stories from och aye land

Sir Walter Scott is difficult to sift through. The weight of his short story "The Two Drovers" rests mostly in his hypotactic noun-style. He buries the action of his sentences within noun phrases and other such syntatic layers. A prime example of this style:

Many large droves were set off for England, under the protection of their owners, or of the topsmen whom they employed in the tedious, laborious, and responsible office of driving the cattle for many hundred miles, from the market where they had been purchased to the fields or farmyards where they were to be fattened for the shambles.

Without the layering phrases, this sentence would read "Many large droves were set off for England from the market where they had been purchased to the fields or farmyards where they were to be fattened for the shambles." Even without the phrases, this sentence is still long, complex, and passive.

Scott densely packs his sentences with information, forcing readers to meticulously read each word or else skim the sentence, looking for its main point.

Another predominant trait of Scott's story: foreshadowing. The moment Robin Oig's old witch-aunt warns him that if he goes on his journey, he will have English blood on his hands, readers are alerted to the fact that he will, inevitably, kill an Englishman (obviously Harry Wakefield since he is the only Englishman around). Always in such stories the old hag/oracle character is right and no matter how the hero tries to avoid the prophecy, it always comes about. Even though Robin hands over his knife to Hugh Morrison, readers know it is with that very weapon that he will spill the Englishman's blood.

to be continued...