Understanding the Tartan

[lrpddrummie]

I have read several articles about the significance of the tartan, the colors, the spacing of the pattern, etc and how when all put together the tartan as meaning. However none of the articles told me how to, for a lack of better terms, "read" the tartan. Does anybody out there know of a resource which can help me interupt a tartan or is the notion that the tartan has meaning, other than the connection to a clan, a bunch of bunk? Please shed some light.

Thank you.

[Freelander Sporrano]

This may help you some of the way...It's more understanding the tartan than Reading it.
http://www.tartans.scotland.net/read...rtan/index.cfm

[macwilkin]

Some of the more modern District (and other) Tartans do have symbolism in their colours. Here's one for example, the symbolism behind the tartan of the Northwest Territories in Canada:

Mrs. Anderson-Thomson chose the colours for the pattern. She wrote that green represents the forests, white the frozen Arctic Ocean, blue the Northwest Passage, gold the mineral wealth of the NWT and the red-orange, which she describes as "autumn colours" represents the barren lands or "Arctic prairies." The tartan also contains a thin black line representing the northern treeline.

-- http://www.nwtpipeband.ca/nwt_tartan.html

In the preface of "Tartan for Me!", Dr. Phillip Smith, a noted Tartan Scholar, deals with a number of myths about tartan. One myth states that there are "hidden ways" in a thread-count that spell out a clan's name -- a "hidden message", so to speak. Dr. Smith debunks that myth, and several others. I don't have my copy here at work, but I will transcribe that section tonight.

I'm sure Matt will also have a good deal to add to this thread! :mrgreen:

Cheers,

Todd

[M. A. C. Newsome]

The notion of "reading" a tartan is something that you run into every now and again at the Highland Games.

There used to be one fellow running around claiming that ancient Ogham messages were hidden in the tartan setts, and that he could, quite literally, "read" the message hidden in your tartan.

The long and short of it is that this is complete nonsense. There is no intrinsic meaning in the tartan designs. The fact that this tartan has red and the other has blue, or how wide the stripes are, have absolutely no instrinsic meaning.

Now, with modernly designed tartans, people do often select colors, and sometimes even patterns, with a specific meaning in mind. However, that will be a meaning particular to that individual tartan. Just because blue represents the Blue Bonnet flower in the Texas state tartan does not mean that it represents the same thing in any other tartan.

So, if you find any site on line claiming to be able to read the hidden meanig in the tartan, I'd ignore it and move on. :-)

Aye,
Matt

[GMan]

Great question and great information, thank you all from one who didn't even pose the question.

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Paulie... I have a few books that I can toss your way at the next gig that you'll be at. They have a load of information on the "links" between certain tartans and clans, but not one thing on the blanket symbolism of colors, stripes, patterns, etc. One example is the Cumming and and Cameron tartans. Another is the Campbell and Black Watch. There's some GREAT history in the reading!

Individual tartans MAY have a meaning in the colors, but that's all an individual designation... like Matt stated. The "Clergy" tartan is a great example.

Can you find certain similarities in regional clan and family tartan symbolisms? Yup. Is it something that's stated in some grand tartan "bible"? Nope.

I personally think that the MacLeod of Lewis family were actually Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

[Alan H]

I was doing some reading about ancient Gaelic clothing, and come to find out that most scholars think the link between clans and specific tartans didn't appear until the early 1700's. Prior to that there were different sorts of cloth woven in various areas, but any given person might wear any tartan woven in their area, and might quite happily wear several all at the same time.

Go back a couple of hundred years further, and pretty much all the Gaels wore the leine, a linen tuni/shirt, and the brat a squarish wool cloak that might be little more than a wrap or could be a more tailored garment. Brats were usually woven of wool in a single color with a fringe.

While it seems to make sense that the kilt should have evolved from the brat, apparently most scholars think that the kilt evolved from the leine. I remember reading something the other day...an account written about 1540 (1580?) where the English Earl who was observing a mixed army of Celts from Scotland and Ireland could tell the difference between them because the Irish belted their leine's and the Scots did not. No mention is made of tartan at all. The belted plaid (tartan) kilt came into being around 1600 as the saffron shirt went out of fashion or more likely, was legistlated out of existance by the English.

Illustrations drawn of the survivors of the battle of Culloden in 1745 show them wearing a complete hodgepodge of tartans, though it seems to me that may be an artifact of the prisoners grabbing whatever they could to stay warm.

Leines in the 12-14th centuries were apparently white or yellow-colored. Saffron was theoretically used to dye the linen leine's yellow, but the yellow color that saffron imparts to linen is not the mustardy-orange-yellow of todays saffron kilt, but bright yellow.

Saffron is the stamens and pollen of the crocus plant, and crocus does not grow in Scotland or Ireland. Thus "saffron" is somewhat unlikely as the source of the very common yellow dye that was ubiquitous among 10th-13th century Celts. Instead, if you take the tops of the heather plants (I'm not clear if it has to be in flower or not) and boil it, the resulting liquid is bright yellow, and imparts a very satisfactory yellow dye to linen.

Both the saffron dye and the heather dye impart very different colors to wool than they do to linen, however. So at any rate, the saffron kilt as known today has resulted from a very different dye process than the "saffron" leine's of the ancient celts. That in no way makes it any less valid a piece of clothing, and the saffron kilts of the 19th and 20th and now, 21st century are still excellent items, but the dye used to make them does not render the same color as was observed among the ancient celts.

Incidentally, NONE of the above is original from me, it's all been gathered during some reading I did the other day when looking into wearing a saffron kilt. Most of what I wrote above is taken from excellent material I read which you can find here:

http://www.reconstructinghistory.com...ish/kilts.html

click on the "scottiish" and "Irish" links on the left and read through this site, as it's jam-packed with excellent information. Of oucrse, some of it may be in dispute, eh?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

While it seems to make sense that the kilt should have evolved from the brat, apparently most scholars think that the kilt evolved from the leine. I remember reading something the other day...an account written about 1540 (1580?) where the English Earl who was observing a mixed army of Celts from Scotland and Ireland could tell the difference between them because the Irish belted their leine's and the Scots did not. No mention is made of tartan at all. The belted plaid (tartan) kilt came into being around 1600 as the saffron shirt went out of fashion or more likely, was legistlated out of existance by the English.

I need to make one correction to your otherwise excellent post. The belted plaid did evolve from the brat, and not the leine. The brat is, as you stated, a wrap or a mantle (blanket) worn wrapped over the shoulders. The leine is a shirt.

Keep in mind that in Gaelic, plaid means blanket, and feilidh (as in feilidh-mhor) means wrap. The belted plaid is a blanker (or feilidh-mhor, large wrap) that has been belted around the body.

The reference you mention is from the Life or Red Hugh O'Donnell writted in 1594. The quote distinguished the Scottish Hebridean soldiers from the Irish soldiers in that the Scots wore their "belts outside their mantles" -- that is, their belts were worn over their wraps, i.e. as in a belted plaid.

Everyone wore their belts outside their leine's, as these were shirts, always pictured worn belted at the waist.

So the belted plaid indeed evolved from the mantle or brat. The articles on reconstructinghistory.com affirm this.

That's a great site, by the way, one of the few out there that can be trusted for accurate, well researched information. I highly recommend it.

Aye,
Matt

[Alan H]

Thanks for the kind words, M.A.C. I really enjoyed reading through that site and I learned a bunch 'o stuff!

Come to find out that "Braveheart" while a good movie is not even close in terms of historical accuracy! Well, as least as far as the costumes are concerned. I need to rent Rob Roy and take a look at that, since that's much more highly recommended in terms of accuracy.

[macwilkin]

One of the most accurate movies in regards to kilts is "Tunes of Glory", starring Sir Alec Guiness and John Mills. Set in post-war Scotland, it is the story of two officers in a Scottish regiment. It is quite apparent that they did their homework.

It's my favourite all-time movie as well! :mrgreen:

Cheers,

Todd