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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