Publisher's Synopsis
Few problems in British history have proved as intractable as that of the origin and ethnic associations of the Picts. Although we may find numerous references to them with Roman and Celtic sources, they have left us no historical texts of their own. So often we find the early Picts mentioned within histories of Roman Britain as mere opponents of Roman arms -- but who these tattooed barbarians were remains a mystery. Modern opinion holds that the Picts were Celts, like the Scots and Welsh. This book seeks to demonstrate the scarcity of the evidence for this common assumption and follows instead the evidence of native tradition. In this stimulating new study the author offers a view of the Picts that is certainly not the current textbook standard. It concentrates on the oldest traditions of Pictish origins, which together with early historical sources, would suggest that the Picts were not Celts at all, but 'Scythians'. It will put an alternative case that the Picts were Finno-Ugrian immigrants from the Baltic coast. The author provides an investigation which subjects the traditions of Pictish origin to thorough scrutiny and, by offering a view point that does not commence from a Celtic bias, thereby supplies some new ideas on a much neglected subject. Paul Dunbavin is an independent researcher of ancient history and native traditions.
