Further Reading: Kings and Kingship

This is the first in a new series of blogposts in which I’ll be recommending stuff to read. By ‘stuff’ I mean printed items, things that don’t require some kind of electronic gizmo to unlock their information. If it exists in online format only, then it won’t be listed here.

In the series I’ll be selecting – in no particular order – various books and journal articles regarded by me as useful ‘further reading’ on topics covered at this blog. What these items share in common is the simple fact that I have perused all of them at some point in the last 25 years or so, in most cases more than once. I won’t be highlighting individual authors, either to show my appreciation of their work or to promote their latest book, but rather specific publications that I have found particularly useful. This means I won’t be including stuff suggested by other people but not yet seen by me. Every item showcased here is sitting on my bookshelf, or flickering in the loan history of my library account, or lurking somewhere in my stash of dog-eared offprints. The entire series will be unashamedly subjective, each item being chosen on the basis of nothing more weighty than my own opinion.

What better way to begin than with an acknowledged ‘classic’ from one of the foremost scholars of early Scottish history: Marjorie Anderson’s Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland. First published 40 years ago, with a revision in 1980, Kings and Kingship continues to be cited as a standard text. Its most recent reprint was issued a couple of years ago by Birlinn Books of Edinburgh (the publisher of my own scribblings).

The book’s title is self-explanatory: a study of royal authority and the individuals who wielded it, rather than a collection of royal biographies. One section does provide an excellent overview of political history, but the most useful aspect for many readers is Anderson’s comprehensive survey and analysis of the primary sources. Few scholars of her generation were better equipped to tackle such a complex topic. She was the wife of Alan Orr Anderson, editor of the magisterial Early Sources of Scottish History (which she later revised) and with whom she produced what is still regarded as the definitive edition of Adomnán’s Life of Saint Columba. In Kings and Kingship she closely examined the regnal lists of the Picts and Scots, assessing their usefulness (or otherwise) as repositories of reliable historical information. She had already presented much of this analysis as far back as 1949-50, in three articles for the Scottish Historical Review, but some of her views had changed in the ensuing years. So, in 1973, her earlier findings were reissued, with updates, in a single monograph. As an exercise in how to approach the historical sources with the caution they deserve, rather than with uncritical acceptance of what they appear to say, Kings and Kingship was an exemplary work. It was Marjorie Anderson’s magnum opus and, after four decades, its influence is still felt today.

The 2011 reprint from Birlinn includes an introduction by Nicholas Evans of the University of Glasgow, highlighting the book’s importance. Dr Evans also adds a bibliography of recent publications on the subject. Strangely, given the vast number of times I’ve borrowed Kings and Kingship from the library – often with multiple renewals – it remains a notable absentee from my bookshelf. I should really do something about that.

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Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland. Published in Edinburgh in 1973; revised 1980; reprinted with new introduction 2011.

Publisher’s webpage for 2011 reprint.

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Additional note

Marjorie Anderson’s contribution to scholarship was acknowledged in a festschrift published two years before her death in 2002:
Simon Taylor (ed.) Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland, 500-1297: essays in honour of Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday (Dublin, 2000).
Like so many of her own publications, her festschrift is an invaluable resource in its own right.

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ScARF

Very pleased to find a copy of Telling Scotland’s Story in my latest mailing from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The front cover of this nicely produced booklet is shown above.

Telling Scotland’s Story has been issued to accompany the launch of ScARF, the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework, a major new resource based on collaboration between people from different fields. The booklet is available as a free download from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland website, which also gives a neat overview of what ScARF is about:

Experts from a wide range of disciplines are pooling their skills and knowledge in a bid to piece together a comprehensive record of Scotland’s past. Archaeologists, historians, scientists and specialists in climatology and the natural sciences hope that by bringing their research and data together in one place, they’ll be able, eventually, to map out the history of Scotland in its entirety…… Collaborating for the first time through The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF), this research community expects to uncover new stories of Scotland’s past and solve mysteries that have continued to elude explanation.

These aims are set out more formally in a mission statement:

The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF) will endeavour:
i) To identify the topics within Scottish archaeology that offer opportunities for the highest quality of research.
ii) To seek the assistance of, and to assist, all sectors of the archaeological community – e.g. academic, governmental, museum-based, commercial and voluntary – to identify and fulfil the research needs essential to the development of Scottish archaeology.
iii) To assist the wider community, including corporate bodies and government, to understand and appreciate the rich opportunities afforded by, and the potential of, Scottish archaeology.

Read the rest of the ScARF mission statement here.

Telling Scotland’s Story is presented in an eye-catching way, in the style of a graphic novel. It gives vivid snapshots of a small selection of recent archaeological stories, ranging from prehistoric ‘Frankenstein mummies’ in the Outer Hebrides to fifteenth-century Scottish mercenaries in Sweden. It’s a fascinating publication in its own right, as well as being an imaginative introduction to ScARF. Web freebies don’t come much better than this!

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Links:

ScARF: The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework
Telling Scotland’s Story (free download from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland)
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland website

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Going digital

Although I’m not renowned for keeping up with new technology, I’m pleased to report that my books are now available as Kindle editions at Amazon UK and Amazon US. Not having the necessary gizmo means it may be some time before I get to see them

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The Heroic Age (issue 15)

The fifteenth issue of The Heroic Age offers high-quality, peer-reviewed articles and useful book reviews. This successful online journal, founded by Michelle Ziegler in the 1990s, goes from strength to strength.

If you’re interested in early medieval Europe (particularly its northwestern parts) you’ll find the journal worth a look. Check out the current contents and browse the archive of earlier issues. If you go back far enough you might even stumble across a couple of things written by me, such as my 2006 article on the Battle of Maserfelth.

Among the contents of Issue 15 is a very useful edition of Annales Cambriae, the Welsh Annals, by Henry Gough-Cooper. Since 2002 we’ve had David Dumville’s parallel edition* of the three principal texts of AC for the years 682-954 but nothing similar for the earlier period. Thanks to Henry’s painstaking scholarship, we now have the ‘missing link’ in the form of a parallel edition starting at the mid-fifth century and joining up with Dumville’s edition at 682. While those of us with Scottish interests might focus on a small number of entries relating to Dál Riata and Northumbria, followers of the ‘Historical Arthur’ debate may be more interested in how the battles of Badon and Camlann were reported in the three texts. It’s this kind of comparative study that makes Henry’s edition so valuable.

Here’s an official announcement from the journal:
‘The editorial staff of The Heroic Age is pleased to announce the release of Issue 15. Issue 15 contains articles on Late Antiquity, Arthuriana, and Folklore, as well as an edition of the Annales Cambriae from the time of St. Patrick through 682. The issue can be found at www.heroicage.org. The editorial staff would like to thank all our contributors, staff, and volunteer copy-editors. We would also like to thank Memorial University of Newfoundland for continuing to host The Heroic Age.’

The Heroic Age. Issue 15: October 2012

* Dumville, David (ed.) Annales Cambriae, AD 682–954: texts A–C in parallel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

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New book on Saint Columba

This is my fourth book, a biographical study of Saint Columba, the founder of Iona. Like my previous books it draws on primary and secondary sources to present a narrative history of its subject. In this case the main primary source (Adomnán’s Life of St Columba) is so central to the narrative that its author features almost as prominently as Columba himself. In fact, I’ve used Adomnán as my chief guide. My narrative sticks fairly closely to the Life throughout the first part of the book, which deals with Columba’s career in Ireland and Scotland. The second part looks at Columba’s legacy: the cult that grew around him and the federation of churches that regarded him as their patron.

One aspect of Columba’s story that particularly interests me is his interaction with secular powers, especially with ambitious rulers such as his kinsman Áed mac Ainmerech in Ireland, Áedán mac Gabráin of Dal Riata and the Pictish king Bridei. His relationships with these three, and with other powerful lords, are examined in this book, as are his dealings with folk of lesser social status.

Contents
Introduction: Finding Columba
Chapter 1 – The Sources
Chapter 2 – From Ireland to Iona
Chapter 3 – King Áedán
Chapter 4 – Abbot
Chapter 5 – Iona and her Neighbours
Chapter 6 – The Picts
Chapter 7 – Saint
Chapter 8 – Paruchia and Familia
Chapter 9 – Legacy

Like my second book The Men of the North: the Britons of Southern Scotland, this one has detailed references which are gathered into a Notes section at the rear, with an accompanying bibliography. Illustrations include maps and black-and-white photographs.

Columba is published in Edinburgh by John Donald. It is available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

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More Brunanburh links

King Athelstan depicted on a Victorian cigarette card.

The Battle of Brunanburh was a great victory for the English king Athelstan over an alliance of Vikings, Scots and Strathclyde Britons. It took place in 937 but its location has long been a mystery.

This blogpost adds four more links to the two I noted in an earlier post relating to the battle.

In a new paper uploaded to his webspace at Academia, Mick Deakin examines the case for locating the battle near Kirkburn in Yorkshire. Using old chronicles alongside place-name data, Mick reminds us that we should not be too quick to place the battlefield west of the Pennines (as many of us do – including myself). Several pieces of information in this paper were completely new to me, and it has certainly got me thinking about my own westward-leaning view of the campaign.

Those of you who follow the comment thread below my previous ‘Brunanburh links’ blogpost will have seen Damian Bullen’s recent comments supporting the case for Burnley. Damian sets this out in more detail at his blog where, among other things, he looks at possible clues offered by local place-names. Lancashire antiquarians of the 18th and 19th centuries were happy to believe that Athelstan’s great victory was indeed won on the moors above Burnley, just as their Yorkshire counterparts thought that its true location lay in the White Rose county. Whatever our own individual views on the location of Brunanburh, the important point is that neither Burnley nor Kirkburn can be ruled out as long as the site of the battle remains a mystery.

It’s good to see these and other theories being brought into the limelight, not least to keep the debate alive, and to remind everyone that the mystery still persists. At the moment, there’s a real risk of the debate being pushed aside by a growing academic consensus that the battle took place at Bromborough on the Wirral. In the paper cited above, Mick Deakin quotes from the recently published Brunanburh Casebook, a collection of articles dealing with various aspects of the topic. The book’s editor Michael Livingston writes: ‘…put simply, the case for Bromborough is currently so firm that many scholars are engaged not with the question of whether Brunanburh occurred on the Wirral, but where on the peninsula it took place…’. While it is true that Bromborough has a strong case on place-name grounds, its identification as the battlefield of 937 remains unproven, and this uncertainty needs to be acknowledged. Alternative theories should therefore be kept in the foreground, to be studied alongside Bromborough, and with equal scholarly vigour.

My third link is to an item by Kevin Halloran, an expert on 10th-century history and the author of two fascinating studies of the Brunanburh campaign (both published in Scottish Historical Review). In a paper recently uploaded at his Academia webspace, Kevin looks in detail at Athelstan’s invasion of Scotland in 934, a military venture that turned out to be a prelude to Brunanburh. Much of the background to the latter campaign was put in place three years earlier, so Kevin’s paper will be useful to anyone with an interest in the wider political context. Some of you will already be aware that Kevin has made a strong case for identifying Burnswark, a prominent hill in southwest Scotland, as the location of Brunanburh.

Finally, a valuable resource is Jon Ingledew’s Battle of Brunanburh website which summarises the respective arguments for Burnley, Bromborough and Broomridge (in Northumberland). Jon has also gathered the various chronicle references, which makes it easier to see the different names given to the battle by medieval writers.

And so the debate continues……

N.B. You’ll need to be signed up to Academia to download the papers by Kevin and Mick.

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Bits & Pieces

This is a round-up of various types of online information ranging from blogposts to newspaper articles to announcements of books and e-books.

I’ll begin with books that have recently appeared. These relate to Senchus topics and have been written by people who have commented on past blogposts here. In no particular order….

Hot off the press is The Chronicles of Iona: Exile by medievalist and blogger Paula de Fougerolles. Launched last month at The Haven (‘Boston’s first and only Scottish pub’) it tells through the medium of historical fiction the story of St Columba’s dealings with the early Scottish king Áedán mac Gabráin. Back in March in a roundup from the blogosphere I gave advance notice of this book, which is now available in print and electronic formats. The second volume in the Chronicles of Iona series is already in the pipeline. Check out Paula’s blog to keep up to date with her writing, or follow her on Twitter at @PaulaDeFoug

‘Seventh century Britain is in transition. Small kingdoms are dissolving and merging…..’ This is the volatile world in which a young Anglo-Saxon woman, the future St Hild of Whitby, is set to play an important part. Hild is the subject of Nicola Griffith’s eponymous novel which is due to be published in New York in the autumn of 2013. Nicola has an impressive track record as a prize-winning author so we know the narrative is in safe hands. In addition, I can vouch for her depiction of seventh-century North Britain as meticulously researched and as historically accurate as it’s possible to get. Those of you who use Twitter will find Nicola at @nicolaz or you can follow the progress of Hild via the Gemaecca blog.

Also newly published is The Last of the Druids: the Mystery of the Pictish Symbol Stones by Iain Forbes. This is another book I mentioned as forthcoming back in March, when I posted a link to the striking cover which shows the Hilton of Cadboll cross-slab. Out in the Twittersphere, where Iain is @IainForbesPict, he and I frequently provide our respective followers with links to pictures of Pictish stones and bounce each other’s tweets to and fro. Iain’s blog is also worth a look if you’re interested in the Picts. It currently has a nice post about the stone from Shandwick in Easter Ross.

Badonicus blogger Mak Wilson is working on an e-book about the historical figure behind the legends of ‘King’ Arthur. I’ve borrowed the inverted commas from the title of the book. The subtitle poses the fundamental question at the heart of the debate: Fact? Fiction? or Confusion? As part of the process Mak is re-working some of his blogposts and posting new links to the updated versions. If you’re a frequent visitor to Senchus you’ve probably seen one or more of Mak’s comments in various threads here. Mak’s on Twitter too, as @MakOfShropshire

Richard Denning will be a name familiar to those of you who follow the comment threads on my blogposts dealing with the Battle of Degsastan. At Richard’s website you’ll see information on his historical novel The Amber Treasure which is set in the era of the battle. Here’s a synopsis of the story… 6th Century Northumbria: Cerdic, the nephew of the great warrior Cynric, grows up dreaming of glory in battle and writing his name in the sagas. When war comes for real though, his sister is kidnapped, his family betrayed and his uncle’s legendary sword stolen. It falls to Cerdic to avenge his family’s loss, rescue his sister and return home with the sword.

Child of Loki, Richard’s second novel about sixth-century North Britain, is also available. In addition, Richard gives his views on Degsastan on the website English Historical Fiction Authors. You can follow him on Twitter where he’s easily recognisable as @RichardDenning

The Viking Highlands – The Norse Age in the Highlands by Dave Kelday is an e-book which looks at one of the most turbulent periods in Scottish history. The description at Amazon says that the author “aims to present a coherent, historical, sometimes speculative, narrative of that long era in Highland history when the people, politics and culture of the Norse played such a vital and significant role in the life and development of the nation.” I’m no stranger to weaving a historical narrative from scattered fragments of data, having used the same technique in my own books. In an email conversation Dave told me he used controversial texts such as the Norse sagas and the Manx Chronicle in this way while keeping in mind their limitations as historical sources.

Moving seamlessly from books and e-books to blogposts, online essays and news items…….

Most of you will know by now that Scotland has been given the Disney/Pixar treatment in a new animated feature called Brave. It looks good and is already out in the US. Michelle Ziegler went to see it and has put up a useful review at her Heavenfield blog. I hope to see Brave in the not-too-distant future and will probably review it here.

Do you remember my series of posts on the origins of Clan Galbraith? One contributor to the comment threads was Peter Kincaid who runs the website kyncades.org which explores the history of his surname. Peter has written an interesting paper on King Coroticus, the slave-raiding warlord castigated by St Patrick for capturing young Irish Christians and selling them to the Picts. One Irish tradition associated Coroticus with Aloo, usually interpreted as a garbled Gaelic form of Alt Clut, the Rock of Clyde at Dumbarton. Peter questions this identification and offers an alternative theory which suggests that Aloo might refer not to a place but to a military unit.

What nationality was St Cuthbert? Being interested in matters of ethnicity and identity in early medieval times it’s the kind of question I like to explore. I’m grateful to Liz Roberts for pointing me to a letter on the Telegraph website suggesting that the answer to this question should not necessarily be ‘English’. It is possible that Cuthbert was as much a Scottish saint as an English one, or maybe we should simply call him ‘Northumbrian’. I know from speaking to Liz that she has her own views on the use of ethnic terminology relating to this period. She’s right to be concerned about it. Terms such as ‘Scottish’ and ‘British’ are sometimes bandied about quite casually in reference to the early medieval period, without much thought being given to what they really meant a thousand years ago.

Here’s another question: where did the Picts defeat the Northumbrians on 20 May 685? The vicinity of Dunnichen Hill in Angus is seen by many as the likeliest location, but Dunachton in Badenoch is another candidate. Either or neither of these places could be the hill (or hillfort) called Dun Nechtáin in the Irish annals. The uncertainty means that the best-known event in Pictish history cannot be listed in an official inventory of battlefields. Historic Scotland’s decision to exclude Dunnichen from the list has not gone down too well in Angus, as this news item from The Courier makes clear.

Further west, in the Hebridean seaways, an archaeological excavation has recently commenced on the island of Eigg, its aim being to discover the origins of the ecclesiastical site at Kildonan. This is supposedly where St Donnan established a monastery in the late sixth century. He and his monks suffered martyrdom in 617 when the island was attacked by pirates. Because of the importance of the site I’ll be following the progress of this excavation closely. At some point I hope to run a blogpost about it.

Another excavation is hoping to unravel the mystery of Trusty’s Hill, a site overlooking the Solway Firth, where Pictish symbols are carved on a rock at the summit. Why are these carvings found here, so far away from the Pictish heartlands? Who occupied the fort on top of the hill? This was territory ruled by Britons, not Picts – or so conventional wisdom tells us. Yet the name Trusty seems to relate in some way to Tristan, and both may derive from the Pictish name Drostan, so are we looking at a genuine connection with the Picts?

Finally, but not for the last time, I recommend a visit to Heavenfield where Michelle has recently posted her latest round-up from the medieval blogs as well as the above-mentioned review of Brave. If you’re a ‘tweep’ you can follow Michelle on Twitter where she’s @MZiegler3. I’m a twitterer as well, in two guises: @EarlyScotland and @GovanStones. Speaking of Govan, I’ll be giving an update on what’s been happening there in my next blogpost, which will be published here at Senchus rather than at Heart of the Kingdom.

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Medieval Archaeology online

The first fifty volumes of Medieval Archaeology are freely available online. This journal is a major scholarly resource for medieval studies, its broad coverage of the period frequently overlapping with topics discussed here at Senchus. The full text of articles from 1957 to 2006 is accessible to all.

There is much to interest those of us with Scottish leanings. One article that I heartily recommend is Meggen Gondek’s ‘Investing in sculpture: power in Early Historic Scotland’, published in the 2006 volume. This is a very useful study of the relationship between wealth, authority and the patronage of expert stone-carvers in three geographical areas, one of which is Southern Pictland.

Medieval Archaeology vols.1-50 (1957-2006)

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New book on early medieval Scotland

This is my latest book. It’s similar to the one I wrote on the Picts but covers a wider area and a longer timespan. My intention with Makers Of Scotland is to present a narrative history of the northern parts of Britain in the first millennium AD, using a linear chronology from 0-1000. The book inevitably overlaps with The Picts: a History at many points, and with The Men of the North: the Britons of Southern Scotland at several more, but differs from both of these by looking at all the peoples of early medieval Scotland rather than at one particular group.

The chapter headings give an idea of the structure:

Introduction
1 – BC to AD
2 – The Later Roman period
3 – Britons, Picts and Scots
4 – Christian beginnings
5 – Celt and Saxon
6 – The struggle for power
7 – The northern churches
8 – The Vikings
9 – Alba
10 – Kings and bishops
11 – The birth of medieval Scotland
Appendix A: Genealogies
Appendix B: Timeline
Further Reading
Index

The above list shows where the straight linear chronology is interrupted at three points (Chapters 4, 7 and 10) when the spotlight falls on religious developments. Chapter 4 looks at the transition from paganism to Christianity, while the other two chart the expansion of the new Faith and the increasing prominence of an ecclesiastical elite.

With Makers I’ve followed the format of Picts by not including footnotes or endnotes. Instead, it has a 7-page ‘Further Reading’ section presented as a bibliography divided by broad topics such as Roman Scotland and Art & Sculpture.

Illustrations include maps and eight pages of plates (a selection of b&w photographs, with some fine old drawings of Pictish stones by John Romilly Allen).

The very striking cover design is by Jim Hutcheson and Victor Albrow.

Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings is published by Birlinn Books of Edinburgh under the John Donald imprint. Paperback, 240 pages. UK price: £14.99.

The book is available at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

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New website for carved stones

Over at my other blog Heart Of The Kingdom I’ve just posted news of a recently launched website about the carved stones at Govan.

This superb collection of early medieval sculpture is a must-see. The famous Sarcophagus and the hogback tombstones alone would make a visit worthwhile, but there are 25 other stones as well. Their home in the old parish church at Govan is an easy place to get to if you’re ever in the Glasgow area with an hour or two to spare.

The new website is part of a major project aimed at improving how the stones are displayed and interpreted. It can be found via a link at my blogpost. Alternatively, go there directly by clicking the image below.

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