Derick Thomson

Thomson was originally from Upper Bayble (Pabail Uarach) on Lewis, the same village that produced two other Gaelic writers of note, Iain Crichton Smith and Anne Frater. His parents, James Thomson and Christina Smith, were both primary school teachers.{{cite news|url=http://www.gaelport.com/nuacht/Poet-and-scholar-steeped-in-Gaelic-culture/|publisher=Gaelport|title=0 Poet and scholar steeped in Gaelic culture|date=7 February 2015|access-date=8 February 2015|archive-date=8 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208052920/http://www.gaelport.com/nuacht/Poet-and-scholar-steeped-in-Gaelic-culture/|url-status=dead}}

Educated at the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, he went on to the University of Aberdeen, where he studied Celtic and English, University College of North Wales, Bangor (now Bangor University), and finally Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took a second degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNaC) in 1948.Bateman, Meg, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/104990 "Thomson, Derick Smith (Ruaraidh Mac Thòmais) (1921–2012)"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edition, 7 January 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2024. {{subscription required}} He would later teach at the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and University of Aberdeen. He became Professor of Celtic at Glasgow in 1963, and retired in 1991. He was Chairman of the Gaelic Books Council 1968–91; President Scottish Gaelic Texts Society; former member of Scottish Arts Council and was the first recipient of the Ossian Prize in 1974. Professor Thomson was Chairman of the Scottish National Party's Gaelic Committee in the Seventies.

He is the author of numerous books including An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry, The Companion to Gaelic Poetry, European Poetry in Gaelic, and collections of Gaelic poetry, including his collected poems Creachadh na Clàrsaich (Plundering of the Harp/clarsach) which shared the Scottish Book of the Year Award in 1983. He also edited The Companion to Gaelic Scotland. His English-Gaelic dictionary came out in 1981, and was for many years the most practical reference of its kind. He published seven collections of Gaelic poetry, with many English translations, including Meall Garbh/The Rugged Mountain (1995), Smeur an Dochais, etc.

His publications included such seminal works as the Gaelic Sources of Macpherson's Ossian, An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry, The Companion to Gaelic Scotland (edited by him) and Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century; his contributions to Welsh studies are also noteworthy. He worked to promote Scottish Gaelic literature, to take one example, as founder, editor and publisher of the quarterly "Gairm" since 1953. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1992 and gave the 1999 Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture on "Scottish Gaelic Traditional Songs from the 16th to the 18th Century".{{cite web |title=Sir John Rhys Memorial Lectures |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectures/listings/sir-john-rhys-memorial-lectures/ |publisher=The British Academy}} Thomson was also tireless in his support of other writers in Gaelic and helped bring to publications works such as 'Gaelic Verbs' by Colin B.D. Mark. Derick Thomson died in 2012, at the age of 90.

• Honorary President, Scottish Poetry Library
• Professor of Celtic, University of Glasgow – 1963–1991
• Chairman of the Gaelic Books Council
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• Fellow of the British Academy

Poetry (own work):

• An Dealbh Briste / The Broken Picture (1951)
• Eadar Samhradh is Foghar / Between Summer and Autumn (1967)
• An Rathad Cian / Far Road (1970) – {{ISBN|978-0-901771-15-5}}
• Saora agus an Iolaire / Freedom and the Eagle (1977) – {{ISBN|978-0-901771-60-5}}
• Creachadh na Clàrsaich: Collected Poems, 1940–80 (1982) – {{ISBN|978-0-904265-57-6}}
• Meall Garbh: Rugged Mountain (1985) – {{ISBN|978-1-871901-37-5}}
• Bàrdachd na Roinn Eòrpa an Gàidhlig (1990) – {{ISBN|978-1-871901-05-4}}
• Smeur an Dòchais: The Bramble of Hope (1992) – {{ISBN|978-0-86241-351-4}}
• Sùil air Fàire (Surveying the Horizon) (2007) – {{ISBN|978-0-86152-335-1}}

Poetry (anthologies):

• An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry (1990) – {{ISBN|978-0-7486-0127-1}}
• Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century: A Bilingual Anthology (1993) – {{ISBN|978-0-948877-19-3}}
• Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair: Selected Poems (1996) – {{ISBN|978-1-85500-059-9}}

Various:

• The Gaelic sources of Macpherson's "Ossian" (Aberdeen University studies series;no.130) (1952)
• Branwen Uerch Lyr: The Second of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (Mediaeval & Modern Welsh) (1961) – {{ISBN|978-1-85500-059-9}}
• Gaelic Learner's Handbook (1973) – {{ISBN|978-0-901771-41-4}}
• Bith-Eòlas (Biology Textbook) (1976) – {{ISBN|978-0-901771-53-7}}
• Gàidhlig ann an Albainn/ Gaelic in Scotland: Bilingual Examination of the Place of Gaelic in Scottish Life (1976) – {{ISBN|978-0-901771-54-4}}
• New English-Gaelic Dictionary (1981) – {{ISBN|978-0-901771-65-0}}
• Why Gaelic Matters (1984) – {{ISBN|978-0-85411-028-5}}
• The Companion to Gaelic Scotland (1987) – {{ISBN|978-0-631-15578-2}}
• Languages of Scotland: International Conference Proceedings: Gaelic and Scots in Harmony 2nd, 1988 (1990) – {{ISBN|978-0-903204-19-4}}

Co-author:

• Edward Lhuyd in the Scottish Highlands (1963) 1699–1700 – {{ISBN|978-0-19-811929-6}}
• Future of the Highlands (1968) – {{ISBN|978-0-7100-6052-5}}
• Combined Gaelic-English, English-Gaelic Dictionary (1982) – {{ISBN|978-1-871901-11-5}}
• Minority Languages Today (1990) – {{ISBN|978-0-85224-642-9}}
• MacDiarmid MS Anthology (1992) – {{ISBN|978-0-7073-0612-4}}
• Scotland O Gael an Lawlander (1996) – {{ISBN|978-1-871901-40-5}}

Recordings:

• Nyvaigs (2000) Jennifer Margaret Barker, Composer's Recording Inc./New World Records, CRI862, NWCR862Nyvaigs CD liner notes, Retrieved 25 October 2018. (recitation of his own poem Geodha Air Chùl Na Grèine)

• Black, Ronald. [https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2017/06/sorley-maclean-derick-thomson-and-the-women-most-dangerous-to-men/ “Sorley MacLean, Derick Thomson, and the Women Most Dangerous to Men,”] The Bottle Imp 21: June 2017.
• Dymock, Emma. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0awJspYyuzE "The Gaelic Poetry of Derick Thomson,"] video lecture (Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2020), YouTube.
• Meek, Donald E. [http://meekwrite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/appreciation-of-professor-derick-s.html "Appreciation of Professor Derick S. Thomson: funeral oration,"] Passages from Tiree (blog post).
• Poncarová, Petra Johana. [https://litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/2023-1-3/ "Derick Thomson and Ireland,"] Litteraria Pragensia 33:65 (2023).
• Poncarová, Petra Johana. [https://anglica-journal.com/resources/html/article/details?id=207772 "Derick Thomson and the Ossian Controversy,"] Anglica 29:3 (2020).
• Poncarová, Petra Johana. [https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol46/iss1/14/ "Eadar Canaan is Garrabost (Between Canaan and Garrabost): Religion in Derick Thomson’s Lewis Poetry,"] Studies in Scottish Literature 46:1 (2020).

• [http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poets/derick-thomson Scottish Poetry Library entry] (bio, poems in English and Gaelic, bibliography)
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/foghlam/larachnambard/am_bard/ruaraidh_macthomais.shtml BBC Bio – Làrach nam Bàrd] (bio, poems in Gaelic with commentary, recordings)
• [https://ruaraidhmacthomais.wordpress.com Derick Thomson website (in Gaelic)]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan/17511296 Audio clip: obituary and tributes to Thomson (in Gaelic)]

{{Scottish Gaelic literature}}

{{Derek Allen Prize}}

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Category:1921 births

Category:Celtic studies scholars

Category:2012 deaths

Category:People from the Isle of Lewis

Category:20th-century Scottish Gaelic poets

Category:20th-century Scottish historians

Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen

Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Category:Academics of the University of Glasgow

Category:Scottish Renaissance

Category:Fellows of the British Academy

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Translators from Scottish Gaelic

Category:People educated at the Nicolson Institute

Category:Scottish male poets

Category:20th-century Scottish translators

Category:20th-century Scottish male writers