Fiona Macleod

“ No conspicuous modern Celtic work had hitherto been written in the English tongue until the appearance of the writings of Fiona Macleod, and later of Mr. Neil Munro. The Sin-Eater was therefore warmly welcomed on both sides of the Irish Channel, and Fiona Macleod, acclaimed as the leading representative of the Highland Gael, “our one and only Highland novelist.” The Irish Independent pronounced her to be “the poet born,” “her work is pure romance—and she strikes a strange note in modern literature, but it has the spirit of the Celt, and is another triumph for the Celtic genius.” ”

“ So with great reluctance we decided to give it up at midsummer. I was anxious that we should seek for another cottage, on a main line of railway, and on sandy soil; but my husband feared to make another experiment and preferred that we should make our headquarters in London once again, and that he should go into the country whenever the mood necessitated. But his regret was deep. Phenice Croft had seen the birth of Fiona Macleod; he had lived there with an [234] intensity of inner life beyond anything he had ever experienced. ”

“ Of the prose stories written by Fiona Macleod, the most barbaric and vivid are those collected in The Sin-Eater and Other Tales; the longer Pharais, A Romance of the Isles, is scarcely less unique.
In the ten years, 1882-1891, William Sharp published four volumes of rather undistinguished verse. In 1896 From the Hills of Dream appeared over the signature of Fiona Macleod; The Hour of Beauty, an even more distinctive collection, followed shortly. Both poetry and prose were always the result of two sharply differentiated moods constantly fluctuating ”

“ The secret of Sharp's responsibilities for the 'Fiona' literature was well kept in his lifetime. He sedulously encouraged the popular assumption that 'Fiona Macleod' was a young lady endowed with 'the dreamy Celtic genius.' Sharp contributed to 'Who's Who' a fictitious memoir of 'Fiona Macleod,' describing her favourite recreations as 'boating, hill-climbing, and hstening,' and he corresponded with her admiring readers through the hand of his sister. Educated Highland Celts detected in the books the imperfection of the supposed lady's Celtic equipment. ”

“ She pointed out to him that such a display of learning as he was making in the later "Fiona Macleod" work would surely lead to discovery. But he did not heed. The truth probably was that he wrote about Celtic things as "Fiona Macleod" because he perhaps felt about them, as "Fiona Macleod," as one who is bilingual thinks about work he is doing, say in German, in German, and about work he is doing in English, in English; but just as surely I believe, because what "Fiona Macleod" wrote commanded more respect than what William Sharp wrote, readier entrance into the magazines, and better pay. ”

“ Sharp in collaboration. But again comes denial. Mr. Sharp has addressed the following note to the Glasgow “Evening News,” which has been somewhat persistent in casting doubt on the existence of Miss Macleod—“Miss Fiona Macleod is not Mr. William Sharp, Miss Fiona Macleod is not Mrs. William Sharp, Miss Fiona Macleod is—Miss Fiona Macleod.” The persecuted author was much disturbed by this effort to draw Fiona Macleod into a controversy, to [259] force her to declare herself. ”

“ There is a curious point in his telling of this episode. Although the essay is written over the signature of “Fiona Macleod” and belongs to that particular phase of work, nevertheless it is obviously “William Sharp” who tells the story, for the “we” who stood on the pier at Greenock is himself in his dual capacity; “his kinswoman” is his other self. ”

“ Into that eager and sympathetic atmosphere of linked thought and aim my husband and I were speedily drawn; and before long a Publishing Firm was established for the issuing of Celtic Literature and Works on Science. To Mr. and Mrs. Geddes was confided the important secret relating to the personality of “Fiona Macleod,” to the thoughts and ideals that unlay ‘her’ projected work. It was arranged that William Sharp should be the Manager in the Firm of Patrick Geddes & Colleagues (which post he very soon relinquished for that of Literary Adviser) ”

“ From his earliest days he was a passionate lover of nature, a tireless observer of her moods and changes, for he had always felt himself to be “at one with nature, fellow with the winds and birds.” And Barbara, the Highland woman, it was she who told him stories of Faerie, crooned to him old Gaelic songs, and made his childish mind familiar with the heroes of the old Celtic Sagas, with the daring exploits of the Viking rovers and Highland chieftains. It was she who sowed the seeds in his mind of much that he afterward retold under the pseudonym of Fiona Macleod. ”

“ Your delicious story of the critic sent me straight to the Journal of di Cosimo. How well you produce the archaic flavour: the style has a Celtic ring about it. As for ‘Ecce Puella’ I await the hearing of it from the voice of a ‘puella’ who likes your work. I was at Meredith’s on Sunday week: he keeps wonderfully well for him: his talk is bright as his face is beautiful. He has his fling at me over the Burford Bridge deception, and says that my duplicity cost you all a fine speech. I tell him that the speech we had was good enough for ‘the likes of us.’ So Fiona Macleod is your cousin! ”

“ In a letter to Mr. W. B. Yeats signed “Fiona Macleod,” and written in 1899, about herself and her friend (namely himself) William tried “as far as is practicable in a strange and complex manner to be explicit.” ‘She’ stated that, “all the formative and expressional as well as nearly all the visionary power is my friends. In a sense only his is the passive part, but it is the allegory of the match, the wind, and the torch. Everything is in the torch in readiness, and as you know, there is nothing in the match itself. ”

“ It has reached people more than I dreamt of as likely. In Scotland especially it has stirred and created a new movement. Here, men like George Meredith, Grant Allen, H. D. Traill, and Theodore Watts hailed it as a ‘work of genius.’ Ignored in some quarters, abused in others, and unheeded by the ‘general reader,’ it has yet had a reception that has made me deeply glad. It is the beginning of my true work. Only one or two know I am ‘Fiona Macleod.’ Let you and my dear T.A.J. preserve my secret. I trust you. ”

“ He did not ask for confirmation but wished the author to know his conclusions. The latter, who valued not only the friendship but the critical appreciation of his correspondent, made no denial, but begged that the secret might be guarded. In Sir George Douglas’ answer is a reference to a curious incident which had happened while we were at Rudgwick. A [255] letter came from an unknown correspondence containing a proposal of marriage to Fiona Macleod. Whether it was intended as a “draw” or not we could not decide. ”

“ He captured her and brought her to Iona in September, when it is the month of peace. For one month she was happy: when the wet gales from the west set in, she pined for her own land: yet in the dream-days of November, she smiled so often that Manaun hoped; but when Winter was come, her lover saw that she could not live. So he changed her into a seal. "You shall be a sleeping woman by day," he said, "and sleep in my dûn here on Iona: and by night, when the dews fall, you shall be a seal, and shall hear me calling to you from a wave, and shall come out and meet me." ”

“ That he attained in a sort of writing, and greatly, that he had not attained in before, in "Silence Farm," has not been acknowledged, so easy has it been to those interested in his work to lose sight of all else in their pursuit of the "Fiona Macleod" side of his nature. It is true of "Silence Farm," as of almost all his other work done under the name of William Sharp, that it is imitative; but it is equally true that a large part of the "Fiona Macleod" work is imitative, too. "Silence Farm" is done under the influence of the later work of Mr. ”

“ P. S. By the way, you will be glad to know that Baron Tauchnitz is also going to bring out in 2 vols. a selection of representative tales by Fiona Macleod. The book called The Magic Kingdoms has been postponed till next year, but the first part of it will appear in The Monthly Review in December probably. Stories, articles, studies, will appear elsewhere.
Your friend W. S. has been and is not less busy, besides maturing work long in hand. So at least I can’t be accused of needless indolence.
To his great relief October-end found us at Taormina once again; and on Allhallow-e’en he wrote to Mrs. ”

“ Necta listened sullenly.
"Let them stay on Iona," he said: "gods though they be, it would fare ill with them if they came upon the Woman with the Net." Then he turned on his side, and lay by the [Pg 241] man Darach, who was staring at the moon and muttering words that neither Artân nor Thorkeld knew.
A white calm fell. The boat lay like a leaf on a silent pool. There was nothing between that dim wilderness and the vast sweeping blackness filled with quivering stars, but the coracle, that a wave could crush. ”

“ He collaborated with me in the preparation of an Anthology of Celtic Poetry; prepared an edition of Ossian (P. Geddes & Coll.) for which he wrote a long introduction; and began to work upon a humourous novel, not, however, finished until 1898.
As F. M. he published The Washer of the Ford in April, wrote Green Fire, and also a number of Poems, which were subsequently included in From the Hills of Dream. His Diary for the New Year has this entry:
“Jany 7th, 1896. The British Weekly has a paragraph given under all reserve that Fiona Macleod is Mrs. William Sharp. Have written—as W. S.—to Dr. ”

“ Whether, however, a tale be universal or strictly Celtic, generally it has a parallel in one or all of the racial dialects. True, there are legendary cycles which are local. The Arzur of Brittany is a mere echo in the Hebrides, and the name of Cuculain or the fame of the Red Branch has not reached the dunes of Armorica. Nevertheless, even in the mythopoeic tales there is a kindred character. Nomënoë may have been a Breton Fionn, though he had no Oìsin to wed his deeds to a deathless music ”

“ A fishing-smack lay idly becalmed, her red-brown sail now a patch of warm dusk. Mary knew what boat it was—the Nighean Donn, out of Fionnaphort in Ithona, the westernmost of the Iarraidh Isles.
There was no one visible on board the Nighean Donn, but a boy's voice sang a monotonous Gaelic cadence, indescribably sweet as it came, remote and wild as an air out of a dim forgotten world, across the still waters. Mary Macleod knew the song, a strange iorram or boat-song made by Pòl the Freckled, and by him given to his friend Angus Macleod of Ithona. ”

“ He laughed as he spoke, and made as though he were about to descend to the burnside. Unmistakably, however, the woman did not desire his company. He saw this, with the pain and bewilderment which had come upon him whenever the like happened, as so often it had happened since he had come to Rona.
"Tell me, Morag MacNeill, what is the meaning of this strangeness that is upon you? Why do you not speak? Why do you turn away your head?" ”

“ It may interest you to know that the name which seems to puzzle so many people is (though it does exist as the name “Fiona,” not only in Ossian but at the present day, though rarely) the Gaelic diminutive of “Fionaghal” (i. e. Flora) . For the rest—I was born more than a thousand years ago, in the remote region of Gaeldom known as the Hills of Dream. [280] There I have lived the better part of my life, my father’s name was Romance, and that of my mother was Dream. I have no photograph of their abode, which is just under the quicken-arch immediately west of the sunset-rainbow. ”

“ That is a long while ago now, and I have sojourned since in Iona, and there and elsewhere known the wild doves of thought and dream. But I have not, though I have longed, seen again the White Dove that Colum so loved. For long I thought it must have left Iona and Barra too, when Father Ivor died.
Yet I have not forgotten that it is not dead. "I want to live as long as you," was my child's plea: and the words of the old priest, [Pg 111] knowing and believing were, "O Dove of the Eternal, grant the little one's prayer." ”

“ There is really a delightful fraternity here amongst the literary and artistic world. And every one seems to want to do something for me, and I feel as much flattered as I am pleased. Of course my introductions have paved the way, and, besides, Bourget has said a great deal about me as a writer—too much, I know.”
The two important events of 1884 were the publication of a second volume of Poems, and our marriage.
In June Earth’s Voices (Elliot Stock) was issued and was well received at home and in America. In an article on William Sharp and Fiona Macleod written for The Century in 1906 Mr. ”

“ Macdonald, for the good words you have put upon my sorrow. But I am not wishing that any more [Pg 286] be said to me. I must go now, for I have to see to the milking, an' I hear the poor beasts lowing on the hillside. The old folk too are weary, and I must be getting them their porridge."
After that no one ever heard Mary Macleod speak of Angus. She was a good lass, all agreed, and made no moan; and there was no croft tidier than Scaur-a-van, and because of her it was; and she made butter better than any on Innisròn; and in the isles there was no cheese like the Scaur-a-van cheese. ”

“ When she returned, she put another bit on the fire, and kept her gaze on the red glow.
"Do you know much about them old Iona monks?" she asked abruptly.
"What old monks?"
"Them as they call the Culdees. You used to be askin' lots o' questions about them. Ay? well ... they aye hated folk from the North, an' women-folk above all."
I waited, silent.
"And Elsie, poor lass, she hated them in turn. She was all for the wild clansmen out o' Skye and the Long Island. She said she wished the Siól Leoid had come to Iona before Colum built the big church. And for why? ”