The Chronicles of John of Fordun and Walter Bower: Original Text and Interpolations

The article is devoted to the analysis of some interpolations contained in two Late Medieval chronicles: John of Fordun’s «Chronica Gentis Scotorum» and Walter Bower’s «Scotichronicon». These texts are often considered as a cornerstone of the Scottish national history writing, so the main interest of historians was centered around their content and the narrative techniques used by the chroniclers to create an «idea of Scotland». The major research of the reception of an earlier tradition, conducted by J. and W. McQueen in the late 1980s and early 1990s while preparing the Scotichronicon’s publication focused mainly on the later among the two sources, resulted with some of the appropriations borrowed into the Bower’s work through the text of the «Chronica Gentis Scotorum». The importance of conducting an adequate study on the interplations in the Scottish historical writing, however, can be derived from the wider range of the sources, for without an understanding of the texts used by John of Fordun and Walter Bower, it will be impossible to assess their own narratives reliably. This article attempts to place the abovementioned works within the overall intellectual context of the historical writing of the British Isles by analyzing elements of the Classical, Early English, and Irish traditions woven into the narratives of the «Chronica Gentis Scotorum» and the «Scotichronicon».