Sexy Geek Kilt

Eamon wrote,

I know they’re not your words, having just quoted from ThinkGeek, but the bit about Willie is just plain false. Although it’s likely true that William Wallace didn’t wear the kilt it’s not because the kilt hadn’t been invented. William Wallace was a lowland Scot and most likely wore the same armour and clothes that his English enemies wore. The kilt itself is considerably older than that. Consider this: How much easier would it be to take nine (or so) yards of cloth and simply wrap it around you rather than trying to make trewes (pants) out of that same cloth. Kilts came with the Scotti from Ireland in the very, very early A.D years (possibly even B.C.) So, please caveat your quote.
Kind Regards,
Eamon MacRalph

Link | January 31st, 2008 at 8:17 pm

Stephen wrote,

I think Eamon is talking rubbish, a bit of cloth wrapped around you is not a kilt.

This from “History of the Kilt” on Wikipedia. “It was only with the Romantic Revival of the 19th century that the kilt became irreversibly associated with Highlanders, and was subsequently adopted by Lowlanders and the Scottish Diaspora”. and William Wallace was probably of Welsh descent anyway so wouldn’t have had a family tartan even if it had been adopted 700 years before wikipedia says it was in the region Wallace lived.

Link | February 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 am

Eamon MacRalph wrote,

Sorry Stephen, but you’re mistaking the “modern kilt” for the kilt, and while I’m at it, I should remind you that Wikipedia can hardly be construed as the absolute end-all of research.
The Modern Kilt, which you correctly say was associated with the Romantic Revival of the 19th century is, in fact, what the Scots called the Feile Baeg(little kilt - from the roots /feile/ meaning “kilted” and /beg/ meaning “small”). The Feile Baeg was the lower part of the entire ensemble, or just the kilted portion of the entire Feile Mohr (big kilt - from the root /mohr/ meaning “large”). It was this “Highland Attire” that was outlawed by the English after the failed Jacobite Rising in 1745-46. When the Romantic Revival came about during Queen Victoria’s reign, only the more compact feile baeg was revived. It has been modified and updated to become what we know today as the kilt. The feile mohr, in its turn, grew from the belted plaid (breaca filleadh) and was, simply, put, a large amount of cloth (6 - 9 yards) wrapped around the body and belted at the mid-section. It was worn by the highlanders & islanders in the North of Scotland. A written description of this occurs in a soldier’s diary from 1594: “They were recognized among the Irish soldiders by the distinction of their arms and clothing, their habits and language, for their exterior dress was mottled cloaks of many colours with a fringe to their shins and calves, their belts were over their loins outside their cloaks.”
As for William Wallace. Perhaps he was of Welsh descent, I really don’t know. But that certainly wouldn’t preclude from wearing the clothing of the area in which he lived…the lowlands of Scotland. And family tartans did not exist as such until a ridiculous book was published in the 19th century claiming to associate Clans with their tartan…but that’s a different thing altogether.
As for the German’s having invented it? In a sense they may have, or at least contributed. The Celts, who became part of the Scots were Teutonic and most likely emigrated from the Germanic regions.
None of the above,by the way is meant to inflame or challenge…just educate.
Cheers.

Link | February 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm