Tàladh Dhòmhnaill Ghuirm
This information is taken from a Facebook post from the Calum MacLean page.
Raasay-born Calum Maclean (1915-1960) was one of the foremost Scottish folklorists and ethnologists.
Whether this anonymous song was composed for either Dòmhnall Gorm Mòr (d. 1617) or his nephew, and successor of the Sleat MacDonalds, Dòmhnall Gorm Òg (d. 1643) remains unclear. Given its title, the presumption is that the song was composed when the subject was still a child but this is by no means certain. Framed as an iorram or boat-song, the imagery is at times rather startling and perhaps even surreal. As with many other versions of a lullaby, the subject is extolled and the composer wishes every benefit to the young infant to succeed when he reaches maturity. Many different versions of this song have been collected from the mid-nineteenth century onwards and the following was recorded by Donald Archie MacDonald at some point in 1967 then by Alan Bruford in the summer of 1965 and, yet again, by Ian Paterson in the spring of 1976.
Tàladh Dhòmhnaill Ghuirm
[Translation below]
Ar leam gur h-ì
Ho nàil ì bhò hì, a’ ghrian tha ag èirigh
Ho nail ì bhò ho,
’S i a’ cur smal
Air na reultaibh
Mac mo rìgh-sa
Dol na èideadh
Gun robh gach dùilean
Mar mi fhèin da
Dè ma a bhios
Cha tachair beud da.
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nuair thèid mac mo
Rìgh-sa a dh’Alba
Ge b’ e cala
Tàmh no àite
Gum bi mire
Cluichd is gàire,
Bualadh bhròg is
Leòis air deàrnaibh.
Siud is iomairt
Air an tàileasg
’S air na cairtean
Breacan bàna
’S air na dìsnean
Geala-chnàmhan.
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nàil ì bhò hì.
Donald Gorm’s Lullaby
I think that
Ho nàil ì bhò hì, the sun is rising
Ho nail ì bhò ho,
That is casting a haze over the stars.
When the son of my king
Is in armour
May every being
Be as I am to him
What if it is?
No harm will befall him.
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nàil ì bhò hì,
When my king’s son
Reaches Scotland
Whatever the port
Of call or lodging
Merriment there will be.
Sport and laughter,
Beatings with slippers
And palms with blisters,
That and playing
At back-gammon,
Gambling at cards
Patterned and gleaming
And throwing of dice
Of white ivory.
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nàil ì bhò hì,
Nàil ì bhò hì.
Recorded by Donald Archie MacDonald in 1967, Alan Bruford on 5 August 1965 and then by Ian Paterson (from which the above has been transcribed) on 17 March 1976 from the Rev. William Matheson (1910–1995) who was born in Malaclete and raised in Sollas, North Uist. He became a Reader in Celtic at the University of Edinburgh. The original tape recordings are catalogued as SA1967/60/A14; SA1976/97/B3 which are available to listen to on Tobar an Dualchais:
https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/108864?l=en; http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/14820?l=en; and http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/101572?l=en;
see further Anon., ‘Tàladh Dhòmhnaill Ghuirm (Òran), Gairm, no. 7 (An t-Earrach, 1954), pp. 239–41; John L. Campbell and Francis Collinson (eds.), Hebridean Folksongs, 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969–81), i, pp. 128–31, 238–39, 325–26; K. C. Craig (ed.), Orain Luaidh Màiri nighean Alasdair (Glasgow: Matheson, 1949), pp. 11–12; Peter Davidson and Jane Stevenson (eds.), Early Modern Women (1520–1700): An Anthology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 285–88; Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and Kenneth MacDonald (eds.), Songs of the Hebrides, 2 vols. (London: Boosey and Co., 1917), ii, pp. 28–30; Catherine Kerrigan, An Anthology of Scottish Women Poets (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univesity Press, 1991), pp. 18–23, 336; Rev. Angus MacDonald and Rev. Archibald MacDonald (eds.), The MacDonald Collection of Gaelic Poetry (Inverness: Northern Counties Publishing Co., 1911), pp. 35–39; Keith Norman MacDonald (ed.), The Gesto Collection of Highland Music (Leipzig: Privately printed, 1895), app., p. 20; Alasdair MacGilleMhìcheil, ‘Donull Gorm’, An Gaidheal, vol. 5, no. 51 (1876), pp. 68–70; Cairistìona Mhàrtainn (ed)., Òran an Eilein: Gaelic Songs of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach: Taigh na Teud, 2001), p. 78; Colm Ó Baoill and Meg Bateman (eds.), Gàir nan Clàrsach / The Harps’ Cry: An Anthology of 17th Century Gaelic Poetry (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1994), pp. 66–69; Francis Tolmie, A. G. Gilchrist and Lucy E. Broadwood, ‘Songs of Labour’, Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. 4, no. 16 (1911), pp. 238–39; William J. Watson (ed.), Bàrdachd Ghàidhlig: Specimens of Gaelic Poetry, 1550–1900 (Stirling: A. Learmonth & Son for An Comunn Gaidhealach), pp. 246–49.
