The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

AND NOTES] OF SCOTLAND 395
FiacJia, a common name. Veda may be for Veicla, and this in a
shorter root form appears in the Pictish Kings' list as Uuid, i.e.,
Vid. Ammianus MarcelHnus (circ. 400) gives the two tribes of
Pictland as Di-calidonae and Vecturiones. The latter name has
been happily corrected by Prof Rhys into Verturiones, whence
the historic name of Fortrenn, the district between the Forth
and the Tay.
To sum up the results of the above analysis : one-third of the
names can easily be paralleled elsewhere on Celtic ground—
Gaulish or Brittonic, though not on Gadelic ground ;
a fourth
more show good Celtic roots and formative particles, and another
fourth can easily be analysed into Aryan or Celtic radicals.
These facts dispose of Prof Rhys's theory of the non-Aryan and
non-Celtic character of the Pictish, and it also makes so far
against Skene's Gadelic view — a name like Epidi being
especially decisive against a Q language. The names of northern
Pictavia show no difference in linguistic character from those of
the south, as witness— Deva, Devana, Vacomagi, Caelis, Smertae,
Lugi, Cornavi, Caireni, Carnonacae, Tarvedum, Verubium (root
ub, point, weapon) ; and, finally, Orcades.
(2)
Post-classical Pictish Names.
Contemporaries like Adamnan and Bede record but few
Pictish names, and we depend on the Chronicles of the Picts and
Scots for complete King lists, and on the Irish Annals as a
check on these lists and as a source of further names, and
especially, place-names. The lives of the Saints present some
names, but this is a doubtful source. The King list begins with
Cruithne, the eponymus of the race, who is contemporary with
the sons of Miledh, the Gadelic invaders of Ireland, whose date
is only 1700 B.C. according to the Annals. We have 66 names of
Kings to cover the period from Cruithne to Brude, son of Mailcon
(554-584 A.D.), the King who received Columba in 565. Imagination
seems to have failed the Pictish genealogists in making
this list, for they fill a long gap with 30 Kings of the same name
— Brude, differentiating them by epithets that go in couples,
thus : Brude Leo, Brude Ur-leo, Brude Pont, Brude Ur-pont, &c.
The Zifr here is the Gaulish prefix ver, Welsh gur, guar, Irish, fer,
for, allied to English hyper and over. It is very common as a
prefix in all the branches of Celtic. It is useless to take these