A RENOWNED Gaelic singer and a storyteller have worked together to reprise an ancient ballad about the tragic death of a legendary hero which will be sung this weekend for the first time in 200 years.
The tale of the mighty Connlaoch – son of Scottish warrior princess Aoife and Irish hero Cú Chulainn – chronicles his fate at the hands of his father. It had been preserved by folklore collectors from the 18th and 19th centuries, but the music had been lost.
However, experts from the University of Edinburgh and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) worked with Gaelic singer Margaret Stewart and storyteller Pàdruig Morrison to create a performance in keeping with how it was originally heard. Stewart recreated the lost tune for the ballad using her extensive knowledge of Gaelic song, while Morrison pieced together the spoken word from Gaelic tales going as far back as the early ninth century.
They will premiere Singing the Story: The Death of Connlaoch, on Saturday at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, with a live English translation during the storytelling and English subtitles for the ballad.
Stewart, from Upper Coll in the Isle of Lewis, is one of Scotland’s foremost traditional Gaelic singers and an authority on traditional Gaelic song. Morrison, from the island of Grimsay, North Uist, is a musician and composer from a long line of Gaelic storytellers and tradition bearers.
They worked with Abigail Burnyeat from Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh and Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, UHI.
Together, they found a way to honour both the medieval narratives and the living tradition of oral Gaelic storytelling.
Burnyeat said: “These tales are to Scotland and Ireland what King Arthur is to England.
“From chiefs’ halls to ceilidh houses, heroic ballads and their stories have been at the heart of Gaelic culture for centuries.
“They form one of the cultural and artistic high points of Gaelic tradition. It has been a hugely satisfying challenge to bring this
tale and ballad back to life for a modern audience.”
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