I pitched my story to a New York literary agent at a writers’ conference last year and he said the market was flooded with Scottish material. He seemed rather distracted as he listened, but, at the end, he thought it might be different enough to sell. So that was encouraging.

Then I went home and read my not so precious prose – still a bitty pallid compared to the likes of Grisham, Koontz, Gabaldon, Rowling and the like. Whatever your opinion of their genre, the style of these best sellers is rich and densely textured. The settings are beautifully described - enough to place the reader, but not bore anyone. Having struggled to write over 300 pages of my own, I appreciate their ability to control their stories; they make sense or, at least they do after the first read. Poor Dan Brown – many writers delight in tearing apart his stories. Well, he’s not actually too poor, is he? Must be doing something right.

So what can I say that hasn’t been said? What can I add to the literary mix?

I’ve been curious about the stereotypical ‘Highlander’ of literature. Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy was based on Daniel Dafoe’s Highland Rogue. In these books Rob Roy appears as … a rogue, rather rough and woolly. In Scott’s novel, the protagonist is a proper London gentleman with a rather peculiar name. Rob Roy is a secondary character.

In D.K. Broster’s trilogy the protagonist is a Highland gentleman who is well-treated by an English officer and gentleman after the battle of Culloden in 1745. Alas, the English officer is killed by the Highland gentleman’s servant who was jealous of the friendship of the brother officers.

In many a romance novel, the Highlander is a fierce warrior, whose slightest touch makes a woman melt into the nearest patch of heather for a little hanky-panky. Now there's the stereotype of which I approve.

So what is my experience of Highlanders?

Highlanders speak Gaelic as their first language and their English is coloured by it; they are often mistaken for Irish. Tourists from Scotland often ask why the descendants of Highland settlers in Canada don’t sound Scottish. Answer: their ancestors didn’t speak English, not even the Scots dialect of English, when they emigrated. Probably true of my own family.

Most of my family came from the Scottish Highlands and we aren't sure how much
English they spoke when they arrived in Canada and settled among other Scottish Gaels. I did some research on early Scottish immigrants to Canada and there is quite a bit of material out there from books and magazines to websites.

I did a first degree in Scottish History and Celtic Studies, and I am somewhat fluent in Scottish Gaelic, but there aren’t many people born in Canada who are at all able to speak the language. Still I try to read Gaelic books to maintain fluency.

About a hundred years ago, there were an estimated 100,000 people who spoke Gaelic in Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. Families of six to twelve children weren’t unusual at that time. So where are all the Gaelic speaking people? They have been assimilated to English – multiculturalism came a little late for them.

So my Highlander will speak Gaelic and his English won’t sound like the poetry of Robert Burns. He will be of normal intelligence and ability. He hasn’t superhuman powers, but he’s not hard to look at. No one will like him, you say. Be patient, he’s going to perform well under stress.

Where does the stereotype of the ‘wild wickit Hielandman’ come from?

Five languages were spoken in Scotland about 900 years ago: Gaelic (most people), Pictich and Norse in the north, Welsh and English in the south. French came with some Anglo-Norman adventurers invited by David I about 1120 AD, and its use was restricted to the royal court.

By 1400 the languages were reduced to two: Gaelic and Scots English; the monarchy became English-speaking and made Edinburgh, situated in the English-speaking region of Scotland, the permanent capital. The Scottish kings granted charters to English-speaking merchant adventurers to establish burghs (towns) for the increase of trade and prosperity. Thus the English language was spread throughout Scotland - except for the north-west Highlands and the western isles. (Hugh Cheape & Isabel Grant, Periods in Highland History)

The Education Act of the Scottish Privy Council of 1616 states:

For as meikle (much) as the King's Majestie having a special care and regaird that the trew religion be advancit and establishit in all the pairts of this kingdome, and ...the youth be trained up in civilitie, godliness, knawledge...that the vulgar Inglishe tongue be univerallie plantit, and the Irishe tongue, which is one of the chief and principal causes of the continuance of barbaritie and incivilitie among the inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands, may be abolishit and removit ....
(Gordon Donaldson, Scottish Historical Documents)

Dialects of Scots English are now called Broad Scots, Lallans, or Doric; about 1600 the language was called simply ‘Inglishe’ and Scottish Gaelic was called ‘Irishe’ or ‘Erse’. The use of the term ‘Irish’ made the Scottish Gaels seem like foreigners in Scotland where they had settled before the invasions of the Angles and Saxons.To increase resistance to French and English dominationIn the sixteenth century, national origin myths were refurbished to increase pride in being Scottish which made extensive use of Gaelic material.

The act goes on to say that the support of Gaelic intelligentsia was forbidden and that chiefs with feudal charters had to have their eldest son educated in an English school or lose title to their land.

There were more documents written in Gaelic before 1400 than in any other language in Europe except Latin and Greek. While in most of Europe, literacy was confined to the clergy before 1500, literacy was more widespread among Gaelic-speaking people because of the existence of a secular literary class - the professional poets and other learned people. They used a literary dialect for their work which was used throughout Gaelic Ireland and Scotland. Dynasties of poets made a living writing praise poetry for the chiefs, keeping the genealogies, and telling the stories of the Gaelic heroes, Fionn MacCumhail and Cuchulainn. The main grades of poets were: ollamh (master, professor), filidh (analagous to the journeyman of the guilds), and bàrd (analogous to apprentice). The bàrd had the least training.

A family of professional poets, the MacMhuirich (usually anglicized as Currie) were literate for about twenty-seven generations until the early 18th century. Their schools were no longer supported by chiefs who had been turned into English gentlemen, and, by the early 19th century, some MacMhuirich were illiterate. (William Ferguson, The Identity of the Scottish Nation / Derick Thomson, Introduction to Gaelic Poetry)

After David I invited a 1000 Anglo-Norman knights to Scotland to impose feudal law, there were rebellions in Moray led by the MacHeths, who had as good a claim to the throne as the Canmores. The MacHeths were defeated and exiled to the far north; MacKay is the later spelling of their name. No MacKay chief has ever held a feudal title higher than that of knight.

The Gaels had a great deal of respect for the Normans and some Norman customs were adopted, and many of the Anglo-Normans became gaelicized. (True of Ireland as well.)

The Battle of Harlaw in 1411 took place between a Stewart king and a MacDonald Lord of the Isles. The MacDonalds had as much right to the throne as the upstart Stewarts. The Lordship of the Isles was forfeit less than a hundred years later and no MacDonald has ever held a feudal title higher than that of knight in Scotland. Ironically the MacDonalds and their allies became Jacobites and supported the Stewarts in their efforts to regain the throne of GB.

Gaelic speaking Scots were not fully part of the feudal system as established in England after the Norman Conquest; the clan system meant that the most important social stucture was kin-based, Gaelic law was followed to a greater or lessor degree. Gaelic society was hierarchical, but intimate. Everyone had rights in Gaelic law. The law had a sliding scale of punishment for offenses. eg. A duine uasal (gentleman) had to pay a greater fine for a given offense than a free man. A major duty for chiefs was to hold councils and assemblies. At these gatherings, justice was given by panels of chiefs and gentlemen. After the Restoration of 1660, a panel of Highland gentlemen determined the compensation for the widow and children of a man killed by two Highlanders. Lowlanders were scandalized by the fact that the killers weren't hung.

Sports were a large part of these assemblies which have survived as Highland Games. Hunts and hosts were also held at the places of assembly. They are notorious in British history as the place where the sluagh (host, clan army) was gathered after the crann tàra (fiery cross) was sent out.

The chief performed many of the duties of local government: the care of widows and children; feeding the hungry; providing land, building materials, tools and seed for young couples. When an old clansman died, his best beast went into a pool of animals, which the chief used to set up young couples as well as for breeding purposes. Most of all chiefs had to give hospitality (food and shelter) to those who asked it according to their rank. It was a terrible abuse to overstay one's welcome or bring too great a retinue. In ‘Oran Mòr MhicLeòid’ (Great Song of MacLeod) Rory Morison, a harper, laments the absence of the chief of MacLeod of Dunvegan who spent too much time in the south instead of giving feasts as he had done.

There were murders and executions among the Gaels, but, to my knowledge, no Gael in Scotland or Ireland was ever responsible for hanging, drawing and quartering a human being. Thieves were not imprisoned for minor thefts; they were shunned or shamed publicly. In the 17th century a Colonsay man, guilty of murder, was set on a rock at sea, his fate determined by the winds and tides of God. In the records of the Scottish Privy Council, the people who judged the murderer were described as murderers themselves. That punishment had been used for a millennia and probably much longer. Gaelic law resembles the laws of the First Nations (Indians) in many ways.

The witch craze took place among English-speaking people in Scotland, Ireland, and England. No Gael ever drowned or fried a witch by Gaelic law. The last witch executed in Scotland was in Dornoch about 1745, but Dornoch is a burgh and burghs are enclaves of Scots English speech. So what people were more barbaric? (Christina Larner, Enemies of God: The Witch Hunt in Scotland)

Chaos reigned usually when the 'domestic Scots' - called Lowlanders after 1450- interfered with the 'wild Scots' - called Highlanders after about 1450. They imposed feudal law and supported those chiefs who obeyed it. Primogeniture is feudal law; in Gaelic law, a chief was elected from the brothers, sons, or grandsons of the previous chief. The heir was always an adult male. Needless to say the feuds engendered by the clash of the two legal systems were legion. (So for Ireland as well.)

'Laird' is Scots English; and no Gaelic chief thought of himself as a laird before 1700, but Lowlanders referred to Highland chiefs in such terms.