Roxana Cooper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> [...] Geoffrey wanted to prove the Britons were
> even older than the Romans hence 'Brutus' of
> Troy'. Apparently the Scots wanted to top the
> Brits and so claimed an Egyptian princess as
> their ancestress. BTW since the Scots came from
> Ireland *that's* where 'Scota' should have ended
> up.

In keeping with the theme of this thread (ie. origin myths) you might be interested in some of the following more recent perspectives on the origin of the Scots ...

From The Picts and the Scots at War by Nick Aithchison (2003):

"[...] The Scots of Dal Riata also had their own origin myth. According to the Senchus fer nAlban (History of the Men of Scotland), under King Fergus Mor mac Eirc, the first Scots crossed from Ireland to what is now western Scotland, where they settled and founded the kingdom of Dal Riata. This event is traditionally dated to c.500.

"The historical veracity of this tradition appears to be corroborated by the fact that the Scots of Dal Riata shared a common language with the Irish, from which Scots Gaelic developed. Moreover, the kingdom of Dal Riata that tehy founded shares its name with a kingdom in north-eastern Ireland, with which it had close political connections. It is also supported by analogy in the form of Irish settlements in western Britain during the mid-first millennium. But archaeologists point out that, if the Scots were really Irish migrants, they must have travelled without luggage because there is no archaeological evidence to support such a population movement. There were certainly strong contacts and influences, but this could be accounted for by trade, religious activity and perhaps even a ruling class asserting its authority over a neigbouring people. The Scots, like their Pictish neighbours, are increasingly thought to be descended from the indigenous inhabitants of the region. The origin myth of Dal Riata is not a statement of historical fact, but seeks to establish the legitimacy of the kings of Dal Riata with reference to a constructed past. This is seen most clearly in the genealogical passages in the Senchus, which trace the descendants of Fergus Mor. These were added to this seventh-century document in the tenth century in an attempt to strengthen the claims of one lineage for the Scottish kingship [...]" (p. 5).

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A useful summary of some of the current thinking on the origin of the Scots can be found here:

The Scotti: [www.postroman.info]

[...] Wormald (1996: 142-3), referring to an earlier article of his, states: 'I have recently argued that Bede and Alfred provided the ideological charter of a new English kingdom by adapting the Israelite model to Anglo-Saxon experience of the Britons and the Vikings (1994). And, yes, I now venture the same proposal for the Scots, their compeers in ninth century statecraft.' Campbell (2001) unpicks the written evidence and arrives at a similar conclusion [...].

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The full reference for Campbell's article mentioned above is:

Campbell, E. 2001. 'Were the Scots Irish?' Antiquity, 288: 285-92

An HTML version of Campbell's article is available on-line ([66.249.93.104]); you'd have to register to access the more reader-friendly pdf version.



_______________

My dear sir, in this world it is not so easy to settle these plain things. I have ever found your plain things the knottiest of all.

- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

________

'I am beginning to believe that nothing is quite so uncertain as facts.

- Edward S. Curtis

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'We are coming now rather into the region of guesswork', said Dr Mortimer.
'Say, rather, into the region where we balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination, but we have always some material basis on which to start our speculation', [replied Holmes].

- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

________

'It never does to be too sure, you know, in these matters. Coincidence killed the professor.'

- "Novel of the Black Seal" by Arthur Machen



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2006 04:58AM by Damian Walter.