Michael Newton, editor. Seanchaidh na Coille Memory-Keeper of the Forest Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Literature in Canada. (Sydney, NS: 2015, Cape Breton University Press. Pp. 570, ISBN: 978-1-77206-016-4)

Michael Newton recognizes that scant scholarly attention has been devoted to the Canadian side of the literature of the Gaelic diaspora and, through this editorial achievement, teases out other areas of critical inquiry under-served in Gaelic scholarship thus far: implications of translation, linguistic hegemony, reflexivity, and reader response. As a result of his healthy contextualization, Newton has succeeded in contributing to the canon of not only Gaelic literature, but of Canadian literature more broadly, and has fleshed out the image of the Gael as it pertains to the earliest sense of Canadian multiculturalism. Seanchaidh na Coille is organized thematically, first introducing the Gael as among Canada’s primary settlers. Newton declares the common “two solitudes” vision of Canada’s formative years as insufficient and, identifying Gaelic as the third most spoken European language at the time of confederation, suggests instead a “multitude of solitudes.” Throughout, Newton highlights the problematic Canadian conflation of Scottish Gaels with Anglo-British and, to a lesser extent, Lowland Scottish populations. Newton’s aversion toward these assimilations is also apparent in Seanchaidh na Coille’s source material. Rather than focusing on the Scottish “hero” and his works as determined by Anglophone standards of achievement, Newton’s selections, ranging from the eighteenth century through to the 1930s, consider “Scottish Gaelic Literature in Canada” to be equally publications, speeches, and letters, and the oral-dominant songs, poems, proverbs, legends, prayers, conversations, and stories. “Verbal forms of cultural expression may be harder to recover and appreciate than material manifestations of culture” he writes, “but the activities, accomplishments and perspectives of Gaelic communities, whether in Scotland or Canada, cannot be properly understood without taking these into account” (p. 9). Newton’s translations of this literary material are sensitive to the nuances, literary techniques and stylistic tropes of Gaelic expressive culture, rendering the anthology valuable in both broad and specific terms. Following the introduction, Newton presents the theme, “The Subjugation of Gaeldom,” which frames the immigrant experience in terms of the social and physical conditions in Scotland and in Canada. Included is an anonymous text related to the Glencalvie Clearances of 1845 and an extensive variation of the North Uist song, “Oran Fir Ghriminis” (A Song of the Tacksman of Griminis). This song, generally considered to have ten verses in Uist, is collected in a fifteen-verse version in Nova Scotia, inviting comparative analysis of the omissions and elaborations that are part of oral literature. In this section and throughout, readers are encouraged to refer to Newton’s valuable section of author and collector biographies as well as maps outlining the sites of significant family names, orators and events. A contextualizing focus continues in the “Militarism and Tartanism” section, throughout which Newton emphasizes the ironies of the Highland soldier as emblematic of British imperial supremacy. Many of the selections highlight social betrayal and clan militarism and revolve around the wild Highland warrior stereotype. The subordinate status of the Gael and the accompanying sense of inferiority and backwardness is made evident in the literary materials but also in the exoticized, tartan-clad masculinity of the Highland Games and the growing gap of perceptions and habits between Gaels born in Scotland and their descendants born in North America. The selected texts range from romantic celebrations of loyalty and military might to comical criticisms of tokenism and covert ethnic rivalries. “Migration” and “Settlement” are linked sections. The literature describes the challenges of settlement (plant, animal, and interpersonal), guidelines for migration (directions, materials, conditions, support networks, chain migration), reflections on the promise and hardship inherent in the migration experience, and meditations on the continuity of culture. Many are inflected with a culturally specific use of descriptive …