| The Brandsbutt Stone | |
|---|---|
 The Brandsbutt Stone, showing detail of ogham script | |
| Material | Whinstone |
| Height | 1.07 metres (3.5 ft) |
| Writing | Ogham script: irataddoarens |
| Symbols |
|
| Present location | Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
| Coordinates | 57°17′30″N2°24′00″W / 57.2916°N 2.4000°W |
| Classification | Class I incised stone |
| Culture | Pictish |
The Brandsbutt Stone is a class I Pictish symbol stone in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
A large block of whinstone, 1.07 metres (3.5 ft) high, 1.27 metres (4.2 ft) wide and 0.91 metres (3.0 ft) deep, the stone had been broken up and used in building a dry stone wall before 1866. [1] The stone, now reassembled, bears two incised Pictish symbols, a crescent and v-rod and a serpent and z-rod, and an inscription in Ogham, IRATADDOARENS. [2] The carvings of the Brandsbutt Stone are dated to around AD 600. [3] It is a scheduled monument. [4]
The inscription borne by the Brandsbutt Stone, IRATADDOARENS, has been described by Katherine Forsyth as appearing to be "utterly baffling". [5] However, a handful of interpretations have been offered. [5] [2] Suggestions include the possibility that it may contain a corrupted version of the personal name Ethernan. [6] [2] If this is the case, it is likely to refer to the 7th century saint Ethernan about whom little is known but who was apparently venerated by the Picts. He is referred to in an entry from the Annals of Ulster from 669 AD as having been killed by the Picts along with Corindu. It is thought that these names may be P-Celtic and therefore Pictish in origin. [7]
Other examples of the name Ethernan being preserved on Pictish stones include, in Ogham, The Newton Stone (IDDARRNNN), Rodney's Stone (EDDARRNON) and The Scoonie Stone (EDDARRNONN), and, in Latin script, The Fordoun Stone (PIDARNOIN).
The ira- may be a Pictish verb cognate with Breton irha meaning "he lies". [5] However, the existence of this verb is doubtful, according to Rodway. [8]
Thomas Clancy proposed that the text represents the Gaelic phrase i rath Aduarén s- meaning "this is the property of Aduarén here". [8]
As Katherine Forsyth describes, the Ogham script on the Brandsbutt Stone spells ‘Iratadd o Arens’. From modern Welsh into English 'iradedd' translates to 'wretched/grievousness/ruefulness' and 'o aren' translates to 'of the kidney'.
[irad +-edd] eg. Ansawdd neu gyflwr galarus, galarusrwydd, gresyni, trueni: The quality or state of mourning, regret, pity: Ruefulness, grievousness, wretchedness. [1783] W d.g. ruefulness. 1803 P, iradedd, ruefulness, grievousness. [9]
'iradedd o aren' = 'wretched/grievousness/ruefulness of the kidney' It could therefore be assumed, due to the presence of the snake carving, that this could refer to someone who may have been poisoned by a snake (adder/viper [10] ) or even a warning about the presence of poisonous snakes such as vipers.
The Picts were a group of peoples in northern Britain, north of the Firth of Forth, in the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. The name Picti appears in written records as an exonym from the late third century AD. They are assumed to have been descendants of the Caledonii and other northern Iron Age tribes. Their territory is referred to as "Pictland" by modern historians. Initially made up of several chiefdoms, it came to be dominated by the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu from the seventh century. During this Verturian hegemony, Picti was adopted as an endonym. This lasted around 160 years until the Pictish kingdom merged with that of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba, ruled by the House of Alpin. The concept of "Pictish kingship" continued for a few decades until it was abandoned during the reign of Caustantín mac Áeda.
Causantín or Constantín mac Fergusa was king of the Picts, in modern Scotland, from 789 until 820. He was until the Victorian era sometimes counted as Constantine I of Scotland; the title is now generally given to Causantín mac Cináeda. He is credited with having founded the church at Dunkeld which later received relics of St Columba from Iona.
Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographical and personal names found on monuments and early medieval records in the area controlled by the kingdoms of the Picts. Such evidence, however, shows the language to be an Insular Celtic language related to the Brittonic language then spoken in most of the rest of Britain.
The Brough of Birsay is an uninhabited tidal island off the north-west coast of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland, in the parish of Birsay. It is located around 13 miles north of Stromness and features the remains of Pictish and Norse settlements as well as a modern light house.
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language, and later the Old Irish language. There are roughly 400 surviving orthodox inscriptions on stone monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain, the bulk of which are in southern Munster. The largest number outside Ireland are in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele, generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. A few have ogham inscriptions. Located in Scotland, mostly north of the Clyde-Forth line and on the Eastern side of the country, these stones are the most visible remaining evidence of the Picts and are thought to date from the 6th to 9th century, a period during which the Picts became Christianized. The earlier stones have no parallels from the rest of the British Isles, but the later forms are variations within a wider Insular tradition of monumental stones such as high crosses. About 350 objects classified as Pictish stones have survived, the earlier examples of which holding by far the greatest number of surviving examples of the mysterious symbols, which have long intrigued scholars.
Roughly 400 known ogham inscriptions are on stone monuments scattered around the Irish Sea, the bulk of them dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. Their language is predominantly Primitive Irish, but a few examples record fragments of the Pictish language. Ogham itself is an Early Medieval form of alphabet or cipher, sometimes known as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet".
The origins of the Kingdom of Alba pertain to the origins of the Kingdom of Alba, or the Gaelic Kingdom of Scotland, either as a mythological event or a historical process, during the Early Middle Ages.
The Dupplin Cross is a carved, monumental Pictish stone, which dates from around 800 AD. It was first recorded by Thomas Pennant in 1769, on a hillside in Strathearn, a little to the north of Forteviot and Dunning. In 2002 it was placed in the care of Historic Scotland, and was placed for preservation under the 11th/12th-century tower of St Serf's Church, Dunning.
The Drosten Stone is a carved Pictish stone of the 9th century at St Vigeans, near Arbroath, Scotland. In academic contexts it is sometimes called St Vigeans 1.
Rodney's Stone is a two-metre high Pictish cross slab now located close on the approach way to Brodie Castle, near Forres, Moray, Scotland. It was originally found nearby in the grounds of the old church of Dyke and Moy. It is classed as a Class II Pictish stone, meaning that it has a cross on one face, and symbols on the other. On the symbols face, at the top, are two fish monsters; below is a "Pictish Beast", and below that a double disc and Z-rod. On the cross face there is a cross and some animals.
The Buckquoy spindle-whorl is an Ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl dating from the Early Middle Ages, probably the 8th century, which was found in 1970 in Buckquoy, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland. Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick. It is the only known spindle-whorl with an Ogham inscription.
The Lunnasting stone is a stone bearing an ogham inscription, found at Lunnasting, Shetland and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1876.
Ann Naddodsdóttir was possibly a daughter of Naddoddr, the Viking attributed with the discovery of Iceland.
The Lang Stane of Auquhollie is an Ogam-inscribed standing stone some 6 kilometres north-west of Stonehaven in Scotland. Situated on south side of Meikle Carew Hill at a height of about 140 metres above sea level, the stone is approximately 3 metres in height and 0.75 metres in diameter, an unshaped monolith of gneiss.
The Aberlemno Sculptured Stones are a series of Pictish standing stones originating in and around the village of Aberlemno, Angus, Scotland. Three are located in the village and a fourth, found in 1962, is on display in The McManus in Dundee. They date from the Early Medieval period. A fifth stone standing in the village has signs of carving, but is of unknown authenticity as a Pictish artefact.
St Orland's Stone is a Class II Pictish Cross-Slab at Cossans, near Kirriemuir and Forfar, Angus, Scotland
Katherine S. Forsyth is a Scottish historian who specializes in the history and culture of Celtic-speaking peoples during the 1st millennium AD, in particular the Picts. She is currently a professor in Celtic and Gaelic at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She graduated from the University of Cambridge and Harvard University.
Dunnicaer, or Dun-na-caer, is a precipitous sea stack just off the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, between Dunnottar Castle and Stonehaven. Despite the unusual difficulty of access, in 1832 Pictish symbol stones were found on the summit and 21st-century archaeology has discovered evidence of a Pictish hill fort which may have incorporated the stones in its structure. The stones may have been incised in the third or fourth centuries AD but this goes against the general archaeological view that the simplest and earliest symbol stones date from the fifth or even seventh century AD.
Ethernan was a 7th century Scottish martyr and saint.
