The re-making of a mythic hero: Scottish nationalism in "Braveheart"

Nationalistic sentiment looks to the past to legitimate the present and secure the friture; it re-makes history, appropriaring mythic legends as it forges a narional identirs'. Each time an ancient story is told, the myths are reinforced; each time today is reminded of yesterday, the origins are re-traced. Scotrish historiographers have connected their people to a legendary past, invoking the names and telling the stories which set Scotland apart as a disrinct and divinely ordained kingdom. While others have called upon mythic figures such as Romulus and Remus, Aeneas, Brutus, and King Arthur, the Scots have turned to Jacob; when their idenrity as an independent people has been challenged, the Scots have defended their narion by emphasizing Jacob's role in its founding.

Renamed Israel, this descendant of Abraham and Isaac became the father of twelve sons, the patriarch of the IsraeUte narion's twelve tribes. Jacob first received the promise of a country during a dream which he had as he slept on a stone; he saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway which rested on the earth but stretched to the heavens, and Yahweh stood before Jacob and said, "Your descendants will he like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring." According to Scotrish folklore, the coronarion stone of Scotland, the Stone of Desriny, is that very rock on which Jacob slept as he was given the promise of a land in which his people could dwell.