SSSA in 70 Objects: Together Forever

Rab Noakes in the Edgar Ashton Collection

 

Rab Noakes at Oran Mor 2010. Image: PKImage CC-BY-SA

We were very sad to learn that Scottish singer songwriter Rab Noakes passed away last month, aged 75. Rab was a leading figure in the music scene in Scotland; performing live, touring and recording 20 studio albums, He also created music programming for BBC Scotland for many years.

We would like to take this opportunity to pay a tribute by sharing a recording of him from our collections. There are several appearances by Rab in our Edgar Ashton Collection; Ashton was a long serving member of the Edinburgh Folk Song Society and created an incredible number of recordings in folk clubs, at sessions and in gatherings in his own home. Ashton’s collection was deposited in the SSSA over 20 years ago.

From that collection, we would like to share this recording of Rab Noakes singing Together Forever (EA2001.282). We believe this was recorded in the Kirkcaldy Folk Club at the Elbow Room, but unfortunatley we don’t have a date for the recording. Maybe you were there?

Rab was introduced by John Watt (1933-2011), himself a familiar face and voice around the folk clubs of Fife.

 

Rab Noakes was a unique, unparalleled voice in the Scottish and UK music scene, who will be much missed.

 

 

Halloween Divination in our Sound Collection

Today is Halloween and – placing pumpkins and trick-or-treating (as we know it today) firmly to one side for now – this is the day on which we traditionally mark the end of the harvest season and the commencement of the dark season of the year.  It is also the night of the Celtic calendar where the boundaries are thin between this world and the Otherworld; between life and death – making way for all sorts of spooky shenanigans, including divinations games and rites!

Our collections here at The School of Scottish Studies Archives are rich indeed with personal memories of such practices and we thought we would share some of these with you, should you care to try any out yourself. 

Burning Hazelnuts

The placing of nuts in a fire for divination occurs more than once in our collections. For many this was a love divination – a very popular reason for Halloween rituals – if the nuts burned to ash then any union would not prosper, but if they cracked or fused, this was a good sign. However in this recording, from 1964, William Forbes told Anne Ross that in Perthshire they would watch to see if the nuts cracked and if so they made a wish!

 

Kale Stalk

Kale is relevant to several Halloween pranks and rites.  This recording tells of the practice in Shetland of using kale stalks to divine how large a woman’s family might be or what shape her future husband would take. The woman was blindfolded and led to the kaleyard where she tied one of her garters to a kale stalk. It was pulled up and hung above her house door. If she was a newly-married woman, the number of shoots on the side of the stalk forecast the number of children she would have.

In this later recording, also from Shetland, Andrew Hunter told Alan Bruford about the practice of ‘Casting Kale’ where kale stalks would be throw into people’s houses or down their chimneys. A particularly messy form of chap-door-run! 

Andrew also describes some other seasonal customs and rites in Shetland, which would also occur at Yule too. 

SEASONAL CUSTOMS AND CELEBRATIONS
SA1978.067

Contributor: Andrew Hunter

Fieldworker: Alan J Bruford

Balls of Wool

“Cò tha siud thall air ceann mo ròpain?” or “Wha haads my clew end?” are questions you may heard called on Halloween night! We have recordings of this marriage divination across Scotland. Reverend Norman MacDonald, from Skye, described this practice to Calum Iain Maclean in 1952.

Kate Manson, from Foula, described to Sandy Fenton this practice when she was a girl, but instead of a wall, the wool was dropped down the chimney of an old watermill. She also told that another practice was for a girl to go to a big standing stone and go three times around it one way and three times around the other. The first man she saw after that was to be her future husband – hopefully she didn’t get too dizzy!

 

Eggs and Shirt Sleeves

Divination using eggs was once common and not only at Halloween, but at other calendar customs as well.  Much like tea-leaf reading, it is said that egg whites could be read if poured slowly into a glass of water; different shapes could foretell the future.

In South Uist, Donald Alastair Johnson described egg divination in a different way; An egg was broken into a glass and stirred. Everyone took a mouthful, chose a house, and stood outside the window. The first name heard would be the same as their future spouse – but whilst this was happening they had to keep the egg in their mouths This was done by boys and girls – which is a refreshing change from these often being prescribed rites for young unmarried girls or women. He also describes further customs such as cabbage-stealing which is aligned with some of the kale-related high-jinks elsewhere in our collections

 

Cleachdaidhean Samhna ann an Uibhist a Deas.

SA1971.043

CONTRIBUTORS: Donald Alasdair Johnson

FIELDWORKERS: Donald Archie MacDonald Angus John MacDonald

 

From Orkney, we have a round up of Halloween customs from Johina Leith (recorded in 1977), she also talked of egg reading and how it was to prove true for her own aunt. Johina also described the process the dipping of a garment sleeve in water where three lairds land crossed. The shirt was left over a fire to dry and it was said that the person who approached would be the person they will marry.

Orkney Halloween customs, including divination; tricks at Halloween

SA1977.085

CONTRIBUTORS: Johina Jean Leith

FIELDWORKER: Alan J. Bruford

 

Brucie Henderson, from Yell in Shetland, also had evidence of the shirt washing rite. As he described it, on the night of Halloween, a girl might wash her blouse in a burn at a bridge where a corpse had crossed for burial in the churchyard. The blouse would be taken home for drying and as she left the burn the girl was supposed to see the man she would marry passing by.


SHETLAND HALLOWEEN DIVINATION CUSTOMS 

SA1970.242
Contributors: Brucie Henderson
Fieldworkers: Alan Bruford

These are but a few examples from our collection and you can access more of our collection over at Tobar an Dualchais, where there are over 33,000 tracks from SSSA available to listen to online.

Do take care with your Halloween divinations: we cannot vouch for the efficacy or outcome and you may need to think about your health and safety before undertaking any of these!

 

 

Images from Internet Archive Book Collection on Flickr and are public domain

Tocher is 50

In addition to celebrating our 70th anniversary, our publication Tocher turns 50 too!

Named after the Scots word for dowry, Tocher was created in response to share fieldwork by the staff and researchers of The School of Scottish Studies (now the Department of Celtic & Scottish Studies).  Material from the archive was transcribed using the interviewee’s own words; Gaelic was translated into English and regional dialects from the Scots language were also included.

We look forward to sharing some of the articles collected on the tales, songs and traditions of the last 50 years of Tocher and the recordings too. We also have some posts lined up with people who worked on the team to create Tocher.

 

 

Today we wanted to draw your attention to the blog of the Volunteers in Community Engagement at UoE Collections (VOiCE).

VOiCE are a student group of volunteers, who run a monthly newsletter, podcast and blog about the different collections, people and museums at the University of Edinburgh. We are delighted that today they are highlighting Tocher’s anniversary in their newsletter and we have some exciting plans afoot to collaborate further with VOiCE this year.

Please read and enjoy their post on 50 Years of Tocher, written by VOiCE member, and Celtic and Scottish Studies Masters student, Lily Mellon.

You can sign up to the VOiCE newsletter to be kept up to date with their projects and engagement with UOE collections: https://voiceblog1.wordpress.com/join-us/

VOiCE are on social media and you can find all their links here: https://linktr.ee/voiceed

You can listen to the VOiCE podcast – We’ve Got History Between Us – on Spotify.

 

 

 

SSSA @ 70

 

In 2021 the School of Scottish Studies Archives celebrates our 70th Anniversary and we look forward to sharing exciting content, news and events with you this year.

We are also eager to hear from you, if you have any memories of The School of Scottish Studies, which you would like to share with us.

You can email us at scottish.studies.archives@ed.ac.uk and you can also find us on twitter: www.twitter.com/eu_SSSA.

We will be adding more to the blog soon, so please bookmark our URL or subscribe via email to receive new posts straight to your inbox.

 

For more information about The School of Scottish Studies collections, you can visit www.ed.ac.uk/is/sssa