A phiùthrag ‘s a phiuthar (Sister’s lament)

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A phiùthrag ‘s a phiuthar [in english Sister or sister] “Sister’s lament” is a Scottish Gaelic song from the Hebrides, where a young girl kidnapped by the fairies calls her sister to come to her rescue: the song describes the fairy hideout. The song is included in the collection “Songs of the Hebrides”, Vol 1 by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser with the title “A Fairy Plaint” (Ceol-brutha).

In folk tales, fairies are not benevolent creatures at all, attracted by the strength and vitality of mankind, they kidnap children and especially newborns, or seduce (for the purpose of kidnapping) a lot of beautiful youths.
The fairy abduction was once an attempt to rationalize the loss of loved ones, it was a great consolation thinking that the fairies had stolen that young life from a sad fate, or it was an explanation for abnormal behavior, such as autism or depression. Thus an “absent” behavior amounted to a rapture of the soul and the victim felt like a prisoner in the enchanted Kingdom. According to folk tales, a great danger in the Land of the Fairies came from food, because it was enough a tasting to preserve a tormenting desire, very often fatal.

CELTIC TALE: Goblin market

The story is by Christina Rossetti who wrote a narrative poem in 1859 entitled The Goblin Market ^[1].

Two sisters lived in a valley not far from a circle of fairies, where elves held a night market, offering a wide selection of juicy and tasty fruit. The market was invisible to human eyes, but one night the girls saw him: the older sister escaped frightened, but the younger intrigued, let himself be involved in the market and gave a lock of her golden hair for those fruits so inviting.
She returned home only after eating at will and the next night, driven by hunger that human food could no longer satisfy, she went to look for the elf market, no longer finding it. The older sister, realizing that her little sister was prey to an inexplicable malaise that consumed her, sought in turn the magical place, managing to find it; nevertheless the elves would have yielded their fruits only if the elder sister had also banquished with them; the girl fearing the end of her sister, she stubbornly refused, despite the elves, who did everything, even slamming the fruit in her face and pressing them against her mouth. So some juice remained on her lips ..
At dawn the girl managed to return home to give a last farewell to her dying sister, a last sweet kiss .. that was how the little sister from her lips tasted elven food, her hunger was satisfied and she found healing.

The Gobelin of the tale as in popular beliefs are cruel creatures that belong to the Unseelie Court ^[2] through the seduction of food, they bind to themselves the tributes they have to pay to the sick to obtain their immortality.

A phiùthrag ‘s a phiuthar

The song shares the structure of the waulking songs and was originally perhaps a work song. The melody is very sad and some assume it is a funeral lament.

FOOTNOTES
(1) “Can you not pity” or” Would you not pity me my mourning tonight”
(2) “Small my dwelling”, or little bothy
(3) or Gun lùb sìomain, (Without a roof-rope)
gun ghad tughaidh (or a wisp of thatch.)
(4) “hillside wate like a running stream” or “Water from the peaks in a stream down through it”
(5)  or  Flora MacNeil version: Hèabhal mhòr= Mighty Heaval
Heaval is the highest hill of Barra Island located north-east of Castlebay, the main village.
(6) or  Flora MacNeil version: Nan each dhriumfhionn= with the white-maned horses.
Horses are those of fairies and therefore white. It could be the palomino or cremello breed. The origin of the Palomino is very old, in fact it is believed that golden horses with tail and silver mane were ridden by the first emperors of China. Achilles, the mythical Greek hero, rode Balios and Xantos, which were “yellow and golden, faster than the storm winds”. The cremello instead has the particularity of the blue eye, the coat is white with silver reflections.

A Fairy Plaint (Ceol-brutha)

The version of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (as collected by the song of Mrs. Macdonald, Skallary, Isle of Barra and sung by her daughter Patuffa Kennedy Fraser

Rory Dall’s Sister’s Lament

[1] https://interestingliterature.com/2017/06/a-short-analysis-of-christina-rossettis-goblin-market/
[2] The fairy have territorialized between the North and South of Scotland: in the Highlands they are solitary beings with the role of guardians (spirits of nature and guardians of some places, trees or springs and pristine lakes); in the Lowlands they are grouped in ranks each with a king or queen and are basically divided into Seelie Court (or Happy Court) or benevolent creatures and Unseelie Court (Unhappy Court) or vengeful and cruel creatures. Such a clear distinction common for example to the Scandinavian Alfar subdivided into Liosálfar (Elves of Light) and Döckálfar (Elves of Darkness), however, does not exist in Wales or Ireland where the Tylwyth Teg (Fairy Family) or the Doe Side (Inhabitants of the Fairy mounds) are a single albeit articulated population.
[3] Hebridean Folksongs II, tunes transcribed from recordings and annotated by Francis Collinson, edited and translated by John Lorne Campbell. (Oxford 1977)

Sources

http://www.omniglot.com/songs/gaelic/aphiuthrag.php
http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/maggiemacinnes/aphiuthrag.htmd
https://www.juliefowlis.com/alterum/
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=69117
http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/tunes/CumhPeatharRuari/
https://thesession.org/tunes/15575
http://www.cynthiacathcart.com/articles/rory_dall_lament.html