January is a month of celebrations and holidays. Of course, there\u2019s New Year\u2019s Day, and January 25th is Robbie Burns Day, which marks the birth of Scotland\u2019s national poet. January is also when many people choose to escape the cold Canadian winter. Not all of us can hop a plane for a tropical vacation, though, so here\u2019s a Scottish example of a virtual winter get-away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without quite meaning to, I found myself in the midst of an educational trip, while still curled up beside my cozy Bergen fireplace. The stage was set in mid-December, when I received a reminder that some credits purchased from Scotland\u2019s national archives website, <\/em>Scotland\u2019s People<\/a>, were about to expire. Exhibiting the stereotypical Scottish trait of frugality, I could not let them go to waste. So, I set aside a little time over winter break to renew my investigation into my Scottish roots. A few days of searching, compiling, and contemplating produced an expanded family tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curious about the area where my Scottish relatives had lived, with Google\u2019s help I was soon examining maps and photographs of the glen and surrounding hills and settlement. I wondered what it must have been like to live in this fertile valley, with its woods and river, nearby cave and quarry, inscribed standing stone, Roman remains, and crumbling castle ruins. My ancestors would have been surrounded by a landscape resonating with history, myth and tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overwhelmed by facts, I pulled some Scottish oatcakes out of the pantry, and decided to escape into a fictional world. I scanned my bookshelves and spotted a particularly pretty volume that seemed just right: Waverley<\/a>, by Walter Scott. I was captivated by the beautifully illustrated romantic tale of the 1745 Scottish Jacobite rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within this book, some of the dialogue is unusual, and the vocabulary is explained in a handy glossary. I had already run across some of these words when I was researching the songs of a 1910 New Year\u2019s Eve party. The lyrics had appeared to be phonetic representations of a Scottish accent, but they had also contained a unique vocabulary. \u201cAuld Lang Syne\u201d is the perfect example. The lyrics of this song were written by Robbie Burns in a language called Scots<\/em>, Scotland\u2019s under-appreciated third language (existing beside English and Gaelic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n