Front cover of the forthcoming book!
Here’s a glimpse of the front cover for my book, which will be published in the new year by Amberley Publishing.
Posted on December 14, 2011, in Pictish History. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
General Pictish Websites
- Devorguilablog
- Historic Scotland – Pictish Stones
- Orkneyjar – Who were the Picts?
- Pictish Arts Society
- Pictish Nation
- Picts
- Scottish History Online – Pictish Pages
- The Pictis h Symbol known as the ‘Crescent V – rod ’ and its possible use as a Seasonal Sundial or Farmers Almanac
- The Pictish Pages
- The Picts – The Shadowy Painted People
Miscellaneous Pictish Information
Museums / Exhibitions
Pictish Language
Pictish Stones
- Ancient Scotland
- Dark Isle – Grave Slabs and Pictish Symbols of Scotland
- Historic Scotland – Pictish Stones
- Neolithic, Bronze Age and Pictish Sites of North East Scotland
- Strathclyde University Pictish Stone Database
- THE GRAMMAR OF THE PICTISH SYMBOL STONES Toby D. Griffen (pdf)
- The Highland Pictish Trail (PDF file)
- The Mystery of the Indecipherable Pictish Stones
- The Pictis h Symbol known as the ‘Crescent V – rod ’ and its possible use as a Seasonal Sundial or Farmers Almanac
Various Other Links
My Twitter Account
Tweets by iainforbespictArchive
Powered by WebRing. This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit Here.
The Last of the Druids 
Eeh, eck! Impressive 🙂 Amberley, too, you clever fella. I’ll look forward to it.
Love that cover image!
just found your website! am adding a link to yours from mine…
forgot to mention how much I live your imagery…
Hello Ian. Your website is fascinating.Love images of standing stones. We lived in Wales for many years so am familier with looking at these.However never did get to studying them very much. I will concentrate on your info by following you. Good luck.
Thanks for your kind comments Rita!
Hi there ian, love your page here and story, but just to ask what do you find familiar in the Stones and Druids,…as a great fan of anything Pictish and live just a few miles from Abernethy, and a practising druid, i am just curious….or is it all in your fab book. thanks and best regards, Ray
Hi Ray, thanks for your comment. The title of the book is a reference to my hypothesis that the symbols on the stones are Druidic and serve a specific purpose. I believe the symbols are astrological and therefore would reflect particular predictions made by a Druidic class within Pictland. As in Ireland, it is possible that aspects of Druidic teaching and function may have survived Christianity and hence symbols also appearing on Christian Pictish monuments. Regards, Iain
Thank you Iain for reply. Yes indeed the symbols could be indeed astrological and as you know the Druids predicted many things through nature and the stars, thanks. Thinks ill have to go buy this book, sounds interesting.
Kind Regards. Ray
I found your book in a lovely independent bookshop in Scotland. I thoroughly devoured it. I was traveling in England and Scotland, first to walk Hadrian’s Wall and then later to spend time in the Highlands. I work with the runes and have long been fascinated by the few references in the Norse lore to things having to do with the stars and the heavens. Have you done any research on that? I am working now with the so-called Anglo-Northumbrian runes trying to uncover what connection they might have had with the Pictish symbols.
Ingrid
Thanks very much for your comments Ingrid. I must admit I don’t know a great deal about Runes. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Norse tradition also had reference to the night sky. There are a lot of parallels between the mythology of different Indo-European groups and the sky seems to feature strongly in these. Similarly, the symbolism of these cultures may also reflect this interest which I believe reflects an even older tradition. There is a school of thought that some Pictish ogham inscriptions may be written in Old Norse, but later than the Pictish period – this isn’t however universally accepted. You can get a facsimile of a 19th century book by the Earl of Southesk on Pictish symbolism and his ideas on Scandinavian influences at http://www.llanerchpress.com/book/category/celtic-interest/4/origins-of-pictish-symbolism/the-earl-of-southesk/1861430914
Hope this is helpful.
Iain
Just downloaded it for my iPad (via Kindle).
Pingback: Round-up from the Blogosphere « Senchus
Pingback: The Aberlady Cross « Senchus