Picto-Scottish Dog Wars - The Manuscript

[Stephanie Malone Thorson <smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk>]

Poster: Stephanie Malone Thorson <smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk>

If I can distract you all from the never-ending ever-changing but 
never-changing-anything cookie discussion ...  :)

Here's the late medieval version of the War Over the Dog for your 
amusement and edification.

A few details about the text: this is extracted from a chronicle titled
_The Quheill of Tyme_, written at the Observantine Franciscan friary in
Jedburgh by a friar named Adam Abell in the 1520s and 1530s. The sole
surviving manuscript of this chronicle (if indeed there was ever more than
one) resides in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh (MS 1746). I
am in the process of editing this chronicle as part of my PhD dissertation
at the University of St Andrews. 

A few more details, this time about the language: Adam Abell wrote in
fairly straightforward Middle Scots, although his prose style is sometimes
a bit strange and he wasn't the best at getting clear which noun he meant
to be the antecedent of any given pronoun. It helps when reading Middle
Scots to remember that the letters u,v, and w were interchangeable in this
period. The letters thorn and yogh were also widely used in Middle Scots;
due to the limitations of the ASCII character set, I have represented
thorn with [th] and yogh with a numeric 3. 

So enough introduction -- here is the story of the theft of the king's dog
as told by Brother Adam Abell, on folios 30v-31r of NLS MS 1746: 

Scottis king 34 wes Crathlynt forsaid. He wes buyrlie of forme, fair of
body. He ordanit nobill men schirraif in ilk prowince to do iustice. He
and 3ong nobilis gaif [th]ame to hunting. Thelarg king of Pichtis, blyth
of [th]e deidis [ie death] of Donald, send ane harrot for [th]e renewing
of [th]are auld band. And eftir it renewit [th]are come to e king 3ong
nobil of e pichtis to hunt with him in [th]e Mounth. Eftir [th]e hunting
[th]ai gat at our nobilis grewhunds. In [th]are passing away [th]at mycht
nocht suffice [th]ame bot [th]ai stall othiris fra the Scottis men. Amang
[th]e laif [th]ai staw ane dog of [th]e kingis, quhit as [th]e snaw, maist
swift, hardy of ony othir, quhilk wes gret plesur to [th]e king. The maist
of [th]e kingis hundis myssit [th]is grewhund and folloit on [th]e
stelaris fand [th]e dog. Bot [th]ai refusit to gife him again. He presit
be strenth to tak him bot [th]e Pichtis straik him with [th]are hunting
speris and slaw him. The Scottis men at wes nocht fer by herand of [th]e
slauchtir [th]ai conwenit agains [th]e Pichtis and sa did [th]ai agains
[th]e Scottis in feild. Thare wes mony slane on ilk side for [th]ai wer
nakit men. Eftir [th]is folloit batell apone batell, forra apone forra,
pray apone pray, and mwrthur apone murthour and principalie be [th]am
[th]at wer about [th]e bordouris. Thelarg [th]e king wes ane auld man and
mwrnit gretelie for [th]is weir. He send ane harrat to King Crathlint
excusand him of [th]is forsaid skaith and askit pece. Bot he gat nane bot
resput for the month. Heir we haif ane document to considder quhat skaith
risis an cowatusnes of wrangus geir. Thir twa pepillis before lewit in
pece and concord 5 hundreth 3ere and now for [th]e steling of ane dog
[th]ai wer slane downe mony on ilk side. Ffor [th]e steling of ane apill
we wer all banist out of [th]e paleis of paradise ... [more moralisation
follows, which I'll spare you]

--Alianora
(who personally prefers her cookies to have chocolate chips in them ... )
*****************************************************************************
Stephanie M. Thorson			*  SCA: Lady Alianora Munro
University of St Andrews		*  
St Andrews, Scotland			*  Clan White Wing
email smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk		*  Tarkhan, Khanate Red Lion
*****************************************************************************

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