Listen to Duncan's caithris in Gaelic!

Drums of Autumn cover

Someone on Compuserve was asking today if there are any recordings available of the Gaelic bits from the OUTLANDER books.  It occurred to me that many fans out there probably don't know about the recording Cathy-Ann MacPhee made in 2008 of Duncan's caithris from DRUMS OF AUTUMN.

Here's a bit of that scene:
Duncan, drunker than ever, fixed the soldiers at the next table with a baleful glare, sweat pouring down his face.

"A Shasunnaich na galladh's olc a thig e dhuibh air bàs gasgaich. Gun toireadh an diabhul fhein leis anns a bhàs sibh, direach do Fhirinn!!" "Wicked Sassenach dogs, eaters of dead flesh! Ill does it become you to laugh and rejoice at the death of a gallant man! May the devil himself seize upon you in the hour of your death and take you straight to hell!"

Ian blanched slightly at this, and Jamie cast Duncan a narrow look, but they stoutly shouted, "Èisd ris!" along with the rest of the crowd.

Fergus, seized by inspiration, got up and passed his hat among the crowd, who, carried away by ale and excitement, happily flung coppers into it for the privilege of joining in their own denunciation.

(From DRUMS OF AUTUMN by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1 ("A Hanging in Eden"). Copyright© 1997 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
And here is the audio file:



Thanks very much to Cathy MacGregor, who arranged for her friend Cathy-Ann MacPhee, a noted Gaelic singer, to do this recording for us. I wish this audio file was more easily available, because I think a lot of fans would enjoy it. I found this buried in the archives of Diana's old website.

Please pass the link on to anyone else you know who may be interested.

5 comments

JustHeather said...

Thanks for sharing the file! It was great to hear the Gaelic, if only I would take the time to learn how to speak it. :)

Karen Henry said...

Glad you liked it! Gaelic sounds like a very difficult language to learn.

Karen

Mary said...

Thank you, Karen. I did miss your earlier posting. Given all the casting suggestions and Diana's absence, I just don't have the desire to weed through her FB page at this point. BTW: If you want to learn Gaelic, check out the resources at Siol Cultural Enterprises in Nova Scotia.

Deniz Bevan said...

Thanks so much for this, Karen! Though what's odd - my computer downloaded it automatically!

Victoria said...

I can't get over how the cadence of Gaelic, some pronunciations and even the same words (bra for good)are similar to Swedish. Vikings left more than red hair in Scotland and Ireland. :-)

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