The Enigma of the Picts
Jonathon M. Wooding
Journal of the Sydney Society for Scottish History: Vol 1. (1993)
Abstract
The Picts are the first chapter in Scottish history. Indeed, they are really more of a foreword or a preface: for it is only with their merger with the kingdom of S£Q.ui of Dalriada (in Argyllshire) in 843 A.D. that we have a kingdom called ‘Scotland’ for the first time. The language and customs of these S£.Q.1tl (Irish migrants from around the fifth century A.D. or earlier) came to dominate the culture of the new kingdom, at the expense of that of the Picts and it is with the decline of the Picts that ‘Scot’tish history begins. Nonetheless many elements of Pictish culture must have gone into the making of Scottish civilisation. But there is much disagreement as to what Pictish civilisation was really like.
This ‘enigma’ of the Picts (as I will call it), the controversy and unanswered questions surrounding the identity of these previous occupants of Scotland, have a compelling and fascinating quality, for academics as much as for the general reader. So I suppose I had best begin by stating that I am a scholar behind whom stretches a long and noble tradition of failure! Many scholars have set out to solve the enigma of the Picts, some great names among them, but there is still little agreement. It would certainly be vain of me to suppose that I will do any better in attempting to resolve the problems.
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