The North
Britain Before English
Course 1 · Chapter 8 · The North
The Roman frontier walls of Chapter 6 divided Britain in two for the Romans. North of them lived peoples whose own writing is almost entirely lost: first called the Caledonians, then the Picts, with the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata on the western coast. This chapter reports what the sources say, and a large part of what they say is that we do not know.
The Caledonians
The Caledonians article says Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geography lists related northern groups, including the Vacomagi, Taexali and Venicones. The Greek Kalēdōnes gave rise to the name "Caledonia". Older explanations are rejected, such as a Gaelic "forest-people"; Stefan Zimmer proposes a Proto-Celtic root meaning "hard" plus "foot", though the article says some scholars doubt this.
- Tacitus described them as red-haired with large limbs and argued this suggested a German origin, and recorded Mons Graupius (AD 83 or 84, Chapter 6). The article says it is unclear whether Calgacus was a king or an elected war-leader.
- Cassius Dio recorded Caledonian attacks in 197 and 209 to 210, claiming they inflicted 50,000 Roman casualties through attrition and guerrilla tactics.
- Severus (209 to 211): Septimius Severus led an expedition north and died at York in 211. Caracalla made peace and withdrew, and the Caledonians retook their land. Historians disagree on whether the war was truly concluded.
The article says the Caledonians are not clearly separated from the Picts: Roman writers grouped northern tribes together, and Peter Salway assumes the Caledonians were Pictish tribes speaking a language closely related to Common Brittonic. It gives 305 as the first recorded use of "Pict", while the Picts article says 297. I could not tell why they differ, so I give both. The Antonine Wall article in Chapter 6 says the Romans never conquered the Caledonians.
The Picts
Wikipedia's Picts article says the Latin Picti first appears in a panegyric from 297 (the part I read does not name the speaker). The Picts lived north of the Firth of Forth, and Fortriu, the dominant kingdom, is now thought to have been centred on Moray. The Picts are assumed to descend from the Caledonii and other northern Iron Age tribes.
| Topic | What the article says |
|---|---|
| Kingdoms | Later sources list seven kingdoms, but the article treats the list cautiously, since it matches the seven sons of the legendary founder Cruithne; some evidence suggests an Orkney kingdom too |
| Conversion | When the elite converted is uncertain; traditions link Palladius, Ninian and Columba to Pictland; excavation at Portmahomack suggests a monastery by the late 6th century |
| Stones | Class I (symbols, such as Aberlemno I) and Class II (such as the Aberlemno Kirkyard Stone) are described; symbols such as the double disc and Z-rod, and the mirror and comb, have resisted translation |
| Dun Nechtain, 685 | The Anglians of Northumbria were defeated, which halted their northward expansion |
| End | The Pictish and Dál Riata kingdoms merged into the Kingdom of Alba under the House of Alpin, with Kenneth MacAlpin becoming king in the 840s |
| Unknown | Early history, origins, the meaning of the symbols, whether Alba was new or a renaming, and whether succession was matrilineal |
The Pictish language
Wikipedia's Pictish language article says Pictish was an Insular Celtic language. Most scholars think its ancestor was a branch of Brittonic, though some see it only as "related", and it may have been "a number of discrete Brittonic varieties". It is extinct.
- Place names: Aberdeen, Perth and Cupar, with elements like aber, pen and tref, appear mainly north of the Forth.
- Personal names: names such as Uurgust and Taran show Brittonic features, drawn largely from the Poppleton manuscript.
- Ogham: some inscriptions have been read as Brittonic, but Rodway (2020) argues most apparent Celtic matches are chance resemblances. The article says the corpus is tiny and the key to the readings is unknown.
- Other theories: John Rhŷs (1892) proposed a non-Indo-European language; Kenneth Jackson (1955) combined a P-Celtic Pictish with a possible non-Celtic substratum, a view the article says has been weakened by archaeology and newer Celtic readings of ogham. Jackson also proposed a separate branch, Pritenic, which Guto Rhys heavily criticised but the article says remains popular.
- End: Pictish was gradually replaced by Gaelic. The infobox gives extinction "by c. 1200 AD", and the article suggests the Pictish identity was forgotten in the 12th or 13th century.
Chapter 5 listed Pictish among the Brittonic languages with the words "possibly". This is why: the article says the exact affinity with Brittonic or Gaelic remains unresolved.
Dál Riata
According to Wikipedia's Dál Riata article, it was a Gaelic kingdom on both sides of the North Channel: roughly Argyll in Scotland and north-east County Antrim in Ireland, with its capital believed to be the hillfort of Dunadd. The infobox gives 498 to 850.
| Question | What the article says |
|---|---|
| Founding | By the legendary Fergus Mór, dated 498 to 501; the Duan Albanach (11th century) says three sons of Erc conquered Alba about 500; Bede names Reuda |
| Origin debate | Eoin MacNeill proposed Irish settlement first, then rulers moving from Ireland; Ewan Campbell argues there is no archaeological or place-name evidence of migration or takeover and suggests the medieval accounts were dynastic propaganda, a view that has been challenged |
| Height | Áedán mac Gabráin, r. 574 to 608; defeated about 603 at Degsastan by the Bernician king Æthelfrith |
| Iona | Áedán granted Iona to Columba, and the Convention of Druim Cett (575) allied Dál Riata with the Cenél Conaill; the article does not give a date for Columba's arrival, so I give none; the Book of Kells, about 800, was probably begun there |
| Decline | Defeats at Mag Rath (637) and Strathcarron (642); under Pictish overlordship by 741; Viking raids from 795 |
| The merger | Cináed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin) is traditionally credited with becoming king of the Picts about 843; the article says it is contested whether he ruled Dál Riata first |
The article does not date the arrival of Gaelic. It notes that Campbell's theory would explain how Argyll stayed Gaelic-speaking while the rest of Scotland spoke Pictish or another Brittonic language, and that Adomnán's Life shows the distribution of Gaelic and P-Celtic place-names by the end of the 7th century. It says the sources are uneven: the annals leave gaps (the record ends in 792), Adomnán's Life of St Columba is hagiography, not history, and the Duan Albanach and the royal genealogies are "less reliable than one might wish".
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Panegyric | A formal speech of praise |
| Ogham | An early Irish alphabet of strokes along a line, found on stones |
| Pritenic | Jackson's proposed Pictish branch of P-Celtic |
| Hagiography | A saint's life written to honour the saint |
| Substratum | An earlier language that influences a later one |
| Matrilineal | Descent or inheritance through the mother's line |
| Overlordship | Rule of one king over another's kingdom |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. Who were the Caledonians, and what happened to the name?
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A Brittonic-speaking tribal confederacy in what is now Scotland; after Rome conquered the south, the northern peoples came to be called Picts.
2. What is the usual meaning of "Picts", and what is the doubt?
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"Painted", from Latin pingere, taken as a reference to tattooing; the article says there is little direct evidence of tattooing and notes a possible native origin.
3. Which two articles give different first dates for the name "Pict", and what are the dates?
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The Picts article says 297; the Caledonians article says 305.
4. What is known of the Pictish language, and from what?
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It was an Insular Celtic language, probably related to Brittonic, known mainly from place and personal names and a few ogham inscriptions whose readings are disputed.
5. What happened at Dun Nechtain in 685?
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The Anglians of Northumbria were defeated, which halted their northward expansion.
6. Where was Dál Riata, and what language did it speak?
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Roughly Argyll in Scotland and north-east Antrim in Ireland; it was a Gaelic kingdom.
7. What are the two views on Dál Riata's origin?
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Irish settlement and rulers moving from Ireland (MacNeill and the medieval accounts), or a native development with the medieval accounts as dynastic propaganda (Campbell, a view that has been challenged).
8. Why should the sources for the north be read with care?
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The Picts left no books; Roman, Irish and Northumbrian writers may be biased; the annals leave gaps; and the Life of St Columba is hagiography, not history.