1893-94.] A REVIEW OF CARVALYN GAILCKAGH OR MANX CAROLS. • 83 



A REVIEW OF CARVALYN GAILCKAGH OR MANX 



CAROLS. 



Bv Neil MacNish, B.D., LL.D. 



[Read yth April, 18^4.'] 



Carvalyn Gailckagh : such is the designation which Mr. A. W. Moore, 

 M.A., has chosen to give to an interesting and altogether unique collec- 

 tion of Manx Carols that has been recently published by him Though 

 he has had able co-adjutors in preparing the carols for pubhcation, his 

 own labours have been so important as to justify him in saying, were he 

 so disposed : quorum pars Diaxivia fui. In a paper which I had the 

 pleasure of sending to the Canadian Institute some time ago, I made 

 a somewhat extensive review of another work which Mr. Moore has 

 written, and to which he has given the title of "Surnames and Placenames 

 of the Isle of Man." By the preparation and publication of the Manx 

 carols, Mr. Moore has made another important contribution to the litera- 

 ture of the Isle of Man, and has intensified the claims which he has on 

 the grateful appreciation of Manksmen everywhere, as well as on all 

 lovers of Gaelic poetry. Some twenty years ago the remark was made 

 by an eminent Manx scholar that " Carvals, which may be termed a 

 literature entirely peculiar to the Manx people, consisting chiefly of bal- 

 lads on sacred subjects, are yet to be found in many an out-of-the-way 

 mountain farm-house, preserved in smoke-dried volumes, redolent of peat. 

 A collection of these would many years hence form quite a literary 

 curiosity, many of them possessing considerable merit. They are yearly 

 becoming more difficult to procure, either from being altogether lost, or the 

 unwillingness of the peasantry to part with their treasured manuscripts. 

 Most of these Carvals are from 50 to 150 years old." The writer whose 

 words have just been cited, has given a lucid statement of the literary value 

 of the Manx Carols. An indirect commendation is thus bestowed on Mr. 

 Moore, who has been successful in collecting and in publishing those 

 Carols. The term Carvalyn is not strictly Manx. It is merely an adap- 

 tation in Manx of the English word carol. It is not to be supposed, 

 however, that the Manx Carols, belonging as they do to the soil of Man 

 and having no kinship with ballads, resemble the English Christmas 

 Carols. It appears that in former generations, it was customary for 

 young people who imagined that the)' had poetical gifts, to compose 

 Carols when Christinas was approaching, and to recite them in the parish 



