Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Pedigrees, Power and Clanship: Essays on Medieval Scotland

Pedigrees, Power and Clanship: Essays on Medieval Scotland

Sellar, David
Macqueen, Hector L.

Paperback

Medieval & Renaissance HistoryGeneral World HistoryBritish History

ISBN10: 0859767264
ISBN13: 9780859767262
Publisher: John Donald Publishers
Published: May 1 2025
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.05
Height: 1.27 Width: 5.99 Depth: 9.22
Language: English
Genealogies of medieval Highland and Island Scotland scrutinize pedigrees claimed by clans, testing authenticity against Gaelic, Norse names, and saga-derived traditions to reveal politics, society, and propaganda.

This book brings together the major writings of David Sellar (1941-2019) on the genealogies (pedigrees) claimed by some of the major clans of medieval Highland and Island Scotland, especially the descendants of their twelfth-century king Somerled.

The claimed pedigrees in the medieval Gaelic 1467 manuscript and the Irish genealogies are critically analysed in relation to each other, and their historical authenticity tested against other evidence, including the Gaelic or Norse quality of their recorded names. Contemporary literary material is considered alongside later recorded traditions descending from the seanchaidh, whose work was to hand down to posterity the valorous actions, conquests, battles, skirmishes, marriages and relations of the chiefly ancestors by relating and singing them at births, baptisms, marriages, inaugurations, feasts and funerals. The family pedigrees offer crucial insights into the nature of medieval society, supporting and sometimes explaining a family's socio-political position. As an exercise in propaganda, a pedigree was susceptible to fabrication and not to be trusted uncritically.

David Sellar's meticulous analysis reveals the social and political realities of medieval Celtic Scotland, making use of heraldic evidence as well as his legal expertise, in a fluent and reader-friendly style.

Also from

Sellar, David

View All

Also in

General World History

View All