Summary: So we will begin the account of what was going on with the Picts following the withdrawal of Rome with a rather discouraging fact… isn’t it nice when I can start an episode on an up note? In the Group A version of the Pictish Chronicle there are only 3 Pictish Kings before Kenneth MacAlpin who had any of their deeds recorded. Just three. Everything else is pretty much just a chronology… just simple markers indicating the passage of time. So that’s tough, I’ll admit it. But it isn’t fatal for us. There’s still stuff to be gleaned there, and there’s still archaeology, and we knew that a lot of this was going to be mysterious when we started, right? Alright so first up we have Drust son of Erp, who we’re told reigned for 100 years, fought 100 battles, and St. Patrick arrived in Ireland in the 19th year of his reign. And you might think “well, that Saint Patrick thing should give us a good sense of when he reigned.” You’d be right… sort of. The trouble is that we aren’t even sure when St. Patrick lived and went to Ireland. But it does at least give us a rough sense of time… and it was probably in the 5th century, if the account is correct. Though the problem is the 100 years/100 battles thing definitely reeks of legend. So how much we can trust it is subject to debate. And as you might remember from the discussion of Arthur on the Member’s episodes, historical sources aren’t a salad bar. You can’t pick some things and leave others. If you find parts that are clearly erroneous, you can’t say “well, we will ignore that part but still trust the bits that are right next to it.” Errors and legends throw the entire thing into question. So right from the outset we should look at this entry, at the very least, as highly questionable. But something that should jump out at you, regardless of whether or not the account is actually accurate, is that we are tying the chronology of Pictland to events that were occurring in Ireland. That’s kind of strange, isn’t it? I mean, the arrival of Patrick and subsequent widespread conversion was certainly a big deal of the Irish, but you wouldn’t think the Picts would care all that much. However, don’t forget that Christianity flowed from the Welsh/British territories, into Ireland, and then was later introduced into the Scottish tribes by Irish missionaries. So, even though Pictland wasn’t involved, you could see how that would become an important moment for the Chroniclers following the introduction of Christianity into Pictland… and also, the Missionaries probably were well aware of the date of Patrick’s arrival and might have used that date to try to backdate the events that transpired in the Pictish Chronicle and provide some sort of fixed date to link everything to.
