TOBAR AN DUALCHAIS: Those who disrespect nature should beware the gruagach

The Gaelic word gruag means ‘hair’, although falt is heard more commonly on Skye, and the word gruagach usually describes a young woman or maiden.

There are many examples in the rich Gaelic song repertoire that reference gruagach as such- songs of unrequited love or heartbreak, describing wistful longing or praising beauty. But this one- ‘Òran mun Ghruagaich’ | ‘A Song about the Gruagach’ (TAD 95653)- notated by Frances Tolmie in 1860 from the singing of Oighrig Ross of Balgown, holds a very different meaning and one that I had no recollection of hearing before.

This song gives voice to a mother’s grief-stricken lamentation on the sudden death of her daughter while staying together at a shieling in Glen Mhic Asgill, Bracadale. In her mourning she implores the dying peat embers to give her light that she might see the gruagach- not in this case the girl, but a tutelary being from the Gaelic Otherworld, described in accompanying notes by Tolmie as a ‘friend of the cattle’, and a strike from whom is believed to have killed the young woman.