Bruce and Ulster

[Fuathas]

the thought never occured to me that they would not speak Gaelic.

The book is to be taken seriously just as the infamous DaVince code, richt?

[Husky]

Originally posted by Fuathas

The book is to be taken seriously just as the infamous DaVince code, richt?

What book? Barrow ... haha ... Barrow is a serious and well respected scholar of international standing. That particular bookbook has many snippets of high (and some low) quality scholarship, but it's not a biography and it's not very fun.

[aNonnyMoose]

Barrow's book is one of the definitive books about the Bruce - but as Husky said, it's not 'fun' - it's a serious piece of historical research and as far from Tranter as you can get. There's merit in both. Tranter for a good story, usually based on as much historical fact as he could find out but with occasionally dodgy dialoge, and Barrow for the facts as known when he wrote them (60's or 70's as I recall - the book has been out for a good long time) but remember it's history and therefore rather more of a dry rendition of events.

[Laeg]

I read the Tranter books fairly recently and they are a great read. He brings the characters to life for you. Maybe not the academic's choice. But I thought they were good enough.

I have to say in the first of the Bruce trilogy,he has Bruce not being able to understand Gaelic. Then in the second he has him speaking it. So somewhere in between he must have learned it.

Also, he says that Bruce was glad to get out of Ireland. He didn't care much for the place. And the Irish stole his horses. They were more of a hinderence than a help.

But he still tells a good story. And he must have did some historical research.

[Albanactus]

Tranter is fiction. We know very little about the upbringing of Robert Bruce.

Does Tranter have Bruce speaking French initially?

[Laeg]

I can't remember exactly,but yes I do think he had him speaking French.

I think the book first in the trilogy was the 'Path to the Empty Throne' It was after a battle near Edinburgh [I think] which Bruce lost, that he sought refuge in the Highlands.

Tranter has him meeting a local. A holy man who looks after some sort of religious relic. When the man speaks to him in Gaelic. Bruce can't understand him.

[Scottish_Republican]

Bruce's mother at the very least was a Gaidhlig speaker (maybe his father too - who knows), and I don't doubt he would have spoken both Gaidhlig and Norman French from an early age.

Tranter is a good read, but I think he is wrong on this one.