Eminent Historian Debunks Scottish History As Largely Fabrication

The Times Online ^ | 5-18-2008 | Stuart MacDonald

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[muawiyah]

Just another one of those cannibal kings from the fenns on the Continent out to steal a real history from a real people.

[SES1066]

Come on, mon, what did he say about haggis?

[varialectio]

Interesting article, but none of this is news. There’ve been a slew of books and articles in the last five years or so critical of accepted ideas about the Celts—including by Steven Oppenheimer, John Collis, and Simon James. Too bad TR didn’t publish the book while he was alive. They never explained the delay.

Like all debunking, it’s probably gone too far. There were plaids in Britain in the first century AD, tho’ I think he’s right about no kilts til the 18th c.

[tet68]

He said he couldn’t stomach it.

[dynachrome]

Dammit. Now this after checking the family history at the website of the Old Bailey proceedings and finding out what a bunch of crooks my ancestors were!

[elpadre]

maybe their governmental cowardness today is a matter of reverting back to the ancient days.

[Timocrat]

Come on, mon, what did he say about haggis?

Advocated a limited hunting season and a bag limit of five per person per season.

[Clemenza]

I read this more than a decade ago in Eric Hobsbawm’s “The Invention of Tradition.”

[DManA]

“When the legend becomes fact,print the legend.”

From “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence”.

[edcoil]

Best not go after William Wallace

[Zionist Conspirator]

Watch it! The position of the Celts in the UK basically the same as that of Blacks in the US!

Whether or not Scottish history is mythical, I still think England still deserves to be independent from them!

PS: No way did the Scots antedate the Picts! In fact, there were Angles in what is now Scotland before the Scots arrived!

[AnAmericanMother]

What he's done is strung together some half-truths and made some huge leaps. He's also deliberately concealing some well known information.

The story's been around for years that the "little plaid" or kilt per se -- the garment with permanently sewn-down pleats and a waistband -- was invented by a tailor in Lochaber some time in the 18th century. This website begs to differ, pointing out depictions of the small kilt occurred in the 17th century.

The "great plaid" or actually just the "plaid" however dates back as far as recorded history goes. It was a sort of do-it-yourself kilt - you laid the HUGE rectangle of cloth down on the ground, pleated it side to side, then slid your belt under at waist height, lay down, flipped the end panels over the front, buckled the belt, and stood up. (Is that perfectly clear? There are guys at the Highland Games who demonstrate this!) The left over top piece could be flung over your shoulder, used as a rain coat, or just hang behind like a tail.

The "little kilt" is just the belted plaid with the top cut off and the pleats sewn down.

And "Ossian" was exposed as a fraud in the 18th century by none other than that good old literary combatant, Dr. Johnson. This is NOT news. The fact that James McPherson decided to pass off some of his own poetry as translated from an 'ancient manuscript' does not in any way invalidate other authentic (if incomplete) sources.

So Trevor-Roper is being more than a little disingenuous here.

(Isn't this the guy that declared that the fake "Hitler diaries" were "authentic"? Some 'eminent historian', that.)

[AnAmericanMother]

“Och, sir, ‘tis a rare visitor that sees the Wild Haggis Romp!”

[swmobuffalo]

I see “revisionist” history isn’t just an American problem.

[ConorMacNessa]

Alba go Bragh!

[redstateconfidential]

So if it is Scottish its crap?

[centurion316]

This can’t be true. We all know that oral tradition is the only pure form of history and it cannot be refuted by silly historical evidence.

Our own Native Americans clearly demonstrate that whatever those who claim to be Native American may claim that their ancestors knew, felt, or believed is absolute fact and is incapable of nullification by racist critics.

As a descendant of Scots, I hereby declare that all of these myths are true, have always been true, and will forever be true, until we decide that they are inconvenient, in which case they will no longer be true. Moreover, we Scots are individually and collectively entitled to reparations, with interest, for everything that has been visited upon us or might have been visted upon us had we been paying attention.

[varialectio]

Thanks for the interesting link.

Another Trevor-Roper whiff: “declining gentry” were behind the English Revolution in the 17th c. But he deserves to be remembered fondly for his scathing attack on A. J. P. Taylor’s defense of Hitler in the ‘80s.