Ah, Scotland. A history as vibrant as any, home to traditional native authors like Robert Burns (1759-1796), Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and James Hogg (1770-1835). What could be better than diving headfirst into the remarkable world of Scottish poetry?
Of course, it would be unfair not to mention that Scotland also birthed Sherlock Homes, Dr. Jekyll and Peter Pan.
Oh, and Tam o' Shanter and Mr Toad.
Harry potter, too, don't forget.
And that's not even getting into the diverse world of contemporary Scottish literature. When it comes to books, the Scots can hang with the best of them. Read on to find out why.
Scottish literature: definition
How is Scottish literature defined? Here's a simple explanation to get started.
Scottish literature is a term that describes literature originating from Scotland, whether written by a Scottish writer or simply in Scotland.
History of Scottish literature
Scottish literature has a deep and rich history spanning back thousands of years.
A long and winding road
During the 6th century AD, the Scotland known today was unrecognisable. Latin was the primary written language, brought to the country by the Romans, who had inhabited Britannia for hundreds of years prior to Rome's collapse.
Only fragments remain of four other vital spoken languages that existed in the region at the time: Northumbrian Old English, Cumbric and Gaelic and Pictish. It is believed that some of the earliest written texts from this time today survive as part of Welsh literature, but there is no conclusive evidence to prove it.
By the year 1000, a version of Middle English, now known as Early Scots, was commonly spoken but rarely written. By the time the dialect first appeared in writing, a variant of French brought to England by the invading Normans had surpassed all but Latin as the dominant written language in Scotland.
Early works
The first significant example of Scottish literature came in the form of John Barbour's (c.1320-1395) The Bruce (1376), a long narrative poem detailing the trials and tribulations of King Robert I, who had secured Scotland's independence from England many years earlier.
Many influential works would follow throughout the fifteenth century, including The Kingis Quair (c.1423), a beautiful poem attributed to James I of Scotland and Blind Harry'sThe Wallace. A great deal of poetry at the time was produced by makars.
Makars were Scottish bards and poets, usually with close ties to the royal court. Since the 19th century, the term has been used to describe a group of 15th and 16th-century poets who wrote various works in the Middle Scots language. Some key makars include Gavin Douglas (1474-1522), William Dunbar (1460-1520) and Robert Henryson (1425-1506).
By the late 15th century, Middle Scots had become the region's dominant language. Scottish prose had begun to develop with the establishment of the printing press in 1507, helping to spread the country's literature and bolster Scottish identity.
Significant developments
Scottish literature flourished under the reign of King James V (1512-1542), a known patron of writers. The king encouraged the publication of many critical works, including a translation of The History of Scotland (1527) from Latin into Scots verse by John Bellenden (fl.1533-87). Another influential poet that prospered during this period was diplomat David Lyndsay (c. 1486-1555), who penned various satires, romances and elegiac narratives under royal patronage.
During this period, Scottish writing began to more closely resemble the English language rather than the Scottish dialect still spoken across the country.
The 1700s saw the rise of the novel in Scotland, first ushered in by pioneering novelists Tobias Smollett (1721-1771), Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) and John Moore (1761-1809). The essential writer to arise during this period was James Macpherson (1736-1796), whose English translations of Gaelic epics influenced several generations of Scottish writers.
Macpherson claimed that he collected the stories word-of-mouth from the Scottish highlands, and that the tales had originally belonged to an ancient warrior poet named 'Ossian'. Over the course of many years, it slowly emerged that Ossian likely never existed and that Macpherson probably wrote many of the poems himself.
While this doesn't detract from the ingenuity of the literature, it does make the history behind the texts questionable. Let's give a massive shoutout to James Macpherson for the eighteenth century's most successful marketing ploy!
Fig 1. This painting by Nicolai Abildgaard (1743-1809) depicts Ossian singing his swan song. Ossian was the proposed Bard that passed down the stories James Macpherson would later translate. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that Ossian was likely fictional and that Macpherson likely created the character to give his stories more gravity.
The eighteenth century also marked the beginning of the Scottish Enlightenment (c.1730-1820)
The Enlightenment marked a significant shift from religion to reason in Scottish society, leading to a period of rigorous philosophical and scientific discourse.
The movement resulted in unparalleled developments within science, medicine, literature and culture. With this flourishing of the arts came new writing styles, exciting new genres, and several of Scotland's most extraordinary authors.
Scottish literature: authors
Many of Scotland's most memorable authors arose during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
| Author | Explanation | Important works |
| Robert Burns (1759-1796) | Affectionately referred to as Rabbie Burns, Robert Burns was a pioneering figure of the Romantic movement. He is recognised as the national Bard of Scotland and has been hugely influential worldwide. Burns is best known for his poetry and collection of songs that celebrate love, companionship, and alcohol. One song in particular, 'Auld Lang Syne' (1788), is a popular New Year song still regularly performed today. Each year on January 25th, the Scottish celebrate Burns Night in his honour. | - 'To a Mouse' (1785)
- 'Address to a Haggis' (1786)
- 'Auld Lang Syne' (1788)
- 'Tam o' Shanter' (1790)
- 'A Red, Red Rose' (1794)
|
| Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) | Sir Walter Scott lived life to the fullest. After a long career in the militia, Scott enjoyed a successful career as a writer, publishing over thirty novels, numerous poems and translations, and a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. He is best remembered for pioneering the historical novels, which helped to popularise Scotland as a Victorian tourist destination. | - The Lady of the Lake (1810),
- Waverley (1814),
- Rob Roy (1817),
- Ivanhoe (1819),
- The Bride of Lannermoor (1819)
|
| James Hogg (1770-1835) | James Hogg's flair for poetry was discovered by none other than Sir Walter Scott. He quickly proved himself a talented writer, establishing connections with Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Byron (1788-1824), among other renowned poets. He was widely known as 'The Ettrick Shepherd' owing to his long career working as a farmhand at a small farm near Ettrick, Selkirkshire. | - 'The Queen's Wake' (1813)
- The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
|
| Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749) | Trotter is famous for her contributions to philosophical discourse. She wrote at great length on the subject of morality but also created several plays and novels during her life. | - Agnes de Castro (1696)
- Fatal Friendship (1698)
- The Unhappy Penitent (1701)
- The Revolution of Sweden (1706)
|
| Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) | Likely the most well-known Scottish author of all time, Arthur Conan Doyle is best known as the genius behind the legendary Sherlock Holmes series. To this day, Holmes is still the most famous fictional detective of all time. | - A Study in Scarlet (1887)
- The Sign of the Four (1890)
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901)
|
Fig 2. This bust depicts Robert Burns, widely considered the most influential of Scotland's poets. He is considered the country's national Bard, and is celebrated yearly on January 25th with Burns Night.
Other influential Scottish writers from this period include David Hume (1711-1776), publisher of A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), writer of Treasure Island (1882) and Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and J. M. Barrie (1860-1937), creator of Peter Pan (1911).
Contemporary Scottish literature
Literature is a considerable part of the Scottish national identity. From the outset of the twentieth century, the canon of remarkable Scottish literature has grown at an alarming rate. Spurred on by the modernist movement, which encourages new ideas, concepts and techniques within storytelling, Scottish writers have consistently been at the forefront of literary experimentation.
During the first half of the 1900s, writers like Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) and Sorley Maclean (1911-1996) began to write poetry in Scots and Gaelic in an attempt to reintroduce native languages to Scottish literature.
Among the most famous contemporary writers is Alasdair Gray (1934-2019), whose outstanding novel Lanark (1981) has been praised worldwide for its dystopian depictions of Glasgow, Gray's home city. The book was written over a thirty-year period and led famous writer Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) to label Gray the best Scottish writer since Walter Scott.
Irvine Welsh's (1958-) infamous Trainspotting (1993), a cult novel based around young residents of Leith, Edinburgh, has since been adapted into a hugely popular film.
In 2004, Edinburgh was honoured as the first UNESCO City of Literature, owing to the 500+ novels that it has inspired. JK Rowling (1965-) wrote all of her Harry Potter novels in Edinburgh and based many of the locations in her books on Scotland's cities and landscapes. Other renowned novels partially set in the city include Charles Dickens' (1812-1870) The Pickwick Papers (1836) and Mary Shelley's (1797-1851) Frankenstein (1818).
Two Scots have won the Booker Prize in recent years. The first, James Kelman (1946-), won the prestigious award in 1994 with his stunning How Late It was, How Late (1994). The second prize was awarded to Douglas Stuart (1976-) in 2020 with his debut novel Shuggie Bain (2020).
In 2009 Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy (1952-) became the first ever Scot to become British Poet Laureate, a position she held until 2019.
The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the UK government to compose poems for the courts and important royal occasions.
Other notable contemporary Scottish writers include:
- A L Kenney (1965-
- Jackie Kay (1961-
- Kate Atkinson (1951-
- Iain Banks (1954-2013)
- Gregory Burke (1968-)
- James Robertson (1958-)
- Don Paterson (1963-)
- John Burnside (1955-)
- Edwin Morgan (1920-2010)
- Jenni Fagan (1977-)
- Douglas Dunn (1942-)
Scottish literature: books
Want to learn more about the Scots' vibrant literary history? Here's a selection of previously unmentioned books, plays and poems plucked from the diverse catalogue of Scottish literature. See if you can spot any of your favourites!
| Work of Literature | Author | Year Published |
| The Man of Feeling | Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) | 1771 |
| The Heart of Midlothian | Walter Scott (1771-1832) | 1818 |
| The Coral Island | R.M Ballantyne (1825-1894) | 1857 |
| Kidnapped | Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) | 1886 |
| The House with the Green Shutters | George Douglas Brown (1869-1902) | 1901 |
| The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) | 1908 |
| The Thirty-Nine Steps | John Buchan (1875-1940) | 1915 |
| 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' | Hugh MacDiarmid | 1926 |
| Sunset Song | Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901-1935) | 1932 |
| The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Muriel Spark (1918-2006) | 1961 |
| The Wasp Factory | Iain Banks (1954-2013) | 1984 |
| Morvern Callar | Alan Warner (1964-) | 1995 |
| Docherty | William McIlvanney (1936-2015) | 1975 |
Scottish Literature - Key takeaways
- Scottish literature is a term that describes literature originating from Scotland, whether written by a Scottish writer or simply in Scotland.
- The first significant example of Scottish literature came in the form of John Barbour's (c.1320-1395) The Bruce (1376), a long narrative poem detailing the trials and tribulations of King Robert I.
- The three most significant early Scottish authors were Robert Burns (1759-1796), Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and James Hogg (1770-1835).
- Other famous Scottish novelists include Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). David Hume (1711-1776), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) and J. M. Barrie (1860-1937).
- From the outset of the twentieth century, the Scottish canon has grown at an alarming rate, spurred on by the modernist movement, which encourages new ideas, concepts and techniques within storytelling.
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