Scotland (Alba) c1020; a teenage Macbeth, resident at the court of Malcolm II, receives news of his father’s murder and the seizure of his lands in Moray. He pours out his grief to his cousin and friend, Duncan. Both are the grandsons of the king.
This new 90-minute verse/prose drama explores the story of the real Scottish King, from this critical moment in his life to his coronation in 1040. Young Macbeth must avenge his father’s death, regain his lands in Moray and win the hand of his cousin’s widow, Gruoch, before Destiny finally beckons him to Scone.
Macbeth ruled Scotland for almost 17 years and yet, a thousand years on, very little is known about his life. Shakespeare’s masterpiece is a terrific tale, but it is almost entirely fictitious. Deborah McAndrew’s carefully researched play reveals a gifted young man caught up in the turbulent politics of 11th Century Scotland: bereaved of his father; betrayed by those closest to him; and beloved by his people.
KING MACBETH
Robert Marsden in Search of the real Macbeth
(With thanks to Cameron Taylor and Alistair Murray's trail)
Sunday 27th June 2010 - Dores Inn, Banks of Loch Ness
Having arrived on the banks of Loch Ness in Dores, it is easy to imagine Macbeth on this South West part of Morayperusing the landscape as a young man; excited about the possibility of being a leader, a ruler, a Thane, a Mormaer - a King.
Tomorrow I begin the start on the trail of the real Scottish King, hoping to find out what made him tick and the landscape which would have been familiar to him as a boy and then as ruler of Alba.
Monday 29th June
The trail of Macbeth began in earnest early this morning. I feel like I want to get to know the man; to step in his walks and breath the same air. Inverness was the starting point and at the Museum and Art Gallery I was to explore the history of Moray and to examine the different ethnic groups. One of these groups is the Picts, who I have become fascinated with. Amalgamated with the Scots in the 10th Century to become ‘Alba’, Macbeth would have seen numerous Pictish stones in Moray and on the Black Isle. My designer Mila and I have become interested in using these structures as a starting point to the design –both epic and intimate; foreboding and beautiful; familiar and yet mysterious.
Climbing to Auldcastle Road, a flat plateau awaited. Now a housing estate, why is it so flat? This is the original site of a fortification: Inverness Castle, which would have been Macbeth’s father’s location. From here, you can see across the Moray Firth and down to Inverness and would have been wonderfully strategic. Later in the story, Malcolm Canmore destroyed the castle following Macbeth’s defeat.
Following his father’s murder, Macbeth fled, fearful for his own life. It is believed that he headed north to the fertile Black Isle; an area familiar to a frightened man of 15. The eleven years between his father’s death and Macbeth taking revenge is blurred in terms of the facts. We know he would have spent time with his grandfather (King Malcolm II) and his cousins Duncan and Thorfinn.
At Cromarty Macbeth would have seen across the Firth back to Moray- a land lost to his parental cousin. Across towards the North would be the Viking occupied land. Whoever was Mormaer of Moray would be extremely aware of the Viking threat; smelling their enemy. Yet King Malcolm was shrewd. Macbeth and Duncan’s maternal cousin Thorfinn (who does not appear in Debbie’s play for clarity) was Jarl of Orkney, married to one of Malcom’s daughters as a political move- to calm the waters of the Firth and to have family embedded in the Orkney camp.
The 8th Century Church (pictured to the left) at Portmahomack (Tarbat Discovery Centre) is a beautifully serene location and one in which Macbeth may have prayed whilst in exile. Again, many Pictish stones are on display here and Christian symbolism abounds.
A short drive and the Tarbat Ness Lighthouse awaited. In the waters below Duncan was defeated by Thorfinn whilst King, which weakened his leadership and paved the passage for Macbeth to take the throne. Today there were no battles on the waters; only the promise of Bottle Nose Dolphins which remained firmly hidden.
Tuesday 30th June.
I started to feel I was getting closer and closer to Macbeth’s ghost today- walking specifically in his footsteps.
Cawdor Castle was today’s starting point. Beautiful, alluring and yet totally unconnected to the real Macbeth, having been built three centuries after his death. Shakespeare linked this castle with the Scottish King and Lady Cawdor has a mission to divorce the myth from the reality.
In 1032, the Annals of Ulster states that “Gilla Comgain… the Mormaer of Moray was burnt along with fifty of his men”. Legend has it that this site was on a mound at Auldearn which now houses a Dovecote. It certainly feels like a site in which Macbeth would have stood, with a panoramic view of Moray as the flames engulfed his father’s killer Gillacomgain. Following an eleven year gap with certainly some time in exile, this torturous revenge was bloody indeed. The site of this burning fortification would have shocked people across Moray and where Macbeth claimed the title of Moray and found a wife.
John of Fordun’s 14th Century Chronicles depict Macbeth as a tyrant.
He suggested Macbeth’s Hillock at Brodie is the site where he and Banquo met the three witches. Nevertheless, Banquo was a created character and the connection with the three witches was made by Andrew of Wyntoun in his Chronicles (1400) Standing at the top of the Hillock, the wind whistled past and certainly evoked an atmosphere of witchcraft, energies and tension.
The drive to Burghead, the Pictish Fortress, took us on the B9089. This was underwater in Macbeth’s lifetime, until the draining of the Spynie Loch many years later. Burghead was virtually an island and a strategic northern point of Moray. Macbeth would have known of this Pictish area (and later it became a Viking held fortification). Looking across the Moray Firth you can just make out Tarbat Ness and from this southern vantage point I again could envisage Duncan and Thorfinn’s battle. Perhaps Macbeth looked on from the safety of this fort? Despite Thorfinn’s win, the Vikings did not invade further south, except for some occasional pillaging! Scene Five in King Macbeth is set at Burghead- with Lady Gruoch persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan; a delicious parallel to Shakespeare’s persuasion scene.
Wednesday 31st June.
Waking up in Forres to a beautiful morning excited me to the possibility of closing in on Macbeth today. Walking to the top of a steep hill in Forres to Nelson’s Tower was our starting point. Although the tower dates from the 1th Century, the site was believed to have housed an 11th Century fortification or would at the very least be another perfect vantage point. Taylor and Murray believe that Macbeth and Gruoch may have been here following Duncan’s death. I could certainly imagine them here waiting for any revenging troops to enact their revenge,
Walking eastwards, Sueno’s Stone (pictured on the left) was next to experience. One of the most famous Pictish Standing Stones it certainly dominates and Macbeth would have surely have known and seen this stone. Perhaps he too wondered at the meaning of the Pictish symbolism. Although it’s meaning is not exactly known today, Macbeth may have been able to create meaning from its text.
Travelling further east to the north of Elgin is Spynie Palace,
a Bishop’s residency which would have sat on the banks of the Spynie prior to its draining. Although there are no historical connections, the site is at Pitgaveny (a Pictish name) and standing at the top of the Palace the attendant pointed out the site of Duncan’s fatal wounding (pictured right).
I tried to imagine the clashing of sword on sword and Duncan’s death at the hands of his cousin and childhood friend. Yet Duncan’s leadership had been substantially weakened following the defeats against Thorfinn and his lost raid on Durham. His body was taken to Elgin and the site of the Cathedral.
Macbeth would have travelled swiftly to Scone to be crowned. It would have to be a speedy journey prior to any counter-claims to the throne. Where were Duncan’s sons, Malcolm or Donald Bain? Would they be waiting to avenge their father’s death?
Birnie Kirk (pictured on the left) is an 12th Century chapel which stands on the spot of an earlier church. The Chapel is the supposed location of Macbeh and Gruoch’s marriage in 1033. A truly peaceful yet provocative place. I am finding the trail to be full of contradictions! The location was the closest I felt to the pair. I could sense eight centuries swirling past me; the bell ringing out to announce the marriage of the Mormaer and his wife.
Thursday 1st July
Our final day saw our Production Manager Phil joining us as we left Forres and travelled South, leaving Moray behind, as Macbeth did 1000 years ago, to get to Scone.
Scone Palace in Perth is the site of the Stone of Scone (albeit a replica (picturede right)) and Moot Hill, once the inauguration site of Scottish Kings. Tenth Century Chronicles allude to this as a Crowing place. Yet another evocative location. I sensed the community leaders, sub kings and clergy all gathered at the base of Moot Hill with the bell proclaiming Macbeth’s investiture. This was the location for the start of a successful 17 year reign; a popular King who gained much support from his people and even able to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Perhaps this was to seek atonement for Duncan’s death. Or was it a populist act, following in Cnut’s trail?
Would William Shakespeare have written a different narrative had he worked from Chronicles other than Holinsheds? Or was he too keen on pleasing King James with stories of Witchcraft and warnings to potential assassins? The Man and The Myth is at the heart of our journey with King Macbeth.
