Dis‑Locating and Re‑Membering: Memorial Space in the Oral Gaelic Poetry of Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh and Mairghread nighean Lachlainn
This paper explores the poems of Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh and Mairghread nighean Lachlainn, two late 17th‑century poetesses from the Scottish Highlands, and the ways in which they use territory in order to memorialise a quickly disappearing culture. As the poets’ clans are confronted with land...
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| الحاوية / القاعدة: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/etudesecossaises, |
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| المؤلف الرئيسي: | |
| التنسيق: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| اللغة: | Anglais |
| منشور في: |
Études écossaises
2026
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| الموضوعات: | |
| الوصول للمادة أونلاين: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| الملخص: | This paper explores the poems of Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh and Mairghread nighean Lachlainn, two late 17th‑century poetesses from the Scottish Highlands, and the ways in which they use territory in order to memorialise a quickly disappearing culture. As the poets’ clans are confronted with land dispossession due to the encroaching anglicised presence, their poems bring out the singular topography, the varied reliefs and the meaningful place-names of their native lands. As they weave Gaelic identity within the territories of the clans, the songs of Màiri and Mairghread seek to offer poetic reparation to spatial destitution. Clan-naming is an integral part of this territorial restitution process. In their songs, rooted in oral tradition, memory is both the means and the end of their poetic endeavours. The authors’ preoccupation with space thus operates a form of oral mapping within the poems, while poetry itself is crafted into a memorial space, a safer haven, where the integrity of the clans is restored and preserved in collective memory. |
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