Matheson Collection > Gaelic songs of Mary MacLeod

NOTES III
1614, no doubt on his marriage or soon after, he made provision
for her by granting her a charter of lands in Sleat. It is unusual
but not impossible that the wife of MacDonald should be
styled Nic Dhomhnaill; we should rather have expected Bean
Mhic Dhomhnaill. Again, the usual Gaelic equivalent for Mar-
jory is Marsaili; but Marjory, Margery, and Margaret are the
same name. There seems little doubt of the identification.
This Donald Gorm is the same whose name is associated with
the Tàladh.
23 ff. Shin i taobh, &c.: " She drew alongside Mackenzie's
boat," i.e. she was the equal of the other in sailing, and Mac-
Leod was the equal of Mackenzie, no small boast in the days
when Mackenzie's power was paramount over all the north-
west — " CO bheireadh geall ri Mac Coinnich?" Such seems to
be the secondary meaning, though Mary may be speaking of
friendship and alliance.
Chuir i bòrd, &c.: We may take bòrd to mean a tack in
sailing, though it appears not to be used in this sense in Scot-
land now ; ' ' she outsailed the island boat by a tack, outstripped
her by the distance covered in a tack." Or we may take bòrd
in its ordinary meaning of a plank: " she knocked a plank out
of the island boat," perhaps by some such feat as " bumping ".
In any case the meaning is that she outsailed or surpassed the
island boat. What then is long an Eilein? An t-Eilean is Skye,
and in view of this and of long Dhomhnaill . . . long nan eilean
in the Tàladh it seems certain that the island boat symbolizes
MacDonald of Sleat. MacLeod then surpassed MacDonald,
and was equalled only by Mackenzie — the same championship
of MacLeod against MacDonald as we find in the last section
of the poem.
33. Ruairidh: who this Ruairidh chief of MacLeod was is
uncertain.
48. an Dun: Dunvegan.
58. Fionn: the leader of the Fiann, of whom Diarmaid
Ua Duibhne was one, flourished in the third century a.d.
His son was Ossian, and Ossian's son was Oscar. GoU mac
Morna was the chief warrior of the Clann Moma, and a frequent
opponent of Fionn. Cuchulainn (fl. c. a.d. i), the Fiann, Ossian
and Oscar are mentioned in the Tàladh Dhomhnaill Ghuirm.
62. Gaolas rònach: if this is a place-name it is a curious
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