Product Description

Archaeological evidence has become available regarding the arrival of the kingdom of the Dalriada, the first kingdom of the Scots. This text, part of "The Making of Scotland" series, describes its influence and the impact that the Ionian community had on culture and religion after A.D. 503.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #465322 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-07
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Customer Reviews

Good, especially for kids, but please correct the glitch
When I first bought a book in this "The Making of Scotland" series, I was happy enough with it to want the rest in my home. The wording of the texts is geared toward younger readers, but the information is interesting for anyone who wants a brief introductory overview or review. The illustrations in Mr. Campbell's book are interesting and well-chosen to enhance the text, as is typical of this series. Some books in this series (like the one on Picts & their symbols) rate 5 stars as educational books for younger readers, I'd say, based on how they explain scholarly controversies alone.

Unfortunately Mr. Ewan Campbell's book has a glaring error on page 12 near the bottom:
"It seems likely that the word "Scotti" was applied to all people who spoke Gaelic, a branch of the Celtic family of languages which includes modern Irish and Scots Gaelic. This type of Celtic is technically known as Q-Celtic, or Brittonic, to distinguish it from the P-Celtic, or Goidelic, branch which includes Pictish, Welsh, Breton and Cornish."

Oops. The words "Brittonic" (a.k.a. Brythonic) and "Goidelic" need to be switched: Goidelic was Q-Celtic, and Brittonic was P-Celtic. Otherwise Pendragon would have come out as Kendragon, and Canmore/Kenmore as Penmore; Mac surnames would be (M)ap, and vice versa, which would confuse MacDonalds and ap Lewellyns everywhere.

It is evident from the rest of the text that the author understands this very basic concept about Insular Celtic correctly, but the wording as printed is an unfortunate thing for a book meant to aid good learning. Please fix it.