Keltic researches; studies in the history and - Electric Scotland

266 Pages·2010·18.29 MB·English

KeZcic ReseocRches
*
STUDIES
IN THE HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION
OF THE ANCIENT GOIDELIC
LANGUAGE AND PEOPLES
BY
EDWARD WILLIAMS BYRON
NICHOLSON, M.A.
bodley's librarian in the- university of oxford
FELLOW OF THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE CALEDONIAN MEDICAL SOCIETY
LONDON: HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.C.
NEW YORK: 91 & 93 Fifth Avenue
1904
REESE
To THE MEMORY OF HENRY BrADSHAW
late Librarian of the University of Cambridge
whose discovery of the book of deer
and whose palaeographical and critical genius
have permanently enriched keltic studies
OXFORD HORACE HART
:
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
PREFACE
The history of ancient and early mediaeval times requires
to a far greater extent than more recent history the aid of
various other sciences, not the least of which is the science
of language. And, although the first object of these Studies
was to demonstrate to specialists various unrecognized or
imperfectly recognized linguistic facts,the importance ofthose
facts in themselves is much less than that of their historical
consequences.
The main historical result of this book is the settlement of
1the Pictish question', or rather of the two Pictish questions.
The first of these is ' What kind of language did the Picts
speak?*. The second is 'Were the Picts conquered by the
Scots?'.
The first has been settled by linguistic and palaeographical
methods only : it has been shown that Pictish was a language
virtually identical with Irish, differing from that far less than
the dialects of some English counties differ from each other.
The second has been settled, with very little help from
language, by historical and textual methods : it has been
made abundantly clear, I think, to any person of impartial
and critical mind that the supposed conquest of the Picts by
the Scots is an absurd myth. —
The Highlander, as we c—all him the Albanach as he calls
himself in his own Gaelic is, indeed, in the vast majority
of cases simply the modern Pict, and his language modern
Pictish. To suppose that the great free people from which
he is descended were ever conquered by a body of Irish
colonists, and that the language he speaks is merely an Irish
colonial dialect, are delusions which,I hope, no one will regret
to see finally dispelled.
The next most important results of these Studies are the
demonstration ofthe great prominence ofthe Belgic element
in the population of the British isles, and the evidence that
so many of the tribes known to us as inhabiting England and
a %
>21 ft
iv Preface
Wales in Roman times spoke not Old Welsh, as has hitherto
been supposed, but Old Irish. Particularly notable for wide
dispersion and maritime venture are the Menapians, and it is
a pleasure to me to have traced to them the origin of the
Manx nation and language.
As regards Continental history, the great Goidelic element
is now shown to have extended with more or less continuity
from the Danube to the mouth of the Loire, and from the
Tagus and the Po to the mouth of the Rhine.
And here let me add a very necessary caution. Names
which have not been purposelyinvented to describe race must
never be taken as proof of race, but only as proof of com-
munity of language or community of political organization.
We call a man who speaks English, lives in England, and
bears an obviously English name (such as Freeman 1 or
Newton) an Englishman. Yet from the statistics of 'relative
nigrescence2' there is good ground to believe that Lancashire,
West
Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire,
Leicestershire, Rutland, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset,
andpart of Sussex, are as Keltic as Perthshire and North
Munster ; that Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Mon-
mouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset, Northamp—ton-
shire, Huntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire are more so and
equal to North Wales and Leinster while Buckinghamshire
;
and Hertfordshire exceed even this degree and are on a level
with South Wales and Ulster. Cornwall, of course, is more
Keltic than any other English county, and as much so as
Argyll, Invernessshire, or Connaught.
What is sauce for the ' Saxon ' is sauce for the Kelt \
The Keltic-speaking peoples of antiquity may have incor-
porated other Aryan or non-Aryan tribes, and the Keltic
language of any given region may have—been introduced by
quite a small minority of conquerors like the English
language in Ireland. Even as between the Irishman and the
Welshman, the language-test is not a race-test: both in North
1 No onewasmoreintensely'English'inhissympathiesthanthegreathistorian
ofthatname, and probably no one would havemore strenuouslyresisted the sug-
gestion that he might be of Welsh descent: yet I have met his close physical
counterpartin aWelshfarmer (named Evans)livingwithin a fewmiles ofPwllheli.
9 SeeW. Z. Ripley'smap {Races of Europe, 318) and his accompanying text,
particularlythe top ofp. 323.