by Jules Watson
The Rye Fungus
The ergot fungus grows on rye plants under certain conditions. It contains psychoactive compounds that some scholars think may have caused the effects attributed to the action of witches during the Middle Ages – uncontrollable twitching and fitting, hallucinations and a burning sensation in the extremities and tongue. There have been occasional suggestions that it was ritually used by ancient peoples. It is extremely toxic, and ingestion is usually fatal. Its use in this book is purely fictional.
Tribes
The names of the tribes on the map are taken from a text by the Greek geographer Ptolemy, writing in the second century AD. Some people think the tribal names relate to animals, and could indicate totemic affinities. Thus the Epidii might be related to horses, and the Lugi to ravens (which is why the Lugi king has a raven sail). On Ptolemy’s map, the Caledonii are shown as the Caledones. However, by the fourth century, when the last book in this trilogy is set, the name seems to have become Caledonii’ to Roman writers, so for simplicity’s sake I’ve used that.
Names and Gods
I don’t follow one naming scheme, since we don’t know what language the Albans spoke: was it closer to Welsh or Irish at this time? So some of my names are Irish, some Pictish, and some invented. We have a list of later Pictish kings and I’ve used names from this list for major male characters including Maelchon, Gelert and Nectan. We don’t have records of female Pictish names, so these are mostly Irish or invented. Rhiann, though based on Welsh, is not a traditional name. All of Eremon’s men have Irish names, although Eremon is a mythical name – the first Gaelic king of Ireland. Since we don’t know what the Albans called their gods, I’ve used a mixture of Welsh gods (Arawn) and goddesses (Rhiannnon, Ceridwen), British goddesses (Andraste), and Irish gods (Lugh, Manannán). Taranis and Sirona are Gaulish.
Stones and Mounds
All of the standing stone arrangements and tomb mounds in the United Kingdom were built by Neolithic or Bronze Age peoples before 1500 BC, not by Iron Age peoples in the first century AD. However, Iron Age peoples probably venerated and possibly used older monuments for their own rites. Though there is evidence for this in other parts of Scotland, there is no evidence for it in the Kilmartin valley, or at Callanish.
Symbols
The Picts left behind extraordinary carved stones dating from the sixth or seventh century AD onwards, so I had the idea that the same symbols were used to decorate wood, walls and bodies much earlier. The body tattoos are based on Pictish carvings of bears, boars, stags and eagles. At Dunadd there is a famous later Pictish carving of a boar, and as my Dalriadic line began with Eremon and Conaire, I gave them this boar as their totem.
Interesting Facts
Since stirrups were not invented until much later, ancient cavalry saddles probably had leather horns to grip the rider’s leg, and enable him to brace and swing a sword.
Wheat and barely were stored in clay-lined pits, and the fermenting grains on the damp edges used up all the oxygen and produced carbon dioxide, which together kept it fresh.
Duels of champions such as that forced on Maelchon were a noted feature of Celtic warrior society, and involved strict codes of honour. Bards were feared for their abilities to shame even kings into changing their behaviour.
The historian Tacitus says the Celts at Mons Graupius did use chariots.
The glimpse Rhiann has the night before battle, of Romans swimming across a strait, refers to the sacking of the druid sanctuary of Anglesey off the coast of Wales in AD 60. The woman hiding with her child from falling iron bolts recalls the Roman destruction of the great hillfort of Maiden Castle in Dorset, soon after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. Skeletons were found here with Roman ballista bolts embedded in their spines.
The snippet of song at the end is adapted from the Irish myth of Deirdre as she leaves Alba to return to Erin.
The Roman Campaigns
The basic information about Agricola’s campaign in Scotland from AD 79 to 83 is taken from his biography, written by his famous historian son-in-law Tacitus. However, this account is sketchy in places, and I have made some small changes to fit my story.
AD 81: Domitian’s succession as emperor was in September; I moved it to spring. Tacitus says that this year Agricola ‘crossed [water] in the leading ship’ and subdued unknown peoples, drawing up his troops facing Ireland. Gordon S. Maxwell notes that scholars have long debated what this section of Tacitus means. In The Romans in Scotland (1989) he suggests the translation could be re-interpreted thus: the Roman army did not cross water at this time but the ‘trackless wastes’ and moors of Galloway in south-west Scotland. I took this idea and on it based Eremon’s first campaign among the Novantae. It should be noted that many scholars think this actually means Agricola crossed the Clyde and campaigned closer to Epidii lands.
AD 82: Tacitus says this year began with an uprising of the tribes north of the Forth, who did attack several forts. While the detail of Lucius’s campaign up the east coast is my own, Agricola did split his forces, which encouraged a surprise night attack on the Ninth Legion by the enemy. A. R. Birley’s translation of Tacitus’s text Agricola uses the words: ‘They cut down the sentries and burst into the sleeping camp, creating panic.’ Tacitus states that Agricola came to the rescue just in time, but I made the Albans victorious instead. Tacitus was eulogizing his father-in-law, and it is quite possible that any Roman defeats were played down or omitted. This year, Agricola’s wife did bear him a son.
AD 83: In the spring, Agricola’s infant son died. Tacitus infers that his grief was buried in a renewed determination for conquest. The Roman army met the Scottish tribes at a place Tacitus called Mons Graupius, where the ‘Albans’ had drawn up a force of 30,000 men. We don’t know exactly where Mons Graupius was, but the prominent hill of Bennachie near Aberdeen is one good contender, particularly as the large Roman marching camp at Logie Durno is close by. Tacitus reports the battle occurring at the end of the season (autumn) but I have moved it to summer. The leader of the Scottish forces was called Calgacus, which means something like ‘the swordsman’. I followed Tacitus for the rough format of the battle – and Agricola did use cavalry reserves. Tacitus reports 10,000 of the enemy dying, in comparison to 360 Romans. The tribes did not surrender the next day, but fled into the hills, burning their homes as they went.
Table of Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
Book One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Book Two
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Book Three
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Book Four
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 5
3
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Book Five
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Book Six
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79