Tag: Scots

PGC2019: Mistress katherine kerr’s “How to puzzle a Knight with the written word”

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Mistress katherine kerr describes her entry:

“I have some languages: the Scots of my country (though little used here in the Laurel Kingdoms so mostly forgotten); the English of our near neighbour and the close dialects used within the land of Lochac; and a smattering of the Latin and Italian I learned when a young girl living in the Venice of my birth.

This Challenge provided impetus to take a look at Scottish terms, vocabulary and oaths; a surprising number of which were reasonably familiar to me!

One of my long-held SCA disappointments is how difficult I find it to do a convincing accent, so katherine has never sounded particularly Scottish, but I am becoming more familiar with Scots usage in written form.

I had been working on a series of letters to my lord-consort, Sir Radbot von Borg. As I was to be overseas for an extended period, I was missing three tourneys. The letters were given to the Baroness of Southron Gaard for delivery when Sir Radbot made his salute to me.

I used some general Scottish/Elizabethan usage but really went to town in one using an English-Scots translator supplemented with various word lists. By the time I was finished, it was pleasingly well-nigh incomprehensible….

The second letter in the series was scheduled for delivery at the Fiery Nights Tourney — the Feast Day of St Matthew, whose angel stands for the application of reason. The latter was pertinent as the letter expressed concerns for Sir Radbot’s safety in such a dangerous environment where I “have a premonition that [he] may be burned or [his] clothes catch fire or flaming stones rain down upon [him] from on high”.

In this letter, the first page of the bifolium (the folded paper typically used for correspondence) was written in a tight secretary hand using as much Border and Lowland Scots terms and forms as I could muster. So the above-mentioned concern was expressed as: “I hae a firebrod ye micht burn yersel, your claes cuid catch oan fire an you cuid be skelp by a flaming stane fra on hie.”

The second page had katherine’s apologies for “the uncivil tongue which precedes this more harmonius note” as she went on to explain that she asked her secretary to take down her words “never thinking he would transcribe my thoughts into his own broad Border Scots, a tongue I know you do not ken”. She then provided a clear English translation of the original text, albeit somewhat gentler in tone than the Border Scots.

Thus the secretary’s transcription started: “Tha bruit came th’daie hither thit ye war thinkit tae put inta tha firey rammy an a am worriit thon it kin be a glaikit thing tae dae whit wi tha danger n aa.”

Or as katherine put it: “I heard today that you were thinking of entering the Firey Tournament and am worried that it might be an unwise (Scots glaikit = stupid) thing to do given the danger.”

The address included the instruction “make haste” — this was not an uncommon phrase, sometimes repeated again and again, on letters with a time-critical aspect. Cecil and Burghley were known to use this inscription when about Queen Elizabeth’s business.

The letter was locked using a tucked-in format and a seal, based on the form used by Erasmus.

Letterlocking: Desiderius Erasmus’ Tucked Triangle Lock (1517)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCRo1_sulAM

I am told Sir Radbot was called up in opening court to receive my missive and spent some time with Sir Sebastian trying to puzzle out the Scots (much easier to do when you try reading it aloud!). It apparently took them some time to notice the second page….

Given that I ayewis gie it laldy, I now have a list of interesting words and phrases I may throw into the conversation and see how they go.

Lang may yer lum reek!”

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