Culture of Scotland in the High Middle Ages refers to the forms of cultural expression that come from Scotland in the High Medieval period which, for the purposes of this article, refers to the period between the death of Domnall II in 900, and the death of Alexander III in 1286. The unity of the period is suggested by the immense breaks which occur in Scottish history because of the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Stewart accession and transformations which occur in Scottish society in the fourteenth century and afterwards. The period differentiates itself because of the predominance of Gaelic culture, and, later in the medieval, Scoto-Norman French culture. Oral culture As a predominantly Gaelic society, most Scottish cultural practices throughout this period mirrored closely those of Ireland, or at least those of Ireland with some Pictish borrowings. After David I, the French-speaking kings introduced cultural practices popular in Anglo-Norman England, France and elsewhere. As in all pre-modern societies, storytelling was popular. In the words of D.D.R. Owen, a scholar who specialises in the literature of the era: Almost all of these stories are lost, or come down only vaguely in Gaelic or Scots oral tradition. Genealogies One form of culture extremely well accounted for in this period is genealogy. There are dozens of Scottish genealogies surviving from this era, covering everyone from the Mormaers of Lennox and Moray, to the Scottish king himself. In the Poppleton Manuscript, there is a full genealogy of King William I going all the way back to Adam, via Gaidheal Glas. The latter genealogy is just a recording or partial translation of a Gaelic genealogy, where mac ("son") and meic ("sons", or "of the son") have been replaced with filius and filii; moreover, before his grandfather David I, virtually all William's ancestors have their names in the Middle Irish genitive form (with filii preceding). Furthermore, until at least the reign of Alexander III, Scotland's kings maintained an ollamh righe, a royal high poet who had a permanent place in all medieval Gaelic lordships, and whose purpose was to recite genealogies when needed, for occasions such as coronations. The Lord Lyon can be seen as a later development of this role. Literacy Before the reign of David I, the Scots possessed a flourishing literary elite who regularly produced texts in both Gaelic and Latin that were frequently transmitted to Ireland and elsewhere. After David I,