How Young Zephyr McLeod Got his Name
Notes from the video:
Last year, in 2020, our household expanded by one puppy, a spark of joy that helped us make it through Covid’s winter shadow. This ballad tells how that pup, Zephyr McLeod, got his name. It involves an Enchanted Fiddle, Good Dogs, the Sea, a Time-Traveling Sheep, Ghosts, Mysteries, a Sheela na Gig, the Wind, and True Love. It harbors Ravens, Doves, and Seals. Lots of Seals.
This year, in 2021, I dreamed up Callum and Eilidh (pronounced Aye-lee) and put them into one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the Hebrides. Callum and Eilidh let the wind carry some of the sweet music from their past into these lonesome times we abide. Here are the threads of happy memories that are the weft of this song about Zeph:
We are not McLeods, nor are we Scots, but I LOVE Scottish music, and am particularly fond of the tune St. Kilda Wedding. You’ll hear a version of the tune played by Karina Wilson at the end of the video, during the credits.
A zephyr is a gentle breeze from the west.
We named our pup “Zephyr McLeod” as he is sweet as a spring breeze and soft as a cloud. (Some McLeods happened to be staying with us when Zeph moved in, and he just kind of slipped into their name. Hope the McLeod family do not mind, he is a worthy little pup.)
Callum: in Scottish Gaelic it means ‘Dove’ and symbolizes peace.
Eilidh: in Scottish Gaelic it means “Radiant one”
Tùr Chliamhainn, St. Clemmen’s Tower, is a church built ~1520 by Alasdair Crotach McLeod, the 8th Chieftain of the Clan McLeod. Alasdair loved music and stories; he founded a collage of pipers on Skye, and employed many harpers, bards, and shenachies (story tellers). An old sheep dog gave us a tour of Tùr Chliamhainn when we visited there in 2013. He is the very shaggy dog running through the rain in the video.
Sheela na Gigs are wild sexy carvings of women that can be found carved into the stone walls of some medieval churches in Ireland, England and Scotland. The Sheela na Gig of Tùr Chliamhainn is the only Sheela who has a dog. Some propose that Sheela’s warded off death, evil, and demons; I like that guess, so reckon I’ll run with it.
#SheelaNaGig #dogsong #ballad #SaintKilda #Hebrides #sheepdogs #fiddle
Ravens are a symbol of the McLeod clan.
Zephyr loves seashells. I have a small collection on a windowsill. As a pup, Zeph would gently move them all to his dog bed and cuddle down to sleep with them. Our New Mexican dog seems to have a connection to the sea.
When we visited Lewis/Harris in 2013, the ancestral McLeod lands, some of the Lewis chessmen were also visiting, charging across a display case in the local museum. So, we got to see those knights up close and personal, alongside a class full of wide-eyed 6-year-old islanders who were awed to be viewing their own heritage.
Lewis holds the Callanish Stones, a great stone circle assembled over 5,000 years ago.
When my sons were little ones the Magic Deer took them on many adventures during bedtime stories. They would climb on his back, hang on tight, and he would fly with them out the window and follow the Milky Way into their imaginations. Beautiful portraits of our Magic Deer’s Scottish kin are carved into the wall of Tùr Chliamhainn.
My friend Karina Wilson ends this video with a wonderful rendition of the tune St. Kilda Wedding. Here is a description of the people of St. Kilda’s and their love of music, observations by two visitors to the island long, long ago, Martin Martin (gent) and a fellow named Macualay:
Martin wrote that St Kildans, “have a genius for poetry, and are great admirers of music.” Macaulay wrote, “They are enthusiastically fond of music whether in the vocal or instrumental way: the very lowest tinklings of the latter throws them into ecstasy of joy. I have seen them dancing… even the old women in the isle act their part in the great assemblies, and the most agile dancers are… great favorites. They delight much in singing, and their voices are abundantly tuneful. The women, while cutting down their barley in a field, or grinding their grain on their hand-mills in the house, are almost constantly employed in that way; and the men, if pulling at the oar, exert all the strength of their skill in animating the party, by chanting away some spirited songs adapted to the business in hand.”
