John Pinkerton - Celtic/Gothic Furore

Celtic/Gothic Furore

Pinkerton next collected and printed in 1789 certain Vitae sanctorum scotiae, and, a little later, published his Enquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the Reign of Malcolm III. His assertion that the Celts were incapable of assimilating the highest forms of civilization excited "violent disgust", but the Enquiry was twice reprinted, in 1794 and 1814, and is still of value for the documents embodied in it.

Pinkerton very much wished to purge his country's history of all Celtic elements. In this aim, through two works, the Dissertation on the Origins and Progress of the Scythians or Goths (1787) and the Enquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the reign of Malcolm III (1789), he developed the theory that the Picts were in fact of the race of ancient Goths, that the Scots language was a pure descendant of the Picto-Gothic language; and, moreover, that the Gaels, or Highlanders, were a degenerate impostor race.

In an effort to advance his theories, Pinkerton turned to comparing Celtic and Germanic philology. He wanted to show that Scotland's Celtic placenames were not Celtic at all - many of these attempts being discredited by modern scholars. Pinkerton thought, for instance, that Aber (as in Aberdeen) came from the German über rather than from the Celtic for confluence of a river, and likewise, that the Gaelic word Inver (equivalent of Aber) was a borrowing from Danish.

To this end he set his energy to collecting and creating older Anglo-Scottish literature. This was all the more important as far as his agenda was concerned because of the "Celtomania" produced by the Ossian poems of James MacPherson. Many such works had been invented by Pinkerton. His "ancient" Anglo-Scottish tale of Hardyknute had in fact only been composed in 1719 by Lady Wardlaw of Pitreavie. Pinkerton subsequently invented a sequel to this epic, but after he was exposed by Joseph Ritson, he admitted to the forgery.

Pinkerton's correspondence with fellow academics is characterized by verbal abuse. Hugh Trevor-Roper, one modern historian inclined to sympathize with at least the spirit of his views, called him "eccentric." Other historians have hinted at mild insanity. Despite this, Pinkerton is still an important figure in the history of British antiquarianism.