Calum Maclean (folklorist)
While living there, Maclean began to take an interest in the local Irish folklore, inspired by the Gaelic revival and the writings of Douglas Hyde (1860–1949).
During the next few months, Maclean learnt the scientific craft of folklore, extracting excerpts from 19th century printed Scottish Gaelic tale collections and gaining experience in cataloguing.
The Commission intended to fund at least one attempt at scientific folklore collecting before the last Scottish Gaelic storytellers and traditional singers who had escaped the coercive Anglicisation of the 1872 Education Act had died.
An entry from a diary, which he wrote in Gaelic, gives an insight into his work as an ethnographer at this time: Thòisich mise, Calum I. Mac Gille Eathain, a' cruinneachadh beul-airthris agus litreachas beóil ann an eilean Ratharsair am paraiste Phort-righeadh anns an Eilean Sgitheanach air an 19mh lá de 'n Dùdhlachd (Nodhlaig) 1945.
Tha an t-seann-fheadhainn an nis marbh agus thug iad gach rud a bha aca leotha do'n uaigh.
Shaoil mi gu robh barrachd òran air am fàgail anns an eilean seo na bha de aon rud eile.
On New Year's Day 1951, Maclean formally began to work for the newly founded School of Scottish Studies based at his alma mater, the University of Edinburgh.
Since being given this long overdue institutional berth, the systematic collection of Scottish Gaelic and Scots folklore began in earnest through the avid work of Calum Maclean, the School's first appointed collector, Hamish Henderson (1919–2002), John MacInnes (1930-), to name but a few, and their successors.
The very first recordings that he made for the School included no less than 524 Gaelic tales from a roadman encountered "in the dead of winter, and Lochaber lay white and deep in snow."
Maclean was the first person to undertake the systematic collection of the old Gaelic songs, stories and traditions in the Highlands and Islands with modern recording apparatus.
Most importantly, Maclean spent a little over a year (from Summer 1951 to Autumn 1952) undertaking professional training at Uppsala University in Sweden which was then, as now, at the forefront of folklore methodology, cataloguing and archival techniques.
Due to abiding by this principle, Maclean was able to find contacts and tradition bearers and by doing so he managed to gather in a vast amount of oral material straight from people's memories.
Out of the hundreds of people recorded by Maclean, there were four storytellers that struck him as exceptionally talented: Seumas MacKinnon, known as Seumas Iain Ghunnairigh, (c. 1866-c.1957), from Northbay in Barra, Duncan MacDonald, Donnchadh Mac Dhòmhnaill 'ic Dhonnchaidh, (1882–1954), from Peninerine in South Uist, Angus (Barrach) MacMillan (1874–1954), from Griminish in Benbecula and John (The Bard) MacDonald (1876–1964) from Highbridge in Brae Lochaber.
Apart from a few academic papers and popular publications, Maclean's foremost legacy is his vast collection of mainly Gaelic oral tradition carried out in the field over from 1946 to 1960.
The vast majority of the collection was made in the Western Isles (in South Uist, Benbecula and Barra) and on the mainland Scottish Highlands.
On 17 August 1960 Calum Maclean died of cancer at the age of 44 in the Sacred Heart Hospital, Daliburgh, South Uist, Scotland.
[2] He was to have received, in September of that year, from the St. Francis Xavier University at Antigonish, Nova Scotia – an institution with very strong connections to the Gàidhealtachd – the degree of LL.D., honoris causa, for recognition of his work for the preservation of Gaelic oral literature.
Mhothaich iadsan an dealas a bha socair na do dhòigh, thuig iad doimhne throm do dhaondachd nuair b’aotroime do spòrs.
