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Another hectic week. Hopefully things will calm down soon and I can get back to DWing with more regularity. In the meantime, here's:
What I Finished Reading This Week
The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands – Anne Ross
I’ll give Anne Ross her due: she’s slightly more coherent than Donald Trump. A sample:
Ross frequently states that this book is drawn from her extensive fieldwork with Scots Gaelic speakers in the highlands, a claim that she fails to back up with any evidence whatsoever: the volume is almost entirely comprised of summarized content from books by Martin Martin and Thomas Pennant (which Ross acknowledges) and F. Marian MacNeill (which she does not). I can only conclude that Ross was lying through her teeth about having done fieldwork, and probably other points besides. She’s very enthusiastic about the idea of human sacrifice, and frequently declares that it occurred in Scotland without providing any supporting evidence from the written or archaeological record; moreover, many of these flights-of-fancy-presented-as-established-fact are weirdly detailed and specific.
Ross seems to have been taken seriously for at least some of her career. Having now read three of her books, I cannot understand why that was the case. At the very least, anyone with an interest in the subject of this particular book would be much better served by reading F.M. MacNeill's Silver Bough and avoiding Ross entirely.
What I Am Currently Reading
Blackheart Knights – Laure Eve
I'm a little under half of the way through. It's a fine book. It isn't gripping me, though, perhaps because I long ago figured out what all the big reveals are going to be.
The Silver Bough vol. 4 – F. Marian McNeill
I'm not certain why the content of this volume wasn't just included in volumes 1 and 2, but I'm enjoying it all the same. MacNeill's crisp, informative, and accurate prose is a necessary palate cleanser after Ross.
Cult of the Dead Cow – Joseph Menn
The kids may be breaking laws, but that’s okay: they’re fun-loving and carefree!
What I’m Reading Next
This week I acquired Grey Larsen's Down the Back Lane, 150 Gems of Irish Music for Flute, and 150 Gems of Irish Music for Tin Whistle; Anthony Louis's Tarot Plain and Simple, and Ross’s The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands.
これで以上です。
What I Finished Reading This Week
The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands – Anne Ross
I’ll give Anne Ross her due: she’s slightly more coherent than Donald Trump. A sample:
There is a huge repertoire of legend about individual clans, and a large number of tales about famous or notorious characters belonging to some clan or other. One of the best-known of these is the wild Rob Roy MacGregor round whom a huge body of folklore has developed. Before the Rising of 1745, Highland gentlemen used to run schools in order to instruct the youth of their own district in swordsmanship. The boys were given bannocks and cheese, and they had to run up a hill to eat these. Charles, the son of Stuart of Ardshiel, was educated in Aberdeen.This "paragraph" continues for an entire page, with each sentence having little or no connection to those that precede or succeed it. That's the case for pretty much the entire book.
Ross frequently states that this book is drawn from her extensive fieldwork with Scots Gaelic speakers in the highlands, a claim that she fails to back up with any evidence whatsoever: the volume is almost entirely comprised of summarized content from books by Martin Martin and Thomas Pennant (which Ross acknowledges) and F. Marian MacNeill (which she does not). I can only conclude that Ross was lying through her teeth about having done fieldwork, and probably other points besides. She’s very enthusiastic about the idea of human sacrifice, and frequently declares that it occurred in Scotland without providing any supporting evidence from the written or archaeological record; moreover, many of these flights-of-fancy-presented-as-established-fact are weirdly detailed and specific.
Ross seems to have been taken seriously for at least some of her career. Having now read three of her books, I cannot understand why that was the case. At the very least, anyone with an interest in the subject of this particular book would be much better served by reading F.M. MacNeill's Silver Bough and avoiding Ross entirely.
What I Am Currently Reading
Blackheart Knights – Laure Eve
I'm a little under half of the way through. It's a fine book. It isn't gripping me, though, perhaps because I long ago figured out what all the big reveals are going to be.
The Silver Bough vol. 4 – F. Marian McNeill
I'm not certain why the content of this volume wasn't just included in volumes 1 and 2, but I'm enjoying it all the same. MacNeill's crisp, informative, and accurate prose is a necessary palate cleanser after Ross.
Cult of the Dead Cow – Joseph Menn
The kids may be breaking laws, but that’s okay: they’re fun-loving and carefree!
What I’m Reading Next
This week I acquired Grey Larsen's Down the Back Lane, 150 Gems of Irish Music for Flute, and 150 Gems of Irish Music for Tin Whistle; Anthony Louis's Tarot Plain and Simple, and Ross’s The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands.
これで以上です。
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