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The Pictish Beast (sometimes Pictish Dragon or Pictish Elephant) is a conventional representation of an animal, distinct to the
early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...
culture of the
Picts The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Scotland in the early Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pic ...
of Scotland. The great majority of surviving examples are on
Pictish stones 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 River Clyde, Clyde-River Forth, Forth line and on the Eastern side of the ...
. The Pictish Beast accounts for about 40% of all
Pictish 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 geog ...
animal depictions, and so was likely of great importance.


Depiction on Stones

A comprehensive collection of depictions of the Pictish Beast was given by John Stuart as Plate 22 in Sculptured Stones of Scotland Volume 2, 1867. Depictions are shown at a consistent scale and oriented as they were on the stones. The sequence in which they appear is described as
indicating their development from the outline form in which they first appear on the rude pillars, to that in which the outline is filled up with the ornamental devices of the cross-slabs
The orientation of the beast's back on Stuart's Plate 22 is predominantly horizontal, or slightly inclined; only on the Maiden Stone and at Dunfallandy is it at 45° and on
Meigle Meigle (, ) is a village in Strathmore, Angus, Strathmore, Scotland. It lies in the council area of Perth and Kinross in the Coupar Angus and Meigle ward. It lies on the A94 road, A94 road between Perth and Forfar.The A94 used to be the main ro ...
5 vertical. The last may be explained by its position on the stone: it is on the narrow left side, where it occupies 90% of the available width. One omission from Stuart's plate is the symbol in the Doo Cave at East Wemyss, recorded by Anderson in 1881. Anderson described it as "the symbolic animal, with the long jaws and the crest and the scroll-like feet". Absent from the Doo Cave figure is the crest from the top of the beast's head and the tail; the rear scroll-like feet are clearly divided into two limbs.


Interpretation

In the
Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...
guidebook ''The Picts'', Jill Harden writes:
... most common of all he animal symbolsis the Pictish beast. This intriguing figure is clearly swimming. Is it a porpoise, a dolphin or a creature of myth?
Cetaceans Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...
are present along the east coast of Scotland.
Chanonry Point Chanonry Point (Scottish Gaelic: ''Rubha na Cananaich'') lies at the end of Chanonry Ness, a Spit (landform), spit of land extending into the Moray Firth between Fortrose and Rosemarkie on the Black Isle, Scotland. Lighthouse An active lightho ...
and the Sutors of
Cromarty Cromarty (; , ) is a town, civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland (council area), Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mout ...
lie close to the Pictish monasteries at
Portmahomack Portmahomack (; 'Haven of My .e. 'Saint'Colmóc') is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about from the village at the end of the Tar ...
and
Rosemarkie Rosemarkie (, from meaning "promontory of the horse stream") is a village on the south coast of the Black Isle peninsula in Ross-shire (Ross and Cromarty), northern Scotland. Geography Rosemarkie lies a quarter of a mile east of the town of ...
and are recognised as some of the best sites in Britain for viewing
bottlenose dolphins The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...
from the land. One characteristic of cetaceans is their blowhole (one for dolphins, porpoises and beaked whales; two for baleen whales). When cetaceans reach the water surface to breathe, they expel air through the blowhole. Water vapour in the exhalation condenses, producing a visible spout which trails behind the cetacean as it moves forward. This has a similar appearance to the crest from the head of the Pictish beast. Other suggested identifications of the Pictish beast have included an
elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
, a
kelpie A kelpie, or water kelpie (Scottish Gaelic: '' each-uisge''), is a mythical shape-shifting spirit inhabiting lochs in Scottish folklore. Legends of these shape-shifting water-horses, under various names, spread across the British Isles, appea ...
(or '' each uisge''), a
seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine Osteichthyes, bony fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meanin ...
, and an
anteater Anteaters are the four extant mammal species in the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue"), commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with sloths, they ar ...
. Whatever its origin, its presence on many Christian stones and its position on them implies that, as with the crescent and V-rod, it had by then acquired a Christian meaning which appealed to those erecting the stones, e.g.
salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
. File:Martin's Stone - geograph.org.uk - 14993.jpg, St Martin's stone File:Strathmartine castle stone.jpg, Strathmartine Castle Stone


See also

* Celtic art *
Loch Ness Monster The Loch Ness Monster (), known affectionately as Nessie, is a mythical creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or more humps protrud ...
*
Kelpie A kelpie, or water kelpie (Scottish Gaelic: '' each-uisge''), is a mythical shape-shifting spirit inhabiting lochs in Scottish folklore. Legends of these shape-shifting water-horses, under various names, spread across the British Isles, appea ...


References


Bibliography

* * {{cite journal , last=Cessford , first=Craig , date=June 2005 , title=Pictish art and the sea , journal= The Heroic Age: A Journal of Medieval Northwestern Europe , issue=8 , issn=1526-1867 , url=http://www.heroicage.org/issues/8/cessford.html


External links


Pictish Art And The Sea, Craig Cessford
Scottish legendary creatures Symbols on Pictish stones Scottish mythology