Songs of the Stag Track 7 ➡️ Butchered Tongue, Hozier

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“But feel at home, hearin’ a music that few still understand

A butchered tongue still singin’ here above the ground”

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In language there is defiance and resilience. Gàidhlig and Scots are just two languages that have suffered at the hands of cultural imperialism throughout history, and I wanted to reflect this in Song of the Stag through the languages of Old Storrian and Leid. The line between the Old Storrian tongue and a Storrian dialect is a familiar blur to those of us who grew up hearing that Scots was merely a bastardisation of English. Its invocation in the book can be taken as an act of defiance, or simply an accented manner of speaking, depending on who is listening. Leid, on the other hand, is a statement.To the oppressor, it is testament to the resilience of a culture they tried hard to wipe clean. Like Gàidhlig, Leid thrives beyond its butchery.