“Bean Tighearna Bhail’ ‘n Athain” or “The Woman of Balnain” is a scottish gaelic song in the Outlander tv series.
Tune: Bear McCreary
Lyrics: Diana Gabaldon
The Woman of Balnain
In the “Outlander” book Diana Gabaldon narrates the journey through time of Claire Randall who, crossing a circle of stones near Inverness (Craigh na Dun), is magically catapulted two hundred years back in the mid-eighteenth century. Runned into some highlanders, she is taken to Castle Leoch to meet the chief clan, Colum McKenzie.
In the evening entertainment the Welsh bard Gwyllyn (Gillebrìde MacMillan) performs a tale about the wife of the Laird of Balnain, who returned through rocks on a fairy hill. In the Outlander Tv Series (I season, “The Way Out”) the story becomes a song.
I
“‘S mise bean Tighearna Bhail’ ‘n Athain
Tha na Sìth air mo ghoid a-rithist, a-risthist,”
Tha mar g’eill gach clach ga ràdh.
II
Gu h-obann an sin, dhorchnaidh an oidhch’
‘S chualas fuaim àrd mar thàirneanach
‘S thàinig a’ ghealach a-mach
Fo sgàil nan neòil.
‘S bhoillsg ì air a’ chaileig
III
Bean Bhail ‘n Athain ì fhèin a bh’ann,
‘Sgìth ‘s claoidht mar gun d’shiubhail i fada.
Bean Bhail ‘n Athain ì fhèin a bh’ann,
Ach nach b’urrainn ins càite an robh i
No idir mar rinn i tighinn.
I
“I am the lady of Baile An Àthain.
The folk have stolen me again, again,”
it is as if every stone is saying.
II
Suddenly then, the night darkened
And I heard a loud noise like thunder
And the moon came out
From the shadow of the clouds.
And it shone on the damsel.
III
It was the woman of Balnain herself that was there,
Weary and worn as she had walked far.
It was the woman of Balnain herself that was there,
But she couldn’t tell where she was
Nor even how she came [there].
Outlander Season I, episode 3 “The Way Out”[1]
In Castle Leoch hall Jamie Fraser translates Claire the text but Jamie’s version used to explain the words is different from previous song.[2]The Woman of Balnain is a tale about the belief in the power of stones as time portals, Claire herself has travelled through the time of around 200 years and the tell sparks hope in her that she can go back (or forward?) to her own time (1945) and to her husband!
| Jamie: Now this one is about a man out late on a fairy hill on the eve of Samhain who hears the sound of a woman singing sad and plaintive from the very rocks of the hill. I am a woman of Balnain. The folk have stolen me over again, ‘ the stones seemed to say. I stood upon the hill, and wind did rise, and the sound of thunder rolled across the land. I placed my hands upon the tallest stone and traveled to a far, distant land, where I lived for a time among strangers who became lovers and friends. But one day, I saw the moon came out, and the wind rose once more. so I touched the stones and traveled back to my own land and took up again with the man I had left behind. Claire: She came back through the stones? Jamie: Aye, she did. They always do. |
Both Castle Leoch and the stone dun (Craigh na Dun) are inventions of the Outlander author but in TV adaptation Doune Castle near Stirling is Colum MacKenzie’s castle. In the origin of writing the novel the castle Diana Gabaldon referred to was Castle Leod, one of the seats of the Clan MacKenzie and is located near Strathpeffer, in the eastern part of Ross-shire, in the Scottish Highlands. The village of Balnain is placed on an eighteenth-century map at a relatively short distance for those times from the castle.
[1] Outlander: The Way Out, The Gathering and Rent – Bear McCreary
[2] https://ancroiait.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/723-the-woman-of-balnain/
[3] L’arpa bardica [Cattia Salto]
[4] https://outlanderpastlives.com/blog/balnain/
