 42, line 1.)
(ix) Blue deed paper. (Pages 43-44.)
(x) Copy (dated Edinburgh, 12 July 1872) of colophon on page 41. (Page 43.)
(xi) Page 44 blank.
(xii) Pages 45-46 fragmentary.
(xiii) ‘To heal banes that ar broken’. Medical receipt in Scots. Style 5. (Page 45.)
(xiv) Largely illegible. Style 1. Includes verse of Tadhg Óg Ó Huiginn, ‘Slan ar na marbha mac De’. (Page 46.)
(xv) Blank save for ‘Iohannis(?) [ ]’ in a secretary hand. (Page 47.)
(xvi) Page 48 blank.
Dates
- Creation: [Circa 1603.]
Creator
- Mac Pháill, Eoghan, Dunstaffnage, fl. 1603-1638 (Scribe, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Normal access conditions apply.
Conditions Governing Use
Normal reproduction conditions apply, subject to any copyright restrictions.
Extent
24 Leaves ; 19 x 14 centimetres.
Language of Materials
Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic
Arrangement
48 pages.
The manuscript was paginated in 1964 by Dr Alan Bruford, the precise original order of the material being unknown.
Custodial History
Formerly Gaelic MS.XXXIV.
The manuscript latterly belonged to Major MacLachlan of Kilbride. ‘This Manuscript belongs to me John McLachlan of Kilbride’ is written across the foot of pages 2-3.
The present manuscript was the third of five ‘left with the Society, very reluctantly, by the Major, upon Mr. Mackintosh the keeper’s receipt’ (Sinclair, ‘The poems of Ossian in the original Gaelic’, volume 3, page 570). On its old sheepskin cover is ‘No 11 / J McH’; it is listed number 15 of the manuscripts belonging to the Highland Society of Scotland found among the papers of Ewen MacLachlan at his death in 1822 (Ingliston MS. A.iv.13). MacLachlan said in 1821 that he had never had it (A.i.3 number 68).
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Presented, 1925, by the Faculty of Advocates to the nation on the foundation of the National Library of Scotland.
Separated Materials
The following additional material has to be inserted between pages 38 & 39: Adv.MS.72.2.2 folios 7, 8, 10, 11, 9 in that order. (Source: Mackenzie, ‘Ossian report’, page 295).
Not retrieved by Mrs Marshall in 1821. The manuscript was described in the ‘Ossian report’, page 295. Its condition then deteriorated as exampled above from Adv.MS.72.3.11. (Cf. Adv.MS.72.1.36). The only 2 texts specifically named in the Report are among the detached leaves in Adv.MS.72.2.2. Thus although Ewen MacLachlan was in possession of Adv.MS.72.1.34 in 1821 (evidenced by J McH), he did not recognise it as the manuscript described in the Report, & stated (Ingliston MS. A.i.3, no.68) that he had never had it. Highland Sosciety of Scotland 1822, Advocates Library 1850.
Bibliography
Mackenzie, Henry. ‘Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian’ (Edinburgh, 1805).
Sinclair, John. ‘Poems of Ossian in the original Gaelic’, volume 3 (London, 1807). Smith, Donald. ‘Ossian report’ (1805).
Physical Description
Paper.
The paper is watermarked with two varieties of the ‘pot’ type.
The manuscript has now been laminated in silk and boxed, unbound, along with its original sheepskin cover and its Advocates Library cloth wrapper.
The outside edges of the manuscript are now somewhat perished, with some loss of text, and the completeness of Donald Mackintosh’s transcript shows this deterioration to have been a subsequent development.
Genre / Form
- Title
- National Library of Scotland Catalogue of Manuscripts
- Author
- National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division
- Description rules
- International Standard for Archival Description - General
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division Repository
Archives and Manuscript Division
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EJ
0131 623 3700
manuscripts@nls.uk