The Pictish question

[Diable Rouge]

I'm currently engrossed in Norman Davies' The Isles: A History, but even he proves unable to answer that most controversial question of who the Picts were. The aboriginal pre-Celtic inhabitants of Alba, and thus descendants of the Beaker People? P-Celts moving upwards from Cumbria? Pre-Norse Scandinavian immigrants? The northern geography of their kingdom suggests that the final theory is most probable, but in the absence of records, it seems the controversy will never be solved.

[Toro Toro]

The Pictish question

Is that the (or even a) "most controversial" question?

[Toby Gymshorts]

The Pictish question

Earworm.

[Diable Rouge]

The Pictish question

Toro Toro wrote: Is that the (or even a) "most controversial" question?

In terms of Scottish history, it ranks right up there.

[WOM]

The Pictish question

It's gotten no media play over here. Shame, really.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The Pictish question

One thing we do know, they didn't call themselves Picts. That's from the Latin for "painted" (presumably because they liked to paint themselves blue, much like Rangers fans today).

Which at least is not a derogatory term, like "Welsh" or "Wals" was to a Saxon.

[Bored Of Education]

The Pictish question

It just means 'foreigner' or 'stranger', doesn't it?

I was very interested in the Beaker People as they were much taller than other cultures and, being from a Welsh family that are all over six foot, thought that some sort of genetic Beaker strand had come through. However, as we came from a North Welsh family on my Dad's side and also have light hair and blue eyes, I now think that we are more probably the stock of a bit of Viking pillage.

Also, we don't quite look like this.

[Diable Rouge]

The Pictish question

Unsurprisingly, the Welsh get more favourable treatment in Irish, with Breatnaigh used in the historical context of original Britons (Little Britain for the nation must thus be interpreted accordingly). The more derogatory Sasanaigh for the English is self-explanatory.

[Duncan Gardner]

The Pictish question

Dublin still has a Little Britain Street.

There was a Great Britain Street too, but the spoilsports renamed it after Charles Parnell.