Scota
Encyclopedia
Irish mythology
The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...
, Scottish mythology
Scottish mythology
Scottish mythology may refer to any of the mythologies of Scotland.Myths have emerged for various purposes throughout the history of Scotland, sometimes being elaborated upon by successive generations, and at other times being completely rejected and replaced by other explanatory narratives.-...
, and pseudohistory
Pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a pejorative term applied to a type of historical revisionism, often involving sensational claims whose acceptance would require rewriting a significant amount of commonly accepted history, and based on methods that depart from standard historiographical conventions.Cryptohistory...
, is the name given to two different mythological daughters of two different Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
Pharaohs to whom the Gaels
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
traced their ancestry, allegedly explaining the name Scoti
Scoti
Scoti or Scotti was the generic name used by the Romans to describe those who sailed from Ireland to conduct raids on Roman Britain. It was thus synonymous with the modern term Gaels...
, applied by the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
to Irish raiders, and later to the Irish invaders of Argyll
Argyll
Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western coast between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath...
and Caledonia
Caledonia
Caledonia is the Latinised form and name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire...
which became known as Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Early Sources
Edward J. CowanEdward J. Cowan
Edward J. Cowan FRSE is a Scottish historian. He is Director of the University of Glasgow's Dumfries Campus and Professor of Scottish History and Literature...
has traced the first appearance of Scota in literature to the 12th century. Scota appears in the Irish Book of Leinster
Book of Leinster
The Book of Leinster , is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled ca. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18...
(containing a redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages...
). However a recension found in a 11th century manuscript of the Historia Brittonum contains an earlier reference to Scota. The 12th century sources state that Scota was the daughter of an egyptian pharaoh, a contemporary of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, who married Geytholos (Goídel Glas
Goídel Glas
In Irish and Scottish Medieval myth, Goídel Glas is the creator of the Goidelic languages and the eponymous ancestor of the Gaels.-Scotland:...
) and became the eponymous founders of the Scots
Scots
Scots may refer to:*The Scottish people, the inhabitants of Scotland*Scots language *Scotch-Irish*Scottish English*Scots pine, a Scottish tree*Short for Pound Scots...
and Gaels
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
after being exiled from Egypt. The earliest Scottish sources claim Geytholos was "a certain king of the countries of Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, by name", while the Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages...
Leinster redaction in contrast describes him as a scythian. Other manuscripts of the Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages...
contain a variant legend of Scota's husband, not as Goídel Glas but instead Mil Espaine
Míl Espáine
In Irish origin legends, Míl Espáine or Míl Espáne is the ancestor of the final inhabitants of Ireland, the "sons of Míl" or Milesians, who represent the vast majority of the Irish Gaels....
and connect him to ancient Iberia
Iberia
The name Iberia refers to three historical regions of the old world:* Iberian Peninsula, in Southwest Europe, location of modern-day Portugal and Spain** Prehistoric Iberia...
. Although these legends vary, they all agree that Scota was the eponymous founder of the Scots
Scots
Scots may refer to:*The Scottish people, the inhabitants of Scotland*Scots language *Scotch-Irish*Scottish English*Scots pine, a Scottish tree*Short for Pound Scots...
and that she also gave her name to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Scota and the Stone of Scone
Baldred BissetBaldred Bisset
Baldred Bisset was a medieval Scottish lawyer.During the Scottish Wars of Independence, he was responsible for the Scottish submissions to the papal curia of 1301...
is first credited to have fused the Stone of Scone
Stone of Scone
The Stone of Scone , also known as the Stone of Destiny and often referred to in England as The Coronation Stone, is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland and later the monarchs of England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom...
with the Scota foundation legends in his Processus (1301) putting forward an argument that it was Scotland and not Ireland which was the original Scoti homeland.
Bisset was keen to legitimise a Scottish (as opposed to English) accession to the throne after Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...
died in 1286. Alexander himself at his coronation in 1249 heard his royal genealogy recited back through 56 generations to Scota. Bisset therefore attempted to legitimise a Scottish accession by making Scota significant, as having transported the Stone of Scone
Stone of Scone
The Stone of Scone , also known as the Stone of Destiny and often referred to in England as The Coronation Stone, is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland and later the monarchs of England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom...
from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
during the exodus of Moses to Scotland. In 1296 the Stone itself was captured by Edward I and taken to Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. Robert the Bruce in 1323 used Bisset's same legend connecting Scota to the stone in attempt to get the stone back to Scotland's Scone Abbey
Scone Abbey
Scone Abbey was a house of Augustinian canons based at Scone, Perthshire , Scotland. Varying dates for the foundation have been given, but it was certainly founded between 1114 and 1122....
.
The 15th century English chronicler John Hardyng
John Hardyng
John Hardyng , English chronicler, was born in the north.As a boy he entered the service of Sir Henry Percy , with whom he was present at the Battle of Shrewsbury . He then passed into the service of Sir Robert Umfraville, under whom he was constable of Warkworth Castle, Northumberland, and Kyme...
later attempted to debunk Bisset's claims.
Later Sources
Andrew of WyntounAndrew of Wyntoun
Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun was a Scottish poet, a canon and prior of Loch Leven on St Serf's Inch and later, a canon of St...
's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland and John of Fordun
John of Fordun
John of Fordun was a Scottish chronicler. It is generally stated that he was born at Fordoun, Mearns. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th century; and it is probable that he was a chaplain in the St Machar's Cathedral of...
's Chronica Gentis Scotorum
Chronica Gentis Scotorum
The Chronica Gentis Scotorum or Chronicles of the Scottish People was the first substantial work of Scottish history. It was written by the priest John of Fordun, starting in 1363 until his death in 1385....
(1385) are considered major sources on the Scota legends, alongside Thomas Grey's Scalacronica
Scalacronica
Scalacronica is a Scottish chronicle written in Anglo-Norman by the knight Sir Thomas Gray of Heaton in Northumberland, while he was imprisoned by the Scots at Edinburgh after an ambush in 1355...
(1362). Walter Bower
Walter Bower
Walter Bower , Scottish chronicler, was born about 1385 at Haddington, East Lothian.He was abbot of Inchcolm Abbey from 1418, was one of the commissioners for the collection of the ransom of James I, King of Scots, in 1423 and 1424, and in 1433 one of the embassy to Paris on the business of the...
's 15th century Scotichronicon
Scotichronicon
The Scotichronicon is a 15th-century chronicle or legendary account, by the Scottish historian Walter Bower. It is a continuation of historian-priest John of Fordun's earlier work Chronica Gentis Scotorum beginning with the founding of Scotland of mediaeval legend, by Scota with Goídel...
included the first pictures of the legends. Hector Boece
Hector Boece
Hector Boece , known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Aberdeen.-Biography:He was born in Dundee where he attended school...
in his 16th century Historia Gentis Scotorum ("History of the Scottish People") also mentions Scota and the foundation myth.
Grave of Scota
The grave of ScotaScotia's Grave
Scotia's Grave or Scota's grave is an area just south of Tralee in County Kerry beside the Finglas rivulet in an area known as Trughanacmy. It marks what is reputed to be the grave of Scota, a daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh known as Friel The traditional name of the location is Glenn Scoithin,...
reputedly lies in a valley, south of Tralee town, in Co. Kerry Ireland. The area is known as Glenn Scoithin, "Vale of the little flower", more normally known as Foley's Glen. Indicated by a County Council road signpost, a trail from the road leads along a stream to a clearing where a circle of large stones marks the grave site.
Sources
- Lebor Gabála ÉrennLebor Gabála ÉrennLebor Gabála Érenn is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages...
http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/leborgabala.html - Geoffrey KeatingGeoffrey KeatingSeathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was a 17th century Irish Roman Catholic priest, poet and historian. He was born in County Tipperary c. 1569, and died c. 1644...
, Forus Feasa ar Éirinn http://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100054/index.html - Seumas MacManusSeumas MacManusSeumas MacManus was an Irish author, dramatist, and poet known for his ability to reinterpret Irish folktales for modern audiences. Born into a poor farming family in County Donegal he at first became a schoolteacher. He got started as a writer in the 1890s when he began contributing articles and...
, The Story of the Irish Race (February 1970 The Devin-Adair Company New York) - Seumas MacManusSeumas MacManusSeumas MacManus was an Irish author, dramatist, and poet known for his ability to reinterpret Irish folktales for modern audiences. Born into a poor farming family in County Donegal he at first became a schoolteacher. He got started as a writer in the 1890s when he began contributing articles and...
, The Story of the Irish Race (1990 edition printed by Wings Books) - Michael O'Clery, Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (1616-1636 Donegal)
- Aidan Dodson, Monarchs of the Nile (1995)
- Benedict's Fitzpatrick's (1901–1963) "Ireland and the Foundations of Europe"
- James Fitzpatrick Papers