coronach

Celtic poetry

Also known as: corranach

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Article History

coronach, in Celtic tradition, choral lament or outcry for the dead; also, a funeral song sung or shrieked by Celtic women. Though observers have frequently reported hearing such songs in Ireland or in the Scottish Highlands, no such songs have been recorded. The Scottish border ballad “The Bonny Earl of Murray” is supposedly composed in the tradition of the coronach. It begins:

Ye Highlands, and ye Lawlands,

Oh where have you been?

They have slain the Earl of Murray,

And they layd him on the green.