PS 141 – Dead’s Lament

Primary Sources

C2 Dead’s Lament C2.57: 128

Note on Title

*Cumha nam Marbh Cumha na Mairbh / Lament for the Dead K1 & KK. Lament for the Dead. This Gaelic title is found as Angus MacKay’s name for The Rout of Ben Doig (PS 217). His spelling has been amended to treat ‘the dead’ as plural on the basis of his use of the article na, taken to be for nam though pronounced as he writes it. Colin Campbell’s names – One of the Deads Lament (PS 140) and Dead’s Lament (PS 141) – also suggest a plural form, the first title being his peculiar non-native way of saying ‘One of the Laments for the Dead’. On the other hand, MacKay’s spelling mairbh with the vowel ‘ai’ suggests he treated ‘the dead’ as singular.

Roderick Cannon (2009), rev. Barnaby Brown 2015

Leave a Reply