Scottish Literature

[creme_ala_creme]

im interested in Scottish literature, anyone know any traditional, historical books, songs, or poems, or places to find them?

[amuse]

There are the "Child Ballads;" first heard about them when reading Michener's The Drifters.

http://www.contemplator.com/child/

[verybaddmom]

I'm going to guess that you must then be familiar with Robbie Burns? he is pretty much the most popular scottish literary figure, or at least the most famous, where im from...
this year i attended my first Robbie Burns supper, what a hoot that was....
anyhow, he has a swack of websites, here are some to start with...

http://www.robertburns.org/
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/
http://www.rabbie-burns.com/index.cfm

also, and i dont know if this will touch on what you are looking for at all, but Diana Gabaldon writes a series of books starting with "the outlander" and they are written in the context of scotland, jacobite era....some excellent writing and very very cool stories.

[den]

Uhm, how about some Sir Walter Scott?

a great site

http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/

[atiguhya padma]

Some Scottish traditional writers you might like to search for on the web:

Thomas the Rhymer: 13th C seer and poet. A lot of folklore developed around him.

Robert Henryson: 15th C poet. He wrote the Testament of Cresseid

Tobias Smollett: 18th C novelist, whose works Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Launcelot Greaves are all very funny works which influenced Charles Dickens, especially his Pickwick Papers.

James Hogg: 18th/19th C writer, whose novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is his most famous work

David Hume: 18th C philosopher and historian. His Treatise on Human Nature is a classic work of philosophy, having a huge influence on Kant, Schopenhauer and Ayer amongst others.

James Macpherson: 18th C poet, who passed his poetry off as the work of Ossian, a poet and magician of early Irish mythology. Samuel Johnson was one of the first to seriously question this.

AP

[kilted exile]

The electric scotland website mentioned earlier is good if you want more of the folk music type stuff.
one of my favourite scottish songs is:
Jist a wee doc' an' doris,
Jist a wee dram thats a',
Jist a wee doc' an' doris,
Afore ye gang awa'

Jist a wee wifie waitin',
at the wee but n' ben,
if ye can say "it's a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht, the nicht",
then you'll be alricht ye ken.

Translation:
Have a small whisky,
Only a small measure,
Have a small whisky,
Before you leave for home

Your wife will be waiting,
at the cottage,
but so long as you can say " It's a great, bright, moonlit night, tonight"
she wont complain too much

[IWilKikU]

If you're looking for a good history book written modernly, Magnus Magnusson's (love that name) Scotland: The Story of a Nation is very thourough.