The Faded Map: The Story of the Lost Kingdoms of Scotland [Hardcover]

This is the third book I have read by Mr. Moffat, the first being the wonderful "Before Scotland" and the second being the geographically wider-ranging (and also excellent) "The Sea Kingdoms". "The Faded Map" is similar in subject matter and tone, but feels less polished and ultimately less satisfying.

In "The Faded Map", Moffat narrows his geographical focus to the regions of what are now southern Scotland and northern England. He is concerned with the history of this area from the time of Pytheas around 320 BC to the effective end of the kingdom of Strathclyde, sometime in the late 11th century. Rather than giving a more conventional narrative account, however, Moffat weaves back and forth through time, showing how place-names have survived or changed over the centuries, or how religious or cultural centers have maintained continuity - or failed to do so.

Moffat drives home the point that "Scotland was never inevitable" by demonstrating the power shifts in the region, and urging the reader to look beyond modern borders to see the older realities. No doubt much of the book would resonate more strongly with a reader who is from the area himself - or at least more familiar with it than an American with an amateur interest in early medieval history. As it was, even though I consider myself fairly well-educated on the topic (I knew about Strathclyde, Bernicia, et al. before this book), I occasionally felt that I wasn't appreciating the "high notes" Moffat was hitting. The map included with the book did not help, as several locations mentioned in the text were not listed.

Apart from this, other aspects of "The Faded Map" kept me more distanced from this book than Moffat's others. The back-and-forth, the way Moffat links the past to the present, sometimes seems jarring. Where I was hoping for a more comprehensive discussion of the way things were in the period, Moffat interjected accounts of archaeological discoveries and expeditions. This sort of thing worked better in his previous books, but here I found myself losing the thread of chapters occasionally; as a result, I took several long breaks from the book. Finally, some typos and unusual punctuation choices made some sentences difficult to follow.

Moffat's enthusiasm for his topic is unmistakable, and the discussions of Dark Age kings and battles are fascinating. I particularly appreciate his willingness to speculate on political matters such as alliances, motivations for battles, and the relative strengths of kingdoms. Since our sources for the period are so scant, it is interesting to see someone try to flesh them out. "The Faded Map" also gets points for its overall layout, which includes several pages of gorgeous color photographs of the landscape and important sites, along with the "offset boxes" of text that serve to illuminate tidbits of information (though sometimes the relevance of these was not apparent).

About halfway through "The Faded Map", it occurred to me that it could have benefitted from stronger editing. Moffat's love for his subject, and his clear talents as a writer, could have shone through more brightly had he been encouraged to trace a more "conventional" path through his story of lost kingdoms, with fewer digressions to modern times. Moffat himself knows the difficulty of recounting this history, as is evident from the apologetic opening sentence of the Introduction: "Very little certainty, only occasional phrases of continuity and hardly any clarity at all are the sorry string of characteristics to be found everywhere in this book." To be sure, it's the nature of the territory. But, as enjoyable as this book is, it left me wishing there had been slightly more order imposed upon this sprawling tale of kings and saints, battles and castles - and old stones that punctuate the landscape of a fascinating part of the world.

This is book is really good becuase it gives the acct of how Sctoland was really made and it tells the history of the majority of Scots and not the few.I am so sick of this false-Romantic notion of Scotland with bagpipes and kilts and the fact is MOST Scots' ancesotrs either never wore any kilts or the mixed considerably with the Lowlanders in the ancient past.Most Scots and for sure most Scottish and Scotch-irish Americans have origins in the Lowlands of Scotland not the highlands.The truth is many Scots have much Saxon blood as well as an Anglo-Celtic mix mainly.The Western Lowlands were where the majority of the Scots came from who took part in the Ulster Plantation-later-as the Ulster Scots they heavily settlede America-so if you are an American with Scotch Irish or Scottish roots then chances are this book relates to your ancestors plus the many other lowlanders which makwe up the typicl Scottish populations and thier diaspora.Many things come to light in this book-it tells much of the history of the lowlanders and the big differnaces there between the western and eastern lowlanders both culturally and genetically.The Western Lowlands or where the kingdom of Strathclyde used to be is as rick in Celtic history as the highlands are and the Kingdom of Strathclyde spoke Old Welsh longer than anyother British Kingdom except Wales itself.Plus the Romano-British Cavalry warriors both gave rise to the figure of King Arthur and are the source for the long horse-riding culture of the Scottish Borders.Most Scotch Irish came fromthe Wesrern Lowlands or the Scottish Borders.Plus areas othe Western Lowlands from Glasgow to Gallowy were speaking Gaelic when the Eastern Lowlands were speaking the Northumbrain Germanic Engle language known as Scots.In fact on top of having a British Celtic background the Western Loewlands also has a Norse-Gaelic background from Viking Dublin though and not from Dal Raita-then the Engles fianlly tok over the Western Borders too but many many if not most of the present day population of the Western Lowlands has either Celtic or Anglo-Celtic ancestry even though they have never worn kilts.The Eastern Lowlands is the true origins of Scotland the nation and its more English than it is Scottish in the ethnic sense.The early British Celtic tribes here were well known as the most fierce Celtic tribes in all of Britian-the earliesr poem in Scotland was written in Old Welsh about a eulogy or a lament for about 300 British Warriors who died fighting s huge battle-This poem is now in the museum in Wales-but without doubt its the earliest poem ina ll of Scotland and its in Old Welsh-NOT Gaelic,In Fact Scotlands greatest hero-William Wallace who was from the Western Lowlands was a direct descendant of thses Lowland British Celts-Wallace means Wealla-the Saxon word for a Welsh speaker-meaning literaly stranger.The word Cymry s the Welsh word for comrade and is where plaid cymru comes from and Cumbria also.This book tells about not only the history of the true making of Scotland and its people but the huge differances between the Western and Eastern Lowlanders despite a so called comon Lowland culture.And in fact the eastern Lowlanders are more English or Anglo-Saxon than anyother region in Scotland but its where the Scots tounge originated-the same tounge Robert Burns wrote in.I know its not as romantic as the kilt wearing gaelic clansmen-but you forget-first of all MOST Highlanders are not just Celtic either-in fact many many if not most Highlenders have just as much Viking or Norse ancestry as Celtic or even Norman and the Western Lowlanders have just as much Celtic ancesotry as the highlanders despite a Lowland culture.Plus like I said romanticism is just that-made up romanticism-the truth is MOST Scots have always lived in the Lowlands and the Lowlands are the true backbone of Scotland who's history has been overlooked for the tourists and for the romantic Clan and " Sept" lists for confused Americans wishing to have Scottish roots-the truth is the Lowlands ARE Scotland-the true backbone of the country and the true origins of the Nation are in the Lowlands and this book shows the Lowlands have a history that is as much romantic and proud and ancient as the skirt wearing sheep shaggers inthe Highlands.Plus this book talks about the Picts too-and guess what they spoke a Brythonic tounge-NOT Gaelic.And Merlin was a Welsh-Romano British Druid from the Scottish Lowlands and the Borders-thats 100%true and htis book talks about that also-its not clear whether Arhtur was or not-some say he was a British Lowland Scot some say other wise but without doubt Merlin isnt English or Welsh-he is for sure Cumbrian or from Strathclyde NOT Wales or what was to become England.