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The 'When, Why & Wherefore' of Scotland

The 'When, Why & Wherefore' of Scotland

THE 'WHEN, WHY & WHEREFORE' OF

Alex Woolf

cotland. We take the for cargo of slaves. In this later Roman word Scotus as 'Irishman'. Once again, granted but where did it come usage the word denoted the it is not as simple as that. Around Sfrom and how and when did it raiders rather than any ethnic group about AD 850 there was an Irish first come to be usedPThe kingdom we (much like the later word viking). scholar working on the Continent who like to think of as 'Scotland' was Where the Romans got this term for was known to his contemporaries as founded by the kings descended from Irish raiders is something of a mystery. Johannes Scotus Eriugena. Now this Cinaed mac Ailpin (Kenneth There is no obvious Celtic word, translates from into modern MacAlpine) c. AD 900. But the fol- either British or Irish, which appears English as 'John the Scot born-in-Ire- lowers of the Alpinid kings were Gael- similar and is used in this sense. Sur- land'. If Scotus simply meant Irishman ic speakers who called their country prisingly there is an Ancient Greek there would be no need for the Eriu- , or used the Latin version of the word, Skotoi, that was used to describe gena. It seems to indicate that even at name, Albania. At about the same bands of young men who ravaged this date Latin writers on the Conti- time, however, the Anglo-Saxons neighbouring lands. It is just possible nent were aware that not all Scots were Irish (though some clearly were). At besouth the Forth stop calling their that some educated Roman officer dug about the same time that Scoti takes on northern neighbours Pehtas (), this phrase out of his memory of the this wider meaning another new word and start calling them Scottas (Scots). Classics and coined it for the Irish appears in . This is the word 'Scotland' soon appears in our sources raiders, in much the way that the Goidel, later Gaedel and then modern as the Anglo-Saxon name for the king- British dug out the name 'Hun' to Gaelic Gàidheal, from which the Eng- dom of Alba. But what did the Anglo- describe the Germans in the First lish word 'Gael' derives. This word is Saxons mean by Scottas and was this World War (in fact the ancient Huns not Gaelic in origin but comes from really the first time the name 'Scot- were not particularly associated with the Welsh word Gzuyddel and was bor- land' had been used? Germany). Such a link may seem a lit- rowed into Irish around AD 600.The tle tenuous, however, but it may be

It is often said... that the Scots were a trihe from who migrat- ed to northern Britain at the end of the Roman period in the fifth century AD. In fact you will look in vain for any such Irish tribe...

A tribe from Ireland? worth lingering with a little longer. The root of this word is gwydd which can Greek word Skotoi, literally, means the mean either 'wood' or 'wild' and 'dark' or 'shadowy ones', and there was Gwyddel seems originally to have It is often said, and sometimes by those an Old Irish word scath (shade), which meant 'wild man' or 'barbarian'. It who should know better (the Oxford may have come from an earlier scotos. seems to have been coined in the fifth English Dictionary for example), that It is just possible that the similar words and sixth centuries when the Welsh still the Scots were a tribe from Ireland in Greek and Irish had developed a liked to think of themselves as civilised who migrated to northern Britain at similar range of meanings. Certainly Romans and had little sympathy for the end of the Roman period in the early Ireland had had bands of young the Irish who raided their coasts. It is fifth century AD. In fact you will look men who lived as raiders and outlaws, hardly surprising that the Welsh came in vain for any such Irish tribe. In real- although in surviving texts they are up with an offensive name for their ity the Anglo-Saxons got their word usually called diberga. These diberga neighbours but slightly odd that the Scottas (singular Scotta) from the may even have worn war paint for they neighbours should adopt it and take it Romano-British people who occu- certainly had some sort of identifying to their hearts. Even today the Irish pied the south end of the Island at the marks on their faces that could be language is called Gaeilge in Irish. time of their arrival. The Latin words removed. Scotus (singular) and Scoti (plural) do The fact that these foreign terms, appear to have been rather new words Whatever the origin of the word Scoti in Latin and 'Gael' in the ver- c. AD 400 and were used initially to Scoti meaning 'raiders from Ireland', nacular, were taken on board in the describe raiders from Ireland who the term had before long taken on a course of the Dark Ages must reflect preyed on the shores of late Roman much wider meaning, and for much of some change of conditions in the Gael- Britain, often returning home with a the next six or seven hundred years ic world. What might this have been? modern historians translate the Latin When Roman ruled in Britain the

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Gathelos (Gael) and (Scot), daughter of Pharoah from 's . (Corpus Christi, Cambridge!

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A small map of by Abraham Ortelius and engraved by the Arsenius Brothers. It appeared in a 1601 edition of the Epitome. [National Library of Scotland / SCRAN) er a multi-ethnic kingdom, and to some extent promoting the non- people of Ireland preserved their far better to think of an early Gaelic elements within it, chose to use own particular variety of Celtic lan- medieval 'Scot' as being a Gael and the Rex Scotorum, King of the guage and culture. Their land was Ire- 'Scotia' being neither Ireland nor , as their normal . In Gael- land, their ethnicity Irish and their Scotland but 'Gaeldom'. This use of ic they bore the title Rt na hAlbainn, language also Irish. Following the suc- 'Scot' to mean Gael continued into King of Alba, and this title occasion- cessful raids of the Scoti, however, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ally appeared in Latin as RexAlbani- and ethnic identity was when the Gaelic language was ae. Alba is a geographical rather than carried beyond the shores of the described as Scotice or lingua Scotica. an ethnic term and one might have Emerald Isle with settlements being Although the kings descended from thought it more appropriate to a mul- made in various parts of western Malcolm III and St Margaret used tiethnic state. Had things developed Britain and the one-on-one match the style, in formal Latin documents, only a little differently you might have between the ethnic and linguistic Rex Seotoriim, 'King ofthe Gaels', the found yourself reading this article in identity and the geographical location same documents make it clear that a magazine called History Albany. no longer applied. Being Irish now many of their subjects were not Scoii, Why did the kings opt for Rex Sco- meant being from Ireland and could but Angli, Frajici and Gallovidii (Eng- torum rather than Rex Albaniae? We no longer do as a term to describe all lish, French and Galwegians). The might take our lead from Dauvit those people who shared language adoption ofthe term Scoti to mean all Broun's recent book, l^he Irish Identi- and ethnicity with the Irish. Thus the the subjects ofthe Rex Scotorum prob- ty ofthe Kingdom ofthe Scots, and sug- terms 'Gael' and 'Scot', in 'Gaelic' ably dates to the wars of independ- gest that, despite the apparent decline and Latin respectively, came to mean ence in the days of Wallace and Bruce of Gaelic in the twelfth and thirteenth those who were like the Irish but not when loyal patriots who were ethni- century, ideologically the ruling class simply of Ireland. To return to our cally English wished to distance in the kingdom remained very com- friend Johannes Scotus Eriugena we themselves from Edward I and his mitted to their Gaelic identity and should probably best translate his subjects. At the same time, however, failed to recognise that their recent name as 'John the Irish-born Gael'. in a famous letter to the Irish kings developmental projects, introducing who were fighting Edward, Bruce and ecclesiastical reformers Rex Scotorum could refer inclusively to 'our from England and France, had laid nation...sharing a common lan- down the seeds of its destruction. guage', clearly thinking of Scotia as Alternatively we could follow Geof- This means that those old confusing Gaeldom. What is perhaps curious is frey Barrow who, many years ago, stories that 'Scot' used to mean that the twelfth and thirteenth cen- pointed to the dominance of the king- 'Irishman' and 'Scotia' used to mean tvury kings, struggling to bind togeth- dom ofthe English, whose ruler used 'Ireland' are probably wrong and it is

HISTORY SCOTLAND - MARCH/AI'RIL - 2002 14 the title Rex Angloriim-, in the region- al political scene and wonder if the kings of Alba simply gave in to Eng- lish insistence that their kingdotn was Regnuni Scotorum, in matching style. After all, in our own time, the inhab- itants and government of the Repub- lic of Misr have been forced by the chauvinism of foreign powers to accept the Greek name of'Egypt', (a name never used at any time in any native language of the country), whenever they appear on the inter- national stage.

Anglo-Saxon term

This brings us back to the Anglo- Saxon term Scotland. It first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's account of the invasion of the coun- try by ¿Ç,thelstan, king of , in 934 (sadly we missed the chance of celebrating the millennium back in 1934).The fact is, however, that this is simply the first appearance of the term in the written record. We should be aware that the term Pehtland never appears in the Anglo-Saxon record even though the English and the Picts shared a border for three hundred years. This is partly because the Anglo-Saxons had a tendency to use phrases such as 'among the Picts' 16 0 16 32 48 64 rather than naming the land. Their own 'territorial' such as West- seaxe (Wessex), were originally popu- lation group names and although Stormy Waters in the Sound of Mull, separating the island of Mull from the Scot- tish mainland, may be identified with part of theStiotttandsfjorflr named in Westseaxnaland appears occasionally it Norse sources.

HISTORY SCO I LAND - MARCH/AHklL - 2U(l2 15 Forth, in the heart of the . Indeed we do know that 'in French' the of Forth was called Scotterwater (obviously this is English not French but it is probably a south- ern English term used by in Scotland.The Northumbrian English of used the name Myreforth, a loan from Gaelic). If we were to seek a period when the Firth of Lorn was the most typi- cally Scottish part of Britain then we would have to go back to the very beginning of the and before when formed the greater part of the Gaelic, and thus Scottish, kingdom of Dal Riata, when indeed, it was the only Scottish part of this island. This means that the Norse must have coined the name Skott- landsfjoriir before 900. Since 'Scot' itself was not a Gaelic, Welsh or Pictish word then it too, like Peitr, must have been borrowed from the Anglo-Saxons This anonymous map of The Kingdome of Scotland, dated to c 1630 is copied from the map of Scotland of 1610 published by John Speed which was itself based on the and this leaves open the possibility that drawn by Gerard Mercator in 1564. (National Library of Scotiand / SCRAN) it was not simply Pettr and Skottr that were borrowed into Norse but the country names too, Pettland and Skot- is not the name that has stuck. There who found Anglo-Saxon to be the only tland. If this was the case then Scotland is some evidence, however, which language he had in common with the suggests that the terms Pehtland and Norse. was not a new name coined by the English for the kingdom of Alba but Scotland mzy have existed before 900. The second clue comes from a sim- that it had currency before this as the The first clue comes in the name of ilar Norse place name, but one that the Pentland Firth.The modern form does not survive into modern times. Anglo-Saxon name for Dal Riata, or at of this name derives from a careless This was Skottlandsfjördr, used for a least the portions of it on this side of confusion with the Lothian place stretch of water on the west coast. the North Channel. Scotland may name Pentland and in the Middle Modern scholars have frequently indeed be the Anglo-Saxon term that Ages this stretch of water separating identified this 'firth' as the Minch but was in the mind of Bede when he, from Caithness was known as the only detailed accounts of it, both writing in Latin c,730, told of King Pettlandsfjördr, which is for in Orkneyinga Saga, suggest another Oswald of Northumbria sending for 'Pictland's Firth'. The name is location. In one passage , the missionaries to convert his people to assumed to be old because Caithness, ancestor of the MacDonalds, is said to de Provincia Seotorum on the mainland shore of the firth, was be staying in the Dales on Skotilands- ('out of the land of the Gaels'). Norse in language and attached to fjörer, probably Knapdale and mid- Orkney from at least 950 until about Argyll, and in another we are told that Conclusion 1250. The name of the firth, it is King Magnus Barelegs of Norway hav- argued, must date back to a period ing famously been dragged across the So, Scotland may have originated as the early in the Viking age when Norse set- head of Kintyre atTarbert in his skiff, Anglo-Saxon name for Argyll and have tlement was confined to the islands sent his fleet to sail between the main- a history going back to about AD 600 and the Scots had not yet conquered land and the Isles by instructing them when the two peoples first came into the mainland. This probably means to sail into Skoitlandsfjordr along one contact. It remains, however, ulti- sometime between 800 and 900. The coast and out along the other. Now mately an , first for Dal first element of this name is the this reads like an account of a voyage Riata and later for Alba, and its success Norse word for Pict (Pettr), which from West Tarbert to Ardna- as the enduring name of the kingdom must be a loanword firom Anglo-Saxon murchan Point keeping the mainland probably reflects the overwhelming Pehi because the change from Latin 'i' to starboard and the islands to port. If English political and cultural influence to 'e' only happened in words bor- this were the case then it would seem from the twelfth century. The link rowed into Anglo-Saxon between that Skotüandsßörd r víould seem to be between Scoti and Gaels was gradual- about 450 and 650. Had it been bor- a greater Firth of Lorn encompassing ly forgotten so that by the sixteenth rowed directly into Norse from Latin the Sounds of Mull and Jura and per- century the Scots tongue was no we might have expected something like haps Loch Limihe as well. During the longer Gaelic, now re-christened Piktr.The fact that the Norse regular- period in which the saga was written 'Erse' or 'Irish', but the northern ly used the word Petiar for Picts rather c. 1200 this does not make much sense dialect of English that had taken root than any Celtic word suggests that at all. The Rex Scotorum had little or no this side of the Tweed. they were first 'introduced' to the Picts control in this region and if any firth by an English speaker, perhaps an were 'Scotland's Firth' we might Anglo-Saxon or perhaps a Pict or Gael expect it to be the Firth ofTay or Alex Woolf lectures in Scottish history at the UniversiQ/of St Andrew *s.

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