'Scribis le pen de shenchis.’ Criomagan de Ghàidhlig ann an Eachdraidhean Beurla Chlann Choinnich, c. 1550-1711

Chaidh còrr air 30 dreach de eachdraidhean agus slointnearachd Chloinn Choinnich a sgrìobhadh eadar 1550 agus 1711 agus tha an alt seo a' togail cheist mu carson a chaidh an leithid a dheanamh. Tha ceistean gan togail mu chainnt, eisteachd agus amasan na sgriobhainnean seo. Chaidh iad seo a sgrìobhadh a tha anns a Bheurla air fad ach tha grunnan bhloighean de rannan Gàidhlig ann an cuid dhiubh.

Over 30 different recensions of clan history or genealogy were produced by various members of the Mackenzie clan, c.1550-1711, of which some 25 still survive. While this was a 'Gaelic' clan, all of these histories were written in English. Some seven of these English histories contain fragments of Gaelic, ranging from four to forty lines (written in an 'alien', English orthography). This paper, written in Gaelic, seeks to question why the histories were being produced, who the intended audience was, and asks what this can tell us about the world of the Mackenzies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.