Pagan Symbols of the Picts by Stuart McHardy sampler

introduction
down that were once spoken as story. Wherever possible I have
considered a variety of sources, temporal and geographic, in
suggesting possible direct links to what we can only call pagan
belief. The general meaning of pagan here is pre-Christian, and
where I go further to suggest specific possibilities and relationships,
I should re-emphasise that this is derived from my own thinking.
According to the Compact Edition of the Oxford English
Dictionary (OED) the term pagan originally had the sense of
... villager, rustic… indicating the fact that the ancient
idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after
Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and
cities of the Roman Empire
1979, p.2052
Given that Scotland had very few towns or cities until well into
the medieval period this seems particularly apt. By analysing
material that emanated from the traditional stories, myths and
legends of Wales, Ireland and Scandinavia I hope I can show that
we can put together a model for understanding something of what
the symbols may have meant to the people who created them.
One of the reasons for investigating the pre-Christian Picts is to
develop a picture that archaeologists can perhaps use to pose
questions about sites from pagan times. In order to develop such a
picture I have spent considerable effort trying to understand not
only how relevant information can be transmitted through the oral
tradition, but also in analysing the Scottish landscape in the light of
putative pagan belief. Through a combination of approaches, I have
come up with an interpretation of the Pictish past which, correct or
not, has the advantage of being cohesive and as such might well fill
the role of stimulating further discussion and hopefully begin to
provide a framework that might allow the development of a speci fic
Scottish archaeological approach to the Picts.
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