Ten Ballads: The Songs

This book has been produced with the assistance of the Elphinstone Institute at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire Council through a Capacity Grant and The Barn in Banchory. The ballads in this buikie were scrievit bi Sheena Blackhall as pairt o the Elphinstone Institute's project Celebratin Sheena. Sheena is the vyce o North-East Scotland. Een o Scotland's maist rare an - ingyne scriever, she is a makar fa wyves intriguin tales, poems, an sangs aboot the deepest walls of oor experience. Born in 1947, bit, as she says hersel, brocht up in the nineteenth century, Sheena wis immersed in the expressive Doric tongue an culture o her faimily's native Deeside, wi a wee puckle Latin lernt fae her granmither, Amo amas I luved a lass an she wis tall an slender Amas amat she caad me flat an dang me ower the fender Sheena's tireless insicht, swak wi linguistic ken, and depth, his vrocht-forrit mair nor 100 poetry chapbuiks, 5 novels, mony short story collections, twa televised plays, in Doric alang wi a pucklie in English tee, an winnerfu excursions intae ither cultures throw her owresettins o warld poetry intae the Doric. The day, Sheena hauds an honours degree in Psychology, an a Maister's in the Socio-linguistics o Deeside Doric. We wis fair trickit tae hae Sheena wirkin wi us at the Elphinstone Institute for five year, side bi side wi the late Stanley Robertson. Weel, we aught tae hae hid the room buggit bi MI5 for there wis aa or North-East culture - the tongue, sang, story, an music - in ae office. The air wis fu wi anecdote, folktale, aul an new tradeetions, siccan a proof o the warth an relevance o deep tradition an present- day creativity tae this nation. Inspired bi a lang-term relationship with Buddhist teachins, Sheena's wark is deeply human an represents a by-ordinar range o achievement. She can scrieve a bonnie love poem, spik o the heartache o parentin, sing a centuries-aul ballat, or or mak an inspirin sang for bairns aboot the technical side o Doric in saiven wee verses. Sheena can reach onyb'dy, wi a pitch-pairfect sense o fit wey tae mak sense tae sma bairnies or tae aul fowk, incomer or local, aa wi muckle ease. North-East an Scots-tongue writers are aye pigeonholed, bit Sheena, as makar Joy Hendry scrievit, "knows unerringly how to send that couthy, earthy tongue to the furthest of stars." Fyles influenced bi great figures the like o Dickens an Saki, Calvino, Hughes an Heaney, Sheena his vrocht her ain vyce, mixin classic influences wi Scots balladry an a tradition that she cries "that fey an ither-worldly zone o the weird an the supernaitural". Sheena has raxxed the boundaries o Doric, expandin its literary range fae poetry an sang intae novels an short stories, an brocht it, alangside Les Wheeler, intae the digital age wi the Elphinstone Kist, a wab-based resource for dominies an pupils. For mony, Doric is a tongue o hame an hearth, or o humour, an it's affa gweed at that, bit Sheena shows us that it can dae onything, an she's taen it tae skweels, varsities, theatres, television studios, an even untae the hert o Washinton, D.C. wi clean and thrawn assurance. Sheena his a cultural confidence an self-esteem that gies vyce tae thoosans o North-East fowk fa lang tae hear their ain vyces refleckit back in aa wakks o life. Fit Sheena dis, fyles it's gey important tae literature, are thus o far wider significance nor at. She represents the best o North- East identity an dis it wi style, confidence, perception, an grace. Dr Thomas A. McKean,Director o the Elphinstone Institute, Varsity o Aiberdeen, March 2019 ,