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Tells about a people who came
from Scythia, east of the Baltic Sea in Central Asia, and migrated through what is now northern Greece (Thrace), northern Africa (Egypt), Spain, and Gothland (present-day Germany, the Low Countries, and England) before finally reaching their “Island of Destiny, ” which we now call Ireland. The leader of this migrating people, who called themselves Gaels, was first Goidal Glas, and later Miled. According to legend, while in Spain, Miled mar- ried an Egyptian princess, Scota, who brought with her to Ireland a black marble rock, the Stone of Destiny, upon which were carved runes or hieroglyphics.
Williams then goes on to dismiss this romantic tale and firmly locate the origin of the Gaels/Celts near the Danube River in central Europe, although he claims that the Celts then expanded their domain from that center eastward to the Baltic and southward to Italy and Spain. (Thus, the romantic origin myth and Williams’s account are not actu- ally so far apart geographically.) What Williams seems to want to dismiss, perhaps uncon- sciously, is the notion that the early Scots and Irish settlers may have been something other than “pure” western European, that is, fair haired, blue-eyed, and light skinned. There were to be no Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, or North Africans included among the noble race claiming Ireland and Scotland. This subtle yet pervasive effort at whitewash-
This portrait of George Buchanan (1506-1582) depicts him as having Semitic features, a beard and head covering. Buschanan was a renowned classical scholar and historian. Courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
ing Scottish history has colored (or more properly, “uncolored, ” as it were) a more valid and inclusive accounting of its origins. For our present purposes, however, we do not care whether Queen Scota and her Stone of Destiny from Egypt and Spain really existed. That is not the origin story that we will be putting forward.
Williams’s discussion of Scottish history continues through the gradual giving way Of pagan Druidic ritual to the arrival of St. Columba (560 C.E.? ) and the establishment of the Celtic Church. Several points need to be clarified here, since we will return to them in the reviews of other historians’ work. First, the Scottish (and Irish) churches at this time were not directed by, or even in contact with, the Catholic pontiff in Rome. They were not Roman Catholic. They may not even have been fully Christian, but syncretis- tic, like many early medieval religion s. That modern observers look back after a lapse of Years and identify the early Scottish church as “Roman Catholic” during the era following 500 C.E. is false, tendentious, and very misleading. Indeed, except for the exis- tence of Christian artifacts such as the Book of Kells and carved Celtic crosses, there is little evidence to suggest a strong early Christian presence in Scotland. As we will inves- tigate later, the so-called Scottish saints (e.g., St. Machar of Aberdeen) are not even proven to be Christian per se. Contemporaries describe them as unspecified “holy men” or “religious teachers.” No written Accounts of their teachings or reli- gious doctrines survive. It was only centuries later that they were labeled as Christian.
According to Williams, “the Celtic Church of St. Columba. .. developed a number of independ- ent characteristics of its own. It boasted no central authority and its leaders were the individual ‘saints’ and abbots who founded monastic communities and sanc- tuaries after the pattern of Iona. Many clergy retained a secular mode of life and fathered sons who succeeded them.... The Celtic |
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