Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Picts, Scots, Vikings, King Arthur--the Past is Still Much With Us

An interesting round-up of Scottish and Pictish-themed movies at Codex Celtica, as well as discussion of new pop-historical writing on King Arthur.

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posted by Chas S. Clifton at 11:37 PM Permalink

1 Comments:

Anonymous Rombald said...

"Pictish blue". No, the colours of the Scottish flag. Duh.

“£1m golden hoard” near Stirling Castle, of pre-Roman era gold torcs which display similar artisanship to that found in Gaul. ... it was more a case of the finds indicating Keltic Pictland was not the impoverished backwater it later became under English rule."

As the Act of Union (the beginning of "English rule", if that is what you wish to call it) was in 1707, the use of the word "later" here is rather odd.

It's far from certain that Pictland was "Keltic". Gaelic, historically the language of NW Scotland, but now only spoken in the Hebrides, is a Celtic language, as was Cumbric, a dialect of Welsh spoken in parts of SW Scotland until about 1300, but no-one is really sure about Pictish.

"The Stirling area, part of the same tribal kingdom as Edinburgh [and Rosslyn], that of the Gododdin"

Yes, but Lothian, the petty kingdom around Edinburgh was an Anglian kingdom from at least 700.

What is it about "Kelts" that makes people write like this? Scotland was not historically an entirely Celtic country. If you go back 400 years, the NW spoke Gaelic, the S and E spoke Scots (an English dialect or a language related to English, depending on your definition), and the Northern Isles spoke Norn (related to Icelandic). If you go back further, there were also Pictish, Cumbric and Norman-French.

I'm actually pro-independence for Scotland - independence for England, really - I agree with Kirkpatrick Sale about the need to break down national entities. However, I don't know what makes people write this sort of sub-Braveheart tosh.

3:25 AM  
Anonymous Rombald said...

"Pictish blue". No, the colours of the Scottish flag. Duh.

“£1m golden hoard” near Stirling Castle, of pre-Roman era gold torcs which display similar artisanship to that found in Gaul. ... it was more a case of the finds indicating Keltic Pictland was not the impoverished backwater it later became under English rule."

As the Act of Union (the beginning of "English rule", if that is what you wish to call it) was in 1707, the use of the word "later" here is rather odd.

It's far from certain that Pictland was "Keltic". Gaelic, historically the language of NW Scotland, but now only spoken in the Hebrides, is a Celtic language, as was Cumbric, a dialect of Welsh spoken in parts of SW Scotland until about 1300, but no-one is really sure about Pictish.

"The Stirling area, part of the same tribal kingdom as Edinburgh [and Rosslyn], that of the Gododdin"

Yes, but Lothian, the petty kingdom around Edinburgh was an Anglian kingdom from at least 700.

What is it about "Kelts" that makes people write like this? Scotland was not historically an entirely Celtic country. If you go back 400 years, the NW spoke Gaelic, the S and E spoke Scots (an English dialect or a language related to English, depending on your definition), and the Northern Isles spoke Norn (related to Icelandic). If you go back further, there were also Pictish, Cumbric and Norman-French.

I'm actually pro-independence for Scotland - independence for England, really - I agree with Kirkpatrick Sale about the need to break down national entities. However, I don't know what makes people write this sort of sub-Braveheart tosh.

3:25 AM  

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