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Concept
Scottish Gaelic literature
Summary
Scottish Gaelic literature refers to literary works composed in the Scottish Gaelic language, which is, like Irish and Manx, a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Gaelic literature was also composed in Gàidhealtachd communities throughout the global Scottish diaspora where the language has been and is still spoken.
Scottish literature in the Middle Ages
In early Middle Ages what is now Scotland was culturally and politically divided. In the West were the Gaels of Dál Riata, who had close links with the clan system of Gaelic Ireland, from whence they had migrated and brought with them the name of Scots. Very few works of Gaelic poetry survive from the early Medieval period, and most of these are in Irish manuscripts. There are works of Christian poetry that can be identified as Scottish, including the Elegy for St Columba by Dallán Forgaill (c. 597) and "In Praise of St Columba" by Beccan mac Luigdech of Rùm, c. 677. A series of anecdotes contained in the tenth century Betba Adamnáin (Life of St. Adomnán) are probably derived from works composed on Iona. Outside of these, there are works of Irish bardic poetry in praise of the Pictish kings preserved within Irish annals, that were almost certainly composed in Scotland.
Beginning in the later eighth century, Viking raids and invasions may have forced a merger of the Gaelic and Pictish crowns. The Kingdom of Alba emerged, which would eventually become known as the Kingdom of Scotland, and traced its origin to Cínaed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin) in the 840s through the House of Alpin. The Kingdom of Alba was overwhelmingly an oral society dominated by Gaelic culture. Fuller sources for Ireland of the same period suggest that there would have been filidh, who acted as poets, musicians and historians, often attached to the court of a lord or king, and passed on their knowledge and culture in Gaelic to the next generation.
At least from the accession of David I (r.
Official source
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