Picts in fantasy
Encyclopedia
Many writers have been drawn to the idea of the Picts
and created fictional stories and mythology about them in the absence of much real data. This romanticised view tends to portray them as noble savage
s, much as the view of Europeans on Native Americans
in the 18th century.
, who never went near Pictland, mentions the British Celtic custom of body painting in Book V of his Gallic Wars, stating
("In fact all Britanni stain themselves with vitrum, which produces a dark blue colour, and by this means they are more terrifying to face in battle.")
and are mentioned frequently in his tales, having a continuity from the Thurian Age
tales of King Kull of Valusia, where they are his allies, to the Hyborian Age
of Conan the Barbarian
, where they are the mortal enemies of the Cimmerians (who are actually descended from the old Atlanteans though they do not remember their ancestry or old alliance). Howard also wrote tales about the last King of the Picts Bran Mak Morn
set in real historical time, and they figure commonly as enemies of Cormac mac Art. Of all the races and civilizations in Howard's writings, the Picts are the race or civilization with the longest history; Picts appear even in the story Valley of the Worm, set long even before Kull, where Picts help the protagonist Niord battle a giant snake and a creature that resembles a shoggoth
, and in stories set in the early Middle Ages. Howard gave the Picts a sense of continuity between different ages by making Bran Mak Morn a descendant of Kull's ally Brule the Spear Slayer, and then describing how the king's soul had been affixed to a black stone statue worshiped by the medieval Picts. The status of the Picts and their civilization generally declined over time; the Picts of the Thurian Age were far more sophisticated than their primitive, brutish descendants.
Howard's Picts are said to have originated on "islands far out on the Western ocean", and gradually migrated into the Mediterranean area. At one time they spread across large areas of the world, but gradually vanished except for several splinter groups. Although some of these groups lived in remote jungles and southern continents, the most prominent body of Picts settled in the British isles, where they displaced a supposedly mongoloid race that had been the initial residents of the isles (though their origins were elsewhere). This previous race sought refuge underground, and over long millennia they evolved into stunted and hideous creatures, who were the initial subjects of tales concerning elves and dwarves, as described in the Bran Mak Morn short story Worms of the Earth.
The Picts were in turn displaced some thousands of years later by the invading Celts, and driven northward into Scotland where they interbred with a tribe of 'red haired barbarians,' resulting in a genetic shift toward diminished height. Following subsequent Roman
, Breton
, and Saxon
invasions, the Picts too sought refuge underground, just like the natives they had displaced before.
An interesting point is that, in the Hyborian age stories such as Beyond the Black River, when they populated the Western edge of Europe and share a border with Aquilonia
, which tries to push them further west to colonize new provinces, the Picts show clear native American influence, in their appearance, dress, armament, manner of conducting wars, and even the place names of the new Aquilonian provinces. It is hard to tell whether this is a case of inconsistency on the part of Howard, or a throwback to their earliest origins and savagery, as the Picts who Conan battled during the Hyborian Age are definitely more primitive and savage than those Kull knew many millennia earlier. The story Kings of the Night, in which Kull is summoned forward in time to help battle a Roman army, references a decline of the Picts after the age of Kull, specifically noting the Picts lost the skills of metalworking. The Picts described in stories such as the Dark Man, set in the early Middle Ages, portray the Picts as more primitive yet, with a Neolithic level of technology such as flint arrowheads. These Picts are clearly a people at the last stages of decline, and are living as a hidden tribe of savages of whom their neighboring Norse, Scottish, and Irish peoples are not aware.
Howard's descriptions of the later Picts portray them as very small in height, squat and muscular, adept at silent movement, and most of all brutish and uncivilized, quite unlike the Picts of Kull's day
. They painted themselves with woad
, much like the historical Picts, and lived in very large caverns, some natural and some artificially expanded. They had a custom of burning enemy prisoners alive, a ceremony usually presided over by their druid-like 'wizards' or priests, whom Howard portrayed as having a twisted philosophy and mindset produced by many years of hatred, in direct opposition to the Pictish warrior-king Bran Mak Morn
, who attempted to restore the Picts to their honourable place in the world and drive out the Roman invaders.
Bran Mak Morn's mindset was very unusual for his time and location, because he favored an alliance of the 'native' British populations, including the Picts, Bretons, and Celts, against the Romans, in a setting when each of these tribes fostered an intense hatred and mistrust for all the others. Robert E. Howard also mentions that some warriors among the Picts could assume the forms of wolves, in the manner of werewolves, on their own free will. These Picts were a 'race' with whom Howard felt the most affinity, and for this reason they were one of his favourite subjects, despite being almost wholly fictitious and deviating from historical fact.
ies, the Wee Free Men, the Little Men, 'Person or Persons Unknown, Believed to be Armed', and occasionally 'The Defendants') are a type of fairy
appearing in Terry Pratchett
's Discworld
novels Carpe Jugulum
, The Wee Free Men
, A Hat Full of Sky
and Wintersmith
. Aside from being six inches tall, they just about invert the Victorian
concept of mystical and refined fairies, and hark back to the fairies of folklore, who were generally seen as occasionally helpful thieves and pests.
The Nac Mac Feegles' skin appears blue because it is heavily tattoo
ed and covered with paint, and all have red hair. The tattoos identify a Feegle's clan. Wings or similar features of any kind are out of the question. Their speech can only be described as some sort of variation on the Scots language
, usually Glaswegian
in the clans encountered so far, although William the Gonnagle (from a different clan) has a softer, Highland
accent. They are notably strong and resilient, which comes in handy given that male Feegles (almost all of them) tend to be notoriously rowdy as a lifestyle.
, a supplemental book entitled "Beyond the Wall: Pictland and the North" depicts a Pictish kingdom called Caledonia
during the legendary era of King Arthur
.
Picts appear as characters in the Nancy Farmer
's Norse-Medieval fantasy novels, The Sea of Trolls
and The Land of the Silver Apples
.
In Rudyard Kipling
's book Puck of Pook's Hill
, a Roman soldier stationed in Britain describes the Picts as wily adversaries.
The Picts also appear in John Cowper Powys
' Arthurian novel Porius (1951) as the Ffichti, a tribe in Wales
of Greek descent. Powys’ Picts are allied to the ancestors of the Irish people
(Gwyddylaid) and are usually referred to as “Gwyddyl-Ffichti” throughout the novel. Powys’ Ninue is also described as a Pict.
Juliet Marillier
wrote a fantasy series about the Pictish king Bridei, called The Bridei Chronicles
, beginning with The Dark Mirror, (Pan Macmillan 2004) and continued in Blade Of Fortriu (Pan Macmillan 2005) and The Well Of Shades (Pan Macmillan 2006).
John Flanagan's
novel series Ranger's Apprentice
includes a country called "Picta", north of "Araluen", or the series' reflection of Scotland
, in which savage, uncivilised tribes reside.
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
and created fictional stories and mythology about them in the absence of much real data. This romanticised view tends to portray them as noble savage
Noble savage
The term noble savage , expresses the concept an idealized indigene, outsider , and refers to the literary stock character of the same...
s, much as the view of Europeans on Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
in the 18th century.
The Usage of the word Pict
Popular etymology has long interpreted the name Pict as if it derived from the Latin the word Picti meaning "painted folk" or possibly "tattooed ones"; and this may relate to the Welsh word Pryd meaning "to mark" or "to draw"? (References please?) Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, who never went near Pictland, mentions the British Celtic custom of body painting in Book V of his Gallic Wars, stating
"Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridiores sunt in pugna aspectu"
("In fact all Britanni stain themselves with vitrum, which produces a dark blue colour, and by this means they are more terrifying to face in battle.")
Robert E. Howard
The Picts were an especial favourite race of Robert E. HowardRobert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
and are mentioned frequently in his tales, having a continuity from the Thurian Age
Thurian Age
The Thurian Age is a fictional period within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, in which the sword and sorcery tales of Kull of Atlantis are set. It is within the same shared universe as the Hyborian Age of Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, but at an earlier period. The...
tales of King Kull of Valusia, where they are his allies, to the Hyborian Age
Hyborian Age
The Hyborian Age is a fictional period within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, in which the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian are set....
of Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
, where they are the mortal enemies of the Cimmerians (who are actually descended from the old Atlanteans though they do not remember their ancestry or old alliance). Howard also wrote tales about the last King of the Picts Bran Mak Morn
Bran Mak Morn
Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E. Howard. In the stories, most of which were first published in Weird Tales, Bran is the last king of Howard's romanticized version of the tribal race of Picts....
set in real historical time, and they figure commonly as enemies of Cormac mac Art. Of all the races and civilizations in Howard's writings, the Picts are the race or civilization with the longest history; Picts appear even in the story Valley of the Worm, set long even before Kull, where Picts help the protagonist Niord battle a giant snake and a creature that resembles a shoggoth
Shoggoth
A shoggoth is a fictional monster in the Cthulhu Mythos. The being was mentioned in passing in sonnet XX of H.P...
, and in stories set in the early Middle Ages. Howard gave the Picts a sense of continuity between different ages by making Bran Mak Morn a descendant of Kull's ally Brule the Spear Slayer, and then describing how the king's soul had been affixed to a black stone statue worshiped by the medieval Picts. The status of the Picts and their civilization generally declined over time; the Picts of the Thurian Age were far more sophisticated than their primitive, brutish descendants.
Howard's Picts are said to have originated on "islands far out on the Western ocean", and gradually migrated into the Mediterranean area. At one time they spread across large areas of the world, but gradually vanished except for several splinter groups. Although some of these groups lived in remote jungles and southern continents, the most prominent body of Picts settled in the British isles, where they displaced a supposedly mongoloid race that had been the initial residents of the isles (though their origins were elsewhere). This previous race sought refuge underground, and over long millennia they evolved into stunted and hideous creatures, who were the initial subjects of tales concerning elves and dwarves, as described in the Bran Mak Morn short story Worms of the Earth.
The Picts were in turn displaced some thousands of years later by the invading Celts, and driven northward into Scotland where they interbred with a tribe of 'red haired barbarians,' resulting in a genetic shift toward diminished height. Following subsequent Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...
, and Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
invasions, the Picts too sought refuge underground, just like the natives they had displaced before.
An interesting point is that, in the Hyborian age stories such as Beyond the Black River, when they populated the Western edge of Europe and share a border with Aquilonia
Aquilonia
Aquilonia is a town and comune in the province of Avellino, part of the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in mountainous terrain in the eastern part of Avellino, at an elevation of 750 m...
, which tries to push them further west to colonize new provinces, the Picts show clear native American influence, in their appearance, dress, armament, manner of conducting wars, and even the place names of the new Aquilonian provinces. It is hard to tell whether this is a case of inconsistency on the part of Howard, or a throwback to their earliest origins and savagery, as the Picts who Conan battled during the Hyborian Age are definitely more primitive and savage than those Kull knew many millennia earlier. The story Kings of the Night, in which Kull is summoned forward in time to help battle a Roman army, references a decline of the Picts after the age of Kull, specifically noting the Picts lost the skills of metalworking. The Picts described in stories such as the Dark Man, set in the early Middle Ages, portray the Picts as more primitive yet, with a Neolithic level of technology such as flint arrowheads. These Picts are clearly a people at the last stages of decline, and are living as a hidden tribe of savages of whom their neighboring Norse, Scottish, and Irish peoples are not aware.
Howard's descriptions of the later Picts portray them as very small in height, squat and muscular, adept at silent movement, and most of all brutish and uncivilized, quite unlike the Picts of Kull's day
. They painted themselves with woad
Woad
Isatis tinctoria, with Woad as the common name, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is commonly called dyer's woad, and sometimes incorrectly listed as Isatis indigotica . It is occasionally known as Asp of Jerusalem...
, much like the historical Picts, and lived in very large caverns, some natural and some artificially expanded. They had a custom of burning enemy prisoners alive, a ceremony usually presided over by their druid-like 'wizards' or priests, whom Howard portrayed as having a twisted philosophy and mindset produced by many years of hatred, in direct opposition to the Pictish warrior-king Bran Mak Morn
Bran Mak Morn
Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E. Howard. In the stories, most of which were first published in Weird Tales, Bran is the last king of Howard's romanticized version of the tribal race of Picts....
, who attempted to restore the Picts to their honourable place in the world and drive out the Roman invaders.
Bran Mak Morn's mindset was very unusual for his time and location, because he favored an alliance of the 'native' British populations, including the Picts, Bretons, and Celts, against the Romans, in a setting when each of these tribes fostered an intense hatred and mistrust for all the others. Robert E. Howard also mentions that some warriors among the Picts could assume the forms of wolves, in the manner of werewolves, on their own free will. These Picts were a 'race' with whom Howard felt the most affinity, and for this reason they were one of his favourite subjects, despite being almost wholly fictitious and deviating from historical fact.
Terry Pratchett
The Nac Mac Feegles (also known as PictsPicts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
ies, the Wee Free Men, the Little Men, 'Person or Persons Unknown, Believed to be Armed', and occasionally 'The Defendants') are a type of fairy
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
appearing in Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
's Discworld
Discworld
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
novels Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum ) is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the twenty-third in the Discworld series. It was first published in 1998....
, The Wee Free Men
The Wee Free Men
The Wee Free Men, first published in 2003, is the second Story of The Discworld book for younger readers. A sequel, A Hat Full of Sky, appeared in 2004 , a third book, Wintersmith appeared in 2006, and the fourth, I Shall Wear Midnight, was released in September...
, A Hat Full of Sky
A Hat Full of Sky
A Hat Full of Sky is a novel written by Terry Pratchett set on the Discworld, written with younger readers in mind. First published in 2004, it is set two years after The Wee Free Men, and features an 11-year old Tiffany Aching....
and Wintersmith
Wintersmith
This article is about the novel. For the Wintersmith himself, see the WintersmithWintersmith is the title of the third Tiffany Aching novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, published on the 21 September 2006...
. Aside from being six inches tall, they just about invert the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
concept of mystical and refined fairies, and hark back to the fairies of folklore, who were generally seen as occasionally helpful thieves and pests.
The Nac Mac Feegles' skin appears blue because it is heavily tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
ed and covered with paint, and all have red hair. The tattoos identify a Feegle's clan. Wings or similar features of any kind are out of the question. Their speech can only be described as some sort of variation on the Scots language
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
, usually Glaswegian
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in the clans encountered so far, although William the Gonnagle (from a different clan) has a softer, Highland
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
accent. They are notably strong and resilient, which comes in handy given that male Feegles (almost all of them) tend to be notoriously rowdy as a lifestyle.
Other references
In the roleplaying game PendragonPendragon (role-playing game)
Pendragon, or King Arthur Pendragon, is a role-playing game in which players take the role of knights performing chivalric deeds in the tradition of Arthurian legend. It was originally written by Greg Stafford and published by Chaosium, then was acquired by Green Knight Publishing, who in turn...
, a supplemental book entitled "Beyond the Wall: Pictland and the North" depicts a Pictish kingdom called Caledonia
Caledonia
Caledonia is the Latinised form and name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire...
during the legendary era of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
.
Picts appear as characters in the Nancy Farmer
Nancy Farmer (author)
Nancy Farmer is a prominent children's book author from the United States.Farmer was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She earned her B.A. at Reed College and later studied chemistry and entomology at the University of California, Berkeley...
's Norse-Medieval fantasy novels, The Sea of Trolls
The Sea of Trolls
The Sea of Trolls is the first volume of a fantasy trilogy by three-time Newbery Honor winning author Nancy Farmer. The second part is The Land of the Silver Apples , and the final volume, The Islands of the Blessed, was published in 2009.-Plot summary:The Sea of Trolls is set in A.D. 793 in...
and The Land of the Silver Apples
The Land of the Silver Apples
The Land of the Silver Apples is a children's fantasy novel by Nancy Farmer, published in 2007. It is a sequel to The Sea of Trolls, and a sequel, The Islands of the Blessed, was published in 2009. The title refers to Elfland.-Plot:...
.
In Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's book Puck of Pook's Hill
Puck of Pook's Hill
Puck of Pook's Hill is a historical fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1906, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of English history. The stories are all narrated to two children living near Burwash, in the area of Kipling's own house Bateman's, by people...
, a Roman soldier stationed in Britain describes the Picts as wily adversaries.
The Picts also appear in John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys
-Biography:Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys , who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper. He came from a family of eleven children, many of whom were also...
' Arthurian novel Porius (1951) as the Ffichti, a tribe in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
of Greek descent. Powys’ Picts are allied to the ancestors of the Irish people
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
(Gwyddylaid) and are usually referred to as “Gwyddyl-Ffichti” throughout the novel. Powys’ Ninue is also described as a Pict.
Juliet Marillier
Juliet Marillier
Juliet Marillier is a New Zealand-born writer of fantasy, especially historical fantasy. She currently lives in Western Australia. While Marillier writes mostly for adults, her recent books have included Cybele's Secret, a sequel to her novel for young adults Wildwood Dancing. Cybele's Secret won...
wrote a fantasy series about the Pictish king Bridei, called The Bridei Chronicles
The Bridei Chronicles
The Bridei Chronicles is Juliet Marillier's third series of historical fantasy novels. They depict the tutelage by Broichan, rise to power, and reign of King Bridei I of the Picts in the sixth century....
, beginning with The Dark Mirror, (Pan Macmillan 2004) and continued in Blade Of Fortriu (Pan Macmillan 2005) and The Well Of Shades (Pan Macmillan 2006).
John Flanagan's
John Flanagan (author)
John Flanagan is an Australian fantasy author. She lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband. Her best known work is the Ranger's Apprentice novel series, which is about a boy named Will who is taken as an apprentice Ranger to the grim and mysterious Halt. They meet up with many new people,...
novel series Ranger's Apprentice
Ranger's Apprentice
Ranger's Apprentice is a series of fantasy novels written by Australian author John Flanagan. The first novel in the series, titled The Ruins of Gorlan, was released in Australia on 1 November 2004 and in the United States on 16 June 2005. As of 2011 all eleven books have been released in Australia...
includes a country called "Picta", north of "Araluen", or the series' reflection of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, in which savage, uncivilised tribes reside.