History and linguistics
Scotland's destiny was forged behind a wall, the one erected by Hadrian from 120 onwards to contain the Picts, whose rare inscriptions that have come down to us are still mostly undecipherable. In any case, history has remained fragmentary, barely based on the works of some missionaries who in addition to their duty of preaching showed that of memory, such as Bede the Venerable who did not fail to cite the first people in his founding work, The Ecclesiastical History of the English people
that he completed in the early eighth century, becoming then one of the only recipients of this distant past.The language is also uncertain because the territory, although reputedly hostile, welcomes other cultures. Thus, in the monastery founded by the Irishman Colomba on the island of Iona with a view to converting the peoples of the Dál Riata - a monastery that lasted long after the saint's death in the 6th century - it is difficult to define precisely when Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic) was transformed into Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic). Although linguists still debate this, they agree that the first purely Scottish manuscript is The Book of Deer
, which is thought to have been written in the 10th century and to have been subject to later additions. Although many of the opuses have been lost, the archives have kept track of the poems of Gillebríghde Albanach, a Scottish crusader who lived in the early 13th century.However, it was not until the following century that the man who is truly considered the father of Scottish literature was born, Archdeacon John Barbour, a poet who in 1376 completed a mythical epic: Robert Bruce, King of Scotland
. This historical and political account depicts in particular the Battle of Bannockburn, and if the author has certainly taken the time to inquire about the exact course of events from reliable sources, he also uses a vernacular language specific to the Lowlands of Scotland which underwent the influence of the Vikings, scots, which he tends to fix in writing for the first time.A few hundred years later, around 1477, another poetic and heroic work praised the exploits of the independence fighter William Wallace, The Acts and Deidis, attributed to a mysterious blind Harry, about whom little is known except that he was part of the long oral tradition (beul-aithris) of the makars, the Scottish bards referred to by William Dubar in The Lament for the Makaris, composed at the very beginning of the 16th century. Literature was then entering a certain golden age, translations were developing - Gavin Douglas in particular gave a Scots version of Virgil's Aeneid, L'Eneados, around 1513 - and manuscripts were better preserved, sometimes in real collections, linguistic goldmines, such as the one compiled by Seumas MacGriogain and known as Leabhar Deathan Lios Mòir (Book of the Dean of Lios Mòir
). This new growth and interest has facilitated the transmission of many of the writings of Robert Henryson, no doubt a teacher, certainly a resident of Dunfermline, and allows us to judge both his fame at the time and the finesse of his verve. Moreover, the kings showed themselves to be sensitive to the arts, like James VI, also a poet, who became a patron by encouraging the creation of the Castalian Band on the model of the French Pléiade. Although the sparks that must have flown in their verbal jousting have disappeared as much as their writing, we still have another important anthology, the so-called Bannatyne anthology, which summarizes the Scottish poets of the 15th and 16th centuries. Finally, the time is ripe for the birth of the famous Scottish ballads at the beginning of the 17th century. They still sing the traditional myths and legends but begin to rhyme in a language that gradually gains ground, English.Prestigious authors
In 1736 a man was born in Ruthven who was to have a vast influence on the course of world literature, though his approach smacked of subterfuge. It all began with James Macpherson's love of collecting Gaelic manuscripts and translating them into English, which he enjoyed doing for his friend John Home, the author of the much-disputed Douglas tragedy. When he was not yet 25, Macpherson announced that he had made an astonishing discovery, the epic of a third-century bard, Ossian, based on the travels of the mythical hero Fionn Mac Cumaill. As soon as the translated version - Fingal, an ancient epic poem in six books
- was published, doubts arose among scholars, especially since the author refused to present the original manuscript. Whatever his sources were, fragmentary or largely born of his imagination, his approach gave rise to the creation of Ossianism, a poetic movement that inspired to a large extent the early Romantics, including Goethe, who did not hide his enthusiasm for this work.This was also a fertile period for Gaelic, which saw its first printed work, a dictionary compiled in 1741 by the major poet Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, and Scots flourished under the pen of Robert Burns (1759-1796). His short life began in a family of peasant origin, an oscillation between the land and letters that he maintained until his 37th birthday, when death came early. He became one of the symbols of Scotland, and his legacy is the old folk songs he collected and reworked, but above all a personal collection, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
, which he published in 1786. He is also considered one of the pioneers of the Romantic movement, and his songs are still sung today at festivals.While poetry continued to progress in the 18th century, another genre began to make its mark, the novel, thanks first to Tobias George Smollett (1721-1771), who was also full of bite when he felt the need to recount his travels, and above all thanks to a key figure who hardly needs any introduction: Sir Walter Scott. Born in Edinburgh in 1771, he died in his beloved Abbotsford in 1832; between these two dates, he explored all aspects of Scottish literature, becoming a poet in his adult life, adapting old manuscripts, and then experimenting with the novelistic trend by publishing Waverley anonymously in 1805. As a sign of its value, this text met with enormous success even though it could not enjoy the fame of its author. Scott continued to explore the historical - and patriotic! in so many publications that it might be a good idea to start with either his favourite, The Antiquary, or his most famous, Ivanhoe.
Another style takes over in the persona of a character that it is difficult not to associate with his London address (221B Baker Street) even though his creator is Scottish. It is indeed in Edinburgh that Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859. After having hunted whales in Greenland and before taking part in the Second Boer War as a doctor, the future Knight of the Most Venerable Order of St. John had his first novel, A Study in Red, published in Beeton's Christmas Annual
in 1887. The latter was also from Edinburgh, nine years older than Conan Doyle. From a suffering childhood, he acquired a taste for reading and still travels which, later, would not deter him from the bohemian life or from the desire to explore the world.Thus, the account of the journey he undertook on a 230 km long path that now bears his name in the Cévennes remains a great classic for lovers of walking. But Stevenson is of course also the author of Treasure Island, which he started to cheer up his son-in-law, and of a fine corpus of short stories which are sometimes tinged with a fantastic touch, which certainly did not displease his quasi-contemporary, the father of Peter Pan,
J.M. Barrie (1860-1937), who is often linked to Kayliard. This school, sometimes judged excessively sentimental, or in any case too idealistic, would provoke a real rejection at the dawn of the 20th century. The time was ripe for massive urbanization and the galloping industrialization was already being felt. The modernist writers of the time were only too eager to describe the reality, which would become all the more ferocious as the First World War approached, no doubt with a slight delay compared to their European peers. This change of gear coincided with the publication of George Douglas Brown's uncompromising novel, The House with the Green Shutters, but also with the renewed interest in Scots writers, notably Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) whose talent culminated in A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. His contemporary A. J. Cronin drew some of his inspiration from his life to write his two greatest successes, La Citadelle and Les Années d'illusion, which can be found in the Livre de Poche, a process that was also used by the poet Edwin Muir (1887-1959). Surprisingly, the Scottish Renaissance also highlights the city of Glasgow, so much so that there may be a literary school named after it as early as the 1920s, if one thinks of the work Open the Door! by Catherine Carswell (1879-1946), who is best remembered for her controversial biography of Burns. But it was 50 years later that Glasgow really became the city that brought together writers who were determined to express themselves frankly, even if it meant fighting with language. In addition to the precursor Alasdair Gray (1934-2019), author of the unclassifiable cult novel Lanark (published by Métailié), Iain Banks, John Burnside and Irvine Welsh, all three born in the 1950s, are associated with it, as well as Ian Rankin, who devoted himself to crime fiction, and Hal Duncan, who preferred science fiction. Glasgow is also the birthplace of two famous writers who share a love of France, the essayist Kenneth White and the crime writer Peter May.
