ANGLES Volume VII

The State of the Union: Scotland 1707-2007

Editors: Jørgen Sevaldsen and Jens Rahbek Rasmussen

This special issue of Angles marks the three hundredth anniversary of the Union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England. The nature and development of the relations between the constituent parts of the United Kingdom is a fascinating topic also to outside observers, and some of the contributions to this volume deal with the Union in a comparative European context. Both Scottish nationalism and Scottish unionism are analysed, and Anglo-Scottish relations are looked at from historical, sociological, linguistic and literary angles.

The contributions have been written by distinguished scholars based in Scotland (Graham Caie, David Mc Crone, Steve Murdoch, John R.Young and Karina Westermann), England (Paul Ward) and Denmark (Henrik Halkier, Charles Lock, Jens Rahbek Rasmussen and Robert C. Thomsen).

List of Contents

Acknowledgements

Editors’ Preface

Jens Rahbek Rasmussen
Introductory Thoughts on Scotland, England, Empire and Europe

David McCrone
State, Society and Nation: The Problem of Scotland

Steve Murdoch & J.R. Young
Union and Identity: Scotland in a Social and Institutional Context

Paul Ward
‘Union is not Amalgamation Scotland is a Nation’:
Unionism and Scottishness in the Twentieth Century

Henrik Halkier
Governing Regional Development in Pre-Devolution Scotland:
Thatcherism and the Scottish Development Agency

Robert C. Thomsen
Beyond the Cringe: Scottish Nationalism since the 1960s.

Graham D. Caie
The Scots Language then and now

Karina Westermann
That Dear Green Place Rewritten:
Alasdair Gray and Scottish Literary Independence

Charles Lock
Five Passports and a Broken Stone:
Tercentenary thoughts in honour of Edward Lhuyd Til toppen

Editors' Preface:

This special issue of Angles: The State of the Union 1707-2007 marks the three hundredth anniversary of the Union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England under the name of the United Kingdom.

When the volume was first planned the editors were in no doubt that the occasion would be duly marked and noted in Britain, even if it would not give rise to any great celebration. The historic relationship between England and Scotland has fluctuated over the years and has always been a matter of interest to Danes, whether as observers or participants. The recent establishment of a Scottish Parliament has created a new interest, not least outside of the British Isles, in the constitutional framework of the United Kingdom. Is the parliament at Holyrood a harbinger of complete Scottish independence, or will the extended autonomy that the Scottish people now enjoy create a new and sufficient sense of balance within the union, and even bring about a new sense of purpose?

Scotland and Denmark are neighbouring countries, and the North Sea has for centuries been a major trading route for merchants and a source of wealth (sometimes contested) for fishermen. As is made clear in one of the essays in this volume, dynastic connections between the royal houses of Scotland and Denmark have been of historic importance. In 1589 James VI of Scotland married Anne, the sister of Christian IV of Denmark. When James became James I of England in 1603, thus embodying in his person sovereignty over two kingdoms, Anne became Queen of both England and Scotland. And when the United Kingdom was created in 1707, Queen Anne's husband was a Dane, Prince George.

Along with other continental Europeans in the Age of Romanticism, Danes became fascinated by the Highlands and the legendary past, especially as shaped and presented in the poems and novels of Sir Walter Scott and in the epics attributed to Ossian. Scott's works enjoyed enormous popularity in Denmark, and (as elsewhere in Europe) inspired many works of art by way of respectful imitation. Bournonville's ballet Sylfiden (1836) features as the central male role a kilted Highlander. The composer Niels W. Gade made his first public success with Echoes of Ossian (1841). The Scots have had a generally good press in Denmark ever since; contemporary links have been strengthened by the decision to place the UK office of the Danish Cultural Institute in Edinburgh rather than in London.

From the Scottish point of view, there has long been a sense of cultural affinity as well as historical and linguistic kinship with the Nordic world. In the past century many political commentators, notably in the Scottish national party, have pointed to the Nordic countries as examples of nations able to flourish independently with relatively small populations, in the cases of Norway, Finland and Denmark, and now the Baltic Republics as well. Scots have also been interested in the model of devolution established within the Kingdom of Denmark for its 'overseas territories' of Greenland and the Faero Islands.

We are pleased to be able to present a volume on Scotland and its place in the United Kingdom that is, as the topic demands, both multi-disciplinary and trans-national, in its concepts as in its contributors. It has been a pleasure to work with English and Scottish colleagues, who have welcomed the project, have responded with courteous efficiency to our demands and deadlines, and have appreciated this enterprise as another opportunity to strengthen connections with scholars in Danish universities. We are of course also grateful to our contributors from this side of the North Sea, known from here as the Western Ocean.

In addition to thanking all our contributors, we must also express our gratitude to Dorte Albrechtsen, Charles Lock, Pia Theilgaard Smith and Sofie Bonnen for much help generously given in the production of this volume.

1 May 2007
Jørgen Sevaldsen
Jens Rahbek Rasmussen Til toppen