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Auld Maunsie's Crö

Date 1955
Track ID 44251
Part 1
Part 2

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1955.105.11

Original Tape ID

SA1955.105

Summary

Reading of part of Basil Anderson's poem, 'Auld Maunsie's Crö', about a sheep pen that becomes a landmark.

The verses of the poem quoted here describe Maunsie, and his building of a magnificent crö [In Unst a crö refers to a small stock proof enclosure used for planting cabbage]. It is used as a landmark by fishermen, sailors, crofters, farmers and housewives. The poet lists different areas that use the crö as a sundial, and tells of a lazy girl who angers her mother by playing in the ashes after the sun has gone past the crö.

Item Notes

'Auld Maunsie's Crö' is the best known poem by Unst poet Basil R Anderson, who died of TB at age 26. This verse describes the activities of rural life in Shetland in the late Victorian era.

Vocabulary:
mutton brui: mutton broth
cog: small wooden vessel
steed: foundation
shoo: sew
chowed the cuit: chewed the shinbone
haaf: deep sea fishing ground
huggie-staff: a gaff
skord: gully in the sky-line of a hill
ootstagin cam da Saeter kye: staggering out came the Saeter cattle
truck: trample about
airts: directions
risk: cut
gorstie girse: grass on a boundary formed by the remains of a dyke
purlin: poking
ess: ashes
aes: to blaze
crö: small stockproof enclosure [Unst] sheep pen [Shetland]
sweerie: unwilling, lazy
the soaroo scaad dee in his brui: the Devil scald you in his broth

Recording Location

County - Shetland

Parish - Unst

Island - Unst

Item Location

County - Shetland

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good