From Caledonia to Pictland

Scotland to 795

James E. Fraser

• Publisher: EUP
• Year: 2009
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780748628209
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

From Caledonia to Pictland examines the transformation of Iron Age northern Britain into a land of Christian kingdoms, long before 'Scotland' came into existence. Perched at the edge of the western Roman Empire, northern Britain was not unaffected by the experience, and became swept up in the great tide of processes which gave rise to the early medieval West. Like other places, the country experienced social and ethnic metamorphoses, Christianisation, and colonization by dislocated outsiders, but northern Britain also has its own unique story to tell in the first eight centuries AD.This book is the first detailed political history to treat these centuries as a single period, with due regard for Scotland's position in the bigger story of late Antique transition. From Caledonia to Pictland charts the complex and shadowy processes which saw the familiar Picts, Northumbrians, North Britons and Gaels of early Scottish history become established in the country, the achievements of their foremost political figures, and their ongoing links with the world around them. It is a story that has become much revised through changing trends in scholarly approaches to the challenging evidence, and that transformation too is explained for the benefit of students and general readers.Key Features:*The only detailed political history to treat the first eight centuries AD as a single period of Scottish history.*Redresses the imbalance created by an existing literature dominated by archaeologists. From Caledonia to Pictland provides a narrative history of the period.*Bridges a traditional disciplinary divide between the Roman and early medieval periods.*Locates this phase of Scotland's history within a European context, emphasising what is unique and what is not.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Maps and Genealogical Tables
• Acknowledgements
• General Editor’s Preface
• Introduction Fabulousness, Obscurity and Difficulty: Narrative History to 795
• Part One The Passing of Caledonia (69–597)
• Chapter 1 New Nations: Caledonia from Cerialis to Caracalla
• Chapter 2 The Later Roman Iron Age and the Origins of the Picts
• Chapter 3 Uinniau, ‘Ninian’ and the Early Church in Scotland
• Chapter 4 Word and Example: Columba in Northern Britain
• Postscript ‘The Roman Interlude’
• Part Two The Age of the Kings of Bamburgh (576–692)
• Chapter 5 High Lords of Princes: Áedán, Urbgen and Aeðilfrith (576–616)
• Chapter 6 Sighs of Sorrow: Iona and the Kingdoms of Northern Britain (616–43)
• Chapter 7 Emperor of All Britain: Oswy and his Hegemony (642–70)
• Chapter 8 Bull of the North: Bridei son of Beli and the Fall of the Aeðilfrithings (671–92)
• Postscript Scotland and the Aeðilfrithing Legacy
• Part Three The Pictish Project (692–789)
• Chapter 9 League and Iron: Bridei son of Der-Ilei, Iona and Argyll (692–707)
• Chapter 10 Nations Reformed: Northumbria and Pictavia (704–24)
• Chapter 11 ‘When Óengus took Alba’: Despot, Butcher and King (728–61)
• Chapter 12 Dragons in the Air: A Doubtful Generation (761–89)
• Chapter 13 Regime-craft in Early Historic Northern Britain
• Postscript Remote from the Roman Nation
• Timeline
• Guide to Further Reading
• Bibliography
• Index