Further Materials

Projected Materials

• Ru of the Picts: Book 1 — Ethne and the Empress The principal account. A rescue narrative in which the person being rescued appears to have been inconveniently busy.
• On the Sources of the Present Edition An editorial note explaining why the sources cannot be trusted and must therefore be handled carefully, which is not the same as sensibly.
• The Ru–Cruithne Problem: A Reconsideration On a damaged name, several attractive mistakes, and the scholarly desire to turn two letters into a people.
• Seven Endings: A Comparative Study of the Northern Return The present editor has collected seven distinct accounts of how this story concludes. He finds all seven equally plausible, which he recognises is not a compliment to any of them.
• On a Certain Resemblance Nobody Went Looking For Concerning a stone, a cup, and a coincidence the present editor did not invent and cannot now unsee.

The Playlist

A working listening companion, one track per chapter, tracing the account from the hillfort to whatever survived. This is modern reception music, not a reconstruction of anything the Picts actually sounded like — no track here claims otherwise.

• “It May Be a Beautiful Sky Tonight but It's Only a Shelter for a World at Risk” — Win 1. The Hillfort Where Nothing Happened — a smiling sky, a hawk, and the first question about what a story chooses to see.
• “Dignity” — Deacon Blue 2. The Princess Problem — a shared turnip, cut carefully in two.
• “Falling and Laughing” — Orange Juice 3. The Fool's Council — nobody agrees to go. They go anyway.
• “Throw the 'R' Away” — The Proclaimers 4. The Babylonian's Map — a council tries to keep a secret in a language a stranger already speaks.
• “Nautilus” — Anna Meredith 5. The Roman Camp — the first Roman thing that turns out not to be Rome.
• “Season of the Witch” — Donovan 6. The Wall That Matters — justice, sacrifice, and vengeance occupying the same act.
• “Into the Valley” — Skids 7. Crossing — traders become hostages, on a tablet that may outlive the lie.
• “Once in a Lifetime” — Talking Heads 7. Crossing (the bathhouse) — washed, dressed in a plain household tunic, and asking herself how she got here.
• “I Am the Resurrection” — The Stone Roses 8. The Road Behaves Badly — practical first aid, later remembered as a miracle.
• “The Whole House Is Singing” — Alasdair Roberts 9. Civilization — a bard with too many stories and nobody who can properly receive them.
• “Theme for Great Cities” — Simple Minds 10. Eboracum — every earlier Rome turns out to have been provincial rehearsal.
• “Games Without Frontiers” — Peter Gabriel 11. The Summons — a compliment about a coat, understood by both men as a calculation.
• “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” — Tears for Fears 12. The Dying Emperor — an empire still commanded from a sickbed.
• “I Want the World to Stop” — Belle and Sebastian 13. Ethne's Terms — “Oh. You came too.”
• “You're Supposed to Be My Friend” — 1990s 14. The Audience — every hidden motive arrives at once.
• “Questi stivali sono fatti per camminare” — Eileen 15. None Had Escaped — the stone leaves the household as ordinary, condemned laundry.
• “Rip It Up” — Orange Juice 16. The Road Asks for a King — a record written to protect people, confiscated for the same reason.
• “Galvanize” — The Chemical Brothers ft. Q-Tip 17. The Title Draws Spears — a false title, believed by exactly the wrong people.
• “The Great Gig in the Sky” — Pink Floyd 18. The Flight Already in Progress — he stops to help. That is the whole of it.
• “Sunshine on Leith” — The Proclaimers 19. What Survived — a homecoming that may only be the shape the story needed.

Character motifs, for anyone tracing one person through the record rather than one chapter at a time:

• Ru — “In a Big Country”, Big Country A hero half a second before the image reveals what he's actually doing.
• Ethne — “Sparky's Dream”, Teenage Fanclub The absence that turns out to have been doing all the work.
• Viro — “The Man Who Sold the World”, David Bowie Known well enough to be relied upon, and priced anyway.
• Branna — “The Mother We Share”, CHVRCHES Loyalty that survives the arguing.
• Tala — “Deceptacon”, Le Tigre Faster than whatever is meant to be holding her.
• Blan — “Sunshine Superman”, Donovan Standing where a proper teacher should be.
• Azel — “Prisencolinensinainciusol”, Adriano Celentano Confidence, in a language that only sounds like an answer.
• Julia Domna — “You've Got the Power”, Win An offer that is dangerous precisely because it is real.