BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
By Mrs. William Sharp
The first edition of The Divine Adventure: Iona: By Sundown Shores was published in 1900 by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. The Titular Essay (since revised) appeared first in The Fortnightly Review for November and December, 1899. A large portion of "Iona" (though in different sequence) appeared also in The Fortnightly, March and April, 1900. Both "spiritual histories" were published separately in book form in America by Mr. T. Mosher; "Iona," curtailed and rearranged under the title of "The Isle of Dreams," in 1905. The Essay "Celtic" in its original form, first printed in The Contemporary Review, will now be found, revised and materially added to, in The Winged Destiny. In this Uniform Edition of the writings of "Fiona Macleod" (William Sharp) the following stories, etc., have been transferred to the present volume: "The White Fever" and "The Smoothing of the Hand" from The Sin-Eater; "The White Heron" which relates to the earlier story of Mary Maclean in Pharais, is from The Dominion of Dreams, and in its earliest version appeared with illustrations in the Christmas number of Harper in 1898. "A Dream" appeared first in the Theosophical Review of September, 1904. Finally I have added to this volume the latter portion and some detached fragments from Green Fire, a Romance by "Fiona Macleod" dealing with Brittany and the Hebrid Isles and published in 1896 by Messrs. A. Constable, and in America by Messrs. Harper Bros. But William Sharp considered that the book suffered from grave defects of design and construction and decided that, when out of print, it should not be republished. "The Herdsman," however, is—as he stated in a note to the first Edition of The Dominion of Dreams, "a re-written and materially altered version of the Hebridean part of Green Fire of which book it is all I care to preserve." Nevertheless, in accordance with the wishes of several friends, I have very willingly put together a series of detached fragments from the book and placed them beside "The Herdsman" as, in our opinion equally worthy of preservation, since the author's prohibition precludes the possibility of reprinting the book in its entirety.
WOODS & SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, LONDON, N.
UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME
THE COLLECTED WORKS
OF FIONA MACLEOD
(WILLIAM SHARP)
In Seven Volumes. Crown 8vo. Price 5s. net. With Photogravure Frontispieces from Photographs and Drawings by D. Y. Cameron, A.R.S.A.
| I. | PHARAIS: THE MOUNTAIN LOVERS |
| II. | THE SIN EATER; THE WASHER OF THE FORD AND OTHER LEGENDARY MORALITIES |
| III. | THE DOMINION OF DREAMS: UNDER THE DARK STAR |
| IV. | THE DIVINE ADVENTURE: IONA: STUDIES IN SPIRITUAL HISTORY |
| V. | THE WINGED DESTINY: STUDIES IN THE SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF THE GAEL |
| VI. | THE SILENCE OF AMOR: WHERE THE FOREST MURMURS |
| VII. | POEMS AND DRAMAS |
ALSO UNIFORM WITH THE ABOVE
SELECTED WRITINGS
OF WILLIAM SHARP
In Five Volumes
| I. | POEMS |
| II. | STUDIES AND APPRECIATIONS |
| III. | PAPERS CRITICAL AND REMINISCENT |
| IV. | LITERARY GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL SKETCHES |
| V. | VISTAS: GIPSY CHRIST AND OTHER PROSE IMAGININGS |
AND
MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM SHARP
(Fiona Macleod)
Compiled by Mrs. William Sharp
(In two volumes)
LONDON: W I L L I A M H E I N E M A N N
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Aztec word Ehecatl, which signifies alike the Wind (or Breath), Shadow, and Soul.
[2] A more polished later version, though attributed to Columba, runs:—
"An I mo chridhe, I mo ghràidh
An àite guth mhanach bidh géum ba;
Ach mu'n tig an saoghal gu crich,
Bithidh I mar a bha."
(In effect: In Iona that is my heart's desire, Iona that is my love, the lowing of cows shall yet replace the voices of monks: but before the end is come Iona shall again be as it was.)
[3] In a beautiful old Scoto-Gaelic ballad, the "Bàs Fhraoich," occurs the line, Thuit i air an tràigh na neul, "she fell on the shore as a mist," though here finely used for a swoon only.
[4] An allusion to the Hebridean proverb, Ma dh' itheas tu cridh an eòin, bidh do chridhe air chrith ri d' bheò ("If you eat the bird's heart, your heart will palpitate for ever.")
[5] The Irish pipes are called "Piob-theannaich" to distinguish them from the "Piob" or "Piob-Mhòr" of the Highlands.
[6] The Dominion of Dreams, 1st Ed.
[9] It is probably in the isles only that the pretty word Lunn-Bata is used for crā-all (creathall), a cradle. It might best be rendered as boat-on-a-billow, lunn being a heaving billow.
[10] Pronounce mogh-rāy, mogh-rēe (my heart's delight—lit. my dear one, my heart).
[11] Baille 'n Bad-a-sgailich: the Farm of the Shadowy Clump of Trees. Cairstine, or Cairistine, is the Gaelic for Christina (for Christian), as Tormaid is for Norman, and Giorsal for Grace. "The quiet havens" is the beautiful island phrase for graves. Here, also, a swift and fatal consumption that falls upon the doomed is called "The White Fever." By "the mainland," Harris and the Lewis are meant.
[12] A cockall a' chridhe: his heart out of its shell—a phrase often used to express sudden derangement from any shock. The ensuing phrase means the month from the 15th of July to the 15th of August, Mios crochaidh nan con, so called as it is supposed to be the hottest, if not the most waterless, month in the isles. The word claar, used below, is the name given a small wooden tub, into which the potatoes are turned when boiled.
[13] This hymn was taken down in the Gaelic and translated by Mr. Alexander Carmichael of South Uist.