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.
Middle Ages
Early 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.J. R. Maddicott and D. M. Palliser, eds, The Medieval State: essays presented to James Campbell (London: Continuum, 2000), , p. 48. Very few works of Gaelic poetry survive from the early medieval period, and most of these are in Irish manuscripts.J. T. Koch, Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2006), , p. 1576. 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.J. T. Koch, Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2006), , p. 999. A series of anecdotes contained in the tenth century Betha 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.B. Yorke, The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c.600-800 (Pearson Education, 2006), , p. 54. 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.R. A. Houston, Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity: Illiteracy and Society in Scotland and Northern England, 1600–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), , p. 76.
High Middle Ages At least from the accession of David I (r. 1124–53), as part of a Davidian Revolution that introduced French culture and political systems, Gaelic ceased to be the main language of the royal court and was probably replaced by French. After this "de-gallicisation" of the Scottish court, a less highly regarded order of bards took over the functions of the filidh, and they would continue to act in a similar role in the Highlands and Islands into the eighteenth century. They often trained in bardic schools. A few of these, like the one run by the MacMhuirich dynasty, who were bards to the Lord of the Isles,K. M. Brown, Noble Society in Scotland: Wealth, Family and Culture from the Reformation to the Revolutions (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), , p. 220. continued until they were suppressed from the seventeenth century. Members of bardic schools were trained in the strict metres, rooted in Irish bardic poetry. Much of their work was never written down, and what survives was only recorded from the sixteenth century.R. Crawford, Scotland's Books: A History of Scottish Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), . It is possible that more Middle Irish literature was written in Medieval Scotland than is often thought, but has not survived because the Gaelic literary establishment of eastern Scotland died out before the fourteenth century. Thomas Owen Clancy has argued that the Lebor Bretnach, the so-called "Irish Nennius", was written in Scotland, and probably at the monastery in Abernethy, but this text survives only from manuscripts preserved in Ireland.T. O. Clancy, "Scotland, the 'Nennian' recension of the Historia Brittonum, and the Lebor Bretnach", in S. Taylor, ed., Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in Scotland, 500–1297 (Dublin/Portland, 2000), , pp. 87–107. Other literary works that have survived include that of the prolific poet Gille Brighde Albanach. His Heading for Damietta (c. 1218) dealt with his experiences of the Fifth Crusade.T. O. Clancy, ed., The Triumph Tree: Scotland's Earliest Poetry, 550–1350 (Edinburgh, 1998). pp. 247–283.
Renaissance and Reformation In the late Middle Ages, Middle Scots, often simply called English, became the dominant language of the country. It was derived largely from Old English, with the addition of elements from Gaelic and Norman French. Although resembling the language spoken in northern England, it became a distinct dialect from the late fourteenth century onwards.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 60–7. As the ruling elite gradually abandoned Norman French, they began to adopt Middle Scots, and by the fifteenth century it was the language of government, with acts of parliament, council records and treasurer's accounts almost all using it from the reign of James I (1406–37) onwards. As a result, Gaelic, once dominant north of the Tay, began a steady decline. Lowland writers began to treat Gaelic as a second class, rustic and even amusing language, helping to frame attitudes towards the highlands and to create a cultural gulf with the lowlands. The major corpus of Medieval Scottish Gaelic poetry, The Book of the Dean of Lismore was compiled by the brothers James and Donald MacGregor in Glenlyon during the early decades of the sixteenth century. Beside Scottish Gaelic verse it contains a large number of poems composed in Ireland as well as verse and prose in Scots and Latin. The subject matter includes love poetry, heroic ballads and philosophical pieces. It also is notable for containing poetry by at least four women.J. T. Koch and A. Minard, The Celts: History, Life, and Culture (ABC-CLIO, 2012), , pp. 262–3. These include Aithbhreac Inghean Coirceadal (f. 1460), who after being widowed composed a lament addressed to the rosary of her late husband, a Tacksman of Clan MacNeil and the constable of Castle Sween.J. T. Koch and A. Minard, The Celts: History, Life, and Culture (ABC-CLIO, 2012), , pp. 33–4.
The same book also includes three poems by Iseabail Ní Mheic Cailéin, the daughter of Colin Campbell, Earl of Argyll and Chief of Clan Campbell (died 1493). Iseabail married William Drummond, Chief of Clan Drummond. She became the grandmother of David Drummond, 2nd Lord Drummond of Cargill and is the ancestor of all subsequent Earls of Perth.
By far the most famous of Iseabail's three poems is Éistibh, a Luchd an Tighe-se, which Thomas Owen Clancy has described as, "a fairly obscene boast to the court circle on the size and potency of her household priest's penis. The authenticity of the attribution to Iseabail has been questioned, but without substantial grounds."
In a 2017 article about Scottish Gaelic erotic literature, Peter Mackay suggested that Iseabail may have been following the established tradition in Scottish Renaissance literature of exposing, mocking, and criticizing the sexual sins of priests and consecrated religious. Mackay conceded, however, that Iseabail's poem could just as easily be an unashamed celebration of female promiscuity and lust.Willies, ghillies and horny Highlanders: Scottish Gaelic writing has a filthy past by Peter Mackay, University of St. Andrews, The Conversation, October 24, 2017.
The poet Walter Kennedy (d. 1518?), who was one of the Makars at the court of James IV, was a native speaker of Galwegian Gaelic and was the younger brother of a Tacksman of Clan Kennedy, based in Galloway, South Ayrshire.
William Dunbar in The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie characterises Kennedy as one "of the Irishry" who speaks a barbarous Highland dialect, as physically hideous and withered like a sort of living memento mori, as poor and hungry, and of committing bestiality with mares. Kennedy, by contrast, tells Dunbar to go over to England if he wants to speak English, suggests that Dunbar was descended from Beelzebub, is a dwarf, and has no control of his bowel movements (to the point of almost sinking a ship on which he was travelling).
While Kennedy may well have also written poems in his native Galwegian Gaelic, his poetry in Middle Scots is all that now survives.
During the Scottish Reformation, the Book of Common Order was translated into Gaelic by Séon Caramel, Bishop of the Isles, and released via the printing press in 1567. This is considered the first printed book in Scottish Gaelic though the language heavily resembles Classical Irish.
Seventeenth-century By the early modern era Gaelic had been in geographical decline for three centuries and had begun to be a minority language, which was increasingly confined to the Highlands and Islands.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470-1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 60-1. The traditions and educational roots of Classical Gaelic rooted in Irish bardic poetry survived much longer in Scotland than in Ireland, with the last fully competent member of the MacMhuirich dynasty, who were hereditary poets to the Lords of the Isles and then the Captains of Clanranald, still working in the early eighteenth century.
In Gaelic Ireland, Irish language bards were trained at special bardic schools based on the principle of memorization. Bards were expected, even after the bardic school system was replaced by hedge schools, to compose their verses lying down and in the dark, "to avoid the distraction which light and the variety of objects represented commonly occasions" and to concentrate solely, "upon the subject at hand and the theme given".Daniel Corkery (1926), The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth-Century, Gill and Macmillan. Page 74. In the Scottish Highlands and Islands, where Irish-inspired bardic schools survived until well into the 18th-century, Martin Martin described Gaelic poetry composition practices as almost identical, "They shut their doors and windows for a day's time, and upon their backs with a stone upon their belly, and [their] Plaids about their heads, and their eyes being cover'd they pump their brains for rhetorical encomium or panegyric; and indeed they furnish such a style from this dark cell as is understood by very few; and indeed if they purchase a couple of horses as the reward of their meditation, they think they have done a great matter."Daniel Corkery (1926), The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth-Century, Gill and Macmillan. Page 75.