In medieval Irish and Scottish legend, Scota is the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and ancestor of the Gaels. [1] She is said to be the origin of their Latin name Scoti , but historians say she (and her alleged ancestors and spouses) was purely mythological and was created to explain the name and to fit the Gaels into a historical narrative. [1] [2]
Edward J. Cowan traced the first mention of Scota in literature to the 12th century. [3] Scota appears in the Irish chronicle Book of Leinster , in a redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn . [4] The 9th-century Historia Brittonum contains the earliest surviving version of the Lebor Gabala Erenn story (centred on an unnamed Goídel Glas), but this earliest version does not mention Scota even indirectly. [5]
The Lebor Gabála Érenn states that Scota was the mother of Goidel Glas, the eponymous ancestor of the Gaels. This Scota was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh named Cingris, a name found only in Irish legend and nowhere in Egyptian records or those of its neighbours. [6] She marries Goidel's Father Niul, son of Fénius Farsaid (identified as a son of Gomer) a Babylonian who traveled to Scythia after the collapse of the Tower of Babel. As with Cingris, Gomer appears nowhere in Babylonian records, and is not a Babylonian name.[ citation needed ] Niul son of Fénius returns to Babylon as part of an effort to study the confusion of languages. He is a scholar of languages and is invited by Pharaoh Cingris to Egypt to take Scota's hand in marriage. Scota and Niul's son, Goídel, who was saved by a prayer from Moses after being bitten by a snake, is said to have created the Gaelic language by combining the best features of the 72 languages then in existence. In Fordun's early Scottish version, Gaythelos, as he calls Goídel Glas, is the son of "a certain king of the countries of Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, by name", who was exiled to Egypt and took service with the Pharaoh, marrying Pharaoh's daughter Scota. The Lebor Gabála Érenn describes him as a Scythian. Again, this personage appears nowhere in Greek records.[ citation needed ]
Other twelfth-century sources state that Scota was the wife of Geytholos (Goídel Glas), rather than his mother, and was the founder of the Scots and Gaels after they were exiled from Egypt. [7]
Other manuscripts of the Lebor Gabála Érenn contain a legend of a Scotia who was the wife of Goidel's descendant Míl Espáine of ancient Iberia. This Scotia's Grave is a famous landmark in Munster. [8]
The Gaels, known in Gaelic as Goídel and in Latin as Scoti, are said to be named after Goidel and Scota. However, historians say they were characters created to explain the names and to fit the Gaels into a historical narrative. [2] [1]
Baldred Bisset is credited with being the first to connect the Stone of Scone with the Scota foundation legends in his 1301 work Processus, putting forward an argument that Scotland, not Ireland, was where the original Scota homeland lay. [9]
Bisset wanted to legitimize a Scottish (as opposed to English) accession to the throne when Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286. At his coronation in 1249, Alexander himself heard his royal genealogy recited generations back to Scota. Bisset attempted to legitimize a Scottish accession by highlighting Scota's importance as the transporter of the Stone of Scone from Ancient Egypt, during the Exodus of Moses, to Scotland. In 1296, the Stone was captured by Edward I of England and taken to Westminster Abbey. In 1323, Robert the Bruce used Bisset's legend connecting Scota to the Stone in an attempt to return it to Scone Abbey in Scotland. [10]
The 15th-century English chronicler John Hardyng later attempted to debunk Bisset's claims. [11]
Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland and John of Fordun's Chronica Gentis Scotorum (1385) are sources of the Scota legends, alongside Thomas Grey's Scalacronica (1362). Hector Boece's 16th-century Historia Gentis Scotorum ("History of the Scottish People") also mentions the Scota foundation myth.
Walter Bower's 15th-century Scotichronicon included the first illustrations of the legends. The 16th-century writer Hector Boece included the story of Scota in his Historia Gentis Scotorum, and William Stewart made a verse translation in the Scots language for the Scottish royal court. [12]
"Scota's Grave" [13] or "Scotia's Grave" is a rock feature in Gleann Scoithín or 'Glenscoheen', south of Tralee in County Kerry, Ireland. According to the National Monuments Service, "Following a site inspection in 1999 it was concluded that the evidence was not sufficient to warrant accepting this as an archaeological monument". [14]
Scotia is a Latin placename derived from Scoti, a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century. The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" around 500 A.D. From the 9th century on, its meaning gradually shifted, so that it came to mean only the part of Britain lying north of the Firth of Forth: the Kingdom of Scotland. By the later Middle Ages it had become the fixed Latin term for what in English is called Scotland.
In medieval Irish myth, the Fir Bolg are the fourth group of people to settle in Ireland. They are descended from the Muintir Nemid, an earlier group who abandoned Ireland and went to different parts of Europe. Those who went to Greece became the Fir Bolg and eventually return to Ireland, after it had been uninhabited for many years. After ruling it for some time and dividing the island into provinces, they are overthrown by the invading Tuatha Dé Danann.
In Irish origin myths, Míl Espáine or Míl Espáne is the mythical ancestor of the final inhabitants of Ireland, the "sons of Míl" or Milesians, who represent the vast majority of the Irish Gaels. His father was Bile, son of Breogan. Modern historians believe he is a creation of medieval Irish Christian writers.
The Milesians or sons of Míl are the final race to settle in Ireland, according to In the Lebor Gabála Érenn, a medieval Irish Christian pseudo-history. The Milesians represent the Irish people. The Milesians are Gaels who sail to Ireland from Iberia (Hispania) after spending hundreds of years travelling the earth. When they land in Ireland they contend with the Tuatha Dé Danann, who represent the Irish pantheon of gods. The two groups agree to divide Ireland between them: the Milesians take the world above, while the Tuath Dé take the world below.
Lebor Gabála Érenn is a collection of poems and prose narratives in the Irish language intended to be a history of Ireland and the Irish from the creation of the world to the Middle Ages. There are a number of versions, the earliest of which was compiled by an anonymous writer in the 11th century. It synthesised narratives that had been developing over the foregoing centuries. The Lebor Gabála tells of Ireland being settled six times by six groups of people: the people of Cessair, the people of Partholón, the people of Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians. The first four groups are wiped out or forced to abandon the island; the fifth group represents Ireland's pagan gods, while the final group represents the Irish people.
Albanactus, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, was the founding king of Albania or Albany. He is in effect Geoffrey's eponym for Scotland. His territory was that north of the Humber estuary. This myth was then taken up by Giraldus Cambrensis.
The Fál or Lia Fáil is a stone at the Inauguration Mound on the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland, which served as the coronation stone for the King of Tara and hence High King of Ireland. It is also known as the Stone of Destiny or Speaking Stone. According to legend, all of the kings of Ireland were crowned on the stone up to Muirchertach mac Ercae, c. 500 AD.
Breogán is a character in the Lebor Gabála Érenn, a medieval Christian history of Ireland and the Irish. He is supposedly the son of Brath, and is described as an ancestor of the Gaels. The Lebor Gabála purports to be an account of how the Gaels descend from Adam through the sons of Noah and how they came to Ireland.
The Mythological Cycle is a conventional grouping within Irish mythology. It consists of tales and poems about the god-like Tuatha Dé Danann, who are based on Ireland's pagan deities, and other mythical races such as the Fomorians and Fir Bolg. It is one of the four main story 'cycles' of early Irish myth and legend, along with the Ulster Cycle, the Fianna Cycle and the Cycles of the Kings. The name "Mythological Cycle" seems to have gained currency with Arbois de Jubainville c. 1881–1883. James MacKillop says the term is now "somewhat awkward", and John T. Koch notes it is "potentially misleading, in that the narratives in question represent only a small part of extant Irish mythology". He prefers T Ó Cathasaigh's name, Cycle of the Gods. Important works in the cycle are the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Cath Maige Tuired, the Aided Chlainne Lir and Tochmarc Étaíne.
Fénius Farsaid is a legendary king of Scythia who appears in different versions of Irish mythology. He was the son of Boath, a son of Magog. Other sources describe his lineage from the line of Gomer. According to some traditions, he invented the Ogham alphabet and the Gaelic language.
The origins of the Kingdom of Alba pertain to the origins of the Kingdom of Alba, or the Gaelic Kingdom of Scotland, either as a mythological event or a historical process, during the Early Middle Ages.
In medieval Irish and Scottish legend, Goídel Glas is the creator of the Goidelic languages and eponymous ancestor of the Gaels. The tradition can be traced to the 11th-century Lebor Gabála Érenn. A Scottish variant is recorded by John of Fordun.
Lámfhind, son of Agnoman, was, according to medieval Irish historical traditions, a mythical ancestor of the Milesians, who are said to have settled Ireland from the Iberian Peninsula and from whom the lineages of most of the traditional High Kings were traced.
The Scotichronicon is a 15th-century chronicle 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 Ireland and thereby Scotland by Scota with Goídel Glas.
The Gaels are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
The Chronica Gentis Scotorum or Chronicles of the Scottish People was the first substantial work of Scottish history. It was written by John of Fordun, a priest of the diocese of St. Andrews and chaplain of the church of Aberdeen. Before his death, he had finished the first five books down to the reign of David I (1124–53) and had arranged his remaining materials, the last of which was dated 1385.
The River Malvam, also known as the Malva or Malua is a river in ancient North Africa mentioned in the Historia Brittonum and Historia Regum Britanniae. In these accounts, it lies west of the Mountains of Azaria in Mauretania. Academics have identified it as the present-day Moulouya River.
Baath or Baath mac Magog is a figure in Irish legendary history. He was a son of Magog, son of Japheth, the progenitor of the Scythians, son of Noah, and the father of Fénius Farsaid, according to a version "M" of Lebor Gabála Érenn, also known as the Great Book of Lecan. He is described as being from Scythia, and the Goths, or the Gaedil. According to the same version of the story, he had four brothers, Ibath, Barachan, Emoth, and Aithechta. But the story further states that "...Feinius Farrsaid was son of Baath, son of Ibath, son of Gomer, and son of Iafeth (Japheth)".
Nel also known as Nuil or Niul was a mythical figure from the Lebor Gabála Érenn and was an ancestor of the people of Ireland. He was the son of Fénius Farsaid, who was a legendary king of Scythia, who left Babylon after the destruction of Babel. Nel returned to Babylon as part of an effort to study the confusion of languages. He was a scholar of languages and was invited by Pharaoh Cingris to Egypt to take his daughter Scota’s hand in marriage. Also Nel was the father of Goídel Glas who was credited with creating the Goidelic languages.
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