Scottish legends, myths and fairy tales

[MAGUS]

Very true what you say about Wallace. There are lots of stories which can be found on these links SCOTLANDS BELIEVE IT OR NOT

William Wallace Legendary Stories

[TheLastLazyGun]

Originally Posted by Puddle_Splasher

One of the better myths is how to chase a Haggis and catch it for eating.

Haggis is, of course, English, not Scottish.

And 33% of American visitors to Scotland genuinely do think it's an animal.

[tig]

and 76.8% of stats are made up on the spot

[TheLastLazyGun]

Originally Posted by tig

and 76.8% of stats are made up on the spot

Haggis - like the "Scottish" kilt - is an English innovation.

The first known written recipe for a dish of the name (as 'hagese'), made with offal and herbs, is in the verse cookbook "Liber Cure Cocorum" dating from around 1430 in Lancashire (the Þ is an old English letter called "thorn" which was pronouced as the "th" in the word "the" and the "th" in the word "think").

For hagese'.
Þe hert of schepe, þe nere þou take,
Þo bowel noght þou shalle forsake,
On þe turbilen made, and boyled wele,
Hacke alle togeder with gode persole,

[Babz]

Originally Posted by TheLastLazyGun

Haggis - like the "Scottish" kilt - is an English innovation.

The first known written recipe for a dish of the name (as 'hagese'), made with offal and herbs, is in the verse cookbook "Liber Cure Cocorum" dating from around 1430 in Lancashire (the Þ is an old English letter called "thorn" which was pronouced as the "th" in the word "the" and the "th" in the word "think").

For hagese'.
Þe hert of schepe, þe nere þou take,
Þo bowel noght þou shalle forsake,
On þe turbilen made, and boyled wele,
Hacke alle togeder with gode persole,

Also from the same Wikipedia page !

Food writer Alan Davidson suggests that the people of Ancient Romans were the
first known to have made products of the haggis type.[5] Even earlier, a kind
of primitive haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, in book 20, (towards the
end of the eighth century BC) when Odysseus is compared to "a man before a
great blazing fire turning swiftly this way and that a stomach full of fat and
blood, very eager to have it roasted quickly." Haggis was "born of necessity, as
a way to utilize the least expensive cuts of meat and the innards as well"[6]

Clarissa Dickson Wright claims that it "came to Scotland in a longship [ie. from
Scandinavia] even before Scotland was a single nation."[7] Dickson-Wright further
cites etymologist Walter William Skeat as further suggestion of possible Scandinavian
origins: Skeat claimed that the hag– element of the word is derived from the Old
Norse haggw or the Old Icelandic hoggva[8] (höggva in modern Icelandic[9]), meaning
'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up contents of the dish.

One theory claims that the name "haggis" is derived from Norman French. Norman French
was more guttural than modern French so that the "ch" of "hachis", i.e.
"chopped", was pronounced as the "ch" in "loch", giving "haggis".

This conjecture, however, is discredited by the Oxford English Dictionary.[10]

[ScotSites]

It doesn't really matter where haggis originally came from, the fact is it is now believed to be extinct everywhere except Scotland... and even here numbers are dangerously low. That said, if anyone wants to go on a haggis-spotting tour let me know and, for a reasonable fee I can sort it out; I will say in advance tho that there is no actual guarantee you will see a real, live haggis!

As for myths, etc another good one is that of Bruce and the Spider. I won't retell the story here (its worth looking up) but will say that with the numer of caves around Scotland (and Ireland) connected to the king, chances are he might have maybe, possibly, potentially been in on at almost exactly the same time as a spider had maybe been there that week (ie a Tuesday!)

[Scottish_Republican]

Try 1430 BC...

The ancient Greeks had haggis, and the ancient Egyptians wore kilts. Tartan has been found from thousands of years ago. There weren't any English back then. Or Scots really.

The "kilts are English" thing is yet another Trevor-Roper and friends myth. A type of cultural hegemony, to keep us in our place. Culturally dominant nations which influence our culture, such as England and America are full of invented tradition, but you hardly ever hear about that. The current English Coronation Ceremony is a modern invention, 20th century in origin. Even the modern style kilt predates jeans, t-shirts, the pinstripe suit and all kinds of other items we wear on a regular basis by at least 150 years. Few American traditions go back particularly far. Some were invented within my grandfather's time.