This book offers a history of ‘Scotland’ before Scotland existed, and before people even thought of this area as a single ‘country’. It traces the emergence and disappearance of various ethnic and political groups from Roman times till circa AD 900, and their shifting relationships. But it also calls into question what are often seen as straightforward and obvious concepts such as ‘ethnicity’, ‘Christian conversion’, ‘law’. While following a broad chronological narrative over nine centuries, and dealing with political and large-scale developments, it also explores in some depth the culture ... More

This book offers a history of ‘Scotland’ before Scotland existed, and before people even thought of this area as a single ‘country’. It traces the emergence and disappearance of various ethnic and political groups from Roman times till circa AD 900, and their shifting relationships. But it also calls into question what are often seen as straightforward and obvious concepts such as ‘ethnicity’, ‘Christian conversion’, ‘law’. While following a broad chronological narrative over nine centuries, and dealing with political and large-scale developments, it also explores in some depth the culture of the societies (and there were several) of the time. In addition to the more narrowly political dimension, it explores the texture of experience in people’s lives: how they imagined themselves and their own identities; how they saw their place in the world; how communities managed their own internal affairs such as marriage, childhood and social conflict; how people understood gender, wealth, political power and religious belief. Important texts which have sometimes been read rather naively are here read in new ways, identifying the commitments of their authors, and seeking the literary influences which shaped them (which means we must read and understand not only what early medieval writers wrote, but also what they were reading).