From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795

New Edinburgh History of Scotland #1

by James E. Fraser

Shortlisted for the 2009 Saltire Society History Book of the Year, 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.

Genres: History, Scotland, Nonfiction, Medieval History, European History, Ancient History

448 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

About the author

James Earle Fraser (fl. 2000s) is a Canadian historian and Picticist. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto, and did masters work at the University of Guelph. He went on to do his Ph.D on the Christianization of Fortriu and its impact of Vikings at the University of Edinburgh, and was a senior lecturer in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology until 2015. He has since returned to Canada as the Chair of the Scottish Studies Foundation at the University of Guelph.

Fraser has written articles on various dark age topics, including St. Ninian and Adomnán's Vita Sancti Columbae. He has published two books relating to Pictish and northern British warfare, and recently authored the first volume in the New Edinburgh History of Scotland series, titled From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (EUP, 2009).

Reviews

[Apocryphal Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first volume in the 10-volume New Edinburgh History of Scotland. It covers the early historic period from A.D. 69 ("Vespasian secures the Principate") to 795 ("Viking assault on Iona").

The book focuses mainly on the matter of leadership in early historic Scotland and tries to answer the question of who the principal cultural groups were (Picts, Gaels, Northern Britons, and Bernicians/Northumbrians) and how they evolved as political entities. It explores, in particular, the emergence of hegemonies - often of mixed ethnicity - under the rulership of high kings.

The book is broken down into three parts. The first part examines the end of the Roman period in Scotland and looks at the key tribes north of the wall and their relations with Rome. Here, Fraser rejects the idea of a 'Roman Interlude', which is the idea that Rome had no great impact on Northern Britain and that once the Romans were gone, the Celts returned to their old ways. Instead, he points out that Rome influenced both the governance and the religion of the Celts in irreversible ways.

The second part of the book looks at the emergence of the early kingdoms, and in particular of Dal Riata (and the dynasty of Aedan) in the west, Northumberland (and the Aedilfrith dynasty) in the south, Alt Cuit (Clyde Rock) in the centre, and Pictavia in the north. Rheged is also given a mention, but as it seems to have been swallowed fairly early by Northumbria. The place of the church in all this, and particularly of Iona and the Northumbrian church, are also discussed. Here we learn of the Cenel nGabrain in the west, Oswy of Northumbria (one of early Britain's most successful kings) and of Bridei, son of Beli.

Part three, titled The Pictish Project, discusses the rise of the Pictish kingdom , and in particular of Onuist (Oengus) who rose to power in Dunottar to dominate all the north, including Argyl. Toward the end of this section, two chapters look at the emergence of the Picts as a nation and their legacy in more detail. These chapters also help to set up the next volume in the series (From Pictland to Alba 789-1070 by Alex Woolf).

As an armchair reader of early Scottish history, I quite enjoyed the book. The author doesn't mind turning old assumptions about the value of the 'primary' sources on their heads as he looks extensively at the work of Bede, Nennius, and Adomnan, among others, and their propensity toward 'pseudo-history'. Fraser argues that these authors reveal much more about the period in which they lived than about the period they were writing about. So unfortunately that leaves us with a lot of blanks in the earlier years, but offers some tantalizing clues to what was happening in later years. Attempting to create a history of this period is always going to be difficult since there are so many gaps in the record, but it's the very art of taking these sundry pieces and constructing a coherent narrative that makes Dark Ages history so compelling, and Fraser does an admirable job.

However, I have to say that it's easy to get lost in the middle of this book, where the history tends to devolve to the names-and-dates type, following the various political players. In his efforts to describe *how* he is putting the overall picture together, he often forgets to pause and actually give us the picture. A summary at the end of each chapter encapsulating his thoughts for the events covered would have done wonders for making this book more accessible. As it is, he jumps around quite a bit in time, and many of the people mentioned in the text have two names (Onuist = Oengus) or have similar names (Talorc vs. Talorcan), and leaders are identified by their kinship (Cenel nEchdach) and it can be difficult to remember how the various kins are related (Cenel nGartnait, located in Ardnamurchan, is a sub-clan of Cenel nGabrain (Kintyre), but Cenel Comgail (Cowal) isn't. This can be quite hard to follow if you are trying to read casually.

So, yes, chapter summaries piecing together all the speculation into a more coherent narrative, making it clear who was being talked about when, would have elevated this from a 3.5 to a 4 star read for me. And more maps would have helped - there are many placenames mentioned in the book that never appear on a map. But overall I, find it a remarkable piece of scholarship, lacking only a little in the presentation.

This is a book to continue your study of early Historic Scotland, not the book to start it.

[Steven Shook · Rating 4 out of 5]

James E. Fraser's From Caledonia to Pictland Scotland to 795 is the first work in The New Edinburgh History of Scotland. The book is extremely dense with details written, for the most part, in a chronological order starting from Rome's Caledonia (circa 100-200 AD) to the conclusion of the eighth century. Fraser provides little repetition of fact throughout the book. Thus, the book is not made for casual reading since close attention must be paid to information so that later periods of history, when discussed, are clearly understood.

It is amazing to me how Fraser has taken information from many disparate contemporary sources and pieced it together into a rather comprehensive history of Caledonia and Pictland. He readily admits several times to time gaps where there is little or no contemporary information from which to draw. Yet, he does his best best to fill in these gaps with educated conjectures of what was occurring at during these periods. As new archaeological information is uncovered, and perhaps ancient written source material discovered, those time gaps will be filled in with contemporary information.

Additional maps would have helped me immensely in better understanding the kingdoms, regions, rulers, etc. I found myself Googling locations several times to get my bearings straightened out. Conversely, I very much appreciated the last two chapters, which essentially provided a tidying up of all the details and set the context for the next book in the series.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first of a new detailed Scottish history. The story is made difficult to unravel because of the lack of adequate source material and as such history has to be based on a mix of legend, limited records and educated conjecture. James Fraser manages to do this well and convincingly. I did read this after I had finished the succeeding book but none the worse for that and arguably it made the history more comprehensible.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I haven't given this book five stars is that Fraser's prose style isn't always the clearest, so that he often struggles to bring real clarity to his points. The slightly frustrating result of this is that it makes an already fairly dense book somewhat denser.

Nonetheless, it is otherwise a really excellent history book. If you are willing to spend the time and effort on it, you will be deeply rewarded.

[Aiden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read, found myself skimming over the mid section as it went a bit too in depth on specific figures rather than the general political and cultural happenings of the time for me, but that's the nature of the work. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the series has in store.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall good, an interesting and fluid account. An achievement given this is possibly one of the most technical and complex historical narrative I have ever looked into (after the Roman Period).

This is also a difficult one to review. The first few chapters had significant weaknesses. The Severan Period coverage was disappointing (I know the historiography and academic trends + sources pretty well).
Use of the Historia Augusta without qualification was a bit limp and his secondary sources were sometimes dated e.g Birley’s biography of Septimius Severus. Some of the theoretical stuff in early book a bit dated too eg Bloc. Idea of “Farmer Republics” seems odd and a bit fishy but I need to delve deeper into that myself. Narrative of end of Britain with Romans leaving not great - felt a bit stale with a transactional feel.

This being said, the later book was great. I could be wrong as I dont know this period at all. The sources are complex, Frazer has a highly technical proficiency when using Saints lives, Northumbrian Chronicles, Poetry and Kings lists. Because of this much of the latter was skim read - I will return to these again.

His explanation of the church and Iona was also very good.

The extent of Pictish connections to Ireland shocked me and revised some simplistic historical elements I had previously let sink into my mind.

Despite its shaky start this is a solid text and can see why it is often used as a university text book (e.g. Celtic Studies at The University of Edinburgh).

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tried so hard to finish this book. Too much a list of names.