The many legendary founders of Scotland
One remarkable thing about Scottish legend is just how many beginnings the country's pseudo-history seems to have. In my article on the legend of King Galdus, I looked at two of these: the stories of Gathelus and of Cairbre Riata: but they are far from the only ones. Let's examine them all in (as far as possible) chronological order. NB: This article has been updated since it was first published. 1. Gathelus and Scota Briefly, as gone into in the Galdus article: an Egyptian p
King Galdus
The fourth book of Hector Boece's History of the Scottish People tells the epic story of the hero-king Galdus. (A still more stirring version is found in the vernacular verse rendition by William Stewart, written in the 1530s but not published until 1858.) A nephew of both Caratacos and Boudicca (here called Voada), he has a troubled childhood: fostered by his famous aunt, and forced to return home after her uprising against the Roman Empire ends in defeat and death; orphaned
