Yeti An Abominable History

by Graham Hoyland, William Stewart (Translator), William Barclay Turnbull (Editor)

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310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1527

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has proved a tricky book to rate. I have gone with four stars almost entirely due to Boece's significance to the historiography of Scotland. It would be a one star if I had been looking for facts or insightful analysis. As Professor Donaldson once wrote, this work is “marked by extreme credulity and much invention.” Nevertheless one cannot help but be transfixed by Boece. The Chronicles were originally compiled in 1527, in Latin, and then at the behest of King James V they were translated into Scots by John Bellenden.

It is this Scots translation that I refer to here, faithfully and beautifully reproduced by the Scottish Text Society in 1938 and now made available digitally by the National Library of Scotland. But be aware, this is 16th century Scots so you will need to be familiar with yoghs, thorns and the spellings characteristic of the period.

But the effort of reading is well worth it to feel a direct connection to such an early chronicler of the country's history. And an added connection to the wider world of literature is provided when one considers that much of the (misleading) impressions we have of Macbeth are due to Shakespeare's main source for that play being Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. And Holinshed relied on Boece for much of the Scottish section – particularly the more fantastical elements.