Pictish Chronicle
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The Pictish Chronicle is a name often given by (especially older) historians to a pseudo-historical account of the kings of the Picts beginning many thousand years before history was recorded in Pictavia and ending after Pictavia had been enveloped by Scotland. The original (albeit lost) manuscript seems to date from the early years of the reign of Kenneth II of Scotland (who ruled Scotland from 971 until 995) since he is the last king mentioned and the chronicler does not know the length of his reign. All except the king-list, survives only from the Poppleton Manuscript, dating to the 14th century.
There are actually several versions of the Pictish Chronicle. The so-called `A' text is probably the oldest, the fullest, and seems to have fewer errors than other versions. It is in three parts:
- An account of the origins of the Picts: Most of this is taken from books 9 and 14 of the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (560–636). It is rather confused, and mostly quite irrelevant for Scottish history. In ancient times there were two peoples called the Albani and the Iberi who lived in the Caucasus. Later geographers confused the Albania (Caucasus) with Albania (northern Britain) (i.e. Scotland) and Iberia (Caucasus), Iberia (Spain) with Hibernia (i.e. Ireland).
- A list of Pictish kings from the earliest times up until the conquest by Cináed mac Ailpín in the 9th Century.
- Sometimes included is the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, a list of kings of the combined kingdom of Picts and Scots until the reign of Cináed II with some notes about events during each reign.
It is evident that the latter two sections were originally written in Gaelic since a few Gaelic words have not been translated into Latin.
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- A.O.Anderson: Early Sources of Scottish History (Vol. I) (1922)
- M.O.Anderson: Kings & Kingship in Early Scotland (ISBN 0-7011-1930-6) (1973)
- H.M.Chadwick: Early Scotland (1949)
- B.T.Hudson: Kings of Celtic Scotland (ISBN 0-313-29087-3) (1994)
