The Culann Chronicles
Book 2: ~ The Picts Plight
By
Duncan MacDonald
13 December 2013
Revised 26 September 2015
Dedicated to my darling wife Shinta
Copyright 2013 Duncan MacDonald
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Table of Contents
List of Main Characters
Culann’s Voyages
Author’s Note
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Fergus’ Discovery
Chapter 2 - To Dunadd
2.1 A Little Bit of Background
2.2 In the Hall of the Dal-Riata King
2.3 Aftermath
Chapter 3 – Lios mór
Chapter 4 - North to Albannach Territory
Chapter 5 - Two Moons Earlier
Chapter 6 - To Poolewe
6.1 The Poolewe Hunting Party
Chapter 7 - The Long Way Home
Chapter 8 - In Search of Culann
8.1 Repercussions
8.2 Unsuccessful Search
8.3 Overland
Chapter 9 – The Eigg Episode
9.1 Arrival on Eigg
Chapter 10 - Lios mór Finale
10.1 When a Girl Marries
About the Author
Discover other titles by Duncan MacDonald
Bibliography
List of Main Characters
Baile - Monk at Lios mór (sweet spoken Baile)
Bryan - Monk at Iona
Colmán - Abbot of Lindisfarne [ ? - 675]
Culann - Fianna and warrior monk
Daray - monk from Ardslignish
Domangart - King of Dal Riata [ ? - 672]
Emcat - Picti warrior from Gairloch
Fea - Irish princess, now Sister in charge Lios mór infirmary
Fergus mac Ciniod - Picti of Fortriu - student at Lindisfarne
Gart - Picti fisherman from Poolewe
Hesus - Monk at Lios mór, left-handed, speaks Greek
Jowan - Abbot of Lios mór
Máia - sister at Lios mór (means ‘great mother’ in Greek)
Marcus - monk at Eigg - (means ‘of the sea’)
Morann – Abbot of Ardslignish
Nuada – head monk on Eigg
Sinead – Picti girl from Poolewe
Sreng – older brother of Sinead
Tamara - sister at Lios mór, young ‘milk maid’ (means ‘river nymph’)
Actual historical figure
* * * * *
Culann’s Voyages
Ω ~ Ω ~ Ω ~ Ω ~ Ω
Prayers
Vigils – during the early hours, around 4 a.m. while it is still dark;
Lauds – morning prayer, at daybreak;
Terce – mid-morning prayer, around 9 am;
Sext – midday prayer, around noon;
None – mid-afternoon prayer, around 3 pm;
Vespers – evening prayer, ideally at sunset;
Compline – night prayer, which completes the day.
* * * * *
Illustrations
Designed to show how 7th century inhabitants of Northern Britain dressed and the types of buildings in which they lived. There were no great stone castles or cathedrals.
All illustrations by Duncan MacDonald.
* * * * *
The Burghead Bull - 7th century Pictish carving on a standing stone
from Morayshire Scotland - now in The British Museum
Author’s Note
The historical novels incorporated within these Chronicles, are written for those of us who wish to learn more about the fascinating actual events that took place in Ireland, Caledonia and Britain in the 7th century. Because of the paucity of information available in the past, the period between the end of the Roman occupation and the Norman Conquest (409AD to 1066) has been described as the ‘Dark Ages”.
In fact there were dramatic changes and development of the people who inhabited these islands. Our information is derived from the latest archaeological discoveries and the surviving manuscripts from the most learned men of that period - The Monks of the Celtic Church.
Hopefully the research I’ve incorporated into this book will shed a little light on those ‘Dark Ages’.
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Prologue
Our saga continues in Ireland and northern Britain in the 7th century. AD (AD is the abbreviation of Medieval Latin Anno Domini translated as ‘In the year of Our Lord’ used to label or number years in the Christian Era - also known as CE ‘Common Era’)
Ireland (Eire): The Celts who where the last settlers of Ireland at that time, were brave, intelligent, resourceful and proud. They were converted to Christianity by a number of early British missionaries, most notably St. Ninian and St Patrick. The first person in recorded history to speak out against slavery was St. Patrick, who died in his seventies, probably in 461 AD.
Christian monasteries sprang up in Ireland and became centres of learning. It is to the monks inhabiting those monastic scriptoriums (Scriptoriums: from Latin scriptus, ‘to write’) who copied thousands of texts; we owe much of our knowledge of the ancient Greek, Roman and Middle Eastern world.
The Irish Celtic missionaries expanded their evangelism to neighbouring countries and eventually into what is now Europe. The earliest monasteries were established on Iona, off the west coast of Caledonia (Scotland) in 563 AD, and Lindisfarne, now called Holy island, in north-east Britain in 634 AD.
Britain: The Roman legions which had occupied much of much of Britain for 400 years, but not the northern part, which was inhabited by the Caledonians or Picts, withdrew in AD 409. The great Roman Empire began to disintegrate.
Invasions by Angles, Saxons and Jutes: Most of us were taught at school that once the Romans left, raids into Britain by Picts and the Irish increased. To protect themselves the Romanised Britains requested assistance from the Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Accordingly, these tribes then began a massive migration, overran the originals inhabitants and forced the Britains west into what is now Wales and England’s West Country. Henceforth Britain became ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and was known as ‘England’ (Angle land).
These so called ‘facts’ were developed extensively by racist Victorian scholars, who promulgated the superiority of the ‘pure German race’. This was no doubt driven by the perceived notion to justify the presence of the first German King to take the throne in England, George I, the great-great-grand father of Queen Victoria.
George I (Georg Ludwig: 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698.
~ ~ ~ George was born in Hanover, in what is now Germany, and inherited the lands and titles of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg from his father and uncles. At the age of 54, after the death of Queen Anne of Great Britain, George ascended the British throne as the first monarch of the House of Hanover. Although over fifty Roman Catholics bore closer blood relationships to Anne, the Act of Settlement 1701 prohibited Catholics from inheriting the British throne; George was Anne’s closest living Protestant relative.
~ ~ ~ In retaliation, Jacobites attempted to depose George and replace him with Anne’s Catholic half-brother, James Francis Edward Stua
rt (father of Bonnie Prince Charlie), but their attempts failed.
~ ~ ~ Due to anti-German sentiment in the British Empire during World War I, King George V changed the name of the British Royal Family from the German Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, to the English Windsor, by royal proclamation on 17 July 1917.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ King George 1 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Prince James Francis Edward Stuart
Subsequent archaeological excavations tended to reinforce these mass migration theories justifying it on finds of the changes ‘grave goods’ and burial fashions that matched those in Western Europe. This mindset continued up until the last few years of the 20th century.
Since then courageous archaeological scholars have had the temerity to challenge to the ‘establishment’ with the re-evaluation of such earlier findings, that they did not signify a mass migration and social upheaval. They simply show a change in ‘fashions’.
Much the same as the early Britains changed housing, clothing and burials fashions to mimic Roman ways, so they changed to the new fashions of the minority Angle and Saxon kings who did in fact rule them in the sixth to eleventh centuries.
If one needs to see how fashions change without countries being conquered militarily, just look at all the youths in Europe and Asia who wear jeans and T-shirts with baseball caps on backwards. Are they all Americans? Are all the people in Britain driving Mercedes, BMW’s, Audi’s and VW’s German?
There were Angle Kings and Saxons Kings - as well as British Kings - ruling in many parts of England. However the great majority of the population was and continued to be British.
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* * * * *
Now back to our chronicle:
Culann was the son of a Celtic Metal-smith. His father was killed in 645 AD, when the boy was just five years old. Culann was adopted and raised by Breuse, leader of one of Ireland’s famous Fianna warrior bands. The Fianna, a very effective fighting force standing on the outskirts of society, were well regarded. Admission was based on skill and strength, rather than noble-blood or wealth.
Culann entered the Fianna world aged five. There were no women in Fianna camps. Most other male novices were in their early or late teens. By the time Culann was ten summers old he was as tall as or taller than those lads five to eight years older. As such he was treated as an equal by those young men. Culann had to try much harder just to keep up with his peers. Many nights he lay on his sleeping skin, body aching, silently wiping tears in the dark, and vowing not to let those older boys outdo him again.
By the summer of his twelfth year it was obvious to Breuse and all who saw him that Culann had developed superior skills with the sword and staff. Culann grew to manhood as part of this Brotherhood of fighting men. But one thing set him apart from the others - he never grew a beard. He shaved his face every day. Breuse wisely concluded it was because Culann had witnessed his father being grabbed by his long blonde beard by a warlord, who then cut his throat.
Breuse was killed leading a cattle raiding party when Culann was twenty summers old. Culann stayed with the Fianna because it was the only home he could remember. The group was then headed by Osgar. Ten months later Culann’s Fianna group offered their services to a minor King in the Wicklow Hills, called Sigmall, in order to escort his daughter, the Princess Fea to her arranged marriage with a neighbouring prince.
* * * * *
Fea was the youngest of three daughters of King Sigmall. She was irrepressible in her early formative years. Fea had all the advantages of a young princess without any of the obligations. In short, possibly because she was considered ‘adorable’ by many, she was greatly indulged by all who met her.
When Fea was twelve years old her mother died in a plague. Her father decided she needed more discipline (in other words, he couldn’t control her), as well as a smidgin of education - not too much, as she was just a girl after all.
So Fea was sent to Saint Brigid’s of Kildare, a monastery run by nuns. At the time it was the foremost learning centre in all Èire. The monastery was formed around 490 AD as a joint monastery, catering for nuns as well as monks. It was the first joint monastery in Èire and quite possibly the world. Although it was a male dominated society, Celtic women played a more prominent role than their sisters in Greece or Rome, particularly in the Celtic Church.
Fea was fortunate to be mentored by Sister Mish while she was educated at St Brigid’s. When she was sixteen and still at St Brigid’s, her father arranged for her to marry the son of a neighboring king, for strategic reasons. The son was only ten years old.
Culann literally bumped into Fea as she rounded a corner of her father’s Dun (hill fort) before the wedding party left. There was instant chemistry between the attractive young princess and the tall broad shouldered warrior.
While en route to the wedding, Fea invited Culann to dine with her entourage. However during the second night, Osgar, concerned that their group was being followed by a large number of possibly hostile warriors, asked Culann to go to the camp of the prospective groom and ask for reinforcements. When Culann reached the camp, after running for over a day, he was refused help. After arguing violently with the King’s Chief Advisor, Culann was knocked unconscious and left bound in a tent. He was rescued by the Irish Bard, Pamp, who originally was hired by Fea’s father to negotiate the marriage settlement.
Culann raced back to Fea’s encampment only to find it had been plundered by those mysterious warriors. Fea was badly injured but fortunately Culann rescued her from her attackers and was able to take the girl to nearby St. Brigid’s for medical treatment.
Most of the Fianna had been killed in the attack. However while Fea was recovering at St Brigid’s, Culann with the help of his few surviving Fianna colleagues, hunted down and killed the King of the warriors who had attacked Fea’s entourage. Afterwards, the Fianna now leaderless, decided to disband.
Some weeks later when he was allowed to visit the recovering Fea at Saint Brigid’s, Culann confessed he had nowhere to go. Fea suggested he join a monastery called Iona, the preeminent Celtic monastery off the Caledonian west coast. Fea indicated if he did so, she would join him in three years.
Culann eventually did join the Iona community. However news came of a terrible smallpox plague that swept through Saint Brigid’s, killing many. Culann was told Fea had perished, along with many other sisters and monks.
Fea, in fact had earlier joined a group of sisters looking after the monastery’s cows. In the open air she could study some of the interesting codex (books) on medicine and healing given to her by a genial old monk. When the plague struck Fea and her ‘milk maids’ greatly assisted treating the sick in the infirmary. They were apparently unaffected because while working with the cows they had become infected with a mild disease called ‘cow pox’ and did not contract the more virulent Smallpox. (In 1788 Dr Edward Jenner published his research showing that cowpox protected against smallpox)
Fea was determined to research the medical information contained in those valuable codexes. Unfortunately most were in Greek. No one in St Brigid’s read Greek so Fea and seven of her ‘milk maids’ journeyed to the island monastery of Lios mór where they were welcomed by the Abbot Jowan and encouraged to set up an excellent infirmary. They were greatly assisted by a monk from Jura, called Brother Hesus, who spoke fluent Greek.
Meanwhile Culann, possibly because of his martial art skills, was selected to accompany a group of monks from Iona to travel to an important Synod, (church council or convention) via Lindisfarne. The Synod of Whitby, which was hosted by the Northumbrian King Oswy in 664, determined that the Roman Church should take precedence over the Celtic Church in all religious matters. Culann also met the young Pict lad Fergus, studying at Lindisfarne.
* * * * *
Fergus mac Ciniod (Fergus son of Ciniod) was fostered or raised by his uncle and not by his birth parents, as was the custom with noble Pict boys. Fergus was smaller than his compatriots, but excelled at Shinty, which uses sticks and cudgels to master sw
ordplay. He also uncharacteristically learnt how to swim. When Fergus was twelve years old his mother, Sirona, who since her husband’s death, had lived at a small Celtic monastery on the Moray Firth, visited her son on the River Tay. Her two other sons had been killed in battle and she wanted Fergus to attend a famous Celtic Monastery called Lindisfarne, as a student. She felt it was important for him gain wisdom by learning the new skill taught by the monks - to ‘read and write’. Most Picts were illiterate.
Fergus spent three years at Lindisfarne as a student. To keep his youthful energies in place he was allocated the task of delivering two milk containers each day to the monastery from the farm on the mainland. When the tide was out each morning he walked. When the tide was in, he swam.
Fergus, after meeting Culann with the Iona monks journeying to Lindisfarne on the way to Whitby, decided he wanted to witness this important event. In typical Fergus fashion, after being denied approval to sail with the Iona and Lindisfarne monks attending the Synod, he ‘acquired’ a coracle, and paddled behind the main boats, three days south to Whitby.
Culann at the conclusion of the Synod, rescued the young Pict from the clutches of some violent Angle/British warriors. Discretion deemed it advisable for Culann and Fergus to paddle back to Lindisfarne ahead of the main group of monks. They accomplished this task using Fergus’ one man coracle.
Abbot Colmán of Lindisfarne decided to resign rather than remain under the yolk of the Roman Church. He requested Culann and Fergus deliver twelve valuable codexes to Iona. He was concerned that the Church of Rome would destroy all books which weren’t copies of the either the Old Testament or New Testament.
After many adventures through enemy territory they accomplish their task. Unfortunately Culann was severely injured by a spear wound. He was saved by the actions of young Fergus who successfully brought them both to Lios mór. There Culann was reunited and nursed to health by the head of the infirmary, Sister Fea.
The Culann Chronicles, Book 2, Picts' Plight Page 1