HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-01-19, Page 16Page 4—Crossroads—Jan. 19, 1983
o nli:ert Ir
By John Martens
When the Romans, during
the first two centuries of our
Christian era, gradually ad-
vanced northward toward
and across the present-day
, English -Scottish border,
they met in the foothills of
the frontier region a people
they called Picts. They were
probably 'so named because
the warriors of this nation
painted their faces and per-
haps other parts of their
bodies in gaudy colors to in-
still fear in their enemies.
(Picti, painted ones in La-
tin). Against this wild, war-
like people the Roman le-
gions made little headway. It
even became necessary to
build two fortified frontier
walls to keep the Picts from
invading the regions of the
south, where Roman influ-
ence and civilization had
taken root. The southern
wall was known as the Wall
of Hadrian and to the north
of it could be found another
barrier, the so-called
Antonine Wall.
For centuries considerable
tension reigned on the
Roman -Pictish border, the
Romans gradually trying to
expand their dominion to the
north and the Picts constant-
ly attempting to destabilize.
the political and military
situation in the border re-
gion. More than once the
Picts succeeded in breaching
the i man bulwarks. Rac-
ing south on their shaggy
horses, the grim and half -
naked Pict raiders sowed
death and confusion in the
rear of the Roman positions,
but before the disciplined
Roman legionnaires they
were invariably driven back
as often as they ventured
South. The Picts were, how-
ever, never subjugated dur-
ing the whole period of
Roman occupation of the re-
mainder of Britain (c. A.D.
45 to A.D. 400). Their love of
freedom knew no bounds and
never could it be said that
the Picts bowed before the
hated Roman.
ROMANS WITHDRAW
There came a time, c. A.D.
400 or somewhat earlier,
when Rome withdrew from
the Scottish border and the
Picts could-
tireaihe' more
freely.
For considerable time they
lived unmolested as free
men in their mountain fast-
nesses in the north of Scot-
land.
Decades came and dec- _
ades went and the Picts must
have seen with misgiving
how certain settlers from -
Ireland, a whole tribe of
them, known as the Scoti
settled on the southwest
coast of Scotland. It was s
somewhere about A.D. 400 to se
500 when the newcomers ly
established the Kingdom of „
Dalriada in what is now
Argyle. A
The Scoti, coming from
Ireland, spoke an ancient B
Irish dialect. The Picts spoke
a completely different
language. Their speech was
not at all related to any of the
tongues we group together
under the name Indo- ey
European. At that time, as N,
they do today, practically all la
European languages, Irish bo
included, belonged to the ,.
latter group. The Picts'
language,
however, was To
completely alien tongue in
the European milieu, just as D
for instance, the Basque
speech is today. Neither one Ti
can be classified in a more
extensive language group.
dering by land and by sea.
Scotland, known by the
Romans as Caledonia, de-
rived its name from the Irish
Scoti, but it was not long be-
fore a new people entered
Scotland in particular its
Lowlands. These people, the
Anglo-Saxons w and Frisians
from across the North Sea,,
especially the coastal re-
gibns of Holland and Ger-
many, settled in the western
and southern regions of Scot-
land and brought their own
Germanic speech, which in
time largely prevailed over
ancient Gaelic. The Anglo-
Saxons are said to have ar-
rived in Britain about A.D.
450. Perhaps at the same
time or .probably somewhat
later, Anglo-Saxon settle-
ment may have begun in
Scotland's southern reaches.
The warlike and bold ad-
venturers from overseas
possessed a great sense of
fairness and a keen feeling
for justice as evidenced by
their laws and customs. Des-
pite much unruliness among
them their kinds and coun-
cils assiduously fostered the
idea of the rule of law.
FOUNDING NATIONS
From these three founding
peoples the Scottish nation
has basically formed. Infu-
sion of later blood did not
drastically alter the ethnic
make-up.
It is not difficult to find in
the Scottish character the
three qualities marking the
parent nations. And if not in
every Scotsman, in Robert
Burns we discover as over-
riding traits a love of liberty,
an unparalleled poetic spirit
and a strong sense of fair-
ness as soon as we take his
oeuvre in hand and immerse
ourselves in his poems and
songs.
When we learn of his life
and labor as a farmer we feel
we have met a man who is
hankering after a life of in-
dependence and freedom. Of
course, in the first place, his
goal was freedom from want
for his loved ones, for liberty
from the yoke of suffocating
social conditions is every
man's goal. This freedom
Burns never attained. But
the flame of freedom re-
mained -burning in his heart.
Freedom from tyranny of
whatever kind, social,
political or ecclesiastical,
found ever in Burns its fiery
advocate.
The poet often dreamed of
the days of yore when Scot-
land was a free country and
could point to a dynasty of its.
own._____
SONGS OF LiBERTY
Listen to his words on
eeing the ancient palace of
ottish royalty at Stirling
ing in ruins:
Here Stewarts once in glory
reign'd,
nd laws for Scotland's weal
ordain'd;
ut now unroof'd their
palace stands,
Their sceptre fallen to other
hands:"
Nor did contemporary op-
essors find favor in Burns'
es as is evident from the
ords, written by him at a
dy's request in her pocket-
ok.
Grant me, indulgent
Heaven,
that I may live
see the miscreants feel
the pain they give!
eal Freedom's sacred trea-
sures free as air,
Ii Slave and Despot be but
things that were!"
Freedom, liberty, how of -
n the poet used this word in
s songs! And how
aciously he employed his
et's talents to sing of this
ecious liberty. It must
ve seemed to Burns that
retrieving the old Scottish
k poetry and the ac-
oof
mpanying airs, something
the spirit of the past, when
otland was free, was re -
red. For was not a Scots -
n, singing his own na-
n'soballads, 'a free, un-
tered soul, as once the
d Picts had been? And
re his laments and ribald
gs not a legacy of the
rit of the ancient Celtic
ti, who once made their
me in Caledonia?
o we not see in Robert
rips' satire the Anglo -
on mentality and inclina-
n to right wrongs of what -
r kind, not in this case by
expedient of law, but by
ting in a glaring, shock -
light prevailing con-
porary injustices and
ocrisies?
urns never was the
ereal poet. It was not for
to produce unfathom-
e poetry of a somewhat
cure nature. He always
t both feet on "terra
ma". All humanity can
ntify with- themes like
dom and justice.
The newly -arrived Scoti to
shared in the poetic heritage hi
and spirit marking the Irish. gr,
The harp was their favorite
musical instrument. Their pr
r
bards accompanied their ha
heroic lays with the music of b
this...beloved instrument, y
which of old enjoyed. such fol
great popularity among the c
people of the Emerald isle
and the colonists of Sc
Dalriada. sto
ma
LANGUAGE CHANGES ti
Even today the harp is the fel
emblem on the flag of the wil
Republic of Ireland. Slowly we
the Scoti of Ireland spread son
eastward. It seems that the spi
Picts gradually abandoned Sco
their own non -Indo- ho
European speech and D
adopted the language of the 13u
newcomers who undoubtedly Sax
had attained a higher level of do
civilization than the uncal- eve
lured Picts. Gradually the
Pictish died out and the put
language of the Scoti, now ing
known as Gaelic, spread tem
from Scotland's west coast to hyp
the shores of the North Sea. B
Gradually also the Scoti and eth
the Picts became one nation, him
although along the east coast abl
the Picts remained much obs
longer unaffected by the en- kep
croachments of the Scoti, fir
keeping up their lawless life ide
style of raiding and plun- free
A
s 9 Scottis
But Burns sang also of na-
ture and of Scotland's natur-
al beauties which have
eternally changed from
season to season, from long
before the time ot the Picts,
till our own day. And in the
laws of Nature Burns saw
the fate of individuals and.
nations reflected.'
It is 'difficult to resist the
temptation to quote
Burns' famous poem: "To a
Mountain Daisy", in which
he mourns the fate of a little
flower just poking its head
above the earth and uprooted
by the plowshare.
With the poet and human-
ity of all times we weep oyer
the fate of the uncounted
number of those who were
poet a
from
cut off from the face of the
earth before their time.
"Cauld blew the bitter -biting
north
Upon thy early, humble
birth;
Yet cheerfully thou glinted
forth amid the storm
Scarce rear'd above the
parent -earth thy tender
form.
heral
There, in thy scanty mantle
clad,
Thy snawie bosom sunward
spread,
Thou lifts thy unassuming
head. W. •
In humble guise;
But now the share uptears
they bed,
And low. thou lies.
Much as Robert Burns saw
of his �eool
the tragic aspects of human
existence, much more he
life.
valued the positive things in
An innate optimism made
him a firm believer in the
perfectibility of man; a pro-
position the credibility of
which modern pessimists
have greatly come to doubt.
Robert • Burns lived in, a
world and in a time when
education and the imparting
ot knowledge were thought to
-be the key to the solution of
all mankind's problems. If
there is such a solution, it
certainly has not come about
by these expedients.
In the meantime, Burns
remained the poet, who in his
songs spoke for all mankind;
for his contemporaries, but
not less for posterity,
For the Scottish nation, but
equally for us, for Chinese
people and black mothers
and fathers — let us remem-
ber this international poet of
areearly hour. We can do it
with a smile, when we again •
listen to him.
Please turn to Page 5
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