The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Neiv Books. 317
NEW BOOKS AND EDITIONS.
THE LITERArURE OF THE HIGHLANDS: A Hisioky of Gaelic
Literature from 1 he Earliest Times to the Present Day. By
ISiGEi. Macneill. Inverness: John Noble, Castle Street. i8q2.
TiiE minister of Bedford Church, London, is evidently one of
those Highlanders whose love for the Highland hills and the Highland
tongue grows more intense than ever in the fogs of London,
and amidst the cares of a laborious life. This book is the result
of many years of recreative Celtic studies. Much of what has
now been gathered together in a volume of 350 pages, appeared
as separate articles in the Glasgow Herald and other publications.
Mr Macneill has availed himself fully of the many new and even
cross lights which have within this generation fallen, and are still
falling, upon Celtic questions. He is too cautious to take up the
Scoto-Pictish question, and is even undecided as to Macpherson's
" Ossian," whether it is to be classified as a literary fraud, or a
much-altered version from an older and ruder original. He
believes (i) that the English is a translation from Gaelic, probably
from a ruder version than that published in 1S07 ; {2) that Macpherson
is neither absolutely the author, nor merely the translator
of the poems connected with his name ; and (3) that he formed
his original Gaelic by joining and recasting old ballads. We take
these to be the principal propositions embodying Mr MacneiP's
views on the Ossianic controversy as it stands now. The hook
contains the names of about one hundred and eighty composers
of Gaelic poetry, while not more than a third of that iiumber is
to be found in any previous work on the subject. The trans-
lations, in verse, of Gaelic ballads, songs, and Latin hymns of the
€arly Celtic Church, will to English readers prove the great charm
of the volume. Some of the translations have, of course, appeared
before, and are by different hands. Mr Macneill's own contribu-
tions are good and numerous. The well known " Ballad of the
Banners " is to be found, with many variations, in almost all
collections of old Gaelic poetry concerning the Feinn period.
Mr Macneill, having taken verses from the diiferent versions,
and fused them all, has thrown into his English version the very
ring of the original.
THE BANNERS.
The Norla'nd King stood on the height
And scanned the rolling sea :
He proudly eyed his gallant ships
That rode triumphantly.