#the skye boat song...

[youngpettyqueen]

so Boom was absolutely foreshadowing the Master coming back right

[corallapis]

I love that song. It's about Bonnie Prince Charlie. I know, it's sweet. Let's go. It's sweet, and it's sad. And it's about soldiers fighting. But it's sad, like a lullaby, and that's right, isn't it? Songs about soldiers should be sad, don't you think?

[thespianwordnerd]

Moffat coming back after years to let the new Scottish doctor fully sing the Skye Boat Song and explain the real history and context behind it when so many people only know it as the outlander theme...oh I have missed the way he writes Scottish characters. I see your vision sir and I salute you!

[bingqiv]

it’s just the way that the doctor still tragically loves the master despite everything.

the master has destroyed their planet and violated their people in the worst way possible and yet they’re still intrinsically entwined for eternity.

the master is who he thinks about when there’s a chance he may die and the master is who he thinks about when he survives.

missy said “my heart is maintained by the doctor” and i do think that’s mutual. the doctor’s hearts are maintained by the master, they always have been and always will be.

[adventuresofalgy]

Algy flew over to a point on the far side of the headland where the rough moorland suddenly fell away vertically to the wild ocean below. It posed no danger to a fluffy bird who could launch himself into the sky at a moment's notice, but for an unwary human who took a step too far this spot could potentially be fatal, for the edge of the cliffs was concealed by the lush growth of grass and heather, and there was nothing but jagged rocks below and the endless pounding of the surf.

Of course on such a beautiful autumn day as this the ocean looked just as meek and innocent as a newborn lamb, but Algy knew only too well that when the winds got up it would rage and crash on those hidden rocks beneath him with a tremendous roar that could be heard a mile inland, and huge white horses would gallop across the surface of the sea in enormous numbers. Woe betide anyone who tried to cross it then!

Making himself comfortable among the long autumn grasses on a cushion of soft moss, Algy gazed out across the beautiful Sea of the Hebrides. On a clear day he could see many of the islands of the Inner Hebrides from this spot, and on the far western horizon it was often possible to make out the shadowy forms of the southernmost of the outer islands too.

Inevitably he began to sing a song which he had learned long ago, when he was just a tiny wee fluffy chick. For there in front of him, just behind the low lying island of Muck, was the Isle of Rum on the left, Eigg on the right and, just visible in the gap between them, the mountains of the Isle of Skye. And quite close behind him, although out of sight from the headland, lay the rather less romantic island of Mull:

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,  Say, could that lad be I?  Merry of soul he sailed on a day  Over the sea to Skye.  Mull was astern, Rum on the port,  Eigg on the starboard bow;  Glory of youth glowed in his soul;  Where is that glory now?  Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,  Say, could that lad be I?  Merry of soul he sailed on a day  Over the sea to Skye.  Give me again all that was there,  Give me the sun that shone!  Give me the eyes, give me the soul,  Give me the lad that's gone!  Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,  Say, could that lad be I?  Merry of soul he sailed on a day  Over the sea to Skye.  Billow and breeze, islands and seas, Mountains of rain and sun, All that was good, all that was fair,  All that was me is gone.

Algy is singing the version of the lyrics he learned as a chick, written by the 19th century Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, and usually titled Sing me a song of a lad that is gone (N.B. that's lad, not lass!). Algy doesn't watch television, but he understands that it is the Stevenson lyrics which were adapted to become the theme song of the popular TV series Outlander.

In fact, if this is a description of the final Hebridean voyage of Bonnie Prince Charlie "over the sea to Skye" in August 1746 it is quite wrong, for the Young Pretender actually crossed from the outer Hebribdean island of Benbecula to a north-western point on the Isle of Skye before he left for France, and could not have come anywhere near the islands of Rum, Eigg or Mull. But if Stevenson was referring to the prince's initial flight from the mainland to the islands in April 1746, after the Battle of Culloden, it might make more sense, as on that occasion he sailed from a point close to Arisaig (just out of sight on the right horizon of Algy's photo) and could well have passed the islands in that way. On that occasion, however, the prince did not land in Skye as the boat was blown off course in stormy weather. There seems to be some confusion!

The "original" version of the lyrics of the Skye Boat Song, as it is usually called, does not mention the islands at all. This was written slightly earlier, by an English baronet, Sir Harold Boulton. Although it is often assumed that this is a traditional Scottish song it is not, except in the melody, which is said to be taken from a Gaelic rowing song (which had nothing to do with Bonnie Prince Charlie), which a mid-19th century collector heard on a trip to Skye and set down as best she could remember it. However, the song was very popular from the outset and was quickly adopted as a Scottish song both in Scotland and elsewhere. Over time it has gone through many versions, sometimes a "mashup" of the two originals, and sometimes with entirely new lyrics.

It is said that Stevenson, who was indeed a Scot, didn't like Boulton's lyrics, considering them insufficiently plaintive. But Boulton's lyrics do convey much more of the context of Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight [here is one account, though there are many others], so Algy thought you might enjoy the version below, although with the caveat that you should ignore the YouTube channel on which it appears unless you sympathize with its purpose. It was the only place he could find a complete copy of this very atmospheric, illustrated version sung by the Scottish musician Alastair McDonald:

[workingonit-currently]

I know there were many options for what the Doctor could sing to stay calm in Boom but I just want to share my penny on why I think the Skye boat song was good.

In classic Whothe 2nd Doctor is a subtitled to play the Skye boat song on his recorder. It's like a soothing mechanism or something to keep him settled.

I like that the fact that the song was brought back recognises this and makes the idea that that song is soothing to the Doctor canon.

While I understand the Doctor could sing anything to calm them (the Venusian Lullaby) I don't think any song would comfort them as effectively.

The lullaby was only part of it, it was also meant to sooth the Doctor and thanks to the 2nd Doctor we know the Doctor is comforted by the Skye Boat song.

[twistedshipper]

In a land of myth, and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young boy. His name... Merlin.

[dandelionjack]

THE SKYE BOAT SONG!!! scotland foreverrr

[ohsogirlie]

[haventacluewhatimdoing]

THE FUCKING SKYE BOAT SONG!?!?! How many fucking vague Jamie references are we gonna get this series

And then Ruby says 'I was hoping for a beach'!?!?!?!

[official-lauchzwiebel]

Y'all recall the post about what song you'd choose to sing as a lullaby that's not technically a lullaby? Well, I sang that song to myself just now and it's so soothing that I can't seem to stop

[brian-in-finance]

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Remember… whether you’ve forgotten the details or didn’t know about them to begin with, Nothing Compares is here to remind us of what it really meant to have no fucks left to give in pop culture — and the price at least one person paid for it. — Rolling Stone

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[anarchypumpkincowboy]

I was gonna live blog as I watched but I very quickly started crying and ignored my phone the whole way through. It’s gonna be a rewatch tho so I’ll blog on the next run through

Quick end of episode rapid fire thoughts

Capitalism and ai will doom us until we forcibly end the hold greed has over humanity. Organized religion is absolutely a part of the problem BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE Y’ALL JUST GOTTA STOP OPRESSING AND KILLING OTHERS IN THE NAME OF YOUR FUCKING GODS! Humanity has done and still has the potential to do amazing things but we gotta hold compassion higher than greed and control.

[doggytail-duck]

Fifteen my absolute beloved

[doctor-birdy]

When I print off sheet music for "Skye Boat Song" just because the 2nd Doctor plays it for Jamie on recorder. I'm gonna play it on clarinet.

Also the song "Skye Boat Song" is about the Battle of Culloden which is what Jamie and the others are fighting in in his first episode "The Highlanders".

[tmae3114]

"The Outlander theme song is the Skye Boat Song!"

*distant sounds of me gnawing on a wall in a desperate attempt to keep myself from starting a fight on the internet over something ridiculously pedantic*