Legend of the Celtic Stone

by Michael Phillips

  It will be clear that Andrew Trentham’s story, and Caledonia’s, has only begun.

  Though it has many of its own rewards, one of the frustrations with what is called “series fiction” is that those who read a particular book immediately or soon after its release are required to wait an interim period for the publication of whatever volume is to follow. The simple fact of the matter is that books take much longer to research and write, then to produce and publish, than they do to read. I began this present project ten years ago, and it is just now hitting the bookshelves.

  The paradox of this frustration is that the more one enjoys a book, the more eager he or she is to continue and thus the less patient he or she is likely to be during this time lapse between volumes. I do hope you have enjoyed Legend of the Celtic Stone. At the same time I hope you will patiently await its continuation and will enjoy it no less as a result of the inevitable delay between “episodes.” I do not anticipate a hiatus of ten years between books one and two in this series! You may be relieved to know that volume two is already well on its way to completion, and that many of the questions you probably have about “what happened about such-and-such!” have already been answered. In the meantime, a few notes concerning this present volume may be in order.

  The further back in time one attempts to gaze, the more blurry becomes the line between fact and fiction, legend and history.

  Historians typically try to eliminate the fuzz by adhering to facts, while novelists allow the blurry line to widen in order to feel the “story” to which their interpretation of the facts points.

  Legend of the Celtic Stone is fiction. It thus should not be read as historical text, but as a story. Subject to the limitations of this genre of work, the history is accurate enough. But there are limitations when past events are imaginatively interpreted. Flexibility is necessary. Historical fiction is just that—fiction, an interpretive representation of what may have happened, woven through fictionalized events.

  Having said that, however, for the layman I am attempting to tell something of a complete though abbreviated history of Scotland through fictional events. My training and study is more as historian than novelist, and I love history for history’s sake. The original versions of the manuscript contained probably four times as much “pure history” as this final edition you have read! If my historian-self had its way, this book would be a thousand pages long!

  The following comments and explanations may be helpful to those of you who are interested in knowing more specifically where that blurry line between story and history, fact and fiction, exists.

  The Highland background of the Stone of Scone, which will continue in the next volume, is entirely fictional, though Irish stories and other legends surrounding its origin have circulated through the centuries as I have recounted them.

  Andrew Trentham is fictional, as are all contemporary characters, political and otherwise. But if you haven’t realized it by now, all these ancients whose stories are told are also Andrew’s ancestors. It is his lineage we are tracing. This genealogy will continue in subsequent volumes, eventually establishing an unbroken line from the Wanderer to the present—a lineage reminiscent of that given in Matthew 1, with many offshoots, a lineage which tells in itself the colorful saga of Caledonia’s history.

  The story of the Jews recounted in the Bible, in many respects, parallels the history of mankind in general and bears similarities to the story of other races and countries. The Jewish account is unique, of course, in that it has been preserved, and in the fact that it bears God’s divine hand upon it. It is my belief that the Hebrews were a people “chosen” to portray the human saga, and the Bible was supernaturally inspired to tell that drama. Yet in another way, the Hebrew story can be seen as a type of the stories of all peoples and races.

  The saga of Caledonia, in the manner in which I am attempting to tell it, I view as the Celtic branch on that same tree which began with Genesis. It offers a tale told in Celtic lore to parallel the Hebrew story—with its own legends, prophecies, poetry, warfare, romance, treachery, and so on.

  Thus can the volumes of this series be seen as a parable, so to speak, outlining not the lineage of him who would be the Savior of men, but the lineage of him who will become the savior of Caledonia’s nationhood. But I get ahead of myself!

  Ginevra and Brochan of Glencoe are fictional, though most of the other characters in their story, as well as the grisly facts of the Glencoe account, sad to say, are factually accurate.

  The Wanderer and his son and grandsons are, of course, entirely my own creation.

  Legends point to ancient tribesmen by the names of Cruithne, Fidach, and Foltlaig, though no details are known of their lives. An ancient Pict king by the name of Cruithne is mentioned. His sons are associated with Scotland’s seven regions as their original “seven earls.”

  The ancient Picts provide a fascinating historical study that has intrigued and bewildered historians and archaeologists for centuries. Though they left no written language nor records, their artistic carved “standing stones” (of which there are more than two hundred examples still standing and visible) and “drystone” brochs and forts and home sites and tombs (of which there are numerous examples still in good repair throughout Scotland) tell of a rich and accomplished prehistoric culture. The stones of these Pictish constructions are remarkably well preserved, and the interested individual will find it fascinating to visit these two-thousand-year-old monuments. The many place names in Scotland beginning with the prefix pit- are contemporary reminders of this Pict heritage.

  Known and documented history begins in Britain with the Roman occupation, for the simple reason that Cornelius Tacitus, one of Rome’s greatest historians and most prolific writers, published various accounts of Roman policy in the first century, including a detailed account of Gnaeus Julius Agricola’s travels in the north. Agricola also happened to be Tacitus’ father-in-law, which added to the latter’s motivation to document Rome’s efforts in such a remote outpost of its empire. It was the Romans who first encountered the Celtic Picts (the painted or tattooed warriors whom they named accordingly) and other tribes, all of whom they considered a single ethnic group. They called them Caledonians and gave the region north of Hadrian’s Wall the name Caledonia.

  Galgacus was the name given by the Romans to the great Pict leader, whom I have called Gaelbhan, who led his people against the Romans in AD 84. That portion of his speech on the eve of the battle at Mons Graupius, whether factual or not, is reported in the Annals of Imperial Rome much as I have given it in chapter 9.

  Roman forts in southern Scotland were indeed burned some time after AD 105 by, it is thought, a united effort of Pict tribes. Few details, however, are known.

  The life of Columba is surrounded by as much uncertainty as it is legend and mystery, though the facts of his biography included herein are accurate. Nearly all the events here recounted in fictional form have at least some factual basis in Adamnan’s Life of Saint Columba, written about a hundred years after Columba’s death by one of his succeeding abbots at Iona. Adamnan’s hagiographic account of the miracles that flowed from Columba’s hand is almost wholly sentimental, distorted, and idealized. Yet from it and other contemporary sources, historians have pieced together a fragmentary biography of the saint’s later life.

  Columba’s early life and background in Ireland is well documented. He sailed to Iona in AD 563. The verses quoted en route I have adapted from an Irish manuscript in the Burgundian Library in Brussels, attributed to Columba’s hand and entitled “Columcille fecit.” Within a year or two of his landing, Columba journeyed to the heart of the northern Pict empire to meet King Brudei macMaelchon. The encounter with Broichan the druid priest outside the king’s residence was recorded sketchily by Adamnan, as was the incident of the white stone and the other miraculous manifestations. I have fictionalized my accounts using Adamnan’s miraculous legends as framework for the story.

  Brudei, king of the Picts, an
d the druid Broichan are historical characters, and Columba’s interactions with them are reported to have actually occurred as I have recounted them, including the events of Columba’s first day in Inbhir-Nis. Diorbhall-ita is entirely fictional. Aedh and his son Fintenn were indeed factual Pict individuals, though unrelated to the king. Both were converted to Christianity. The healing of Fintenn macAedh is recorded, as is the boy’s eventual founding of the monastery at Kailli-an-Inde, whose location remains unknown.

  The events of the day of Columba’s death—recorded by Adamnan in detail—are, though I have translated them into fictional format, as historically accurate in their germinal form as is possible to ascertain. I have, of course, placed Diorbhall-ita into those events, in some cases occupying the role said to belong to Columba’s servant Diormait. The occasionally ornate and perhaps overly dramatic style I employed in recounting some of the events of Columba’s life results from my attempt to retain a little of the hagiographic (pertaining to idealized, worshipful renditions of the lives of the saints) feel of the original accounts upon which all we know of Columba’s life is based.

  Of the ensuing “conversion” of the Picts, little is known. Subsequent to Columba’s visit to the king at Inverness, it is clear that Christian monasteries began springing up rapidly throughout Caledonia, which became “Christianized” within a relatively short time. Whatever may not be known, Columba’s influence was certainly enormous, and it altered the direction of the history of the British Isles.

  Domhnall, Fintenn’s brother-in-law, is entirely fictional. His Irish ancestry, however, and the later names you will encounter as this line continues in Scotland after Domhnall, is configured entirely from historical individuals who form the roots of the Clan Donald, springing from Donald, grandson of Somerled, Lord of the Isles. Even the “purest” of Scots—if there is such a thing!—by tracing their descent back far enough, would find the intermingled blood of dozens of clans. Thus, we find Andrew Trentham’s line infused with MacDonald and Gordon ancestry, combining Pict and Scot heritage, and later, as we shall see, with Norse and Norman blood.

  The Gaelic verses in chapter 5 are from the poem The Path of the Old Spells by Donald Sinclair, those sung by Domnall in chapter 7 are two verses of the song “The Misty Dell” (Coire-Cheathaich), taken from The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands (Arr. Alfred Moffat).

  The druidic chant in the last chapter is adapted from a poetical incantation for the new Ireland attributed to Amairgen, the first druid of the Gaels in Ireland, whose name was taken by the fictional character of this story, Cooney Dwyer.

  Most of the specific research for Legend of the Celtic Stone, besides what formal education in history is included in my biography, comes from travel and from books.

  The first of these is difficult to chronicle. I have been to Scotland several times, most recently just months prior to publication. Much of Legend of the Celtic Stone was written in Scotland, Cumbria, and London, where I walked the streets, parks, and hillsides, so to speak, along with Andrew Trentham, asking myself the same questions he would ask about the land of his ancestry. I think I have been to nearly every place written about in the book—from Regent’s Park to the slopes of the Skiddaw, from Iona to Glencoe. Such travels do not necessarily guarantee accuracy, but I hope it will give these pages a sense of authenticity.

  Andrew Trentham’s fictional home, Derwenthwaite Hall, is modeled after Armathwaite Hall, now a hotel in Cumbria, where I had a pleasant stay and where portions of Andrew’s story were written. For fictional purposes, a few place names of the region have been slightly altered.

  Caledonia, I have found, is truly a land which gets “into” you. Feelings, thoughts, chance conversations, impressions, long walks, landscapes, weather, and a host of seemingly insignificant situations and events all combine in a mysterious way as the mystique of Scotland penetrates into one’s emotional marrow. Such “emotional research” is as intrinsic to the writing of any book as are the facts one uncovers and the literature one sifts through.

  The second method of inquiry I will attempt to document as best I can by noting the following books that have been extremely helpful.

  The Complete Book of London. Basingstoke, UK: AA, 1992

  Parliament. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1991.

  Parliamentary Elections. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1991.

  The Complete Book of London. Basingstoke, UK: AA, 1992.

  Westminster Abbey. Norwich: Jarrold Colour Publications, 1987.

  Whitaker’s Almanack, 1999. London: The Stationery Office, Ltd., 1999.

  Adam, James. Gaelic Wordbook. Edinburgh: Chambers, 1992.

  Adamnan. The Life of Saint Columba, written circa AD 700, translated by William Reeves, 1856. Dyfed: Llanerch Enterprises, 1988.

  Barke, James, ed. Poems and Songs of Robert Burns. London: Fontana/Collins, London, 1955.

  Bede. A History of the English Church and People, written AD 731, translated by Leo Sherley-Price, 1955. New York: Dorset Press, 1985.

  Bidwell, Paul. Roman Forts in Britain. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1997.

  Breeze, David and Graeme Munro. The Stone of Destiny. Historic Scotland, 1997.

  Carruth, J.A. Scotland the Brave. Norwich: Jarrold & Sons, 1973.

  Chadwick, Nora. The Celts. London: Penguin, 1971.

  Crowl, Philip. The Intelligent Traveller’s Guide to Historic Scotland. New York: Congdon & Weed, 1986.

  Delaney, Frank. The Celts. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 1986.

  Dickinson, William Croft. Scotland from the Earliest Times to 1603. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., 1961.

  Dunbar, John. Iona. Edinburgh: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

  Duncan, A.A.M. Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1975.

  Ellis, Peter Berresford. The Druids. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994.

  Embleton, Ronald and Frank Graham. Hadrian’s Wall in the Days of the Romans. Newcastle upon Tyne: Frank Graham, 1984.

  Fell, Bryan H. and K.R. Mackenzie. The Houses of Parliament. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1994.

  Ferguson, William. Scotland, 1689 to the Present. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1968.

  Finlay, Ian. Columba. Edinburgh: W & R Chambers, Ltd., 1979.

  Fisher, Andrew. A Traveller’s History of Scotland. Gloucestershire, UK: Windrush Press, 1990.

  Jackson, Anthony. The Pictish Trail. Orkney, Scotland: Orkney Press, 1989.

  MacDonald, Donald J. of Castletone. Clan Donald. Loanhead, Scotland: MacDonald Publishers, 1978.

  MacDonald, Micheil. Scots Kith & Kin. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 1953.

  Maceachen, Evan. Gaelic/English Dictionary, reprint of 1842 edition. Inverness, Scotland: Highland Printers, 1970.

  MacGowan, Douglas. “Stealing the Stone.” The Highlander. Vol. 34, no. 2 (March/April 1996).

  Mackechnie, John. Gaelic Without Groans. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1934.

  MacKintosh, John. Scotland, from the Earliest Times to the Present Century, first published 1890. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.

  Maclean, Fitzroy. A Concise History of Scotland. London: Thames and Hudson, 1970.

  Piggott, Stuart. The Prehistoric Peoples of Scotland. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962.

  Prebble, John. Glencoe. Martin Secker & Warburg, Ltd., 1966.

  Ritchie, Anna. Picts. Edinburgh: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1989.

  Ritchie, Anna and David Breeze. Invaders of Scotland. Edinburgh: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

  ——————. Scotland BC. Edinburgh: Scottish Development Department, 1988.

  Smout, T.C. A History of the Scottish People 1560–1830. London: William Collins and Sons, 1969.

  Wainwright, F.T. The Problem of the Picts. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1954.

  Several of the above authors require singular recognition.

  First, Dr. Archie Duncan of the University of Glasgow, for his defini
tive work on Scotland’s early centuries, which I used almost daily in the early stages of my work as my baseline historical reference point. This is not to say that I have not, as any novelist must, in places been fluid and “interpretive” in the manner in which I have written of events. Any inaccuracies I may have committed in the process are certainly my own, not Dr. Duncan’s. But wherever possible I have used the archaeological and historical evidence he so thoroughly presents as my jumping-off point. I also am appreciative of Dr. Duncan’s review of the manuscript.

  Secondly, I would laud Ian Finlay for his magnificent interpretive study of Saint Columba which is noted above. Archie Duncan comments, “There is now a huge literature on Columba. . . . it has abandoned the ‘gentle dove’ picture presented by Adamnan for something much fiercer—a prince of an Irish kindred who left Ireland for reasons of feud.” In striking a balance between these two interpretations, I found Mr. Finlay helpful and, to my view, on the mark with so much of his insight into the Celtic world of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries that I almost felt compelled to footnote sections of the narrative where I found my thinking influenced by his insights, especially with regard to the intermingling influence of Celtic myth into the Christian mission of the sixth century. Legend of the Celtic Stone is fiction, however, not a scholarly paper, and thus this brief tribute to his groundbreaking work will have to suffice to acknowledge my debt. Those who wish to study Saint Columba’s life in more detail will not do better than Mr. Finlay’s excellent study.

  My thanks likewise go to William Croft Dickinson for his extremely thorough, authoritative, and well-documented history of early Scotland, referenced above, about which I would make the same comments as I did earlier of Dr. Duncan.

  Finally, I am indebted to John Prebble, author of many wonderfully readable history books, whose definitive work Glencoe was extremely helpful and gave me such an emotive sense of the “people behind the story” of those terrible events. Mr. Prebble writes with a feel for the wonderful “story” of history. His accounts are zestful and alive—the most interesting history you will find anywhere. As with the other writers mentioned, I found myself wanting to footnote Mr. Prebble’s work on every page, but will have to satisfy myself with this acknowledgment. His work, too, I heartily commend to you.