Howard was undoubtedly aware of at least some of this information when he decided to make the Picts his own. If they did decorate their bodies in this manner, it may have been with the same designs later carved in stone and subsequently used to decorate clothing and other personal items. Bede, however does not mention them as tattooing or painting their bodies. The name Picti was first recorded in a Latin poem of 297 A.D., but may have originated (as stated above) among the Roman soldiers along the frontier. Robert Louis Stevenson's ballad 'Heather Ale' and John Buchan's story 'No-Man's Land', both written in this century, portray the Picts as diminutive and living underground.

Sir Walter Scott believed that the galleries in the walls of the Brochs were low and narrow because of the small size of the Picts (it was later learned that these prehistoric stone towers pre-dated the Picts). They worked marvels in the morning and evening building towns, but at midday they entirely lost their strength and lurked through fear in little underground houses.' The Romans categorized them as uncouth barbarians (yay!), whose ancestors lived in tents unclothed and unshod, sharing their mates and bringing up their children together, their bodies tattooed or painted with strange designs.Īccording to folklore, the first Vikings to reach the Orkneys dared not land because of elf- or troll-like beings (Picts?) who menaced them with shining spears.īede's Ecclesiastical History says the Picts came by sea from Scythia.Ī 12th Century, anonymous Norwegian historian wrote: 'The Picts were little more than pygmies in stature.

The Romans called them Picti, 'the painted ones'. We don't know what they called themselves. I had thought that they had called themselves Picts, and that the ancient Romans had called them Caledonians, but I was wrong. Soon after they vanished (about 900 A.D.), they became the subjects of stories to frighten children with, and I have no doubt that Howard was aware of this when he created his fictional Picts, especially the epic of Bran Mak Morn. If one investigates British belief about this lost race, one encounters many tales. Howard was not the only one to take a fanciful look at the mysterious Picts. Bran Mak Morn Untitled The Dark Man Men of the Shadows A Song of the Race The Lost Race Kings of the Night Untitled Synopsis 1 The Little People Worms of the Earth Untitled Synopsis 2 The Drums of Pictdom

Bran Mak Morn by Robert E. Howard