Simon Chadwick's
Early Gaelic Harp Emporium

Am Bròn Binn

Linda Gowans
Am Bròn Binn: An Arthurian Ballad in Scottish Gaelic
Self-published, 1992
This technical study analyses a medieval Arthurian legend that survives to this day as a sung Gaelic lay in the living tradition in North-West Scotland. The book includes biographies of singers, lists of manuscript sources, and detailed discussion of provenance, transmission, and variants, and also gives two sample texts (with translations) as well as two sample musical scores. A4 size, paperback, 126 pages
£15 + £3.50 (UK only - select for overseas postage) £6.50 (Airmail within Europe) £9.50 (Airmail outside Europe)

Performances of the ballad

The video below shows Catriona Garbutt, one of Gowans’ sources, waving a copy of this book, describing the ballad, and then singing a version of Am Bròn Binn (version V) which she collected from Kate MacDonald in South Uist:

For a recording of version V collected from Kate's father, Duncan MacDonald, in 1950, click here to listen at Tobar an Dualchais.

This next video shows Catriona singing the version she got from Kate MacCormick in Benbecula (version O), recorded at a presentation organised by Prof. Donald Meek in Edinburgh in 2009:

This third video shows Margaret Callan, singing the version of Am Bròn Binn which she learned from Catriona Garbutt (version O), recorded at the same event in Edinburgh in 2009:

For a recording of version Z collected from Ali Dall (Alec Stewart), in 1956, click here to listen at Tobar an Dualchais.