![\"Sonne](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2022\/08\/640px-BallochCountryPark.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not at all sure why, but, although I\u2019ve visited Scotland on several previous occasions (including that wonderful week in my early twenties at St. Andrews<\/a>) and although I have an unaccountable affection for the Celtic cross, last year was the first time that I had really felt the pull of my Scots ancestral line.\u00a0 I\u2019ve long had a deep attachment to Norway, and I\u2019m an Anglophile already, without regard to family heritage \u2014 though happily I have family connections to both the southwest of England and the northeast.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid that I\u2019m still working on Denmark.\u00a0 But last year, suddenly and unexpectedly, I was feeling Scottish.<\/p>\n It may, I think, have something to do with the famous Scots song \u201cThe Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve been aware of it for pretty much all of my life, I think, but I somehow didn\u2019t know the story behind it.\u00a0 Knowing it, though, makes sense of it, and makes it (to me, at least) not merely sentimental (as I had thought) but powerfully moving.\u00a0 The song tells the story of two Scottish soldiers taken captive to England, perhaps in the aftermath of the bloody and tragic 16 April 1746 Battle of Culloden<\/a>, which grievously wounded and seriously weakened the Highland clans of Scotland.\u00a0 One of the two soldiers is to be executed, decapitated, while the other is to be set free.\u00a0 According to Celtic legend, if someone dies in a foreign land, his spirit returns to his homeland by \u201cthe low road,\u201d which is the route for the souls of the dead.<\/p>\n I supply the lyrics below, but here are some notes that should help you to understand them:\u00a0 The adjective bonnie<\/em>, of course, means \u201cbeautiful.\u201d\u00a0 A brae<\/em> is a steep hillside or bank.\u00a0 Loch Lomond<\/em> is a freshwater loch<\/em> or lake, the largest in Great Britain by surface area, that is located about thirty or forty miles to the northwest of Glasgow.\u00a0 The Scottish verb to gae<\/em> is equivalent to the English verb to go<\/em>.\u00a0 Ben Lomond<\/em> (\u201cBeacon Hill\u201d) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands, on the eastern bank of Loch Lomond; the Ben Lomond near Ogden, Utah, is named after it.\u00a0 Gloaming<\/em> is an archaic word for \u201ctwilight\u201d or \u201cdusk.\u201d\u00a0 The Scots verb to ken<\/em> is synonymous with the German verb kennen<\/em> (\u201cto know\u201d).\u00a0 Nae<\/em> means \u201cno.\u201d\u00a0 Waeful<\/em> means \u201cwoeful.\u201d\u00a0 Frae<\/em> means \u201cfrom.\u201d<\/p>\n By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,<\/span> Chorus:<\/i><\/span> \u2018Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen,<\/span> Chorus:<\/i><\/span> The wee birdies sing and the wildflowers spring,<\/span> Chorus:<\/i><\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I share with you here three renditions of the song.\u00a0 The first seems, by the numbers, to be extremely popular, although having it performed by a woman may cloud the original meaning of the lyrics just a bit.\u00a0 (Still, the music video seems to make it work a little, especially with its touching conclusion and its, to me, very congenial suggestion of an eternal, ageless reunion.)<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond\u201d \u2013 Ella Roberts<\/a><\/p>\n The second is a performance of the very beautiful arrangement by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958):<\/p>\n Loch Lomond: Scottish folk song, arranged by Vaughan Williams, featuring Ian Partridge and the London Madrigal Singers<\/a><\/p>\n The third is, well, rather curious:<\/p>\n \u201cFolk Song Perfection!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n But all of this has put me in such a Scottish frame of mind and spirit that, as an unasked-for bonus, I\u2019m now going to include\u00a0 the theme \u201cPromontory\u201d from the soundtrack of the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 An orchestration by Trevor Jones (and perhaps also Randy Edelman) of the tune \u201cThe Gael,\u201d originally written by the Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean<\/a> and included in his 1990 album The Search<\/i>, it\u2019s a big favorite of mine in certain moods.\u00a0 And, ever since last year\u2019s cruise, I\u2019ve been intermittently in one of those moods.\u00a0 (Give it time to build.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Today was the first full day of our tour here in the United Kingdom.\u00a0 (Our group arrived yesterday.\u00a0 My wife and I had already been here for slightly more than a week.)\u00a0 We headed out to Stirling and Stirling Castle, stopping at some interesting places along the way (including the Bannockburn battlefield and the William Wallace Monument).\u00a0 Perhaps tomorrow I\u2019ll have more to say about them.\u00a0 Tomorrow morning, we\u2019ll leave Scotland for England.<\/p>\n It\u2019s delightful to be on a tour for which I don\u2019t feel responsible.\u00a0 Our guide on the trip is Peter Fagg<\/a> \u2014 who, our group is beginning to realize, actually is<\/em> as good as we had told them he is.\u00a0 Our tour will highlight general British history (as it did today, for example), but also the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> in the United Kingdom.\u00a0 Most especially we will focus on the mission of Heber C. Kimball to England and the later mission of the Twelve to the UK.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun to think about these things here.\u00a0 And I\u2019m thinking about them a great deal more<\/em> as we begin to pivot toward our Six Days in August<\/em> project<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Posted from Edinburgh, Scotland<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019m not at all sure why, but, although I\u2019ve visited Scotland on several previous occasions (including that wonderful week in my early twenties at St. Andrews) and although I have an unaccountable affection for the Celtic cross, last year was the first time that I had really felt the pull of my Scots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":96352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30715,1809,30673,30928,22304,23360],"class_list":["post-100434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bonnie-banks-of-loch-lomond","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-loch-lomond","tag-peter-fagg","tag-scotland","tag-united-kingdom"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWhere the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,<\/span>
\nWhere me and my true love were ever wont to gae,<\/span>
\nOn the bonnie, bonnie banks o\u2019 Loch Lomond.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nO ye\u2019ll tak\u2019 the high road, and I\u2019ll tak\u2019 the low road,<\/span>
\nAnd I\u2019ll be in Scotland a\u2019fore ye,<\/span>
\nBut me and my true love will never meet again,<\/span>
\nOn the bonnie, bonnie banks o\u2019 Loch Lomond.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOn the steep, steep side o\u2019\u00a0Ben Lomond<\/a>,<\/span>
\nWhere in soft purple hue, the highland hills we view,<\/span>
\nAnd the moon coming out in the gloaming.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nO ye\u2019ll tak\u2019 the high road, and I\u2019ll tak\u2019 the low road,<\/span>
\nAnd I\u2019ll be in Scotland a\u2019fore ye,<\/span>
\nBut me and my true love will never meet again,<\/span>
\nOn the bonnie, bonnie banks o\u2019 Loch Lomond.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nAnd in sunshine the waters are sleeping.<\/span>
\nBut the broken heart it kens nae second spring again,<\/span>
\nThough the waeful may cease frae their grieving.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nO ye\u2019ll tak\u2019 the high road, and I\u2019ll tak\u2019 the low road,<\/span>
\nAnd I\u2019ll be in Scotland a\u2019fore ye,<\/span>
\nBut me and my true love will never meet again,<\/span>
\nOn the bonnie, bonnie banks o\u2019 Loch Lomond.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a><\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n