The Flyting o Life and Daith
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1965.164.A3
Original Tape ID
Summary
Hamish Henderson's song 'The Flyting o Life and Daith', in which Life and Death contest each other's claim to rule over the world.
Andy Hunter includes a personal message to Hamish Henderson.
Item Notes
11 verses of 4 lines.
Hamish Henderson finished this poem in 1963, having drawn on an anonymous German poem he had seen in 1939. Referring to the melody that he composed in order for it to be performed as a song, he stated: "[it] somewhat resembles the 'urlar' (or 'ground') of a pibroch". The poem was first published in 'The Scottish Broadsheet' (May, 1963).
See:
'The Armstrong Nose' (ed. A. Finlay) pp. 113-115
'The Oxford Book of Scottish Verse' (ed. J. MacQueen & T. Scott, 1966) pp. 597-598
'The Edinburgh book of Twentieth-Century Poetry' (ed. M. Lindsay, L. Duncan, 2006) pp. 136-137
Language
Scots
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Fair