![]() ![]() The song (which you will probably know) is quoted in full in Iona and Peter Opie’s Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes as follows: I have been pondering what links this historical person with the popular Scottish song ‘Aiken Drum’ and what links the song with the poem about the brownie and the painting? I find this very curious indeed. I think this may be a case of history becoming myth and myth becoming history. Sir Walter Scott also refers to this mysterious figure in his novel The Antiquary (1816) in a story told by an old beggar. In fact it is a Jacobite song about the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715) and not a story about a phantom at all:Īnd his wind of heav’nly might, Aikendrum, Aikendrum! There is a rhyme by James Hogg which appeared in Jacobite Reliques in 1820 which also mentions the character Aiken Drum. In the painting he is a gloomy phantom or Brownie but the name also has historical links. Aiken Drum is a devilish creature who inspires great fear in humans and animals: ![]() The intriguing folkloric ballad appears in the third edition of his posthumous Poetical Works in 1887. ![]() The image is inspired by a poem in Scottish dialect by William Nicholson (1782-1849). Hornel (1889) in the Kelvin Grove Gallery and Museum The last time I was in Glasgow I came across this rather spooky painting of Aiken Drum or ‘the Brownie of Blednoch’ by E.A. ![]()
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