Scots Wha Hae (English: Scots,
Who Have) is a patriotic song of Scotland which served for centuries as an
unofficial national anthem of the country.
The lyrics were written by Robert Burns in 1793, in the form of a speech
given by Robert the Bruce before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where
Scotland maintained its sovereignty from the Kingdom of England. (Think
of Mel Gibson in Braveheart).
English
translation
'Scots, who have
with Wallace bled,
Scots, whom Bruce
has often led,
Welcome to your
gory bed
Or to victory.
'Now is the day,
and now is the hour:
See the front of
battle lower (threaten),
See approach
proud Edward's power -
Chains and
slavery….
(Ed Note: you can
find the rest of the lyrics on-line)…
You can also listen and read along on YouTube.
Click here
and/or click here.
The oldest issue of The Club’s newsletter (December 1934) in
our records does not use this quote. The
second oldest issue in our archives is dated January 14, 1936, Vol. 3, No.
3. The masthead reads:
“SCOTS WHA HAE”
Official Battle Cry
of
The Detroit Curling
Club
The font size and style changed a
few times over the years, but this remained the masthead on the newsletter
until January 1963. We have never found
a reference as to why it was used. But
we assume that with so many ‘Scotchmen’ in The Club in the early years that
something that was considered a patriotic song of Scotland would be adopted by
The Club’s membership.
No comments:
Post a Comment