BY THE EDITOR.
_______
EXCURSUS ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF CELTIC
SCOTLAND.
THE ethnology of
the British Isles is still, despite the intelligent researches of the
last fifty years, in an unsettled state. This is greatly due to the
fact that the subject draws its materials from various subordinate or
kindred sciences, and no one man has yet appeared who has been able to
grasp with equal power the reins of all these sciences. The
archaeologist deals with the monuments and other physical remains of
man’s past, helped by the anatomist in deciding upon “skins and
skulls,” a subject also dealt with by the anthropologist, whose sphere
of science is man – his race, physique, and beliefs. The historian
depends on his written or printed documents; while the latest to lend
his aid, as a real, not an empirical, scientist, is the philologist.
Much was done in former times in using language to decide racial
points; but it is since Grimm and Zeuss some sixty years ago put
philology on scientific lines that any good has accrued from this
subject. It is still a science known thoroughly, especially for
purposes of ethnology, only by a few.
Without
going back to the cave-men, and others of paleolithic times, when
Britain and its isles formed a continuous part of Europe, we come to
neolithic times, when unmistakably we have man of the New Stone Age.
These neolithic men were comparatively small of stature, long-headed,
and dark-haired. They buried in long barrows. The Bronze Age begins
with the intrusion of a race tall in stature, broad-headed, and
fair-haired, with beetling grows – a splendid race physically and
mentally. They buried in round barrows. Some – indeed, most –
ethnologists regard these men as the first wave of the Celts; some say
of Gadelic, or perhaps Gadelic and Pictish. They are allied by
physique to several past and present races on the Continent – the
modern Walloons, for instance, and the old Helvetii. The view
maintained by the Editor is that the Gadels or ancient Gales and the
Picts both belonged to the great Aryan Race, and originally possessed
the tall stature, blond hair, and long heads which are postulated for
the pure Aryan. The Aryan Race, or rather the Aryan-speaking Race, is
a discovery of modern or scientific philology. It was discovered some
sixty years ago that the languages of the various nations – barring a
very few – dwelling from Ireland to Ceylon, ultimately came from one
original tongue. In short, the chief Indian languages, Persian,
Slavonic, Lettic, Teutonic, Greek, Latin, and Celtic, are descended
from one mother-tongue. For a long time it has been a matter of
dispute where this original language had its habitat. It is now
agreed that southern Russia and ancient Poland formed the home of the
Aryan tongue. The dispersion of the Aryan-speaking people began some
four thousand years ago. The Celts lay on the upper reaches of the
Danube until the dawn of history begins; the Latins and they were
nearest of kin of any of the other leading branches. The Celts spread
over Germany to the shores of the North Sea, and then, about 600 B.C.,
or indeed earlier, they entered Gaul and pushed on their conquests
into Spain, and later into northern Italy. They were at the height of
their power in the fourth century, spreading from the west of Ireland
to the mouth of the Danube, and in 279 they overran Asia Minor,
settling down to the limits of Galatia about 250 B.C. Such an “empire”
might satisfy Rome itself. But it had no centre, and soon crumbled,
after two hundred years’ domination.
The Celts
all unite on one philologic peculiarity: every Aryan initial p
has been lost. In the course of their dispersion over Europe they
divided into two dialects over the Aryan sound qv (as in Lat.
quod Eng. quantity). The one dialect made it k or
q purely, the other made it p; and we speak of P and Q
Celts for brevity’s sake. The Belgic Gauls, the Britons and Welsh, and
the Picts, were P Celts; the Gadels or Gaels of all ages were Q Celts.
Most of Gaul spoke the P variety of Celtic. The Celts, of course,
pushed westward into Britain. It is usually thought that the Gadels
came first. The common notion naturally is that they swarmed into
England about 600 B.C., and were thence driven westward into Ireland
by the advancing Belgic tribes. Undoubtedly Gadels were in Wales and
Devonshire in the fifth century A.D., settled as inhabitants. These,
however, are accounted for as the invaders of the Roman Province of
Britain during the invasions of the Scots and Picts from 360 to 500.
Indeed, in 366, and for a few years, the Province of Britain was
ruled, or misruled, by Crimthann, High-King of Ireland. Theodosius
arrived in 369, and drove out the invaders. As early as 200,
settlements were made by expelled Gaels in South Wales. Besides this,
Gaelic inscriptions of the fifth and sixth centuries in Ogam are found
in South Wales, and one or two in old Cornavia. Professor Rhys is the
great protagonist for the view that the Gadelic tongue was continuous
in Wales from the time of the first Gadels till the seventh century.
On the other side, Professor Kuno Meyer asserts that “no Gale ever set
his foot on British soil save frm a vessel that had put out from
Ireland,” a dictum with which the present writer agrees.
The
tradition among the Gaels of Ireland themselves is that they came from
Spain to Ireland. It is more likely that, starting from Gaul, they
skimmed along the southern shore of England – perhaps the Picts were
then in possession of the country – and thus arrived in Ireland. Their
own traditions and there being no other trace of them in Britain
before the Christian era prove this contention. As already said, the
date of their arrival must be about 600 or 500 B.C.
About the
same time the Picts came across, possibly from what was afterwards the
land of the Saxon invaders of England, and may have colonised Scotland
first, bringing there the red-haired, large-limbed Caledonians of
Tacitus. In any case, the Picts must have been the predominant race in
Britain in the fourth century B.C., when the Greek voyager, Pytheas,
made his rounds of the northern seas. He calls the people of Britain
Pretanoi or Prettanoi; this might be a Celtic Qretani, present Gaelic
Cruithne, possibly from cruth, figure, so called because they
tattooed themselves, whence Lat. Picti, painted men. The fact
that Pictavia was also the name of a large Gaulish province makes this
last statement doubtful. It may, however, be inferred that this Greek
from Prettania gave rise to the name Britain – a bad Latin
pronunciation of Prettania. Prof. Rhys here objects, and pints out
that Pliny mentions a tribe of Britanni as situated at the mouth of
the Somme, not very far from Kent; that there was such a tribe is
proved by the modern town-name of Bretagne. If Prof. Rhys is right, he
must postulate that part of Kent was inhabited by these Britanni, and
that from this little colony came the name of the whole island. No
Britanni are mentioned as in Britain, and it is likely that the tribe
on the Somme were some returned emigrants from Britain. The Welsh call
the Picts Prydyn (from pyrd, figure), which again agrees
with Gaelic derivation (Gaelic cruth, whence Cruithne, is, in
Welsh, pryd). Britain is Welsh Prydain, the same word as that
for Pict. Hence the Picts are the “figured” men both in the Gadelic
and Brittonic languages. These are the Editor’s views, and the proof
must be deferred till we come to treat the Pictish question.
‘We are on
firm historic ground in regard to the last Belgic invasion of Celts
from the Continent. The Belgic Gauls crossed over into Britain before
Caesar’s time, for he found them in possession of at least the eastern
portion of England; the language was the same on both sides of the
Channel, some tribe names, such as the Atrebates, were common to both,
and King Divitiacus ruled both in Gaul and Britain. Caesar speaks of
the Britons of the interior as aboriginal, no doubt referring to the
west coast and to Scotland. In any case, the Belgae seem at the time
of the Roman conquest to have possessed Britain as far as the Forth –
at least its eastern half, being probably in much the same position as
we find the Anglo-Saxons about 613. The Picts had been conquered or
driven west and north; we know they inhabited all northern Scotland
then, and possibly what was afterwards the Kingdom of Strathclyde.
Tacitus mentions the Silures in South Wales as a dark curly-haired
people, and argues their Spanish origin. These Silures are now
recognised as the survivors of the Iberians of the Neolithic age.
In Scotland,
therefore, at the beginning of the Christian era, the racial position
would be thus: Belgic Gauls in the eastern portion of the country from
the Firth of Forth to the Tweed; parallel to them in the western half,
from the Firth of Clyde to the Solway, were the Picts, still
retreating. The rest of the Picts filled the remaining portion of
Scotland from the Firths to Cape Wrath and the Orkney Isles. The
previous Iberian population, with its admixture of Bronze-age men,
were absorbed by the Celts or driven westwards, where, among the Isles
and on the West Coast, plenty traces of them are still in evidence.
The Roman occupation of the district between the Walls, that is from
the Tyne and Solway to the Clyde and Forth Wall, no doubt added a new
ethnologic factor to the population there; and the Brittonic or Belgic
Gauls undoubtedly came to possess Strathclyde and Dumbarton (the
“dune” of the Britons). In the sixth century the Anglo-Saxons entered
Scotland. The Celts called them Saxons because that tribe formed the
first Teutonic raiders and invaders of Britain, the Gadelic tribes
receiving the name from the Brittonic peoples. It was, however, the
Angles that conquered the eastern half of Scotland to the Firth of
Forth.
Meanwhile
the Scots, who had helped the Picts to harass the Roman province for a
hundred years, had acquired settlements on the Argyleshire coast and
in the Isles. The Scots were simply the inhabitants of Ireland; it was
their own name for themselves. Isidore of Saville (600 A.D.) Says the
name in the Scottic language meant “tattooed,” and, as a matter of
fact, the root word is still alive in the language – Gaelic sgath,
lot off; old Irish scothaim, allied to English scathe.
This makes both Gadels and Picts mean “men of the tattoo.” Dr.
Whitley Stokes prefers the root skot, property; German
schatz, stock; and translates the word as “owners, masters.” The
first invasion of Scotland by the Scots is set down by the Irish
annalists as in the latter half of the second century (circ. 160 A.D.)
Under Cairbre Riata, whom Bede calls Reuda (Gadelic *Reiddavos
“Ready-man?”) Riata gave his name to the Irish and Scotch Dál-Riadas
both – “the Tribal portion of Riata.” Possibly additions took place
during the Picts and Scots alliance of 360 to (say) 460, but in any
case a great accession to the Scots on the West Coast was the arrival,
in 501, of the sons of Erc from Dalriada; they founded the little
kingdom of Dalriada, practically Argyleshire and its Isles, though the
original Argyle extended from the Mull of Kintyre to Lochbroom, as our
earliest documents show. It means “Coastland of the Gael” –
Airer-Gaidheal. When the Norse came about 800, they called the Minch
Scotland Fjord, which shows that the Gael practically held the West
coast entire, and the Picts held the East Coast to Pettland Fjord, or
Pictland Fjord, now Pentland. The name Scot and Scotland came to be
applied to the Scottish kingdom in the tenth century by English
writers – the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls Constantine, who fought
unsuccessfully at Brunanburg, in 938, King of Scotland. The Irish, who
were called by this time Hibernienses, or Hiberni, by outsiders,
dropped the name Scot and called themselves Goedel, or, later,
Gaoidheal, “Gael.” This is the name that the Highlanders still call
themselves by – Gàidheal. Unfortunately, the oldest Irish form dates
only from 1100 – Góedel, which would give a Gadelic form, *Gaidelos,
but Scottish Gaeli points to *Gâdilos or Gâidelos, and from various
considerations seems the correcter form, giving a root gâd,
Eng. good, Gothic gadiliggs, relative; German gatte,
husband. The idea is “kinsman,” as in the case of the native name for
Welshman – Cymro, whence Cymric, *Com-brox, a “co-burger,” where
brox or broges (plural) is from the root mrog, land;
Lat. margo, Eng. mark, march.
The next
invasion of Scotland, which gave her a most important accession of
population in the Isles, the West Coast, and in Sutherland and
Caithness, was made by the Norse about 795. Our historians seem little
to understand either its extent in time and place or the great change
it wrought in the ethnological character of the districts held by the
Norse. Of this we shall speak at its proper place in notes on Chapter
V. The Norman invasion extended even to Scotland, and Celtic earls and
barons, either through failure of heirs male or otherwise, soon and in
great numbers were succeeded by Normans and Angles.
It will thus
be seen that the Scottish people are ethnologically very much mixed.
The Caledonians, as Dr. Beddoe points out, still show German, or
rather Walloon, characteristics. Norse features are predominant in
Lewis and the northern Isles generally, though Iberian and other (such
as Spanish) elements are strong. The East Coast is largely Teutonic.
The old burghs were planted by the Canmore dynasty in the northern
districts to keep the ordinary population in order, and towns like
Inverness were from the first in the hands of Flemish and other
Teutonic traders.
THE PICTISH
PROBLEM.
Till
criticism began with Father Innes’s Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants
of Scotland in 1729, the Scottish historians taught that the Picts and
Scots were two separate nations living side by side, each speaking a
language of its own. These historians gave their attention nearly
altogether to the story and genealogy of the Scots, representing
Kenneth Mac Alpin in 843 as overthrowing and even extirpating the
Picts, insomuch that their language and their name were lost. Father
Innes’s Essay, among other things, holds that though Kenneth Mac
Alpin, the Scot, had to fight for his Pictish throne, yet he was
rightful heir, but he proves that there was no extirpation of the
Picts. Their language, as a dialect of Celtic, like British (Welsh)
and Gaelic, naturally gave way to the Court and Church language of
Kenneth and his dynasty, which was Gaelic – such is his easy-going
method of getting rid of a national language. Later on Pinkerton, who
had an anti-Celtic craze, put the Picts in the foreground of his
historic picture of Scotland before 843; he regarded them as Gothic or
Teutonic – ancestors of the Lowland Scots, who wiped out the Dalriadic
Kingdom about 740. The king of the straggling remnant of Dalriads, one
hundred years later, became, in the person of Kenneth Mac Alpin, also
King of Picts. George Chalmers (1807), sanest critic of them all,
regarded the Picts as Cymric or British by race and language, and of
course accepted the usual story of the Scottish Chronicles. Mr. Skene,
in the first edition of the present work, in 1837, adopted Pinkerton’s
revolutionary ideas about the Picts and the Scottish Conquest, but
with the great difference that he regarded the Picts as
Gaelic-speaking, using the same language as the Scots. In fact, he
held that there was no change of race or language at the so-called
Scottish Conquest, which was no conquest at all, but a mere matter of
succession on Kenneth’s part according to Pictish law. This may be
called the “Uniformitarian” theory of early Scottish history: nobody
conquered anybody, and the great Pictish nation was, as before, in
language and race, the main body of the Scottish Kingdom, and most
certainly ancestors of the present-day Scottish Highlanders – at any
rate the Northern Picts were so. The Southern Picts he allows in 1837
to be conquered by Kenneth Mac Alpin, but in Celtic Scotland he
only admits that Britons were between the Tay and the Forth – the
Britons of Fortrenn being mentioned in the Irish Chronicles – and gave
Kings to the Picts, as the Kings’ lists compelled him to admit; but
these Britons were Cornish (Camnonii of Cornwall and Dumnonii of
Mid-Scotland, according to Ptolemy’s geography, were likely the same
people in Skene’s view). This very plausible theory has for the last
sixty years held the field in Scottish history; indeed, the popular
historians of Scotland – Dr. Hume Brown and Mr. Andrew Lang – regard
the Picts as purely Gaels, and kill off the Dalriads in the time of
the terrible Pictish King, Angus Mac Fergus (About 740). The obscurity
of Kenneth Mac Alpin’s succession is insisted upon. Mr. Lang, as might
be expected, is really “funny” on the subject. Writing about Prof.
Zimmer’s expression that the Scots “took away the independence of the
Picts,” he says: – “We might as easily hold that James VI. took away
the independence of the English by becoming King, as that Kenneth Mac
Alpin, a Pict by female descent [?], did as much for the Picts.” Dr.
Skene has retarded the progress of scientific research into early
Scottish history for at least a generation. This sort of thing, as
shown by Lang’s case, will go on for many a day yet, let Celtic
scholars do what they like.
Modern
Celtic scholars have reverted to the old position of the Chronicles.
Respect for the authority of contemporaries like Bede and Cormac, and,
we may add, Adamnan, compels them so to do, not to mention the
authority of the Chronicles; philological facts, scientifically dealt
with, and considerations of customs, especially in regard to marriage,
hold the next place. The present writer thinks that the topography of
Pictland is one of the most cogent factors in the solution of the
problem, but, unfortunately, Celtic scholars “furth of Scotland”
cannot appreciate this aspect of the question except to a limited
extent. If Prof. Rhys studied the topography of Pictland instead of
the so-called Pictish inscriptions, it is certain that he would not
distract either Celtic scholars or outsiders like Mr. Lang with his
theories as to the Pictish being a non-Aryan, pre-Celtic tongue. The
ingenuity wasted on this theory and on its ethnologic consequences
makes the outsider yet distrust philologic ways. And here, again, the
study of Scottish ethnology is retarded, though not to the same extent
as it is by Dr. Skene’s theories.
We can here
only summarise the arguments that go to prove that the Picts were a
Celtic-speaking people, whose language differed both from Brittonic
and Gadelic, but, at the same time, only differed dialectically from
the Gaulish and Brittonic tongues. The language was of the P class.
The arguments are these: –
I. –
Contemporary writers speak of the Pictish as a separate language from
both Brittonic and Gadelic.
Bede (731)
twice refers to the matter: – “The nations and provinces of Britain,
which are divided into four languages, viz., those of the Britons, the
Picts, the Scots, and the English” (III. cap. 6). There may have been
thus many provinces in Britain, but only four languages. In his first
chapter he adds Latin as a fifth language – Britain “contains five
nations, the English, Britons, Scots, Picts, and Latins, each in its
own peculiar dialect cultivating the sublime study of divine truth.”
These statements, surely, are definite enough: Pictish is a language
different from either Brittonic or Gadelic. This Skene acknowledges in
the present volume, but confines it to the southern Picts; in
Celtic Scotland he does like the Scottish theologian – he looks
the difficulty boldly in the face and passes on!
Adamnan
(died 704), writing for people who knew that Pictish was a very
different tongue from Irish, did not require to mention that
interpreters were needed any more than modern travel-books do, but he
does incidentally mention that columba preached the Word twice through
an interpreter, once to a peasant, and once to a chief. “On two
occasions only,” says Skene, does he require an interpreter, and it is
at once inferred that King Brude and his court spoke to Columba
without interpreters – and in Gaelic!
Cormac,
King-bishop of Cashel (circ. 900), records a word of the berla
cruithnech or Pictish language (cartit, pin).
The next
contemporary references occur in the twelfth century, and they concern
the so-called Picts of Galloway. These will best be considered under
the next heading.
II. – The
so-called Picts of Galloway and the Irish Cruithnig.
The Picts of
Galloway are mentioned as being present at the Battle of the Standard
(1138) by Richard of Hexham, a contemporary writer, who informs us
that King David’s army was composed inter alios of “Pictis, qui
vulgo Gallweienses dicuntur.” The learned cleric calls them Picts;
their usual name was Gallwegians. From Reginald of Durham, writing at
the end of the twelfth century, we get a word belonging to these Picts,
for, speaking of certain clerics of Kirkcudbright, he calls them
“clerici illi qui Pictorum lingua Scollofthes cognominantur”
Unfortunately, the word Scollofthes proves nothing, for like
the Welsh ysgolhaig and old Irish scoloe, scholar,
student – latterly, in Gaelic, servant – it is derived from Latin
scholasticus; but the reference to the Pictish language implies
its existence in Galloway at the time. Of course we can pit against
these two references, another from the same Anglic source. Henry of
Huntingdon, who writes before 1154, says: “The Picts seem now
destroyed and their language altogether wiped out, so that what old
writers say about them appears now fabulous.” We have further an
enumeration of the inhabitants of the Glasgow diocese in the charters
of Malcolm and William the Lyon, which are addressed thus: “Francis et
Anglis, Scotis et Galwejensibus et Walensibus” – Franks (Norman
French), English (of the south eastern counties), Scots (Gaels
possibly), Galwegians and Welsh (remains of the old Britons of
Strathclyde). Here there is no mention of Picts.
Galloway is
so named from Gall-Gàidheil or “Foreign Gaels.” This was the name
given to the mixed Norse and Gaels who inhabited the Isles of
Scotland, Man, Galloway, Kintyre, and the Western coast of Scotland.
Dr. Stokes thinks that the Gaelic portion of them had relapsed into
paganism. The Gall Gàidheil afterwards formed the Kingdom of Man and
the Isles, without, however, any portion of the mainland being
included; and the name Gall Gàidheil became latterly restricted to
Galloway. The early history of Galloway can only be guessed at. the
Brittonic people certainly had possession of it, and Dr. Beddoe
regards the tall hillmen of Galloway and upper Strathclyde as the best
representatives of the Brittonic race, Wales itself being very much
mixed in blood. It formed part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, no
doubt; but it must have received a Gaelic population from Ireland
before its conquest by the Norse. Its place-names show traces of
Brittonic, Norse, and Gaelic names; but Gaelic names are predominant.
Gaelic was spoken in Galloway and Ayr till the seventeenth century;
but the Gaels of Ayr, Lanark, and Renfrew were invaders from the
north, who in the tenth and eleventh centuries imposed their language
and rule on the British Kingdom of Strathclyde. It is clear, from the
above considerations, that the Galwegians of the twelfth century were
anything but Picts, and that their language was the same as the Manx.
Richard of Hexham and Reginald of Durham, finding the Galwegians a
race apart, called them Picts; and so Dr. Skene founds one of his
strongest arguments that Pictish was Gaelic on the fact that the
Gaelic-speaking Galwegians were Picts according to two bungling
English ecclesiastics of the twelfth century.
The Irish
Picts have always the name of Cruithnig, both in Gaelic and in Latin,
whereas the Picts of Scotland are variously called Cruithnig, Picts,
Piccardai, Pictones, and Pictores. In Ireland there were Picts in
Dal-araidhe (Down and part of Antrim), in Meath and in Roscommon. The
last two were doubtless some mercenaries introduced by some King or
Kinglet returning victoriously from exile. Nothing is known of them
save in a wild legend about the arrival of the Picts first in Ireland
and their departure to Scotland, leaving a remnant in Meath. But the
Cruithnig of Dal-araidhe figure prominently in Irish history in the
sixth and seventh centuries. The Irish histories relate that they were
the attendants or descendants of the Princess Loucetna, daughter of
Eochaidh Echbél, King of Alba; she married Conall Cernach, the great
Ulster hero of the early part of the first century of the Christian
era. But the Ulster Picts were evidently invaders from Scotland who
settled on the corner of Ireland nearest to their own land. By the
sixth century they were as Gaelic-speaking as the rest of the Irish.
And hence Skene finds another proof that Pictish was Gaelic. He also
misreads the history of Ulster, which he regards as having been all
populated by the Picts. Ulster had in early Irish history two
consecutive denotations: Ulster at first meant the provence of Ulster
as it is now. But the old kingly heroes of Ulster – the Clann Rudraid,
descended of Ir, son of Miled – was gradually extruded from its lands
by scions of the royal line of Ireland, until in the fifth century
they had only Dal-araidhe or Ulidia or Uladh, which was still called
Ulster and its kings still styled “Kings of Ulster.” They were, of
course, also King of the Picts of Dal-araidhe. Hence has arisen
Skene’s confusion, in which he is followed by Prof. Rhys.
III. –
The Pictish Language.
Not a line
of either poetry or prose has been recorded in Pictish; the so-called
Pictish inscriptions are yet unravelled. Only two words are recorded
by writers as Pictish. Bede records that the east end of the Roman
wall, between Forth and Clyde, ended “in loco qui sermone Pictorum
Pean-fahel, lingua autem Anglorum Penneltun, appellatur.” Here pean
is for penn, which is also the old Welsh for “head,” old
Gaelic, cenn; and fahel is allied to Gaelic fàl,
Welsh gwawl, rampart. Both Skene and Rhys regard pean as
British, belonging to the “Britons of Fortrenn,” or if not so,
borrowed from the British. Cormac records the word cartit, a
pin or brooch pin, to which Stokes compares the old Welsh garthon,
goad.
We have,
however, ample means to judge the affinities of the Pictish language
in the numerous personal and place-names recorded by classical and
later writers, or still extant in old Pictavia.
(1) Names in
the classical writers.
Tacitus
first mentions Caledonia, by which he means Scotland north of the
Firths, and Ptolemy writes it Kaledonios. The long e between
l and d is guaranteed by the old Welsh Celydon, and
Nennius’s Celidon; but all the same, it must be regarded as a Roman
mispronunciation of Caldon – ld being not common in Latin as a
combination, for early Gaelic shows Callden, now Caillinn, Scotch Keld,
in Dun-Keld; and there are three other names near at hand there with
the same ending, notably, Schiehallion. the root cald in Celtic
means “wood,” and Caldonii would mean “woodlanders.”
Tacitus also
records the Boresti in Fife; he gives the personal name Calgacus,
“sworded one” (Gaelic calg, colg, Welsh caly). The much
misread Mons Graupius (now Grampian), yields the root grup, a
non-Gadelic root in p, which argues its Picto-Brittonic
character. Stokes compares it to Greek grupos, rounded (Ger.
krumm, bent). The Orcades, or Orkney Isles, give the Celtic root
orc, pig, possibly here meaning “whale.”
Ptolemy
(circ. 140 A.D.) In his geography, gives some 44 names connected with
Pictland. Ptolemy’s tribal names begin in south Pictland with the
Damnonii, who stretched across the neck of Scotland from Ayr to Fife.
It is usual to regard the word as a variant of the Cornish Dumnoni,
now Devon (Gaelic domhan, world, and dumno); both Skene
and Rhys allow them to be Britons – those Britons of Fortrenn who were
responsible for the Brittonic elements in the Pictish language
according to the theories held by these writers. The Epidi of Kintyre
are distinctly of the P Celtic branch; the root ep or eq
means horse (stem eqo, Gaulish epo). The Carnonacai (G.
carn), the Caireni (“sheep men”), the Cornavii (compare
Cornwall), the Lugi (lug, win), Smertai and Vaco-magi (magh,
plain), are all good Celtic names); and to these may be added the
Decantai, found also in Wales, and the Vernicones (G. fearna,
alder?). The Taixali of Aberdeen, and the Cerones or Creones, are as
yet unexplained as to name. The coast names come next. The Clota or
Clyde is from the Celtic clu, clean; Lemannonios, now Lennox,
like lake Lemann, comes from lemano, elm. The river Longos,
Norse Skipafjord, or Loch Long, comes from long, ship; Tarvedum
(tarbh, bull); Cailis river (caol, narrow); Deva river
means “goddess,” and is a common Celtic name, more Gaulish-Brittonic
than Gadelic; Tava, the Tay, has Brittonic equivalents (W. Tawe, Devon
Tavy? Welsh taw, quiet). Celtic, too, must be Itys (Gaulish
Itins), and Vir-vedrum and Verubium (prefix ver); nor would it
be difficult to explain from Celtic roots Volas or Volsas, Nabaros (nav,
float?), Ila, now Ullie (il, go), Varar, Tvesis (Spesis? now
Spey); and Loxa. Tina and Boderia or Bodotria (Forth), are doubtful.
The town names are less satisfactory. Alauna, really the river Allan,
a good Celtic river name (W. Alun, Cornish Alan, root pal);
Lindum, G. linne, loch, water, possibly Linlithgow; Victoria, a
translated name, in West Fife; Devana, “Goddess,” Gaulish Divona,
“fons additus divis,” gets its name from the river as usual, viz., the
Don, old Gaelic Deon, now Dian, being in spite of its inland bearings,
really Aberdeen; Orrea, Bannatia, and Tamia are not immediately
explicable, though, as far as mere roots are concerned, they can be
Celtic. Alata Castra, or Winged Camp, is supposed to be Burghead. It
is a translated name. So, too, is High Bank, between the Ullie or
Helmsdale, and the Varar or Moray Firth. This has recently been
happily equated with the Oyken, whose “High Banks” the Norse usually
made the southern boundary of their conquests, and which they called
Ekkjals-bakki, or Ekkjal’s Bank. The name Oykel goes along with the
Oichil Hills and Ochiltree, and is from Celtic uxellos, high,
Welsh uchel, Gaelic uasal. The Pictish here shows
decidedly Brittonic phonetics. The island names prove nothing: Ebouda,
perhaps for Boud-da, now Bute; Malaios, now Mull (mal, mel,
brow, hill); Epidium (ech, horse); Ricina; Dumma (compare
Dumnoni); and Skitis, now possibly Skye (not ski, cut,
“indented isle”).
The
historians of Severus’s campaign (208-11) record but few names. The
Maiatai and Caledoni are the only tribes mentioned seemingly having
the north of Scotland between them, the Maiatai being next the
northern wall. Adamnan calls them Miathi; the name is still
unexplained. Argento-coxos was a Caledonian chief of the time; the
name means “Silver-leg.” A tablet found some years ago at Colchester
gives us the war god’s name as Medocius (G. and Irish Miadhach) and
the devotee’s name was Lossio Veda Nepos Vepogeni Caledo. The date of
the inscription is from 232-235. Prof. Rhys has suggested that Lossio
(Brittonic gen. Lossion-os, Gadelic Lossen-as) is related to the Welsh
personal name Lleision. Vepogenos, the name of the Caledonian’s
grandfather or uncle (possibly), is thoroughly of the P variety of
Celtic, and it appears in a shorter root form (vip) in the
Pictish list of Kings (Vip, Vipoig), Gaelic Fiacha, a common
name. Veda may be for Veida, and this in a shorter root form appears
in the Pictish Kings’ list as Uuid, i.e., Vid. Ammianus
Marcellinus (circ. 400) gives the two tribes of Pictland as
Di-Calidonae and Vecturiones. the latter name has been happily
corrected by Prof. Rhys into Verturiones, whence the historic name of
Fortrenn, the district between the Forth and the Tay.
To sum up
the results of the above analysis: one-third of the names can easily
be paralleled elsewhere on Celtic ground – Gaulish or Brittonic,
though not on Gadelic ground; a fourth more show good Celtic roots and
formative particles, and another fourth can easily be analysed into
Aryan or Celtic radicals. These facts dispose of Prof. Rhys’s theory
of the non-Aryan and non-Celtic character of the Pictish, and it also
makes so far against Skene’s Gadelic view – a name like Epidi being
especially decisive against a Q language. The names of northern
Pictavia show no difference in linguistic character from those of the
south, as witness – Deva, Devana, Vacomagi, Caelis, Smertae, Lugi,
Cornavi, Caireni, Carnonacae, Tarvedum, Verubium (root ub,
point, weapon); and, finally, Orcades.
(2)
Post-classical Pictish Names.
Contemporaries like Adamnan and Bede record but few Pictish names, and
we depend on the Chronicles of the Picts and Scots for complete King
lists, and on the Irish Annals as a check on these lists and as a
source of further names, and especially, place-names. The lives of the
Saints present some names, but this is a doubtful source. The King
list begins with Cruithne, the eponymus of the race, who is
contemporary with the sons of Miledh, the Gadelic invaders of Ireland,
whose date is only 1700 B.C. according to the Annals. We have 66 names
of Kings to cover the period from Cruithne to Brude, son of Mailcon
(554-584 A.D.), the King who received Columba in 565. Imagination
seems to have failed the Pictish genealogists in making this list, for
they fill a long gap with 30 Kings of the same name – Brude,
differentiating them by epithets that go in couples, thus: Brude Leo,
Brude Ur-leo, Brude Pont, Brude Ur-pont, & c. The ur here is
the Gaulish prefix ver, Welsh gur, guor, Irish fer,
for, allied to English hyper and over. It is very
common as a prefix in all the branches of Celtic. It is useless to
take these King names seriously before Brude Mac Mailcon’s time,
though one figure may be historic – Nectan, son of Erp (A.D. 480), who
is said to have given Abernethy to Derlugdach, abbess of Kildare. the
name Nectan is common to Pictish and Gaelic; it comes from necht,
pure, whose root is nig, wash. The Pictish form and
pronunciation is doubtless best recorded by Bede’s Naiton, which shows
Brittonic phonetics in changing et into it. Erp, the
father’s name, was common in Pictland, and we last hear of it among
the Norse. Erp, son of Meldun, a Scottish earl, and grandson of an
Irish King, was captured by the Norse, and as a freed man went to
colonise Iceland in the end of the ninth century; from him descended
the Erplingi clan of Iceland. This is clearly the Pictih equivalent of
Welsh Yrp (Triads) and Gadelic Erc, the latter a very common name (erc
means cow, heaven). Brude appears in Bede in a more Welsh form as
Bridei; Stokes equates it with Eng. proud. Mailcon, the father,
may have been the famous Welsh King, whom Gildas calls Maglo-cunus,
“High Chief,” known later as Maelgwyn of Gwyned. The list from Brude
Mac Mailcon to Kenneth Mac Alpin is in the Pictish Chronicles as
follows: –
Gartmait filius
Domelch
(584-599). The name Gartnait, or Garnait, was very common in Pictland,
It comes from gart, head; Welsh, garth. It is non-Gadelic.
Domelch is in the Irish Annals given as Domnach (from Dummo).
Nectan nepos
Uerb
(599-619), “nephew of Verb.” Verb appears in many Gaulish and British
names In Ir. it means “cow,” “blotch”; in O.W. gverp, stigma.
Ciniod f.
Lutrin
(619-631); Ir. Cinaed Mac Luchtren. The first name is our modern
Kenneth (cin-aed, “fire-kin”), common to Irish and Pictish.
Lutrin is a Pictih form of Celtic Lugo-trenos, “strong by the god
Lug.” Lug either means the “sun-god” or “winner.”
Gartnait f.
Uuid or Wid
(631-635). The name Vid is to be compared to O.W. guid as in
Guid-lon, Guid-nerth; fuller form Veida, already mentioned. Seemingly
the root is vid, know. It also exists in Ir. as a prefiz:
Fid-gus, Fid-gaile.
Bridei f.
Uuid or Wid (635-641). Brude son of Vid, brother of above.
Talore frater
eorum
(641-653). The name Talorg and Talorgan is purely Pictish, and is the
same as Gaulish Argio-talos, “Silver Brow.” It is common; there was a
St. Talorgan. The phonetics of the Pictish Chronicle are here purely
British (rg becoming re).
Talorcan f.
Enfret
(653-657). Talorgan, son of Eanfrid, King of Bernicia who was an exile
in Pictland. The name Eanfrid is Saxon.
Gartnait f.
Donnel
(657-663). The father’s name is Domnall or Donald (Dummo-valos,
“World-King”), and it is Irish. He was himself likely a Scot of
Dalriada.
Drest frater
ejus
(663-672). Drust is meant. It is a common name and purely Pictish. Its
longer form is Drostan, old Cornish inscription Drustagni; more
celebrated as Tristan or Tristram of the legends. Stokes makes the
root drut, W. drud, brave, strong. Compare Eng. trust
and the terminal trud in Teutonic names (Ger-trude, & c).
Bridei f. Bili
(672-693) Brude, son of Bili or Beli, King of Strathclyde. The name is
British (Ir. bil, good).
Taran f.
Entfidich
(693-697) Taranis was the Gaulish “thunder” diety. W. taran,
thunder. Adamnan has Tarainus, a Pict. The Irish Annals give Enfidaig
for the father’s name, En-fidach possibly; Fidach, son of Cruithne,
and Vid, already discussed, have the same root.
Bridei f.
Derili
(697-706). Brude, son of Derile. The der may be an imtensive
prefix, as in W. Der-guist, O. Br. Der-monoc. There are also Dergard
and Doirgarto, which came from Der-gart, gart being as in
Gartnait.
Nectan f.
Derili (706-724-729), brother of above.
Drust and Alpin
co-reigned. The name Alpin is purely British; if native, the root is
alb, white, as in Alpes, the Alps. It seems allied to the name
Alba, the older Albion.
Onnust f.
Urgust
(730-760). Angus, son of Fergus. Both names are common to British and
Irish. They mean “Unique Choice” and “Super-choice.”
Bridei f.
Urgust
(760-762), Angus’s brother.
Ciniod f.
Wirdech
(762-774). Kenneth, son of Feradach. An early mythic king was called
Wradech, Ir. Annals, Uuradech, that is, Feradach. The name seems both
Ir. and Pictish.
Alpin f.
Wroid (774-779). Ir. Annals, Feroth and Ferith, compare W.
Gueruduc.
Drust f.
Talorgan (779-783).
Talorgan
f. Onnust or Angus (783-786).
Canaul f. Tarla
(783-788), mis-reading for conall, son of Tadg, both names being
purely Irish, and he seems to have been a Scot interloper.
Constantin f. Urgust (d. 820). Constantine is Latin; Fergus,
already discussed.
Unnust f.
Urgust (820-833). Angus, son of Fergus, his brother.
Drest
or Drust f. Constantin, and Talorgan f. Utholl,
co-reigned 3 years.
Uwen
or Eogan f. Unnust or Angus (836-838). Eogan is both
British and Gaelic.
Wrad f.
Bargoit, 3 years. [possibly Dergairt.]
Bred
or Brude, son of Dergard, “Ultimus rex Pictorum” (St. Andrews
Priory Reg.). For Dergart, see Bridei f. Derili.
The above
list, as handed down by the Pictish Chronicles, the age of which is
unknown, is decidedly British in phonetics, and the names Brude,
Gartnait, Talorgan, Drostan, and Alpin, are foreign to old Gaelic;
but, at the same time, they are explicable from British sources. There
is nothing non-Celtic in the list. It tells, therefore, both against
Skene and Rhys.
(3) The
so-called Pictish Inscriptions.
Pictland
shares with the south of Ireland, Cornwall, and South Wales the
peculiarity of possessing inscriptions in Ogam character. Ogam writing
is an Irish invention, coincident probably with the introduction of
Christianity into southern Ireland in the fourth century. By the south
Irish missionaries this style of inscription was introduced into
Cornwall and South Wales; and naturally we must look to the same
people as its propagators in Pictland. the south Irish conformed to
Rome in Easter and other matters in 633 or thereabout. It is likely
that they came to Pictland in the Roman interest some time after, and
may have been mainly instrumental in converting King Nectan in 710 to
adopt the Roman Calendar. The Irish Annals say that he expelled the
Columban monks in 716 over his conversion to Rome.
We should
naturally expect these inscriptions to be either in Irish or Pictish,
but Prof. Rhys has jumped to the conclusion that they are purely
Pictish, and, as his Pictish is non-Aryan, so is the language of these
inscriptions. Unfortunately they are difficult to decipher; the
results as yet are a mere conglomeration of letters, mostly h, v,
and n. One at Lunasting in the Orkneys is punctuated, and
according to Rhys runs thus: –
Ttocuhetts :
ahehhttmnnn : hccvvevv : nehhtonn.
In opposition to
those who hold that Pictish was a Brittonic tongue, Prof. Rhys cites
the above, and declares that if it be Welsh he will confess he has not
understood a word of his mother-tongue! It is neither Welsh nor any
other language under the moon. Mr. Lang quotes the inscription and
says – “This appears to be not only non-Aryan, but non-human! Or not
correctly deciphered. Some people seems to have dropped all its
aspirates in one place at Lunasting.” A word here and there is in a
general way recognisable in these decipherments (as above the last
word looks like Nechtan), but as yet these inscriptions are not
correctly deciphered, and some, like the Golspie stone, are too
weathered or worn to be deciphered.
(4)
Place-names of Pictland
Only a
resumé can be given here. The Pictish place-names are very
different from names on Gadelic ground – Ireland and Dalriada. There
is, of course, a veneer of Gaelic over them, as the Scots really did
impose their language as well as their rule on the Picts. Place-names
in the Isles and in Sutherland and Caithness must be left out of
account, since they are largely Norse. From the southern borders of
Ross to the Forth east of Drumalban the names have all a marked family
resemblance, partly Gaelic, partly Pictish. The prefixes aber
and pet, unknown to Gadelic, are found from Sutherland to the
Forth. The former means “confluence,” and had two forms, aper
and oper, as in Welsh (ad, od, and ber, Lat.
fero); the Gaelic for aber is inver, and it has in
the most common names superseded the Pictish aber. Pet
means “farm,” G. Baile, which, in fact, has superseded it in
purely Gaelic districts for a reason which the dictionary should make
clear. The prefix both – farm, dwelling, common to Irish and
Welsh as an ordinary noun, is widely used in Pictland to denote a
bally. Pres, a bush, W. prys, a covert, is a borrowed
Pictish word and occasionally appears in place-names, as does perth,
brake, in Perth Partick (Old Perthoc, Strathclyde British), and
Pearcock or Perthoc (King Edward). British pen we do not find
now; every one such has become kin, as in Kin-cardine, a very
common name, for Pen-cardin, W. cardden, brake. Equally common
is Urquhart for older Ur-charden, Adamnan’s Airchartdan, “At
(the) Wood.” A prepositional prefix peculiar to Pictish names is
for, fother, corrupted into fetter (Fetter-cairn) and
foder (Foder-lettir). It is corrupted also into far
(Far-letter = Foder-letter). Possibly it is an adjective terminally in
Dunnottar *Dun Foither of Chronicles?), Kin-eddar (King Edward), & c.
It seems to mean “lower,” “under”: vo-ter, a comparative form
vo, Gaelic fo, under. The extensive use of certain
prefix names in Pictland is observable as compared to Ireland, where
their use is rare: strath, ben, monadh (rare in Ireland), allt
(“stream” in Pictland), corrie, blair, and cairn. Lan, so
common in Wales, is rare, though known, in Pictland; the cill
of the Iona monks gave Ian no chance. Ochil Hills and Oyken
river have already been discussed. space does not allow the discussion
of individual place-names; nor can the influence of Pictish on Gaelic
phonetics and vocabulary be touched. Such a word as preas,
bush, already alluded to, is easily detected as a Pictish borrow,
because initial p is non-Gaelic, and its root qre, or
qer, is allied to G. crann, W. prenn.
IV. –
Pictish Manners and Customs
For the
manners and customs of early Scotland, Skene goes to Ireland, and
transfers the whole social system to Pictavia; so, as the latest
example, does Mr. Andrew Lang. But surely the Book of Deer ought to
have warned them all that this is utterly wrong. The public life
outlined there resembles the Irish, but it is not the same. We have
the king (rí), mórmaer or great steward (translated earl of
jarl, and tóisech or clan chief: also the clan. the word
mórmaer means “lord”; but it must be a Gaelic translation of the
Pictish word, for the Gaelic itself is hybrid (mór, great;
maer, officer; from Lat, major). We have only three grades
of nobility here, nor is there any trace else of more. The tenure of
land is the usual Celtic one, but the only word of definite import we
get is dabach or davoch, four ploughlands, a term
peculiar to Pictland, though extended slightly in feudal times to the
West Coast and Isles. We see, therefore, that the older Pictish system
underlies the Gaelic kingdom of Scotland.
Another
serious point, whose significance was lost by Skene, and found only
too well by Prof. Rhys, is the Pictish rule of succession, or the
marriage system. The succession to the throne (Bede) and to property
(Irish writers) lay in the females; that is to say, a man succeeded to
the throne because his mother was the previous king’s daughter or
sister. The king’s brother was his heir, and failing him, his sister’s
son. It was the female side that was royal. A glance at the king list
given above shows this: no son succeeds a father, but a brother often
succeeds a brother. The fathers, too, were often outsiders: Talorgan,
son of Enfrid, Prince of Bernicia, and called cousin of Egfrid (686);
Brude, son of Bili, King of Strathclyde; Gartnait, son of Domhnall,
Donald being likely a Scotic prince. this system, where maternity
alone is regarded as certain, holds a low view of marriage, and is at
present found only among uncivilised races. Caesar knew of the
existence in Britain of promiscuous marriage; Dion tells us that the
wife of Argento-coxos, a Caledonian, acknowledged promiscuity among
the high-born; and Bede explains the system of his day – that the
Picts got their wives from the Scots on condition of the succession to
the throne being through the females.
Here we have
a custom palpably belonging to a non-Aryan race, not to speak of a
non-Celtic race. It must therefore be due to the customs of the
previous inhabitants still surviving among the Celts; the vanquished
here took captive their victors. Whether the Pictish language was also
influenced by the previous one it is hard to say; but the influence
could not be much, because Celtic civilisation was much higher than
the native one, and borrowing would be unnecessary.
To sum up
the argument we cannot do better than quote Prof. Mackinnon’s
criticism on Dr. Skene’s position: – “The question cannot, however, be
settled on such narrow lines as these [Pictish if non-Gaelic would
have left remains, and an interpreter was only wanted twice.] the
questions of blood and language must always be kept distinct.
anthropology and archaeology may hereafter yield concrete evidence
which will be decisive of this matter. As things are, the following
facts must be kept in the forefront. Among the Picts, succession was
through the female. This custom is unknown among the Celts; it is, so
far as we know, non-Aryan. Again, Bede regarded Pictish as a separate
language. The Gael of Ireland looked upon the Picts or Cruithnig, to
use the native term, as a people different from themselves. Cormac,
the first Gaelic lexicographer, gives one or two Pictish words,
quoting them as foreign words, at a time when presumably Pictish was
still a living language. The Norsemen called the Pentland Firth
Pettland, i.e., Pictland Fjörd, while the Minch was Skottland
Fjörd. Mr. Whitley Stokes, after examining all the words in the old
records presumably Pictish, says: ‘The foregoing list of names and
words contains much that is still obscure; but on the whole it shows
that Pictish, so far as regards its vocabulary, is an Indo-European
and especially Celtic speech. Its phonetics, so far as we can
ascertain them, resemble those of Welsh rather than of Irish.’” Celtic
scholars of the first rank who have pronounced on the matter are all
agreed that Pictish was not Gaelic, as Skene held.
N O T E S.
_______
PART I
CHAPTER I.
$
Buellan is another form of Boyle.
$
For Hamilcar read Himilco.
$
There is no distinction between Albiones and Britanni. Albion
originally meant all Britain; it is the Irish that restricted the name
to Scotland.
Vecturiones,
possibly a misreading for Verturiones, later Fortren.
CHAPTER II.
$
Gift of Iona, according to native annals, was made by King Conall of
Dalriada. Bede is here mistaken. For the extent of the power of the
Gael, see Excursus above. Strabo’s “Islands of the Picts” is poetic
license. The older Argyle stretched to Lochbroom, and in Norse times
the Minch was Skotland Fjord.
$
Picts, Piccardach, Pictores, Picti, & c. Dr. Skene’s attempted
distinction in these names is not supported by the facts, and it finds
no place in Celtic Scotland.
$
Read
“Eochaid Iarlaithi rex Cruithne moritur.” The Cruithnig meant were
those of Ireland.
$
The Pictish Succession. See Excursus. The succession among the Scots
was Patriarchal, but the king or chief was elective by the nobles. A
king’s successor was appointed during his lifetime, and was called the
Tanist, which really means the Second. He was usually brother of the
king, and generally gave way before the king’s son, if the latter was
of age.
$
The Scottish Conquest. Here Dr. Skene declines to follow the Latin
Chronicles for the Dalriad kings of the 8th century, and
puts his faith in a poem called the “Albanic Duan,” a monkish exercise
of unknown date (professing to be written in Malcolm Canmore’s reign,
and calling Macbeth “renowned”!), and of little value. This is
unfortunate, for Dr. Skene has misread the plain Chronicle history of
Dalriada. The Duan confuses Dungal, son of Selbach (circ. 735), with
Dungal, son of Ewen (circ. 835), and places Alpin, the successor of
the latter, as successor to the former, thus killing off Alpin in 743
instead of 843. Dungal and Alpin are the immediate predecessors of
Kenneth the Conqueror in reality. Would it be believed that Skene
actually places them like the Albanic Duan, one hundred years earlier,
and closes the record of Dalriad kings for the next hundred years,
regarding the kings in the lists, even in the Albanic Duan, as
inserted by the monkish Chroniclers to fill the vacant gap? Yet so it
is! Pinkerton, before him, performed the same feat. The reason in both
cases is the same – to get rid of the Dalriad Scots and their
conquest. Nor was there material wanting to make the suppression of
the Dalriad kingdom plausible. Angus MacFergus, King of Fortrenn,
waded his way to the Pictish throne through blood – “a sanguinary
tyrant,” as a Saxon chronicle calls him. For an outrage on his son he
invaded Dalriada and captured Dungal, King of Lorn, and possibly of
Dalriada also, in 735, and in 740 he gave Dalriada a “smiting.” In the
same year a battle was fought in Ireland between the Cruithnig and
Dalriads of that country. Skene transfers this fight to Galloway
somehow, and manages to kill in it Alpin, the Dalriad King that
appears then in the Albanic Duan. (A late Chronicle has it that the
real Alpin fell in Galloway.) With the death of the king, the kingdom
of Dalriada falls under Angus’s sway, and it remains evermore Pictish
– so Skene. The real truth is different. Angus’s invasions were of no
more moment than his invasions of the Britons, who in 749 inflicted
heavy slaughter on the Pidts, and the significant remark is made by
the annalist – “Wane of Angus’s kingdom” – a remark which Dr. Skene
never saw. It occurs in Hennessy’s new edition of the Annals of
Ulster. Skene makes Angus a great king and conquering hero to the end
(760). While he dies as “King of the Picts,” his successor (his
brother) dies as “King of Fortrenn.” This dynasty had shrunk to its
original measure of power; and with it also tumble the theories built
on it by Pinkerton and Skene. Later writers while accepting Skene’s
views that there was no Scottish Conquest, have usually refused to
follow him in his suppression of Dalriada and its kings in 740. King
Aed Finn fought with the Pictish King in Fortrenn in 767, a
fact which Skene finds it hard to explain away. Aed’s death is also
recorded in the Annals - 777; his brother’s in 780. In the Latin list
given, the first two names should be deleted, and for Eogan should be
read Eachaidh, who was father of Alpin, who was father of Kenneth the
Conqueror. The conquest of the Picts cannot be clearly explained from
our present materials. There was constant dynastic war for the last
generation of kings – attempts mostly to break the Pictish rule of
succession; and it is notable how Scottic names are very prominent.
The Danes harassed the Picts north and east. The Scots, pressed out of
tye Isles by the Norse, pressed eastward in their turn. The Scots also
had the Church and the culture very much their own; Iona was
undoubtedly the religious centre till the Norse caused a change to be
made. Both in Pictland and in Strathclyde Gaelic ultimately and
completely wiped out the original Pictish and British. The west coast
from the Clyde to the Solway was, in the 11th century, “as
Gaelic as the Peat.” See further the Editor’s paper on “Skene,” in
Inverness Gaelic Soc. Trans., vol. xxi.
CHAPTER III.
$
The Pictish prince of Kintyre! What an inversion of facts is here!
$
Cruithen tuath meant the Pictish nation (Pictavia), not the
Northern Picts. There was no distinction whatever between northern and
southern Picts; it is all a delusion, founded on Bede’s reference to
the Grampians as a physical division of Pictavia.
CHAPTER IV.
$
Welsh Gwyddyl Ffichti proves nothing; the authority is too
late, and word Gwyddyl being phonetically very unsatisfactory.
$
The word dobur is common to Welsh and old Gaelic. It
proves nothing either way.
$
The quotation about Aed Finn’s laws, promulgated by the Gael at
Forteviot, surely speaks against Skene’s views, and implies conquest.
$
The Mormaor of Moray was often by the Irish Annalists loosely called
rí Alban. This Malcolm was not the King Malcolm
(1005-1034).
$
Read “Mormaer Moreb,” Mormaor of Moray. For Mormaer see
Excursus above.
CHAPTER V.
$
The Norse Invasions, & c. Here Skene tries to write the history of
Scotland from 843 to 1057 from new sources, viz., the Norse
Sagas checked by the Irish Annals. He never refers to the native
Chronicles, which during this period are no longer mere lists of
kings. The results of Skene’s departure from native sources are here
again disastrous. The chapter may well be omitted in reading the book,
for it is entirely misleading. The facts are correctly given in
Celtic Scotland, where Dr. Skene makes the Chronicles his basis,
and adds interesting particulars from the Norse Saga. But even in
Celtic Scotland he failed to appreciate the full force of the
Norse Invasions. For a period of over four hundred years the Norse
were in possession of the Western Isles and a fringe of the mainland (Kintyre,
& c.), and for shorter periods they held Argyle in all its extent to
Lochbroom (Dalir), Sutherland, and Caithness. With less firm hand they
held Ross to the Beauly Valley (Dingwall, “County Meeting Field,”
being still the Norse name of the capital of Ross). The place names
prove this. The Hebrides could have no Gaelic left spoken in them. The
place names in Lewis are in the proportion of 4 Norse to 1 Gaelic.
This surely speaks for itself. In Islay, however, the proportion of
Gaelic is to Norse as 2 to 1. It is certain that Gaelic had to
reconquer (if it was there before) the Hebrides, Skye and Sutherland
(in great part). The ethnological characteristics of the people of
these parts fully bear this out, as Dr. Beddoe shows. The Norse
element is very strong throughout.
$
The Norse settled in the Isles early in the 9th century.
$
“Native chiefs”; there were scarcely any left. It was Norse
chiefs who rebelled against Harald.
$
The “Native chiefs” could scarcely then have recovered Sutherland. The
Sagas were unfortunately written when Caithness became part of
Scotland (1196-1200).
$
There were no “Midland Cruithne.” See correction of this mistake at
note above. The elaborate argument about the Ptolemy names and those
of the 10th century is useless and groundless.
$
The Malcolm that succeeded in 1005 to the throne of Scotland was
Malcolm Mac Kenneth, who reigned 30 years. The other Malcolm was only
Mormaor or King of Moray. This error is acknowledged by Dr. Skene in
Celtic Scotland, i. p. 400.
$
Many of these pages are from Norse Sagas, and as given here are
useless as history. Macbeth’s connection with Thorfinn and the Norse
is a matter of doubt. His name never appears in the Sagas. The name
Mac-beth, Gaelic Mac-bethadh, means “Son of Life.” Dr. Skene evidently
thought that there was a Gaelic personal name Beth, and he would not
allow that Comes Beth mentioned twice in the Chartulary of Scone is
manifestly a mistake for Comes Heth, of Moray (Celtic Scotland,
iii. 62). He is the ancestor of the famous Mac-Eths, and was married
to the daughter of King Lulach. The name is Aed, “fire,” a favourite
old name, later Aodh, Englished as Hugh and lost, but still living in
the surname Mackay and Mackie.
CHAPTER VI.
$
Thorfinn’S mainland power is vastly exaggerated in the Sagas. Its
southern limit was Beauly Valley, where the Norse names fail. he had
also the Kingdom of the Isles and the West Coast fringe (old Argyle or
Dalir, as they called it).
$
Donald Mac Malcolm here mentioned is, of course, King Malcolm’s own
son.
$
For Morlach, see Celtic Scotland, ii. 379.
$
This is the same Donald as above. King Maelsnechtan is in the Annals
rí Moreb. His father Lulach was Macbeth’s successor for half a
year.
$
Caithness, Sutherland, and old Argyle were still Norse or under Norse
rule. It was King William who really annexed Caithness and Sutherland
to the Scottish Crown; and Argyle was finally subdued in 1222.
$
Donald Bane was “elected” king. He was at first tanist.
$
Ladmann or Lamont, son of Donald, was slain by the Moray men. He was
really son of the Donald mentioned above. See Celtic Scotland,
i. 453. The argument is therefore wrong.
$
Too much id made of the “Boy of Egremont.” The conspiracy of the six
earls is unexplained. See Celtic Scotland, iii.66, where the
Boy is cautiously suggested.
$
Dr. Skene here suggests that the fall of the Macdonalds meant the fall
of the Highland clans. why, it was the ruse of the modern
Highland clans. It freed the great clans of Maclean, Macleod, Mackay,
Cameron, and especially, Mackenzie, not to mention minor clans, who in
the 15th century all freely got Crown charters independent
of the Macdonald chiefs.
$
One of the greatest factors in the change of the Highlands from
mediaevalism to more modern habits of thought was the inflow of
Presbyterian ideals in religion. Before the ‘45 the Highlanders were
from a religious standpoint neither good Episcopalians nor
Presbyterians at all. Indeed, they resisted Presbyterianism. A
religious revival rose in the last half of the 18th century
and spread slowly all over the north, which assured the success of
Presbytery.
CHAPTER VII.
$
This chapter is rendered almost valueless by later research, which is
given in full in Celtic Scotland, iii, chaps. iv. to viii.
$
Modern Highland clans have been feudal in succession and tenure of
land; but the kinship feeling still remained.
$
The officer of Engineers was Captain Burt. His book was reprinted
lately.
$
Law of Succession. Dr. Skene says in Celtic Scotland that the
Irish law of succession was “hereditary in the family, but elective in
the individual.” This has been shown already. In this work he confuses
Pictish and Gaelic succession together.
$
Tanistry. The tanist or next heir was appointed during the king’s or
chief’s lifetime, to avoid confusion at his death.
$
Gavel. The rule of dividing the property equally among the sons is
really not Gadelic nor Scottic. It was very English, however, before
feudalism came in. The case of Somerled of the Isles and his
descendants to the 15th century is peculiar. It was the
ruin of a mighty house. Originally, the chief had his mensal lands,
and the rest of the tribe-land belonged to the tribe. But ever since
the English Conquest (1172) the old Irish and Gadelic system became
corrupt, because the sub-chiefs stuck to the lands assigned them, and
latterly got charters. In Scotland, the chief of a Highland clan for
the last five hundred years succeeds by primo-geniture, and it cannot
be held by a bastard (contrary to the old system), nor can it pass
through females. This is purely feudal and also Salic.
$
Native men, or Nativi, were simply the bondsmen on the estates.
Gradually they were set free, and by the 16th century the
term is used in the sense of “kindly men” – men allied by kin to the
chief. This is especially the case in bonds of manrent.
$
The Toiseach. Dr. Skene has here fallen into a grievous error. The
toiseach was the head of the clan; its earliest translation into Latin
was “capitann,” later “chief” in English. The theory about the
oldest cadet being called toiseach is probably due to Skene’s view of
the Mackintoshes as oldest cadets of clan Chattan. The derivation of
toieachdorachd, “coronership,” is toiseach, baillie, and
deoraidh, a stranger; his first duty was doubtless to attend to
incomers into the clan, and other “foreign office” matters. It also
exists in Manx, tosiaght-yoarrey.
CHAPTER VIII.
$
Dr. Skene’s account of the Celtic Church here is an excellent piece of
pioneer work. Bishop Reeves later put the whole question of the Celtic
Church on a scientific basis; and Dr. Skene’s second volume of
Celtic Scotland is entirely devoted to the Church. It is his best
piece of work. It was a monastic Church purely, the abbot being the
religious head of the “diocese,” or rather of the tribal district, for
the Celtic Church was tribal. The abbot might only be a priest, as at
Iona usually. Bishops had no dioceses; they were attached to the abbey
for ordination purposes, and were numerous. Skene fails here to grasp
this point. The use of the term Culdee for the Columban clergy is
unfortunate. The Culdees belonged to the later and debased state of
the Celtic Church (900-1200). They were first anchorites, who later
clubbed into 13, still retaining their separate booths or houses and
also lands. Later, of course, they were married. With great difficulty
the Church reform party of the Ceannmore dynasty got them to become
canons, and in the 13th century they practically
disappeared.
$
Ireland was, except Dalaraidhe, all Scottic/ but it was traditionally
divided into two halves – Leth Moga and Leth Chuinn, Mog Nuadat’s Half
(south), and Conn’s Half (north). These were two kings – somewhat
mythical – of the 2nd century A.D.
$
St. Patrick and Palladius are really one person, the person meant
being called in British Sucat, “good at war” (W. hygad),
translated into Graeco-Latin as Palladius (Pallas, goddess of war),
and naming himself as Patricius, because he was of noble birth. His
sphere in Ireland was the north, and the later Romanisers make him
bishop of Armagh. He was a Briton, but no relation of St. Martin of
Tours.
$
The monks were laymen under monastic rule, as usual; but
bishops were also monks, and nothing more. It was not, as Bede says,
necessary that the abbot should be a bishop.
$
There really was no episcopacy at Armagh to transfer to Iona.
$
There were no dioceses apart from the monasteries. There was only one
bishop for Scotland – the Bishop of St. Andrews – till King
Alexander’s time. They really were not needed, as there were no
dioceses till the Celtic Church fully conformed to Rome.
$
The Ossianic Poetry. It is needless to enter upon the question of the
authenticity of Macpherson’s Ossian. Celtic scholars are agreed that
it is all Macpherson’s own work, both English and Gaelic. Indeed, the
Gaelic was translated from the English, and is for the most part very
ungrammatical and unidiomatic. These very faults – showing its
extremely modern character – have been always regarded as marks of
antiquity. Ordinary Gaelic readers do not understand it at all. The
English is better done, because it is the original. He has little or
no foundation in Gaelic legend for his so-called poems; he used only
about a dozen stories – and these, too, much abused – of the old
literature, forming only a very small fraction of the English work.
The latest scholarly views on the subject may be found in Dr. Ludwin
Stern’s paper on the “Ossianic Heroic Legends,” translated in the 22nd
vol. of the Inverness Gaelic Soc. Trans. Dr. Skene makes no reference
to Finn or Ossian in Celtic Scotland. Again here he confuses
the older Ulster with the smaller Ulster, called Ulidia or Dalaraidhe,
and containing Picts. The list of kings shows to what straits a theory
drags a man. Macpherson in “Temora” gives a further corrected list.
$
The history of Ireland unknown! Why, both Keating and
O’Flaherty were already published! Macpherson used them for the 1763
volume.
$
The Bagpipe: “origin unknown.” That is not so. It came to Scotland in
the 14th century and reached the Highlands in the 16th
century, where it was hospitably received. Major (1521) does not
mention it among Highland musical instruments, but Buchanan, fifty
years later, says the Highlanders used it for war purposes. They also
improved it by adding the big drone, whence the “Piob Mhór.” It is
thoroughly non-Gaelic by origin.
CHAPTER IX.
$
The Highland Dress. About all the information possible in regard to
the Highland dress is here given; yet curiously the modern Highland
dress of plaid and philabeg are not accounted for. The old dress was a
(saffron) leine or shirt, a plaid thrown over the shoulders and
brought to the knees all round in plaits and also belted. a bonnet
(sometimes), and brogues made of skin, sometimes with hose; knees
always bare. This is really a Southern Europe dress, not the “garb of
old Gaul,” which was breeches. The modern kilt is merely the lower
half of the breacan or féile cut off from the upper, a jacket being
made of the upper. When this improvement took place – when the kilt or
philabeg was invented – is not known to a hundred years. It was during
the Lowland wars of the 17th and 18th century at
the instigation of the Iron Companies that then bought the Highland
woods.
APPENDIX.
$
The Seven Provinces of Scotland. Dr. Skene makes too much of these
seven earldoms. It is possible that in or about 800 A.D. the Pictish
Kingdom was divided into the seven provinces mentioned. The sons of
Cruithne are named in the best MSS. as follows: – Cait, Ce, Cirig (Circinn),
a warlike clan Fib, Fidach, Fotla, Fortrenn. Cait is Caithness; Circin
is Magh-Chircinn or Mearns; Fib is Fife; Fothla is Athole; Fortrenn is
Menteith. But what are Ce and Fidach? Evidently Mar and Moray. Ce may
appear in Keith.
$
Gouerin is surely Gowrie. Skene’s Garmoran is a continual nuisance.
$
The lists. The attempt to explain the 30 Brudes in this way is more
than obsolete.
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
$
The Northern Picts in the 9th and 10th centuries
were overrun by Scots and Norse-men, and made less Pictish than any
part of Scotland. The Norse-men had the Province of Cat; the Scots had
the West Coast, and were masters of the Mormaership of Moray. He
allows the conquest of the Southern Picts by the Scots. Consequently,
the chiefs of the older Highland clans can well claim to be either
Scots or Norse.
$
“Barbarous Scottish hordes”! Why, the Scots were the most learned
people of Western Europe then! The Picts were the barbarians.
$
The 1450 MS. Dr. Skene has made much use of this MS. – overmuch use.
As far as the Macdonald genealogies go, the MS. reproduces the Book of
Ballimote, and otherwise depends on that work. Where it stands alone,
as in the case of clans Chattan, Cameron, Mackenzie, Ross, Matheson,
Macfee, Macgregor, Maclaren, Mackay (of Perthshire), and Maclagans, it
has to be used with caution, even as late as 1400. The genealogies end
from 1400 to 1450. The MS. is now undecipherable, owing to the
employment of chemicals by its first editors.
$
The MS. here alluded to is the famous Dean of Lismore’s Book,
published in 1862.
$
John Elder’s views. This rascally turncoat tells Henry VIII. that the
Redshanks were Picts, and that they were racially the old stock
descended from the mythical Brutus, and hence naturally belonged to
Britain and England. The story of descent from Scota, or from the
Scots, he repudiates. In fact he takes up Edward I.’s position in his
letter to the Pope about his claims on Scotland; the Scots, with Bruce
at their head, claimed independence as being from Ireland, descended
of Scota. Dr. Skene favours the English view! The two stories are
myths; they are not even traditions.
$
The extraordinary statement made here that we first hear of the Scota
descent in 1320 in the letter to the Pope is contradicted by many
documents, and all Irish history. See Picts and Scots Chronicles
passim.
$
The idea of “Highland Chief” was first translated by “capitanus”; it
implies nothing as to descent.
CHAPTER II.
$
The Gall-Gaidheil. As already said, these were the mixed Norse and
Gaels dwelling in the Western Isles and along the west coast from
Galloway to Cape Wrath, afterwards reduced to the Kingdom of Man and
the Isles. The Gael portion seem to have turned heathen, thinking Thor
more powerful than Christ. The Hebrides were completely Norse. The
term Vikingr Skotar of course applies to the Gaels among these Gall-Gaidheil;
but the Norse were by far the more numerous in the combined
nationality, if it may be so termed. The Gall-Gaidheil
