

Traditional Scottish culture is mostly fictional - byrneseyeview
http://www.nysun.com/arts/hugh-trevor-ropers-the-invention-of-scotland/82417/

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jkkramer
"Until the 18th century, no one north of the Tweed had ever seen a kilt"

This is misleading. As noted later in the article, highlanders wore plaids,
which are basically kilts with an over-the-shoulder piece that can be used as
a cloak (it's actually all one big piece of cloth). If you saw a plaid, you'd
say, "that's a kilt." Go to a Renaissance Festival and you'll see them all
over the place.

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biohacker42
I don't understand how the transformation from plaids to kilts (a component of
plaids), in response to a changing environment, is not 100% Scottish culture?
It seems like this is just hairsplitting. An incendiary version of events with
the goal of obtaining a catchy book title.

P.S.

I am not even a little bit Scottish.

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dfranke
> Yes, he admits, the English "have created one of the great literatures of
> the world. Yet, have they a single myth that they can call their own?"

Yes, Beowulf. There were probably many others of its kind that were lost when
the Anglo-Saxons became Christian. It would violate a lot of what we know
about psychology if there were any culture that never had any indigenous
mythology.

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maw
But the events of Beowulf happened in Scandinavia. The poem itself was written
in England, though. Probably.

Not that I think it matters much: I suppose only those cultures that have
existed entirely in isolation really have truly unique myths, and that isn't
very many cultures. And maybe not all of those unique cultures, either, given
how many themes are found in the mythology of very different peoples.

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dfranke
Right, which presumably means that the tale originated before the Saxons
invaded Great Britain. But nonetheless the version we know is told in Old
English and not any of its continental predecessors, and its earliest
manuscripts are all found in Britain. It isn't disqualified from being
uniquely English by the fact that it derives from earlier times in Scandinavia
any more than Mormonism is disqualified from being uniquely American by the
fact that it derives from earlier times in Jerusalem.

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theoneill
Incidentally, a lot of the traditional culture in most countries is fictional.
In Europe in particular, a lot of it was made up in the nineteenth century,
when there was a huge wave of antiquarianism.

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1gor
>huge wave of antiquarianism

I would call it nationalism. Medieval Europe had no notion of nations. The
Dutch national hero, for example, is Prince of Orange, a small sunny
principality in South of France.

Throughout the history people associated themselves with their Sovereign, who
could be a Spanish king in the Dutch case, or some German duke in case of
Italians etc.

Then suddenly in the 19th century there was huge social demand for an
independent nation-state. And that demand has met its supply in the form of
national legend building.

Scots got their kilts (tartan originally was cloth supplied to colonies),
Finns got their national epos written by a single guy, Russians got their
national literature written by people who spoke French most of time.

An important lesson is that perception is reality and the one who controls
(writes) the history can shape our self-identify.

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teamonkey
Bit of an exaggeration to say "mostly fictional" isn't it? Boece published his
fictional 900-year history only 30 years after Columbus set off around the
world.

In any case, Trevor-Roper published some of the papers this book was based on
back in the 1970s and Boece's work wasn't the only record we have of that
period of time.

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rthomas6
On a related note, nobody in Ireland appears to say, "Top o' the mornin to
ya!"

But they do get drunk a lot.

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parenthesis
Whatever next? The Stone of Destiny is a fake? There's no Loch Ness Monster?

