Muckle Sangs

Welcome tae oor page aboot The Muckle Sangs.

We're nae gan tae ging intae lots o detail aboot fit they are an far they cam fae, we're jist gan tae gee a wee taste fae this kist o ancient tales in the Scots leid.

We hope it'll get ye interested enough tae find oot mair aboot them and tae twig fou rich the Scots leid can be.

Fit are Muckle Sangs?

Muckle Sangs is anither name for the traditional ballads that hae been passed doon in faimlies an communities for hunners o years. They're really jist stories wi a tune, and because they wir passed on bi wird-o-mou, maist o them hae lots o difrint versions an can be caed bi difrint names. Ye'll spot ane or twa like that in oor set o sangs here.

Awa back in the 18th & 19th centuries, a lot o cliver fowk collected these sangs so they widna be lost. Then, in the second half o the 19th century an American Professor caed Francis James Child gaithered a these sangs the-gither an picked oot the best eens tae be published as “The English and Scottish Popular Ballads”. So if yi hear fowk spikin aboot The Child Ballads, that's fit they're on aboot. He really got the title the wrang wye roon, as maist o them wir Scottish. In fact a third o a the best eens wir collected in Aiberdeenshire.