Gruoch of Scotland

Life

In fiction

• Gruoch is the model for the character Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth.
• The Scottish historical fiction series, The Celtic Blood by Melanie Karsak, centers around Gruoch's life, giving a fictional depiction of what her life could have been like.
• She is the heroine of Gordon Bottomley's 1921 verse drama "Gruach", in which the King's Envoy sees her sleepwalking on the eve of her marriage to another man, falls in love with her and carries her off. The play mentions her claim to the throne.
• She appears, named Groa, as a major character in Dorothy Dunnett's 1982 novel of Macbeth, King Hereafter, which topped the New York Times bestseller list.
• Susan Fraser King wrote Lady Macbeth, a 1982 historical novel about Gruach. King asserts that the book is as deeply rooted in fact as possible.
• Gruoch also appears as the wife of Macbeth, King of Scotland and the mother of Lulach in Jackie French's children's novel Macbeth and Son, published in 2006.
• Gloria Carreño's 2009 play A Season Before the Tragedy of Macbeth premiered by British Touring Shakespeare 2010, also sheds new light on Gruach Macduff, the central character. The play considers events up to the opening of the letter from the three witches in Shakespeare's tragedy.
• In David Greig's 2010 play Dunsinane, she is known as Gruach and outlives Macbeth.