The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Traditional Literatures

Yet another title in the rapidly expanding Edinburgh Companions to Scottish Literature series edited by Ian Brown and Thomas Clancy. The definition of tradition in Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (Robinson 1996) is “something such as a doctrine, belief, custom, story etc. that is passed on from one generation to another especially orally or by example”. The book’s introduction attempts to provide various definitions and meanings of tradition in relation to both oral and written records of Scottish languages, literature and culture, though by its very definition oral tradition has been and remains difficult to record, especially in a...