The Age of the Picts (Illustrated History) [Paperback]

W.A. Cummins (Author)

Book Description

Series: Illustrated History | Publication Date: January 25, 1998

The Pictish nation, forged in the shadow of the Roman empire, was the dominant power in northern Britain for more than 500 years. Dr Cummins places the story of the Picts in its historical context and reassesses such topics as the legend of Drust son of Erp and St Columba's mission to the Picts. There are comparisons with contemporary events in Wales and England as well as interpretations of Sueno's Stone and Pictish symbols and an explanation is offered of what happened in 843 when the Scots took over Pictland.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

W. A. Cummins is the author of King Arthur's Place in Prehistory.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Publishing (January 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750916087
• ISBN-13: 978-0750916080
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,902,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars And yet another Pictish theory enters the ring, January 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Age of the Picts (History) (Hardcover)

Terrific new entry into the nebulous world of Pictish studies. Without a challenge, it has the BEST chronology of Pictish events and clearly the most clearly researched list of Pictish kings (which can be confusing at times in most books).

The author's theory as to the Britannic origin of the Scottish peoples in relation to the Picts is interesting and highly provocative.

Brilliant new entry into this debated bit of ancient Britannic history!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book, and an excellent resource!, March 31, 2002

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Age of the Picts (Illustrated History) (Paperback)

In this wonderful book, Professor W. A. Cummins collects all of the information known (as of 1995) about the Picts, the people of ancient Scotland. In the first eight chapters, the author examines what is known about the Picts, taking each subject one at a time to produce a clear and concise analysis of the data. The remaining ten chapters examine the Picts through a historical prism, showing how they interacted with neighboring peoples, and what those interactions tell us about the Picts. The crème de la crème, though, are the three appendices. The first two deal with the lists of Pictish kings, while the third analyzes the 30 Pictish "kings" who all have the name Brude.

This is a wonderful book, and an excellent resource! The author does speculate, drawing inferences carvings and so forth, but he does leap out into transoceanic empires and so forth that are presently so popular in some books. Instead, this book is a wonderfully readable book, which covers its subject in a scholarly manner. I highly recommend this book!

I must add, though, that the author clearly states, "Their language was sufficiently different from Scottish (Gaelic) and British (Welsh) to be considered a quite distinct language." What this language was, he does not speculate, but he does show how it dropped by some of the Picts in favor of British, and by the rest in favor of Scottish. Get this book!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Subject., April 22, 2006

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This review is from: The Age of the Picts (History) (Hardcover)

The author does a fine job in the first 6 chapters considering the paucity of information on this somewhat mysterious people. In chapter 7 he briefly discusses their origins. This was where I found the book wanting. There appears to be no definitive answers or agreement among scholars of the various disciplines. Was Tacitus right about their Germanic origin? Are they a pre-Brittonic people, or Celtic? Can archaeology and DNA testing ever provide us with some certitudes?

Note, John King in his book "Kingdoms Of The Celts," stated that the Picts clearly were not Celts.The remainder of the book is about the Picts often hostile relations with their numerous neighbors. The photographs and maps were somewhat helpful. This book posed as many questions as it answered. For that it was worth the price.