Gue
Encyclopedia
The gue is an extinct type of two-stringed bowed lyre or zither from the Shetland Isles. Now extinct, the instrument was alive as recently as 1809, and was described in the writings of Sir Arthur Edmondstone.

The exact details of the gue are unclear, but it possibly resembled extinct bowed lyres such as the Norwegian giga
Giga (instrument)
-Sources:*Otto Emanuel Andersson. The Shetland gue, the Welsh crwth, and the Northern bowed harp. s.n., 1956...

, or the extant Swedish and Estonian talharpa
Talharpa
The talharpa is a four-stringed bowed lyre from northern Europe. It was formerly widespread in Scandinavia, but is today played mainly in Estonia, particularly among that nation's Swedish community...

or Finnish jouhikko
Jouhikko
thumb|right| Replica of a 19th century Jouhikko made by Simon ChadwickThe jouhikko is a traditional, 2 or 3 stringed bowed lyre, from Finland and Karelia. Its strings are traditionally of horsehair. The playing of this instrument died out in the early 20th century but has been revived and there...

. However, other ethnomusicologists believe the gue more resembled the Icelandic fiðla
Fiðla
The fiðla is a traditional Icelandic musical instrument, consisting of a box zither with two bowed strings. The strings pass over a bridge near the playing end of the instrument, and are tuned at the other end by two tuning pegs.-Similar instruments:...

, a two-stringed bowed zither. Peter Cooke notes the prevalence of the tautirut
Tautirut
The tautirut is a bowed zither native to the Inuit culture of Canada.The Canadian anthropologist Ernest William Hawkes described the tautirut in 1916:...

bowed zither among the Inuit peoples in areas of Canada influenced by Orkney and Shetland sailors, as possible evidence that the Inuit bowed lyre is based on a Shetland model.
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