Seanchaí
Traditional Gaelic storyteller/historian / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the record label, see Shanachie Records.
Not to be confused with Saenchai.
A seanchaí (pronounced [ˈʃan̪ˠəxiː] or [ʃan̪ˠəˈxiː] – plural: Irish: seanchaithe [ˈʃan̪ˠəxəhɪ]) is a traditional Gaelic storyteller or historian. In Scottish Gaelic the word is seanchaidh (pronounced [ˈʃɛn̪ˠɛxɪ]; plural: seanchaidhean). The word is often anglicised as shanachie (/ˈʃænəxiː, ˌʃænəˈxiː/ SHAN-ə-khee, -KHEE).
The word seanchaí, which was spelled seanchaidhe (plural seanchaidhthe) before the Irish spelling reform of 1948, means a bearer of "old lore" (seanchas).[1] In the Gaelic culture, long lyric poems which were recited by bards (filí; filidhe in the original pre-1948 spelling) in a tradition echoed by the seanchaithe.