The Dean of Lismore's Book: A Selection of Ancient Gaelic Poetry

In the remote Highlands of early 16th-century Scotland, one man gathered voices that were about to fall silent. The Dean of Lismore's Book is not merely a manuscript it is a rescue mission undertaken by Sir James M'Gregor, who transcribed the oral poetry of the Gaelic tradition into ink before the tradition itself could vanish. What survives in these pages is nothing less than the beating heart of Highland culture: verses of love and loss, of clan honor and spiritual reckoning, of a language and worldview that were already under siege. The poems trace the contours of a world in transition, where ancient bardic traditions met the upheavals of religious reform and linguistic marginalization. Reading this collection is to hear the last songs of a literary culture that had thrived for centuries in oral tradition, now captured at the exact moment before widespread loss. For anyone who cares about the survival of minority literatures, about what gets preserved and why, this manuscript stands as both monument and warning.