Description
Urras Leabhraichean nan Eilean/The Islands Book Trust, 2010. 119 pages. Paperback.
Alexander Carmichael as a Collector of Gaelic Bird Names.
Everyone who has an interest in Gaelic culture and tradition will be familiar with the folklore collector Alexander Carmichael and with his masterwork, Carmina Gadelica. Plenty of evidence can be found within this work for how Carmichael took a keen interest in words and expressions related to natural history, It is known too that he collected large numbers of Gaelic bird names and sent lists of them to the ornithologists of the day. But how well qualified was he for this kind of collecting work? How reliable are the names he collected? Was he correct when he wrote that he was engaged in a ‘thankless task’? These are just some of the questions addressed in this fascinating book.
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