Heather Honey, Scottish Ale
The legend of heather honey, sung in songs, ballads and even in animated films, has several millennia, according to some researchers. So long ago that no one will be able to give exact dates; in the territory of present-day Scotland there lived a tribe of Picts among many other tribes. It was the picts that became famous for their cave inscriptions - hence the concept of “pictogram” - and the recipe for Scottish ale.
Legend of Heather Honey
When the Scottish tribes came to the lands of the Picts people (and this happened in the fifth century AD), the Scottish (sounds rude, but according to legend, very appropriate) king, wishing to find out the recipe for the then not quite Scottish ale, which is local residents called “heather honey”, ordered the leader of the tribe to tell how the Picts prepare it.
However, the leader of the Picts turned out to be a wise psychologist, a courageous person and a faithful ruler of his people. He tricked the king by saying that he would reveal the secret of making heather honey after the death of his son. The boy was thrown into the sea, and his father, fearing that the young man would not reveal the secret of preparing the drink desired by the Scottes under the threat of both tortures, rushed to the king and pulled him into the abyss. Thus the leader of the Picts perished, and so the recipe for the preparation of Scottish ale was lost, which totaled thousands of years of history.
This harsh legend was set forth by R. Stevenson in his famous ballad. In Russian, it is known in the translation of S.Ya. Marshak:
From heather drink
Forgotten a long time ago.
And he was sweeter than honey,
Drunker than wine.
In boilers it was cooked
And drank the whole family
Baby Medovars
In caves underground.
The king of scott came
Merciless to the enemies
He drove the poor picts
To the rocky shores.
On the heather field
On the battlefield
Lying alive on the dead
And the dead - on the living.Summer has come in the country
Heather blooms again
But no one to cook
Heather honey.
In their close graves
In the mountains of their native land
Baby Medovars
They found a shelter for themselves.
The king is riding down the hill
Over the sea on a horse
And seagulls are roaring nearby
On a par with dear.
The king looks grimly:
"Again in my land
Heather blooms
But we don’t drink honey! ”
But here are his vassals
Noticed two
The last mead
Survivors.
They came out from under the stone,
Squinting at the white light, -
Old humpback dwarf
And a boy of fifteen.
To the steep sea
They were brought in for questioning,
But not a single prisoner
He did not say a word.
The king of scott was sitting
Without moving, in the saddle.
And the little people
We stood on the ground.
Angrily, the king said:
“The torture of both is waiting,
If you don’t say hell,
How did you make honey! ”
Son and father were silent
Standing at the edge of a cliff.
Heather rang above them
Shafts rolled into the sea.
And suddenly a voice rang out:
“Listen, the Scottish king,
Talk to you
Let me face to face!
Old age is afraid of death.
I’ll buy life by treason
I will give out the treasured secret! ”-
The dwarf told the king.
His sparrow's voice
It sounded sharply and clearly:
“I would have given a secret long ago,
If the son did not interfere!
The boy doesn’t feel sorry for life
Death does not matter to him ...
I sell my conscience
It will be ashamed with him.
Let him be tied tightly
And thrown into the abyss of water -
And I will teach the Scots
Cook old honey! .. "
Strong scottish warrior
Boy tied tightly
And threw it into the open sea
From coastal cliffs.
The waves above him closed.
Metered the last scream ...
And echoed him
From the cliff, the old father:
"The truth is I, the Scots,
I expected trouble from my son.
I did not believe in the stamina of the young,
No shaving beards.
And the fire is not scary for me.
Let me die with me
My holy secret is
My heather honey! ”
Readers of the older generation may remember the same stern animated Soviet film shot on this ballad. Those who do not remember or want to refresh it in their memory can do this - there is a video at the end of the article.
In the meantime, you can listen to the song “Heather Honey”:
And we will return to the legend. And we will analyze it from the point of view of quite serious scientific research.
From the history of Scottish ale
The history of this drink is inseparable from the history of the people who created it. So, the Picts people are one of the most mysterious. In the legends dating back hundreds of years, this tribe is associated with a dwarf people living in caves. In some ways, the picts in these ancient texts resemble elves, similar to them in their bizarre traits and strange behavior.
The picts were ruled by their king, one of the constant problems of which was to repel another attack of the neighbors. And the neighbors of the Picts were the Anglo-Saxon tribes. It was believed that the picts possess magical powers that were supported by a mysterious potion - that same heather honey.
Archaeologists excavating one of the sites of the Neolithic period found the remains of pottery containing traces of a drink obtained by fermentation from heather. So the legends have a very serious background.
But the question of bloody battles to the last person from the Picts tribe, most likely, by its very formulation is not correct. The fact is that the Scottish tribes that came to the land of the Picts were not conquerors, but immigrants. British historians are inclined to the idea that the Scots come from both the Picts and the Irish. So, the assimilation of two kindred peoples that was usual in a historical perspective took place.
It should be assumed that the loss of the recipe for Scottish ale did not occur during the mixing of these peoples, but later, perhaps at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Scotland was deprived of its national customs as a result of the conquest of these lands and, accordingly, the peoples living on them, England. It was then that it was ordered to cook ale only using malt and hops.
However, the Scots resisted these prohibitions, preserving their traditions in the mountainous areas, which were difficult to reach for the British conquerors. Actually, these places were the historical homeland of the Picts tribe.
The recipe for heather honey was discovered in 1986 thanks to Bruce Williams and a mysterious lady who visited his store at his brewery. The lady asked Williams to help her decipher a recipe for an old drink written in Old Scottish. However, upon learning that this recipe required more than seven hours to prepare a drink, the lady abandoned her idea, limited herself to acquiring the usual brewing kit, and left the recipe in the store.
The first brewery to brew heather honey revived from non-existence was the small West Highland Brewery, located in Argill. When the volumes increased, the Scottish ale brewers moved to Alloa, to the larger Maclay and Co. production. By the way, the first and second breweries are located on the same lands that the Picts tribe has lived from time immemorial.
And from the very beginning of our century, old beer has been produced by Heather Ale Ltd at an industrial plant located near Glasgow.
Features of the recipe of Scottish ale
First of all, it should be noted that in ancient times the malt used to make heather honey was cooked separately from the tops of plant twigs until a wort was obtained. Later, heather flowers that were just collected were added to it. Then all this mass was left for fermentation for almost two weeks. During this time, the drink gradually became more saturated and dark, acquiring a mild flavor and amber color.
In order to revive the old drink, Williams had to make truly heroic efforts: he took a long time to gather the right time to collect heather for the preparation of Scottish ale, carefully studied the features of its preliminary processing. And he found out that only the tops of the plant should be used, since an almost imperceptible cohabitant appears on the lignified stems of heather - moss, which, when present in the finished drink, gives an undesirable aftertaste and a slight effect of the drug. Perhaps it was because of this that the ancient heather honey had the same euphoric effect on the ancient tribes, because of which the Scots - all according to the same legends - felt a complete merger with nature.
In such a difficult way the famous Scottish ale came to us. And now - the promised animated film “Heather Honey”:
Lesson topic:Robert Lewis Stevenson. Ballad "Heather Honey".
Lesson Objectives:
Personal: to know information about the life of a writer, events that are described in a ballad.
Meta-subject: the ability to highlight the main thing in the text; answer the questions posed.
Subjects: to understand what character traits the author glorifies; be able to find signs of the ballad genre in "Heather Honey" by RL Stevenson.
Lesson Type:A lesson in reading and discussing a work.
During the classes:
"I believe everyone will be there,
Where all his life he strives. "
R.L. Stevenson.
Organizing time
Knowledge Update
Work on the topic of the lesson
The word of the teacher.
R.L. Stevenson was born November 13, 1850 in Scotland, in the city of Edinburgh. The parents of the future writer were wealthy people. Stevenson's grandfather and dad were building lighthouses. Father took him to work with him. Therefore, young Robert was attracted by everything that was connected with the sea. The boy liked to sit on the shore for a long time, he spent hours watching the waves, listening to stories about shipwrecks, about various sea adventures and dreaming. All this nourished the boy’s imagination and awakened his love for his native land, for the history of Scotland: bright, contrasting, gloomy, full of romanticism and tragedy.
The life of the writer was not easy. Robert inherited from his mother a serious illness - tuberculosis, and he was bedridden for a long time. This is a very terrible, at that time, incurable disease.
But… dreams about travels, about the sea, which seemed to be unrealizable, helped to overcome the disease: a pen and paper came to the aid of the boy.
Robert Lewis tried to write down on paper everything he saw.
Robert Lewis Stevenson known to readers around the world as the author of the novel "Island treasures " (1883), which for more than a hundred years remains a favorite book of children and adolescents. Stevenson also wrote many other novels, but it was Treasure Island that made his name so popular. The future writer, as a child, surprised everyone with the richness of his imagination and his ability to tell stories in an unusually interesting way.
At the insistence of his father, Stevenson studied for several years at engineering, and then at the law faculties of the University of Edinburgh and even received the title of lawyer. But the love of writing turned out to be stronger.
It was very difficult to overcome the resistance of parents who wanted him to continue his career as a lawyer, but the young man succeeded. He becomes a writer.
“I thirsted for life, thirsted for adventure, with a huge effort of will, I practically defeated the disease. Love for the Motherland and its history gave me strength. I fought and lived, ”he wrote in his memoirs.
Robert Stevenson constantly had to experience the blows of fate and fight for his existence.
Listen to what the doctor ordered the young writer when he was only 24 years old: “Absolute peace, no worries, not even pleasant ones; do not eat too much, do not drink too much, do not laugh too much; you can write a little, really a little, talk very little and walk as little as possible. ”
But Stevenson did the opposite: “no worries” was written in contraindications, and he constantly got into different stories, the doctor forbids moving a lot, and he sailed on a boat, and traveled on foot to different countries, and was able to build a house on Samoa, which is located in the pacific ocean.
Stevenson writes: “For 14 years, I did not feel healthy for a single day, I woke up sick and went to bed exhausted, and all this time I worked hard, not departing from my duty and the intended path. I wrote in bed, wrote when my throat blew, wrote when my chills struck, wrote, torn by cough, wrote when I was dizzy from weakness, and it seems to me that I lifted up with honor the glove thrown to me by fate, and won the battle with life.
For four years, Stevenson and his family lived on the island of Samoa, and how the local natives loved and respected him, this fact says: to bury him, specially - in complete silence by vow - they voluntarily cut a path through the rainforest to the top of high mountains of Veah. And there, on a gravestone, lines were cut out from Stevenson's poem:
Under the starry sky in the wind
I will choose the last place.
I lived happily, easily die.
And ready to go to the grave.
On a grave stone write this:
“Here he wanted to leave a sign,
He returned from the sea, a sailor came,
And the hunter returned from the hills. ”
Here we met such a man of difficult fate. Stevenson wrote many books, after his death more than 30 volumes were published. The most famous were works “Treasure Island”, “Black Arrow”, “Abducted”.
Among the small genres has gained particular popularity ballad "Heather honey".
Work on the ballad.
Once upon a time they lived in Scotland. It was an extraordinary people. According to legend, they were engaged in the manufacture of honey, so sometimes they were also called mead. Their honey was not simple, but heather, i.e. brewed from heather - an unusual flower that grows in Scotland.
There are whole thickets of this plant.
Listen to the audio recording of the ballad.
Heather Honey.
From heather drink
Forgotten a long time ago.
And he was sweeter than honey,
Drunker than wine.
In boilers it was cooked
And drank the whole family
Baby Medovars
In caves underground.
The king of scott came
Merciless to the enemies
He drove the poor picts
To the rocky shores.
On the heather field
On the battlefield
Lying alive on the dead
And the dead - on the living.
_______
Summer has come in the country
Heather blooms again
But no one to cook
Heather honey.
In their close graves
In the mountains of their native land
Baby Medovars
They found a shelter for themselves.
The king is riding down the hill
Over the sea on a horse
And seagulls are roaring nearby
On a par with dear.
The king looks grimly:
"Again in my land
Heather blooms
But we don’t drink honey! "
But here are his vassals
Noticed two
The last mead
Survivors.
They came out from under the stone,
Squinting at the white light, -
Old humpback dwarf
And a boy of fifteen.
To the steep sea
They were brought in for questioning,
But not a single prisoner
He did not say a word.
The king of scott was sitting
Without moving, in the saddle.
And the little people
We stood on the ground.
Angrily, the king said:
"The torture of both is waiting,
If you don’t say hell,
How you made honey! "
Son and father were silent
Standing at the edge of a cliff.
Heather rang above them
"Listen, the Scottish king,
Talk to you
Let me face to face!
Old age is afraid of death.
I’ll buy life by treason
I will give out the treasured secret! "-
It sounded sharply and clearly:
"I would have given away a secret a long time ago,
If the son did not interfere!
The boy doesn’t feel sorry for life
Death does not matter to him ...
I sell my conscience
It will be ashamed with him.
Let him be tied tightly
And thrown into the abyss of water -
And I will teach the Scots
Cook old honey! .. "
Strong scottish warrior
Boy tied tightly
And threw it into the open sea
From coastal cliffs.
The waves above him closed.
Metered the last scream ...
And echoed him
From the cliff, the old father:
"The truth is I, the Scots,
I expected trouble from my son.
I did not believe in the stamina of the young,
No shaving beards.
And the fire is not scary for me.
Let me die with me
My holy secret
My heather honey!
Securing the studied material.
Vocabulary work.
The nobleman is here: the person who runs the country, ruler, ruler.
Puchina, nurt, nurt - a whirlpool.
Guys, identify the theme and main idea of \u200b\u200bthe work.
Theme: death of the last people from the small people of mead.
The main idea: the struggle for independence and freedom against the conquerors.
Conversation
Student: Ruthless
How did father and son die? Why did the old man decide to deceive the Scots?
Uch-k: I was afraid that the son could not stand the torture, wanting for him an easier and faster death than at the stake.
Why is heather honey for the old man a “holy secret”?
Uch-k: Because it’s their tradition, if you pass them on, it means betraying your history, your people.
In the name of what does the old man accomplish his feat?
Uch-k: In the name of preserving the memory of the ancestors, in the name of fidelity to their homeland.
“Heather Honey” is a ballad. Why do you think Stevenson turned to this genre?
Uch-k: He wrote about the legendary historical times of Scotland, imitating the folk epic. It seemed easier to express the idea of \u200b\u200bloyalty to the motherland in such a genre as a ballad.
We already remembered today what a ballad is. Find the features of a ballad in Heather Honey.
Uch-k: A historical plot, a tragic episode in the history of the war, a tragic episode - the death of the last picts, heroes - true patriots, an element of mystery - a honey recipe that dies with the heroes; the characters' characters are revealed in a dramatic dialogue, the emotional sympathy of the author; landscape conception and landscape ending.
V. Summarizing the lesson. Reflection.
Complete the phrase:
After reading the ballad, I came to the conclusion ...
The most interesting thing in the ballad is ...
In place of the old pic, I would ...
So what does this work make you think about?
Uch-k: About courage and courage, about cruelty of heart, about keeping a holy secret, etc.
Stevenson had the same thoughts and feelings when he first heard the story of the conquest of the Picts, and then transferred it to a literary mood. So that the memory of courageous and courageous picts live in the hearts of people, so that everyone thinks about such vices as cruelty, anger, anger, to which they can lead.
D / Z.Write an essay on the topic:
My perception of Stevenson’s ballad Heather Honey.
In fact, having been to Scotland, I was pleasantly surprised that I’m not forgotten, thank God, they still cook in different ways. Here, for example, is a recipe:
For Heather Honey you will need: 20 g of flowers, 500 g of sugar, 1 liter of water.
Pour boiling water over the flowers, leave for 24 hours, strain, add sugar, bring to a boil and pour into glass jars.
BEVERAGES FROM HEAT:
1) 5 g of dried flowers in 1 liter of water boil for 3 minutes, discard the grass, add 80 g of honey, stir.
2) 40 ml of heather syrup, 20 g of currant leaf, 300 ml of water. Cook the currant leaves for 7 minutes, strain, then add the syrup. Drink better chilled.
(To illustrate this article, the works of artists William Didier-Pouget, Gaston Vincent Anglade and Rex Preston were used, for more information about artists in the Pro-Art community, see
Heather is, first of all, a magnificent honey plant with a pleasant smell, grows in the tundra, pine forests, peat bogs, burnt areas, and sand. As a rule, this honey plant is found in Ukraine, countries of Western Europe, Siberia, the European part of Russia, the Azores and Asia Minor, and even in the north and west of Africa. However, the largest moorlands (which are huge thickets formed with other specific species of the genus Erica) grow in Scotland. Heather fields occupy approximately 75% of heathlands worldwide.
Someone likes the taste of heather honey, someone rejects it is not the usual bitterness. However, true experts in the UK value this honey so highly that the name "Honey Rolls-Royce" has been assigned to it.
Indescribable aroma - the first thing that attracts in heather honey. At the same time, its taste is tart and even slightly bitter. Remains after its use and a fairly strong finish. The color of heather honey is dark yellow up to yellow-red, and upon crystallization it acquires a reddish-brown hue. Some even compare heather honey for richness with toffee. The taste of this honey during long-term storage becomes stronger and more expressive.
Heather honey contains a large amount of protein substances (approximately 2%), which is also its difference. This contributes to the fact that during prolonged storage it does not crystallize, but acquires a jelly-like shape. However, with stirring, honey again becomes liquid, but eventually thickens again.
“Heather honey” (translated by Valery Rastorguev - it’s naturally impossible to surpass the melodiousness of the narrative of either Stevenson or Marshak - it somehow clumsy happened, so I’ll only give an excerpt, but the guy tried :-).
In Scotland, heather honey on the slopes of the mountains grew.
And each resident firmly believed that he gave them strength.
When a precious drink that was life-giving wine
They cooked, knowing the price, the whole country rejoiced.
But once it happened, the King decided to find out a secret,
Went to war, not knowing mercy, there is no mercy to the mead.
Under the root of a small nation, he exterminated without regret.
And heather, it is already blooming, blood red as a banner.
And he is filled with power, ready to shed, living nectar.
But only corpses and graves, almost in each - a mead.
I am old and let him die with me, forever and ever, melting fragrant honey from Heather.
Copyright: Valery Rastorguev, 2012.
The Dalriada area was cleared of the Picts during the "Scottization" of Scotland, but the tradition of making heather ale continued to live, especially in the mountains of Scotland (Highlands, Highlands). By the 12th century, the lands of the Picts and Dalriada were united and the country of Scotland appeared, the Gaelic people called it "Alba", and the heather ale became a familiar drink in the clans.
Leann fraoch (pronounced "lyan fray oogh" with a soft "oogh", lyan freyuh) in Gaelic (Scottish Celtic language) means heather (fraoch) beer. The Bell heather plant, also called Bonnie bells (Erica tetralix, Swamp heather and E. cinerea), has bell-shaped flowers in color from white to purple, blooms from April to June. The Ling heather or Broom heather plant (Calluna vulgaris, Common Heather) has small, bud-shaped flowers that are white, red or purple in color and bloom from August to September.
| For brewing needs, use only the top five centimeters of the plant, for 36 hours after harvest, or should be stored at a temperature below 38 degrees F (3 degrees C), due to the fact that it loses its valuable flavor. Moss (fog) grows on a lignified stem inside a heather plant, and not near flowers, and contains wild yeast. Fog has some narcotic properties that have been excluded from commercial recipes. Moss grows deep in the stems, but it flies in the air at the time of picking flowers. It is a light white powder that can be easily removed by rinsing the plants in cold water. Heather Ale is without a doubt Scotland's oldest brewing heritage. The drink was prepared as follows: |
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First, they made mash from Scottish ale malt, boiled the wort with flowering heather tops, then covered its surface with fresh heather flowers, left to cool and fermented for 12 days until the heather turned black. They drank Ale directly from a container called a cran (barrel), in which a hole for a crane was made a quarter of the height. This amber, slightly carbonated ale with soft bitterness, a strong, oily body and wine-like, was called Scottish Burgundy in the 18th century by the French in the 18th century, and Scottish malvasia by the British. |
Here is a real commercial recipe for making heather ale from Glenbrew, BruceWilliams, 736 DumbartonRd., GlasgowG116RD:
Heather ale
Components for 5 gallons (20 liters)
6 2/3 pounds (3 kilograms) of ground Scottish ale malt, or 6 pounds (2.7 kilograms) of American malted two-row barley and 10.5 ounces (300 grams) of amber malt (crystalline or Cara type)
12 2/3 cups (3 liters) of lightly pressed heather flower tops
3/10 ounces (8 grams) of Irish moss (10 minutes)
2 3/5 gallons (10 liters) soft water Camp yeast
1/2 to 3/4 cup corn sugar (for carbonation)
Initial Density: 1.048 Final Density: 1.011
Rub the malt at 153 degrees F (67 degrees C) for 90 minutes. Rinse to collect 5.25 gallons (20 liters). Add about half a gallon (2 liters) of lightly pressed heather tops and cook over high heat for 90 minutes.
Pass the hot wort through a sieve filled with 2 cups (0.5 liters) of heather tops in a fermentation tank. Let cool and ferment at 61 degrees F (16 degrees C) for seven to 10 days. I recommend using camp type yeast. Initially, I used yeast for Scotch ale, but over the years of cold, slow fermentation, a race has developed with a bias towards downstream fermentation. When the density reaches 1.015, usually on the fifth day, take 1/2 gallon (2 liters) of ale, add 2 cups (1/2 liters) of heather flowers, and heat to 158 degrees F (70 degrees C). Cover and let sit for 15 minutes, then return to the fermenter.
And finally, the text of the original Stevenson ballad with voice acting in the video. And yet, (by the way) about how useful it is to be able to read works in the original - in the English edition of the Ballad, Stevenson himself mentioned that picts "little people" (English dwarfish folk) were not actually destroyed, but assimilated by the Scots in the 9th-10th centuries.
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Heather Ale: A Galloway Legend by Robert Louis Stevenson 1880 From the bonny bells of heather, They brewed a drink long syne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine. They brewed it and they drank it, And lay in blessed swound, For days and days together, In their dwellings underground. There rose a King in Scotland, A fell man to his foes, He smote the picts in battle, He hunted them like roes. Over miles of the red mountain He hunted as they fled, And strewed the dwarfish bodies Of the dying and the dead. Summer came in the country, Red was the heather bell, But the manner of the brewing, Was none alive to tell. In graves that were like children "s On many a mountain "s head, The brewsters of the heather Lay numbered with the dead. The king in the red moorland. Rode on a summer "s day; And the bees hummed and the curlews Cried beside the way. The King rode and was angry, Black was his brow and pale, To rule in a land of heather, And lack the Heather Ale. Never a word they spoke: A son and his aged father - Last of the dwarfish folk. The king sat high on his charger, He looked down on the little men; And the dwarfish and swarthy couple Looked at the king again. Down by the shore he had them: And there on the giddy brink - "I will give thee life ye vermin, For the secret of the drink. " There stood the son and father And they looked high and low; The heather was red around them, The sea rumbled below. And up spoke the father, Shrill was his voice to hear: "I have a word in private, A word for the royal ear. "Life is dear to the aged, And honor a little thing; I would gladly sell the secret ", Quoth the Pict to the King. His voice was small as a sparrow "s, And shrill and wonderful clear: "I would gladly sell my secret, Only my son I fear. "For life is a little matter, And death is naught to the young; And I dare not sell my honor, Under the eye of my son. Take him, O king, and bind him, And cast him far in the deep; And it "s I will tell the secret That I have sworn to keep. " Neck and heels in a thong, And a lad took him and swung him, And flung him far and strong And the sea swallowed his body, Like that of a child of ten; And there on the cliff stood the father, Last of the dwarfish men. "True was the word I told you: Only my son I feared; For I doubt the sapling courage, That goes without the beard. But now in vain is the torture, Fire shall not avail: Here dies in my bosom The secret of the Heather Ale. " Translation by S. Marshak (1941) |
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From heather drink Forgotten a long time ago. And he was sweeter than honey, Drunker than wine.
They cooked it in cauldrons and drank it with the whole family. Baby mead in the caves underground.
The king of Scotland came, ruthless to the enemies, he drove the poor picts to the rocky shores.
On the heather field, On the battlefield Lying alive on the dead And dead on the living.
Summer has come in the country, Heather is blooming again, But there is no one to cook Heather honey.
In their close graves, In the mountains of their native land, Baby Medovars found a haven for themselves.
The king rides on a slope Over the sea on a horse, And nearby gulls roar
The king looks sullenly: "Again in my land a heather blossom is blooming, But we do not drink honey!"
But here are his vassals Noticed two Last mead, Survivors.
They came out from under the stone, Squinting at the white light, - An old hunchbacked dwarf And a boy of fifteen.
To the steep sea They were brought for interrogation, But not one of the prisoners spoke the Word.
The king of Scotland sat, without moving, in the saddle. And the little people stood on the earth.
Angrily, the king said: "The torture of both is waiting, If you do not say, hell, How did you prepare honey!"
Son and father were silent, Standing at the edge of the cliff. Heather rang above them, Shafts rolled into the sea.
Old age is afraid of death. I’ll buy life by betrayal, I will give out the treasured secret! "- The dwarf told the king.
The boy does not feel sorry for life, Death does not matter to him ... I will sell my conscience It will be ashamed with him.
Let him be tightly bound And thrown into the abyss of water - And I will teach the Scots to Cook old honey! .. "
Strong Scottish warrior Boy tied tight And threw into the open sea
From coastal cliffs.
From the cliff, the old father:
The waves above him closed. Metered the last cry ... And echoed him
From the cliff, the old father:
"I told the truth, the Scots, I expected trouble from my son.
I did not believe in the stamina of young, Not shaving beards.
And the fire is not scary for me. Let it die with me
My holy secret is my heather honey! "
By the way, the very first Russian translation of this ballad was made by Nikolai Chukovsky in 1939, but in comparison with Marshakovsky, who was fond of childhood, both rhythm and style, in my opinion, lose out great, judge for yourself, I quote the full text:
Translation by N. Chukovsky: Heather beer
(Scottish tradition)
| Ripped hard red heather And cooked from it Beer is stronger than the strongest wines, Sweeter than honey itself. They drank this beer, drank it - And for many days later In the dark of underground dwellings They fell asleep in a friendly sleep. But the king of scott came Merciless for enemies. He broke the Picts squads And drove them like goats. On the steep crimson slopes He flew after them And scattered everywhere Piles of dwarf bodies. Summer again, heather again. All in bloom - but how to be here, Kohl living do not know how Sweet feast to cook? In children's little graves On the hill and behind the hill Everyone who knew how to brew beer They sleep forever in a dead sleep. Here is the king of the crimson field Rides into the sweltering summer heat Hears a buzz of fed bees Singing little birds over themselves. He is gloomy and displeased - What could be sadder: To rule the heather kingdom Well, do not drink beer sweet? Following him, the vassals are jumping Through the heather. Suddenly they look: Behind a huge old stone Two dwarfs are sitting. Here they are driven and grabbed. Finally captured Two last dwarfs - Son and old father with him. The king himself is approaching them. And looks at the kids On clumsy, blackish, Frail little people. He leads them straight to the sea On the rock and says: "I I will give you life for the secret The Secret of Sweet Drinking. " Son and father stand and look: The edge of heaven is wide, high, Hot heather flames The sea splashes at the feet. And father suddenly asks "Let me quietly Whisper with the king! Life for an old man costs a lot Nothing worth shame. I would tell you a secret Whispers softly in silence: I would tell you a secret Only my son scared me. Life for young people costs little Death does not cost anything. I would have discovered everything, but ashamed I am ashamed of my son. You tie it tight And toss into the abyss of water! I will then reveal the secret What my poor clan kept. " So they tied the son, Screwing the neck to the heels, And threw right into the water In the waves of surging tide. And the sea devoured him And stayed on a rock Only the old father is the last Dwarf pict all over the earth. "I was only afraid of my son, Because, you know, It's hard to feel trust To beardless brave men. Now prepare the torture I will not betray anything. And die forever with me The Secret of Sweet Drinking. " |
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Video with the song version in English "Heather Ale: A Galloway Legend
By Robert Louis Stevenson ":
