“Brochan Lom” is a Scottish Gaelic nonsense song about porridge, belonging to a genre of Scottish Highland folk music known as mouth music, or puirt-a-beul: puirt means “tunes for a musical instrument”, and beul means “mouth”.[1] The form mixes Gaelic vocables – meaningless syllables that some scholars believe may be a remnant of ancient Gaelic words – and tongue-twisting choruses.[2]
Brochan Lom means “thin porridge”. When played as an instrumental tune, it is also known as “The Orange And Blue”.[3]
Version used as a drinking song in the 1949 film Whisky Galore! YouTube
Lyrics
The words can vary, but a common version is:
Brochan lom, tana lom, brochan lom na sùghain Brochan lom, tana lom, brochan lom na sùghain Brochan lom, tana lom, brochan lom na sùghain Brochan lom ‘s e tana lom ‘s e brochan lom na sùghain
Séist Brochan tana, tana, tana, brochan lom na sùghain Brochan tana, tana, tana, brochan lom na sùghain Brochan tana, tana, tana, brochan lom na sùghain Brochan lom ‘s e tana lom ‘s e brochan lom na sùghain
Thugaibh aran dha na gillean leis a’ bhrochan sùghain Thugaibh aran dha na gillean leis a’ bhrochan sùghain Thugaibh aran dha na gillean leis a’ bhrochan sùghain Brochan lom ‘s e tana lom ‘s e brochan lom na sùghain
Séist Seo an rud a gheibheamaid o nighean gobh’ an dùine, Seo an rud a gheibheamaid o nighean gobh’ an dùine, Seo an rud a gheibheamaid o nighean gobh’ an dùine, Brochan lom ‘s e tana lom, ‘s e brochan lom sùghain.
Séist
Porridge thin and meagre, porridge thin from sowans.[a]Type of gruelAny kind of roasted and crushed cereal moistened by being mixed with water or milk. made from the inner husks of oat grains.[4] Porridge thin and meagre, porridge thin from sowans. Porridge thin and meagre, porridge thin from sowans. Porridge thin, it is meagre and thin, it is porridge thin from sowans.
Chorus Meagre and thin porridge, thin, thin, meagre porridge Meagre and thin porridge, thin, thin, meagre porridge Meagre and thin porridge, thin, thin, meagre porridge Porridge thin, it is meagre and thin, it is porridge thin from sowans.
Give ye bread to the young men with sowans-gruel, Give ye bread to the young men with sowans-gruel, Give ye bread to the young men with sowans-gruel, Porridge thin, it is meagre and thin, it is porridge thin from sowans.
Chorus This is what we used to get from the smith’s daughter at the Dun This is what we used to get from the smith’s daughter at the Dun This is what we used to get from the smith’s daughter at the Dun Porridge thin, it is meagre and thin, it is porridge thin from sowans.
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service. By clicking on “All cookies”, you consent to us using all cookies and plug-ins as described in our Cookie policy.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
