Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:29 AM

Right you are, I must have been half asleep 'cause I knew that.

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: kendall
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 09:37 PM

Many years ago a friend of mine ,moved to Scotland and she sent me a post card of the highlands. It was a very moving feeling that came over me; home sickness was as close as I could come to describing it.
How is it possible to feel like that for a place that, until lately I had never seen?

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: maeve
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 09:56 PM

I've felt the same each time I've traveled in Scotland, Kendall.

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: kendall
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 08:44 AM

Past life?

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: GUEST,alex
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 05:18 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalydon

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 09:04 PM

Lord Byron wrote the poem about Lochnagar: only later became a song. Find it also on Wikipedia!

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: Bert
Date: 18 Feb 14 - 01:36 PM

Caled is just the way that The Scots pronounce the word COLD. :-)

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Feb 14 - 02:57 PM

My father was from Caithness originally, and his surname is one of the towns up there. He always maintained he was of Viking stock, being blonde with very pale blue eyes. But I watched an interesting programme a few years ago which did genetic DNA tests on Orkney and Shetland folk who had lived there for generations, and not a drop of Scandinavian blood did they find. They concluded that, in spite of many raids on the northern shores, the Vikings always went home again, and didn't settle in Scotland!

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: Howard Jones
Date: 19 Feb 14 - 06:43 AM

Eliza, that's not what this website says

Blood of the Vikings

That shows a significant proportion of both male and female Scandinavian DNA in Orkney and Shetland, compared with the Western Isles where mainly male DNA was found.

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Feb 14 - 07:31 AM

The gene for Dupuytren's contracture was introduced to Britain by the Vikings.

Margaret Thatcher had that.

I guess the genes for murder and thieving are close by on the same chromosome.

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 19 Feb 14 - 08:31 AM

Goodness Howard, that's the exact opposite of what I thought! What a terrible shame my poor old dad passed away many many years ago. He'd have been so pleased to hear that he probably was, in fact, of Viking blood! Thank you so much for putting me right. He certainly looked very Scandinavian, not at all like the Scots I encountered in Glasgow and Edinburgh, who were quite dark-featured in general. He also loved the sea, and our family tree on that side has no end of sea captains. Perhaps they manned the longships centuries ago! Do you suppose sea-faring is in the blood of descendants of the Vikings? If so, I haven't inherited it - I loathe the sea and get seasick just looking at a ship!

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: Bert
Date: 19 Feb 14 - 11:27 AM

Nice one Jack.

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: GUEST,ripov
Date: 19 Feb 14 - 08:27 PM

Weren't the Pictses the little people who lived in the woods, and lived in holes in the ground?
Not being silly, this plural form was used by a Scottish lady I met once.

And "scot" also means a tax. Or, off the coast of High Barbary, the jolly pirates "fee".

Aren't words great? And we can argue forever about them.

Subject: RE: Whence the name Caledonia for Scotland??
From: Noreen
Date: 20 Feb 14 - 05:28 PM

Bit more thread drift after the last post:


scot-free

O.E. scotfreo "exempt from royal tax," from scot "royal tax," from O.N. skot "contribution, reckoning, shot" + freo (see free). Related to O.E. sceotan "to pay, contribute," Du. schot, Ger. Schoß "tax, contribution" (see shot). O.Fr. escot (Fr. écot) "share" is a Gmc. loan-word.

dictionary.reference.com/browse/scot-free