ORAL SCOTLAND

ORAL SCOTLAND

Intro : I’m going to present to you the idea of myths and heroes through the example of Scotland and more precisely through the genuine Scottish spirit of defiance and how it’s flame and power are still living in youngsters hearts and minds. First of all, i’ll begin with a quick definition, a myth is a story that can be a popular belief, a tradition or a false fiction. As for heroes, the term can define different types of people such as comics characters, real people involved in our everyday lives or people who left a mark in our History. But how does the Scottish myths and heroes participate in the national spirit of defiance ? I’ll proceed my argumentation in two parts, first i’ll present to you heroes from the past who built this famous spirit and then the new heroes who keep fostering it.

Part 1 : First and foremost i will introduce to you the Scottish culture, you may not know but Scotland is often represented as a rebellious and courageous nation : that’s due to the fact that in the 13th century, England decided to invade Scotland but William Wallace, a fiery leader and charismatic speaker who motivated the troops pushed the enemy back with his passion for liberty and his love for his nation. He is the embodiment of the Scottish Spirit and independence fever. I mean he fought with his blood sweat and tears an entire trained British army with only a hand full of men dressed in kilt ( basically men skirts made of tartan) for whom swords and spears were not part of the everyday life. But Scotland has known more than one patriotic icon, Agnes Black also pushed back a memorable British assault. In fact, England led the onslaught on Dunbar castle when the Earl Patrick the 5th was at war. It is kind of unreal that 1. a woman stood up and resisted the British army in such cold blood and provocative behavior 2. that the British lost again to the Scotts even when they were significantly disadvantaged. Now we cannot call that a coincidence, that’s the real power of the Scottish spirit.

Transition : To further what i said, the Scottish spirit of defiance and desire of emancipating from England is deeply rooted in the Scotts and their culture since centuries, for example with comics such as Saltire, and we’re going to see through actual figures how they’re following the way of life of their ancestors.

 Part 2 : Thus, Scotland’s new generation is proud of their country, and it shows. Andy Murray, for example, is a famous Scottish tennis player. He is well known for his behavior during the game : he is very competitive and fierce, and has a really hard time losing, maybe more than others. He is mostly popular for his game against DJOKOVICH, which was a match of real resistance. Although he lost to him, the fact that he gave his all while playing and proved that he can stand up for himself and challenge his opponent (who is by the way the N1 world tennis player) throughout the Australian Open, even forced the British to admit that even if he’s a Scott he still did amazing against DJOKOVICH. Last but not least, Mary Black, she’s a young woman, she is the youngest MP and was 20yo during her maiden speech (she even used W. Wallace as a reference), she’s very determined and you can see in the way she talk that she loves her country and wish for it’s independence more than anything.