An Investigation of the Way in which Sir Walter Scott Used the Lexis and Lore of Scotland to Recreate and Encapsulate the Past in Waverley, The Antiquary, and The Pirate

Abstract

While many aspects of his prose and poetry have already been explored, and many others are still awaiting exploration, this study seeks through an investigation of the relatively untapped richness of his use of language and lore, to shape the perception of Scott, in his recording however fictionally of the experience of the (rural) Scottish folk, as the voice of the Scottish people. Scott's ability to hold his readers, and to be loved as a faithful recorder of the aesthetic experience of pre-industrial Scotland is due in no small measure to his very considerable 'dialectal' vocabulary, and his quite extraordinary range of narrative motifs derived from the more recent yet traditional Celtic and Northern legendary. He uses terms of the lost, but once highly articulate voice of the people, weaving into his novels an antiquarian and ethnographic strand founded upon a base of the memories of the wise people of North Britain. His use of English language and its intrusions, as well as Scots, mirrors a dual ethnicity which is a consequence of time, place and history which Scott well understands. His is not just a romantic looking-back; is rather a historical record as opposed to the emotional and personal voice of Burns. He pays his massive tribute to the people of Scotland by using their language, and in that, and in their folkloric ingredients and thought processes which he has so transmitted, he gave the Scotland of yesterday an authentic voice for his own and later generations to hear.