Psalm 44 and the Pictish king

Abstract

Adomnán's Vita S. Columbae narrates a series of miracles relating to Columba's visit to the Pictish king. One such tale describes Columba's psalmody outside the Pictish king's fort, where the saint's thundering oration reduces the Picts to terror. An anomalous aspect of this miracle-tale is Columba's selection of Psalm 44; a psalm of laudation to a king on his marriage. It is proposed that the inclusion of this psalm points to an exegetical interpretation that argues against a simple reading of Pictish conversion and, instead, reveals the operation of Adomnán's diplomacy and clerical notions of 'just' kingship.