A makar () is a term from
Scottish literature for a
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
or
bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
, often thought of as a
royal court poet.
Since the 19th century, the term ''The Makars'' has been specifically used to refer to a number of poets of fifteenth and sixteenth century
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, in particular
Robert Henryson,
William Dunbar and
Gavin Douglas, who wrote a diverse
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of works in
Middle Scots in the period of the
Northern Renaissance.
The Makars have often been referred to by literary critics as ''Scots Chaucerians''. In modern usage, poets of the Scots revival in the 18th century, such as
Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to:
*Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet
*Allan Ramsay (artist) or Allan Ramsay the Younger (1713–1784), Scottish portrait painter
*Allan Ramsay (diplomat) (1937–2022), British diplom ...
and
Robert Fergusson are also makars.
Since 2002, the term "makar" has been revived as the name for a publicly funded poet, first in Edinburgh, followed by the cities of Glasgow, Stirling and Dundee. In 2004 the position of
Makar or National Poet for Scotland, was authorized by the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...
.
Etymology
Middle Scots (plural ) is the equivalent of Middle English ''
maker
Maker(s) or The Maker(s) may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Maker'' (film), a 1997 American drama film
*'' Makers: Women Who Make America'', a 2013 American TV documentary, a 2014 TV series, and related media
*Maker Studios, now part of D ...
''. The word functions as a
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
(literal translation) of
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
term () "maker;
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
". The term is normally applied to poets writing in
Scots although it need not be exclusive to Scottish writers.
William Dunbar for instance referred to the English poets
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
,
Lydgate and
Gower as .
The Makars in history
The work of the Makar of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was in part marked out by an adoption in
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
languages of the new and greater variety in
metrics
Metric or metrical may refer to:
* Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement
* An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement
Mathematics
In mathema ...
and
prosody current across Europe after the influence of such figures as
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
and
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
and similar to the route which Chaucer followed in England. Their work is usually distinguished from the work of earlier Scottish writers such as
Barbour and
Wyntoun
Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun (), was a Scottish poet, a Canon (priest), canon and prior of Loch Leven on St Serf's Inch and, later, a canon of St. Andrews.
Andrew Wyntoun is most famous for his completion of an eight-syllabled met ...
who wrote
romance and
chronicle
A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...
verse in octosyllabic couplets and it also perhaps marked something of a departure from the medieval
alliterative or
troubador
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...
traditions; but one characteristic of poetry by the Makars is that features from all of these various traditions, such as strong alliteration and swift narration, continued to be a distinctive influence.
The first of the Makars proper in this sense, although perhaps the least Scots due to his education predominantly in captivity at the English court in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, is generally taken to be
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
(1394–1437) the likely author of the
Kingis Quair
''The Kingis Quair'' ("The King's Book") is a fifteenth-century poem attributed to James I of Scotland. It is semi-autobiographical in nature, describing the King's capture by the English in 1406 on his way to France and his subsequent imprisonmen ...
. Apart from other principal figures already named, writing by makars such as
Richard Holland
Richard Holland or Richard de Holande (died in or after 1483) was a Scottish cleric and poet, author of the ''Buke of the Howlat''.
Life
Holland was secretary or chaplain to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray (c. 1450) and rector of Halkirk, nea ...
,
Blind Hary and
Walter Kennedy also survives along with evidence that suggests the existence of a substantial body of lost work. The quality of extant work generally, both minor and major, demonstrates a thriving poetic tradition in Scotland throughout the period.
Henryson
Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renai ...
, who is generally seen today as one of the foremost makars, is not known to have been a
court poet
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
, but the Royal Palace of
Dunfermline
Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Accord ...
, the city in which he was based, was one of the residences of the
Stewart court.
A high point in cultural patronage was the Renaissance Court of
James IV
James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...
(1488–1513) now principally associated in literary terms with
William Dunbar. The pinnacle in writing from this time was in fact Douglas's ''
Eneados'' (1513), the first full and faithful translation of an important work of classical antiquity into any
Anglic language. Douglas is one of the first authors to explicitly identify his language as ''Scottis''. This was also the period when use of Scots in poetry was at its most richly and successfully aureate. Dunbar's ''Lament for the Makaris'' (c.1505) contains a
leet
Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet. It often uses character replacements in ways that play on the similarity of their glyphs via reflection or other resemblance. ...
of makars, not exclusively Scottish, some of whom are now only known through his mention, further indicative of the wider extent to the tradition.
Qualities in verse especially prized by many of these writers included the combination of skilful artifice with natural diction, concision and quickness () of expression. For example, Dunbar praises his peer,
Merseir in
The Lament' (ll.74-5) as one
:...
:"That did in love so lively write, So short so quick, of sentence high..."
Some of the Makars, such as Dunbar, also featured an increasing incorporation of Latinate terms into Scots prosody, or
aureation, heightening the creative tensions between the ornate and the natural in
poetic diction Poetic diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry. In the Western tradition, all these elements were thought of as properly different in poetry and prose up to the time ...
.
The new plane of achievement set by Douglas in
epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements
Epic or EPIC may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
and
translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
was not followed up in the subsequent century, but later makars, such as
David Lyndsay, still drew strongly on the work of fifteenth and early sixteenth century exponents. This influence can be traced right through to
Alexander Scott and the various members of the
Castalian Band in the Scottish court of
James VI (1567–1603) which included
Alexander Montgomerie
Alexander Montgomerie (Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair Mac Gumaraid) (c. 1550?–1598) was a Scottish Jacobean courtier and poet, or makar, born in Ayrshire. He was a Scottish Gaelic speaker and a Scots speaker from Ayrshire, an area which wa ...
and, once again, the king himself. The king composed a treatise, the
Reulis and Cautelis (1584), which proposed a formalisation of Scottish prosody and consciously strove to identify what was distinctive in the Scots tradition. The removal of the Court to London under James after 1603 is usually regarded as marking the eclipse of the distinctively Scottish tradition of poetry initiated by the Makars, but figures such as
William Drummond might loosely be seen as forming a continuation into the seventeenth century.
The Makars have often been referred to by literary critics as ''Scots Chaucerians''. While Chaucer's influence on fifteenth-century Scottish literature was certainly important, the makars drew strongly on a native tradition predating Chaucer, exemplified by Barbour, as well as the courtly literature of France.
In the more general application of the term which is current today the word can be applied to poets of the Scots revival in the eighteenth century, such as
Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to:
*Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet
*Allan Ramsay (artist) or Allan Ramsay the Younger (1713–1784), Scottish portrait painter
*Allan Ramsay (diplomat) (1937–2022), British diplom ...
and
Robert Fergusson. In recent times, other examples of poets that have seemed to particularly exemplify the traditions of the makars have included
Robert Garioch
Robert Garioch Sutherland (9 May 1909 – 26 April 1981) was a Scottish poet and translator. His poetry was written almost exclusively in the Scots language, he was a key member in the literary revival of the language in the mid-20th century ...
,
Sydney Goodsir Smith,
George Campbell Hay
George Campbell Hay (1915–1984) was a Scottish Symbolist poet and translator, who wrote in Scottish Gaelic, Scots and English. He used the patronymic Deòrsa Mac Iain Dheòrsa. He also wrote poetry in French, Italian and Norwegian, and t ...
and
Norman MacCaig
Norman Alexander MacCaig DLitt (14 November 1910 – 23 January 1996) was a Scottish poet and teacher. His poetry, in modern English, is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity.
Life
Norman Alexander MacCaig was born ...
among many others.
Modern usage
The Scots Makar
Nicola Sturgeon and the new 2021 Makar outside the Kathleen Jamie outside the Scottish Poetry Library ">Scottish_Poetry_Library.html" ;"title="Kathleen Jamie outside the
Kathleen Jamie outside the Scottish Poetry Library
A position of national Poet laureate">laureate, entitled ''The Scots Makar'', was established in 2004 by the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...
. The first appointment was made directly by the Parliament in that year when
Edwin Morgan received the honour to become Scotland's first ever official
Edwin Morgan (poet)">Edwin Morgan received the honour to become Scotland's first ever official national poet. He was succeeded in 2011 by Liz Lochhead">national poet">Edwin Morgan (poet)">Edwin Morgan received the honour to become Scotland's first ever official national poet. He was succeeded in 2011 by Liz Lochhead. Jackie Kay was announced as the third holder of this post in 2016. Before Kay was appointed, it was suggested that the role might now only be referred to as the National Poet for Scotland, because of concerns that the word makar had to be explained outside of Scotland. Kay states that she argued for retaining the Makar name, which is still used. In August 2021
Kathleen Jamie was announced as the fourth holder of the post.
The city Makars
In 2002 the City of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Scotland's capital, instituted a post of makar, known as the Edinburgh Makar. Each term lasts for three years and the first three incumbents were
Stewart Conn
Stewart Conn (born 1936) is a Scottish poet and playwright, born in Hillhead, Glasgow.''Galaxy 2'' Maryhill Writers Group (2004) His father was a minister at Kelvinside Church but the family moved to Kilmarnock, Ayrshire in 1941 when he was five. ...
(2002),
Valerie Gillies (2005), and
Ron Butlin
Ron Butlin (born 1949 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish poet and novelist who was Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate) from 2008 to 2014.
Education
Butlin was educated at the University of Edinburgh. He later became writer in residence in 1982 and 1984 a ...
(2008, 2011). The current incumbent (as of 2021) is
Hannah Lavery. The previous Edinburgh makars were
Alan Spence
Alan Spence (born 1947) is a Scottish writer and is Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen, where he is also artistic director of the annual WORD Festival. He was born in Glasgow, educated at Allan Glen's School there, and m ...
. and Shetlandic dialect writer and advocate
Christine De Luca.
Other cities to create Makar posts include
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
(
Liz Lochhead),
Stirling (
Magi Gibson
Magi Gibson (1953) is a Scottish poet and children's author.
Early life and education
Gibson was born in Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, in 1953. She studied French and German Literature at the University of Glasgow.
Career
In 2000, Gibson won the ...
),
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
(
Sheena Blackhall
Sheena Blackhall is a Scottish poet, novelist, short story writer, illustrator, traditional story teller and singer.
Author of over 180 poetry pamphlets, 15 short story collections, 4 novels and 2 televised plays for children, The Nicht Bus and ...
) and
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
(
W.N. Herbert
W. N. Herbert , also known as Bill Herbert (born 1961) is a poet from Dundee, Scotland. He writes in both English and Scots. He and Richard Price founded the poetry magazine '' Gairfish''. He currently teaches at Newcastle University.
Early ...
).
Other uses
* American poet
John Berryman
John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...
uses the word in
The Dream Songs
''The Dream Songs'' is a compilation of two books of poetry, '' 77 Dream Songs'' (1964) and ''His Toy, His Dream, His Rest'' (1968), by the American poet John Berryman. According to Berryman's "Note" to ''The Dream Songs'', "This volume combines ...
#43 and #94.
*''Makar'' is the name of a fictional character in the video game ''The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'', see
''The Wind Waker'' characters.
* Makar is a New York indie rock band formed in 2002 by singer/songwriters Mark Purnell and Andrea DeAngelis.
*The Edinburgh Makars is an Amateur Drama Group founded in 1932 by
Christine Orr, the well-known Scottish actress, broadcaster and playwright.
See also
*
Makars' Court
Makars' Court is a courtyard in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It forms part of Lady Stair's Close, which connects the Lawnmarket with The Mound to the north, and is next to the Writers' Museum. Described as an "evolving national literary monumen ...
*
Scop
*
Robert Burns
References
External links
Edwin MorganStewart ConnValeris GilliesRon ButlinMakar Allmusic
{{Authority control
Scots language
Scottish literary movements
M
Middle Scots poets