Pictish Beast
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The Pictish Beast (sometimes Pictish Dragon or Pictish Elephant) is an artistic representation of an animal depicted on Pictish symbol stones.[citation needed]
Design
The Pictish Beast is not easily identifiable with any real animal, but resembles a seahorse, especially when depicted upright. Suggestions have included a dolphin, a kelpie (or each uisge), and even the Loch Ness Monster.[citation needed]
Recent thinking is that the Pictish Beast might be related to the design of dragonesque brooches, which were S-shaped pieces of jewelry, made from the mid-1st to the 2nd century CE, that depict double-headed animals with swirled snouts and distinctive ears. These have been found in southern Scotland and northern England. The strongest evidence for this is the presence on the Mortlach 2 stone of a symbol very similar to such a brooch, next to and in the same alignment as a Pictish Beast.[citation needed]
The Pictish Beast accounts for about 40% of all Pictish animal depictions, and so was likely of great importance.[citation needed]
The Pictish Beast is thought to have been an important figure in Pictish mythology, and possibly even a political symbol.[citation needed]
See also
References
Bibliography
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pictish Beast. |
- Jones, Duncan, A Wee Guide to The Picts, (Musselburgh, 2003)
- Cessford, Craig, The Heroic Age: A Journal of Medieval Northwestern Europe, issue 8 (2005) ISSN 1526-1867
External links
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