Lewis Chessman Live at the National

Lewis Chessmen at the National Museum

I saw the Lewis Chessmen in person yesterday at the National Museum.  They are so beyond awesome.  The workmanship and detail is incredible.  I know, I know, but there really aren’t the words to properly describe them.  They are unlike anything else, even the Inuit and First Nations carvings from home.

One could spend days in the museum itself, wandering around and exploring various nooks and crannies.  Everywhere you go, there is something else to see.  The first floor, which was my favourite, was all artifacts about the early peoples, the Picts and Romans, etc.  I find the Picts fascinating.  They were a far advanced people, as far as I’m concerned.  The tools, jewellery, clothing, all of which was not only beautiful, but ingenious.  I’ve said it before and will again.  I don’t understand how the Scots could ever have been considered a backwards, crude nation of sub-human peoples.  The evidence to prove otherwise is all around us.  Has to be an English thing.

There was so little taught and learned about Scottish history.  Braveheart, (despite the attitude over here about that movie), was the first inkling I ever had about my own heritage and gave me pride in that heritage.  Being here and learning about what being Scottish is all about just rounds that out and increases that sense of pride and ownership.  Not that I haven’t been proud of who and what I am, it’s more of a case that I didn’t know just what to be proud of.

Freedom!