Elgin

Cabinet 13

Androw (or Andrew) Wyntoun, head of St. Serf’s priory in Lochleven, is famous for his De Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, an eight-syllabled metre history of Scotland from mythic times (he includes angels) to accession of James I in 1406.

It contains an early mention of Robin Hood, the earliest mention of the word ‘Catholic’, and in chapter 18, the story of Macbeth and the weird sisters.

Wyntoun (who died in 1420) also mentions in Chapter 12, line 145, the sacking of Elgin Cathedral in 1390 ‘Be wyld wykkyd Heland-men’, who were led by Alexander Stewart, more familiarly known as the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’.

This is the first edition printing of this important source for pre-Edwardian I Scottish history.

Androw of Wyntoun, De Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland. Vol. II. London, Printed by T. Bensley, and sold by Thomas Egerton, Whitehall, and William Laing, Edinburgh, 1795.