Sorting out the origins of Dal Riada
Re-read a fascinating paper on the kingdom of Dal Riada, the Gaelic-speaking people of Scotland who in the early Middle Ages ruled a wide area in both Ireland and Britain. The traditional view is that the original people of Dal Riada invaded Britain from Ireland and established a Gaelic-speaking kingdom in Argyll and the Hebrides, with Dunadd as one of their chief centers. Later, the Dalriadans merged with the Picts to form the kingdom of Alba (later, Scotland). For centuries, everyone “knew” this was how it happened. Adomnan and Bede both said so.
Well, the early histories were all written after the fact, and frequently presented stories that attempted to explain or justify the way things were at the time they were written. The archaeology to back up those stories is strangely missing, however. Even the linguistic evidence doesn’t seem to line up with how Q-Celtic speakers took over someplace previously inhabited by P-Celtic speakers.
In response to this, many current investigators assume that no invasion ever happened. The Dalriadans were always there in Argyll, and they were Gaelic speakers from the first. But even discounting the stories we have from the far past as legend or propaganda, the archaeology and linguistics don’t line up well for this view, either.
The paper I was reading argued that an invasion did in fact take place, sometime between the arrival of the Romans in Britain and the 6th Century, probably toward the earlier part of that span. But the invaders were going the other way. The evidence suggests that a British people known to the Romans but never included within their British provinces invaded northern Ireland and were highly successful, even dominating the neighboring tribes who later were remembered as always having been top dogs in the area. And like many other invaders, they went native, adopting the emerging Q-Celtic dialect that was developing into Gaelic in order to show that they were as Irish as the other tribes they had come to rule. It was for them a prestige dialect.
Ethnically, the Gaelic-speaking Dalriadans were closely related to the Picts, with whom they merged in the 9th Century. Indeed, it is not really clear whether the first King of Alba, Kenneth Mac Alpin, was a Pict who took over Dalriada or a Dalriadan who took over Pictland. But with the kings of Alba being Gaelic speakers and using Iona as a royal burying place, the Picts switched to using Gaelic rather than Pictish. Again, it was for them a prestige dialect. Meanwhile, the Dalriadan heyday in Ireland passed and when the Irish began writing down their own histories, they were considered as native Irish who went to Britain. This is the story picked up by Bede, and a good story it is. But apparently not, in Leopold von Ranke’s terms, wie es eigentlich gewesen.
Well, the early histories were all written after the fact, and frequently presented stories that attempted to explain or justify the way things were at the time they were written. The archaeology to back up those stories is strangely missing, however. Even the linguistic evidence doesn’t seem to line up with how Q-Celtic speakers took over someplace previously inhabited by P-Celtic speakers.
In response to this, many current investigators assume that no invasion ever happened. The Dalriadans were always there in Argyll, and they were Gaelic speakers from the first. But even discounting the stories we have from the far past as legend or propaganda, the archaeology and linguistics don’t line up well for this view, either.
The paper I was reading argued that an invasion did in fact take place, sometime between the arrival of the Romans in Britain and the 6th Century, probably toward the earlier part of that span. But the invaders were going the other way. The evidence suggests that a British people known to the Romans but never included within their British provinces invaded northern Ireland and were highly successful, even dominating the neighboring tribes who later were remembered as always having been top dogs in the area. And like many other invaders, they went native, adopting the emerging Q-Celtic dialect that was developing into Gaelic in order to show that they were as Irish as the other tribes they had come to rule. It was for them a prestige dialect.
Ethnically, the Gaelic-speaking Dalriadans were closely related to the Picts, with whom they merged in the 9th Century. Indeed, it is not really clear whether the first King of Alba, Kenneth Mac Alpin, was a Pict who took over Dalriada or a Dalriadan who took over Pictland. But with the kings of Alba being Gaelic speakers and using Iona as a royal burying place, the Picts switched to using Gaelic rather than Pictish. Again, it was for them a prestige dialect. Meanwhile, the Dalriadan heyday in Ireland passed and when the Irish began writing down their own histories, they were considered as native Irish who went to Britain. This is the story picked up by Bede, and a good story it is. But apparently not, in Leopold von Ranke’s terms, wie es eigentlich gewesen.