In the Footsteps of Flodden

2013 is the quincentenary of the battle of Flodden the most disastrous event in Scottish history.  Amongst the many events to mark the anniversary is a dramatised walk along the route taken by the Scots army to muster at Ellemford on the banks of the Whiteadder Water.   
  
http://www.lammermuirlife.co.uk/In-the-Footsteps-of-Flodden.cfm 

Having got involved in drafting some of the vignettes to be performed at the rest areas on the walk, I thought I ought to revisit Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion: a Tale of Flodden Field  for a bit of inspiration.

I didn’t find inspiration but an interesting diversion that has nothing to do with Flodden but one that the Shirra had obviously heard and couldn’t resist working into his story.

Marmion, the flawed hero-villain of the story, has lodged for the night in the inn at Gifford where the innkeeper tells him the tale of Sir Hugo de Gifford, 13^th century Lord of Yester Castle, reputed to be a wizard, a necromancer who had raised “the dread artisans of hell” to build Goblin Hall beneath his castle

 

To hew the living rock profound

The floor to pave, the arch to round

There never toiled a mortal arm

It all was wrought by word and charm

 

The remains of Yester Castle

Sir Hugo had apparently employed French masons but the local populace, astonished by the unbelievable standard of the workmanship… and possibly, hearing the speech of the workers… were sure it was the work of goblins, an illusion that Sir Hugo would have willingly fostered.

The vaulting that amazed the locals

His host tells Marmion how, three hundred years before the ill-fated foray to Flodden, Alexander III, the last of the Celtic kings of Scotland, had sought the magic powers of Sir Hugo to predict the outcome of his fight against the Danes.

 The magus had directed him to combat, within an ancient ring-fort, with a wight that “treads its circle in the night”.    The king defeats the creature and foresees his victory against the Norsemen.

Marmion  feels he must try the same, to predict the outcome of Flodden.  On his return he says nothing but his squire notes that his “falcon crest was soiled with clay”.   An ill omen.

 

 The ring-fort is now an aerial shadow on a golf course; Yester Castle has long crumbled to ruin, its place taken by the elegant 18^th century Yester House; but the   subterranean Goblin Ha’ remains…a testimony to the expertise of Sir Hugo’s artisans …or his diabolic  arts.

Yester House