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The Dawn Stag: Book Two of the Dalriada Trilogy

Page 69

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

 

 

 


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