'Loch Lomond'

From: Mike Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 13:10:58 GMT


jhughes_at_mgdestmx01.erin.gov.

> Major irritations: expecting Sean Connery to appear at any moment (he didn't,
> apart from in the shorts for First Knight beforehand), and the soundtrack's
> assumption that the only Scottish tune known outside Scotland is'Loch Lomond'

Oh, God! They didn't use this did they?

'Loch Lomond' was written centuries later during the invasion by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The northern English town of Carlise was invested by the Scottish host and then when the invasion force fell back, left high and dry to be recaptured. The English offered the Scots defenders terms and then (in typically English fashion) reneged on them, executing many of the prisoners.

The song is addressed by one of the condemned men to a compatriot who is to be released. The free man is to take the high road to Scotland, but the doomed man will take the Low Road, the road that runs through the land of the dead and will be home before him.

Which mythological note not only brings us somewhat back on topic (compare the German line (from Goethe's FAUST, IIRC) "The dead travel fast") but explains why the song should not be used as a jolly or roistering Scots air by idiots who don't know what it means.

Actor and Genius.
AKA Theophilus, Prince-Archbishop of the Far Isles (Arms: Purpure, an open book proper. On the dexter page the letter Alpha or. On the sinister page the letter Omega of the same. Motto: nulla spes sit in resistendo.)
Ask me about the Far Isles Medieval Society: Better living through pan-medieval anachronisms.


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