The
Beginnings of Literacy in Scotland:
Where
to start?
The
study of literacy in early medieval Europe has generally focused on the
surviving manuscript culture, evidenced by such works as Gregory of
Tours' History of the Franks and
Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, and
early writings such as diplomas, charters and letters, like St Patrick's letter
to Coroticos of Clyde Rock. But what happens when there are no surviving
manuscripts to study? Early medieval Scotland presents such a problem. Here,
the historian is faced with a corpus of inscribed monuments and objects in a
variety of scripts and languages, mainly dating from the fifth century onwards
and it is only from the late ninth century that one possible manuscript of
Scottish provenance survives. Work to date has focused on the
epigraphic, paleographical, art-historical and linguistic study of these
inscriptions. The question now is what do these inscribed objects tell us of
the beginnings of literacy in early medieval Scotland?
For the evidence for literacy in early
medieval Scotland the best or perhaps only place to start is at the end. The
study of literacy in early medieval Europe has mainly focused on the evidence
from manuscripts[1]. There
are a few manuscripts from before 1000 AD in Ireland and Wales, such as the
sixth or seventh century Cathach of St Columba[2],
and many more survive in England and on the Continent. However, compared to the
rest of Britain and Ireland, Scotland is notably lacking in early manuscripts.
There are no Pictish or North British manuscripts that survive at all. From the
Gaelic west there is a better survival rate. For example, the Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Gen.1
preserved at St Gall is the oldest surviving copy of Adomnán of
Iona's Life of Columba. It was copied on Iona during or shortly
following Adomnán's lifetime in the late seventh or early eighth century and
was taken to the continent. There is, however, debate concerning whether the
evidence from Iona and the Gaelic kingdom of Dal Riada would be better included
in the Irish milieu.
Thus, arguably one of the earliest
surviving manuscripts from Scotland is the Book of Deer[3]
from Old Deer in Aberdeenshire. This is an illuminated Gospel Book which has
generally been dated to the end of the ninth century and the beginning decades
of the tenth, with later additions from the eleventh century. The Latin Gospel
text was written in a hand that was current during the period c. 850-1000.
Although the Book of Deer is closest in character to a number of
Irish manuscripts, scholars have tended to agree on a Scottish origin. The
eleventh century additions include a brieve of King
David I in favour of the 'clerics of Deer', which at least suggests the
manuscript was at Old Deer during this time. It belongs
to a category of ‘Irish pocket Gospel Books’ which were produced for private
use rather than for church services.
On the surface the Book of Deer would
suggest that by c.900 there were people at Old Deer with the necessary skills,
facilities and resources to produce this manuscript. Someone knew how to
prepare vellum and ink. There was at least one scribe who could copy Latin text
in a well-known contemporary script. The same scribe or possibly a separate
artist had the skill to illuminate the Gospel pages. There was also somebody
who commissioned its production, either for themselves or another individual.
Of these various individuals, we would suspect the scribe and hopefully the
owner of the book were literate to a certain extent. The scribe would be able
to both read and write in Latin; the owner at least able to read Latin. What
does this tell us about the beginnings of literacy in early medieval Scotland?
To be honest, apart from demonstrating the ability to produce manuscripts at
Old Deer and the literate skills of a scribe around 900 AD, not much can be
gained from this.
Why are there no surviving manuscripts
from before the late ninth/early tenth century? One answer would be that there
were no manuscripts in the first place. Another may be that Pictish and
northern British documents were unlikely to have continued to be preserved and copied
in the new ‘Scottish’ kingdom of Alba under the MacAlpín dynasty and so are
lost to history[4].
In either case, the result would be the same. For Scotland then the direct study
of manuscripts is not suitable in the search for the evidence for the
beginnings of literacy or the means to assess its use and impact except for
later periods. With the surviving Book of Deer we only have the final results
of a tradition literacy which must have been introduced much earlier.
We know that there must have been
literate people in Scotland in the early medieval period. Christianity was
reasonably well established in many regions by the seventh century. Although no
liturgical or biblical texts survive, it is implausible that they did not exist
as the Church could not function without them. Literacy in Scotland may not
have been dependant on Christianity, but Christianity as a religion of the book
was certainly dependant on literacy. For the church to function efficiently a
considerable amount of writing was required; Psalters, Gospel Books, the
Letters of Paul and other books of the Bible were just the start. Jane
Stevenson in her work on the St Patrick and Book of Armagh has concisely stated
that if Patrick founded a Christian church among the Irish on the fifth century
he would also have had to found a school of Latin literacy and biblical study if
the church was to survive after his death[5].
We know of no evidence to suggest that the church in Pictland and among the
Britons was culturally or intellectually deviant to this. In his eighth century
Historia Ecclesiastica Bede states
that the four peoples of Britain were united in their use of Latin[6].
All four peoples to whom he referred lived in what is now Scotland: the
Britons, Picts, Scots and Angles. Bede even names a literate Pict: king Nechtan
mac Der-Ilei had assiduously studied ecclesiastical writings and computus before his consultation with
the abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow[7].
There are depictions of figures holding or reading books and carrying book
satchels on Pictish sculpture, such as the cross-slab at Nigg, St Vigeans 11
and 17, Aberlemno 3 and the cross-slab on Papil, Shetland. It is believed that
the monuments of Scotland both inscribed and not could only have been produced
from a background familiar with manuscripts and art-historian point to the
layout on the panels of monuments reflecting a ‘manuscript derived aesthetic’[8].
What then can be said about the
beginnings of literacy in Scotland? What was the impact of literacy on the
population? How was literacy used in society? How significant was the link with
Christianity and Romanitas? What did it
actually mean to be literate in this period? Who learnt to read and write? How
did they do so and why? My research will hopefully answer these questions and
more through a series of case studies investigated such topics as are
highlighted below. Most work to date has been focused on the study of
inscriptions, both on monuments of various functions and smaller artefacts.
This has mainly concerned the content of the inscriptions and centred on epigraphical,
paleographical, art-historical and linguistic studies. Little work has been
concerned with impact of the spread and use of literacy that these inscriptions
and other evidence could shed light on. It is hoped that new research will
remedy this.
The first thing to understand is that what
is now modern day Scotland was by no means a backwater in the early medieval
period. The same influences that were at work in the rest of Britain and Europe
were present in Pictland, the British kingdoms of the north and the lands of
the incoming Angles. There were Christians in the south of what is now Scotland
from the fourth and fifth centuries. A number of them left behind Latin
inscriptions on upright pillars from the Solway to the Forth. The most famous
of which is the ‘Latinus’ stone from Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway. These
early inscribed Christian, or otherwise, monuments of Scotland form the
northerly extension of a cultural milieu which covered all the former western lands
of the Roman Empire and later ranged from Ireland in the west and to Byzantium
in the east. The work of Mark Handley has shown that the early inscriptions of
Scotland share many features with the Roman inscriptions of Britain and should
be seen as part of a larger pattern of epigraphic practice also indicated in
Spain, Italy, France and North Africa during late antiquity[9].
There was a decline in inscriptions in Britain as elsewhere in the third
century in the Roman Empire, followed by a rise in Christian inscriptions in
the late fourth/early fifth centuries. The later monuments demonstrate a
continuation of this practice adopted by the early medieval peoples of
Scotland, who all seem to have taken their own unique interpretation of the
tradition.
To begin with I have looked at the
earliest inscribed monuments, the associated sites and buildings of the stones,
and their landscape setting in southern Scotland and the surrounding regions of
northern England, north-east Ireland and the Isle of Man[10].
Too often material from the different regions of Britain and Ireland has been
looked at in isolation from each other. This is anachronistic as during the
early medieval period there were no such entities as ‘England’ or ‘Scotland’
and may result in important evidence having been missed or ignored. These early
monuments are part of a wider cultural milieu encompassing much of the British
speaking regions in the west of Britain surrounding the Irish Sea and which
spanned the sub-Roman and early medieval periods. It is important to include
the sub-Roman material as the sculptural phenomenon was part of a longer
tradition of commemoration. The evidence may help us to see how the function of
such monuments might have changed over time and so how literacy was mobilised
in different ways to fulfil certain needs.
This assemblage of monuments, labelled
Group I by Nash Williams, has been dated to the fifth to seventh centuries and
consists of 240+ inscribed stones, twelve of which are spread from the Solway
to the Forth and which have examples spanning the whole period. The stones in
Scotland seem to mostly lack the ogham inscriptions that are found further
south, but an important group dated to the sixth century show the influence of
ogham. Research so far has shown the Group I stones from the north of Britain
can be divided into two epigraphic sub-groups based on their interpreted
function. The first sub-group is firmly established in an ecclesiastical
background. Those, such as the group of monuments at Kirkmadrine on the Rhinns
of Galloway, make prominent use of Christian art and are either dedicated to
clerics with no lineage or kinship information related or they are not funerary
monuments. They are all sited it places which became medieval parish churches.
The second sub-group appear to have had a more secular, proprietorial function.
The earliest stones in Group I, such
as the Latinus Stone from Whithorn and the Catstane from Kirkliston, seem to be
linked with a group of around twelve so-called ‘extended Latinate’ inscriptions
from western Britain dated on paleographical grounds to the fifth century.
These share a classically-inspired horizontal layout, early forms of Roman
capital script, the use of Roman influenced names and relatively lengthy texts
of similar but unique compositions. They are also overtly Christian. Analogies
from further south seem to indicate that this earliest group marked special
graves at or near secular power centres. The ‘extended Latinate’ inscriptions
from elsewhere in Britain frequently show strong Roman connections and often
stand at important points on the Roman road system as well as on or near later
medieval parish boundaries. It is increasingly clear that medieval parish
boundaries date back to earlier secular administration units. This can be arguably
said of the Latinus stone and especially of the Brigomaglos and Catstane stones[11].
The stones also express the lineage and kin associations of those named. The later
group of the Group I inscribed stones dated to the sixth century are not so
overtly Christian, indicating a society where Christianity was more widespread.
They also differ in their vertical layout and ungrammatical use of the genitive
case. An example is the Yarrow stone. These characteristics seem to have been
derived from the Irish ogham tradition of inscriptions widespread in the
British speaking world. There is emphasis on the lineage of the named
individuals and the settings of the stones that can be reconstructed show they
were located at important points in the secular landscape and used to mark
special or family graves. The monuments seem less like individual
commemorations and more like communal monuments.
These provide tantalising hints that although
literacy was linked with Christianity and the church, in the centuries
immediately following the removal of the Legions literacy was utilised by the
emerging military elites to forge new landowning aristocratic identities. The
elites seem to have been drawing prestige from association with the old
imperial religion and its tradition of literate commemoration. This has important
implications for the status of literacy amongst the elite and the possible
continuance of schools catering to the education of aristocrats. Linked to this
is the work of Charles Thomas’s on biblical style used on early Christian
monuments, where the inscriptions seem to contain embedded messages for those
with the knowledge of arithmetical and numerological patterns encoded into the
letters, syllables and words of the text, thus hinting at the extensive
educational background of those who composed the texts[12]. The inscribed stones also
seem to being used to mark boundaries and land units, indicating the importance
of literacy and the expression of literacy to power and control of land. A
catalogue of known inscriptions describing their spatial placement, landscape
location and interpreted function is in the process of construction.
This may have implications concerning
the function of the Pictish Class I and II stones from further north in
Scotland displaying the enigmatic Pictish symbols. Current thought is divided
as to whether or not these symbols constituted a form of writing[13].
What is agreed is that the monuments themselves seem to conform to the wider
background of sculptural commemoration. They seem to have functioned in the
same way as the two sub-groups above. Pictish Class I symbols stones are often
found in early burial grounds. For
example, at Garbeg, Invernesshire, there are at least 26 round and square
burial mounds within a cemetery, from which a Pictish symbol stone was
recovered. At Lundin Links in Fife, the unusual design of a number of
individual and composite burials, their location and relationship to other
commemorative monuments has been likened to the symbols stones and the use of
the symbols themselves[14].
Class II monuments like the three examples from the Tarbat peninsula, situated
at Shandwick, Nigg and Hilton of Cadboll, seem to have held conspicuous places
in the landscape and there are hints of their use as boundary markers and
symbols of power and control of both secular and ecclesiastical administration
units. If the Pictish symbols were used as a form of communication or writing,
we may be seeing an indigenous reaction to Roman influence. The Irish ogham
script and Germanic runic scripts seem to have been developed with some
influence and knowledge of Roman writing. The next stage for research is to
investigate how far this can be said of the Pictish symbols. One point in
favour of this is the use of Pictish symbols on portable objects, such as on a
number of Pictish silver chains, and as what appears to be graffiti, such as at
the caves in East Wemyss in Fife. This incidental and informal use of the
symbols does suggest they were used in the same ways as other known scripts.
A different aspect of research has
focused on the materiality of literacy. Whether writing was committed to velum,
inscribed on stones or carved in wood in various scripts, the processes would
have left material remains, some of which would have left tangible traces in
the archaeological record. Martin Carver’s work at Portmahomack on the Tarbat
peninsula has uncovered the evidence one would expect for leather working and the
production of vellum manuscripts: large amounts of cattle and sheep bone, a
workshop area with what appears to be a lined tank with a culvert, interpreted
as a tanning pit, knives and bone needles for cutting, finishing and stitching
leather, implements for smoothing and finishing fine leather surfaces, and pegs
for frames to stretch leather. There was also evidence suggestive of seaweed
ash in the hearths of the workshop[15].
This would have been an additive to the tanning process if the result wanted
was light coloured, smooth, stretched, fine leather; the surface of which would
be suitable for writing. These processes would have required a huge amount of
resources. Only the very well off would be able to produce books and
manuscripts.
This however only refers to such
formal and display texts as Gospel books and manuscripts; reading and writing
need not have been an expensive pursuit. Analogy from elsewhere in Britain,
Ireland and Europe shows the use of wood, bone and wax to produce writing. As
these are organic in nature, such finds are unusual survivals and need extreme
conditions for preservation. Such survivals include the Springmount bog tablets
from County Antrim. These are six waxed yew tablets dated to the sixth century displaying
portions in Latin of Psalms and interpreted as aids to learn both the Psalms
and to read and write. The Vindolanda tablets from Hadrian’s Wall and examples
of runes on slips of wood from Scandinavia also provide evidence of the kinds
of inexpensive but sadly ephemeral material that could have had widespread use
for writing in the early medieval period. An ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl made
from chalk/limestone found during excavation of the Point of Buckquoy, Birsay,
on Mainland Orkney, provides a significant hint in this direction and evidence
of the personal use of writing.
Further work will be centred on the
how literacy in the early medieval period was related to the reading of images.
Reading the images on the monuments and what lies behind them is like reading a
text and deciphering the meanings and layers behind. Many monuments, in Argyll
particularly, do not have inscriptions, just highly complex images, although
they seem to fulfil some of the same functions as inscribed monuments elsewhere.
Some monuments, such as the Drosten Stone from St Vigeans, Angus, have
inscriptions but they are tiny in size and appear in secondary locations compared
to the main visual ‘text’ of the carved images. The work of Leslie Webster on
‘Visual Literacy’ in Anglo-Saxon England suggests the early medieval period
writing was first used as an image and the long standing tradition of reading
complex images amongst the Anglo-Saxons helped assimilate the use of the
written word[16]. Many
monuments not only depict scenes from the bible but also images which may refer
to local secular tales or literature. This iconography shows the cultural
context within which the carvers and inscribers worked. The images also
highlight that there were various modes of communication that were available in
early medieval society and may shed some light on how writing may have been
used as well.
Finally, as a side project hagiography,
annals, chronicles and early historical narratives will be studied for
references to communication of all forms, including literate modes, to consider
the intricate way oral and written modes were intertwined and understand for
what purposes writing was used. The difficulty with this is establishing how
far back the information contained within the documents goes back, as all
survive in much later manuscript copies, and what elements have been edited
along the way for different purposes. For example, the earliest surviving life
of St Kentigern, an early British saint, was written in the twelfth century by
Jocelin of Furness but drew on earlier sources.
It is hoped that this research into
these various indications for the beginnings of literacy in Scotland will be
able to highlight the multifunctional use of the written word outside of the
world of manuscripts and assess the impact of the spread and use of literacy in
early medieval northern Britain.
Bethan
Morris
School
of History, Classics and Archaeology
University
of Edinburgh
[1]
See for example the articles in R. McKitterick, ed., The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (1990) and H. Pryce,
ed., Literacy in Medieval Celtic
Societies (1998).
[2]
Royal Irish Academy MS 12 R 33
[3] Cambridge
University Library, MS. Ii.6.32
[4]
There are documents surviving from the tenth century and later which may have
earlier exemplars. These seem to have been earlier documents which were of
interest or use to the new Gaelic/’Scottish’ monarchy and so copied, edited and
preserved. Examples are the two genealogical tractates, Cethri príchenéla Dáil Riata and Míniugud senchasa fher nAlban and the Pictish kings lists.
[5] J.
Stevenson, ‘Literacy in Ireland: the evidence of the Patrick dossier in the
Book of Armagh’, in R. McKitterick, ed., The
Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (1990), 11-35; 15.
[6] Bede,
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum;
B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, eds., Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History (Oxford, 1991), I.1.
[7] Bede,
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum;
B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, eds., Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History (Oxford, 1991), V.21.
[8] K.
Forsyth, ‘Literacy in Pictland’, in H. Pryce, ed., Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies (1998), 39-61; 41.
[9] M.
Handley, ‘The Origins of Christian commemoration in late antique Britain’, Early Medieval Europe 10, 2 (2001),
177-199.
[10]
An approach advocated by K. Forsyth in her ‘Hic Memoria Perpetua: the early
inscribed stone of southern Scotland in context’ in S. Foster and M. Cross,
eds., Able Minds and Practised Hands
(2005).
[11] We
do not know where the Latinus stone originally stood at Whithorn, and the Roman
evidence from the site is weak. However, the area has wider Roman associations
and is linked visually with the Roman fort of Maryport on the Cumbrian coast
even on a moderately clear day. Maryport has its own Christian inscribed stones
from the fourth century and shares many epigraphic characteristics with the
fifth century Brigomaglos stone from Chesterholm in Cumbria and so to the
Latinus stone.
[12]
Cf. C. Thomas, Christian Celts: Messages
and Images (1998).
[13]
Cf. K. Forsyth, ‘Some thoughts on Pictish symbols as a formal writing system’
in I. Henderson and D., Henry, eds., The Worm, the Germ and the Thorn:
Pictish and Related Studies Presented to Isabel Henderson (1995), 85-98,
and R. Samson, ‘The reinterpretation of the Pictish symbols’, Journal of British Arch Assoc 145 (1992).
[14]
Cf. H. Williams, ‘Depicting the dead: Commemoration through cists, cairns and
symbols in early medieval Britain’, Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 17:2 (2007), 145-64.
[15]
Cf. M. Carver, ‘An Iona of the East: The Early-Medieval Monastery at
Portmahomack, Tarbat Ness’, Medieval
Archaeology 48 (2004), 1-30.
[16]
Cf. L. Webster, ‘Visual Literacy in a Protoliterate Age’, in P. Hermann, ed., Literacy in Medieval and Early Modern
Scandinavian Culture (2005), 21-46.
