Footnotes to accompany Paraig's Own Verse

1.Foot-notes of Lament to Landrick Castle (Castle Gregor)

Verse 1 Glory of your crown - ie the Lion's head crowned, being the coltas ie dream symbol of Clan Gregor here represented on MacGregor's Oak Tree which is a stone built monment built for the MacGregors in the shape of the Oak tree with pillars and the Lion's Head above with the motto 'S Rioghail mo Dhream - Royal is my Race. This monument is still on the Lanrick estate and was built by General Sir John Murray MacGregor, the Laird, in the late 18th century. There is notches on it for every clansman killed in battle The term crann as with craobh means tree but crann unlike craobh, has many other meanings and one of them is ` cricifix'

Verse 7 The Grahams were the native lairds of Menteith or Monteith, reputed to descended from Am Gruamach; a Pictish chieftain who united the the Pictish clans against the Romas at Hadrian's Wall.

Verse8. The Haldanes were Anglo Norman Lairds who came to Perthshire, a branch of whom were lairds of Lanrick at the time of the '45' resulting in their estate being forfieted. Eventually General SirJjohn Murray took over and when the MacGregor name was allowed to be used again legally, by an act of 1775, he declared himself to be James Murray MacGregor, the 18th of Glencarnaig in direct line of Iain Og (hereditary Chief) in the days of Rob Roy.

Mamon is a biblical term for matterial riches.

The song is in the style of iorram for elegy or eulogy and is sung with each last line repeated in a different octive introducing the next verse. The melody is my own

2. Footnotes of Song to Jean

Notes on the Song

1. Verse " feet blessed" – usage of one of the biblical metaphors

2. "Do Dhrimsa" ie your race is the emphatic genitive form of Dream used on the Clan Gregor motto ie - ‘S rioghal mo Dhream’ ie Royal is my Race’

3. Glen Strae to the Great Lakes. This ties in not only with a great part of the old Clan Gregor Patrimony but with the Great Lakes Project concept also.

"The Trail of Our Tears" one of the Indian metaphors and metonyms ie one used to represent the whole ie in this case, the Cherokee representing the Indians as a whole and particular the Mohowks used here again in reference peoples homeland.
Treoraichadh; the route of this word is used in Psalm 23 "He leadeth me"
An tEarra; older Gaelic for frontier eg Earra-Ghaidheil = frontier of the Gael ie Argyll.
Fianna + metaphorically the men of Fin McCoul; in this case, the special forces for the Lords of the Isles ie the frontier men of the Gael see also 6. Above. Fianna became to mean ‘Kings Body Guard.’ *
Royal Clan; see 2. Above
" Peace where you trod"; Litt. "peace about your foot mu do chas from mu chasan = about feet which is one of the explanations for the word moccassans, another one being, as explained by Iain MacGregor, Mo Chasan ie "my feet". This metaphor is both biblical and Ethnic Indian.

This Indian metaphor and 4. Above both refer to the Cherokee. I’ve used the concept for the Cherokee as a metonym ie one to represent the whole; in other words, here the Cherokee represents the Indian as a whole and Jean’s ancestral familiarity with the Mohawks.

10. The chorous; in the first and last lines of this refrain I use the vocative term for Jean (Sine Pronouced Sheena) as Shine – pronounced Heena. There is a phonetic double entendre here - For the word fine which also means clan or tribe which in the vocative would also be pronounced dropping the first letter in sounding ie Heena

11. The melody is in the form a taladh or lullaby Called Ba Ba Ba mo Leanabh; one of the many composed for murdered Clan Gregor Chiefs. However I’ve Slightly up tempoed it in the singing. This system is also quite traditional. The Bard John MacCodrum (Who was bard to Sir James MacDonald of Sleat) did just that, with his spirited song Smeorach Chlann Domhnaill which was from an ancecestral melody of his, reputed to have been sung as a lullaby by the Princess of the Seal Folk on the night that her kindred were hunted and killed on Heisker Skerry.

12. An alternative for Vs 4 line 4 might be "Sliochd nan Rioghalach" ie "seed of the loyal subjects"

So, to conclude, within the matterial of the biog presented to regarding the life of Jean I’ve tried to include Indian allegories to illustrate Jean’s ancestors familiarity with the Indian all be it by allegiance or emnity but, more particularily in the sense of ethnic recognition. This has been highlighted in several books written by Dr. Jim Hunter in books such as Dance Called America, Highlanders and Indians, and Thirty Generations of a Montana Family refering to the Neise Perce Indians called MacDonald. It is also illustratrated beautifully in the film The Last of The Moheekans. The Biblical allegories are, I think reasonably self explanitory.

* Fianna: See the chapter called the Crooked Glen of the Stones from the book Perthshire in History and Legend by the late Archie McKerracher.