Seanchai Corner - Introduction

[Robert B. More, High Commissione]

The Seanchai (SHAN' a-ky) is a remnant of the old Celtic Bardic system. A Seanchai is a story-teller whose tales were intended to entertain the community during the long dark nights of winter in the days before electric lights, radio, television and movies. But the Seanchai is also responsible to perpetuate the wisdom of our Celtic ancestors by oral repeating of information diligently memorized, and passed on from one generation to another.

I lay no claim to the astounding feats of memory of the Seanchai. But, as a practicing historian, I routinely run across bits of wisdom and lore that I want to share with you.

Let's start with triads. A triad was a typical tool to easily memorize a bit of lore by creating a group of three items related to a single theme. Three was a highly significant number to the ancient Celts, and one of the reasons that Celts were so easily converted to Christianity and the Holy Trinity.

Welsh Triad: Three things for which a person might hazard his/her life and lose it: the search for truth, the upholding of justice, the performance of mercy.

Ancient British Triad: The three chief endeavors of a bard: to learn and collect knowledge; to teach; to make peace and put an end to all injury. To act contrary to these things is not usual or fitting to a bard.

Ancient Irish Triad: The three most ill-mannered sons of the earth: a boy mocking an old man, a strong man swaggering in front of a sick one, a wise man jesting at the expense of a foolish one.

MacBear

[Robert B. More, High Commissione]

Seanchai is actually the Irish spelling, and in Scots Gaelic, seanachaidh, both of which have been Anglicized as Shanachie. Don't you just love the spelling game that goes on around the Celtic tongues?

Poet Edwin Muir, of the Orkney isles, remembers storytelling by the seanachaidh in his youth: "The Winter gathered us into one room as it gathered the cattle into the stable and the byre; the sky came closer; the lamps were lit at three or four in the afternoon, and then the great evening lay before us like a world: an evening filled with talk, stories, games, music and lamplight."

In the Hebrides each community had a celidh house, where everyone would gather on winter noghts. There might be some singing and playing, but mainly the evening was spent in the telling of stories and personal anecdotes, the asking of riddles and quoting of sayings. The celidh house symbolized the living heart of the community. The last one on the Isle of Lewis was burned down by the owner's request as he sailed past his homestead on the emigrant ship that would take him from Scotland forever.

Many of the tales in the shanachie's repertoire were so long they would burn a dip candle down in the telling and last until dawn whitened the sky....Some, like the famed Scottish wonder tale, "The Leeching of Kian's Leg," were told over twenty-four consecutive nights.

The above quoted from Kindling the Celtic Spirit, by Mara Freeman, HarperCollins, 2001