Scotland under her early kings, Volume 1 (of 2)

by Eben William Robertson

[50] Compare An. Ult. 874 with Chron. 3, Innes’ Ap. “Thorstein ruled as king over these districts, Caithness and Sutherland, Ross, Moray, and more than the half of Scotland”—Landnamaboc. “Thorstein at length became reconciled with the King of Scots, and obtained possession of the half of Scotland, over which he became king.”—Laxdæla Saga (Col. de Reb. Alb., p. 66 to 69). Such were the results of Thorstein’s victory, which were evidently admitted by the old chronicle in its brief notice, “Normanni annum integrum degerunt in Pictavia.” The half of Scotland plainly refers to the ancient territories of the Northern Picts.

[51] This account of the wars of Sigurd and Thorstein is taken from the Sagas already quoted, the Ulster annals and Chron. 3 in Innes’s Appendix. They must have occurred between the deaths of Olave, about 871, and of his son in 875; and the decisive conflict between the Picts and Dugall in 875, when the former were defeated with great slaughter (An. Ult.), the battles of Dollar and Coach-Cochlum, two years before the death of Constantine, i.e., in the same year; and finally the death of Oistin or Thorstein MacOlave, placed by the Ulster annals under the same date, all mark the year 875 to have been the era of his brief triumph. All accounts agree that Thorstein perished by unfair means. “He was betrayed by the Scots and slain in battle.”—Landnamaboc. “The Scots did not keep the treaty long, but betrayed him in confidence”—Laxdæla Saga. These authorities are confirmed by the Ulster annals, which record the death of Thorstein Olaveson per dolum.

[52] Innes’, App. 5. Wynton, bk. 6, c. 8. Fordun, l. 4, c. 16. Macpherson, in his “Geographical Illustrations of Scottish History,” explains the Werdofatha of the Register of St. Andrews and Wynton to mean Wem-du-fada, “the long black cave,” in which Constantine is supposed to have suffered the cruel death of “the spread eagle.” The period of this reign is easily ascertained. Under the first year the Chronicle No. 3 places the death of Malsechnal, king of Ireland; and as that king died on Tuesday 20th November (A.F.M.), his death must have occurred in 863. The same chronicle records the death of Aodh MacNial, king of Ireland, which happened in 879, under the second year of Eocha and Cyric (Grig), thus placing their accession, and consequently the death of Constantine’s brother Aodh, in 878. As the reign of Aodh lasted for only a year, that of his brother must have begun in 863 and ended in 877.

[53] Cyric (or Ciric, the same as the French St. Cyr) was the original name, which has been corrupted into Grig, Girg, and Gregory the Great. It seems to be a different name from Gregor, which is apparently the Scandinavian Griotgar. Eccles Girg or Grig is the modern Cyruskirk. Dundurn or Dunadeer, in the Garioch, appears long to have held the same place amongst the Northern Picts as Dunfothir or Forteviot in the South, i.e., it was the capital of the leading province. Caledonia, bk. 3, c. 7, p. 383, note I.

[54] Innes, Ap. 3, 5. Fordun, l. 4, c. 16. An. Ult. 877. Eocha is described as the alumnus of Cyric, who was evidently the real king of Scotland for the time.

[55] Innes, Ap. 5. Wynton, bk. 6, c. 9. It was probably to the gratitude of the monks, the only chroniclers of the age, that Cyric was partly indebted for some of his posthumous fame as Gregory the Great, an universal conqueror. The line of Aodh appears to have been connected with Atholl, which may account for the deposition of Dunkeld from its prominent position.

[56] Innes, Ap. 3. The title of Civitas Regalis is given to Scone early in the next reign. The palatium, or royal residence of Kenneth, was at Forteviot, the ancient Pictish capital.

[57] Innes, Ap. 3 and 5. Wynton, bk. 6, c. 9. Fordun, l. 4, c. 17, 18; l. 11 c. 40, 59. Wynton, Fordun, and the Chron. Ryth. at the end of the Chron. Mel.—the same evidently as that quoted by Wynton—agree in giving eighteen years to Cyric, and placing his death at Dundurn, Dornedeore, or Dunadeer, in the Garioch. The reigns of the three kings extended over twenty-two years, from 878 to 900, the dates in the Ulster annals of the deaths of Aodh and Donald; and as Eocha reigned for eleven years (Chron. 5), Donald must have succeeded in 889. The Chron. No. 3 places an eclipse on St. Ciric’s Day (16th June) under the ninth year of Eocha and Cyric. This actually occurred on 16th June 885, in the eighth year of their reign; and allowing for the trifling inaccuracy of a year, it is evidently the eclipse referred to. From confounding St. Ciric with St. Siriac, on whose day (8th August 891) an eclipse also happened, both Pinkerton and Chalmers have misdated all these reigns.

[58] Innes, Ap. 3, 5. An. Ult. 899. Fordun, l. 4, c. 20. Either this king, or one of his predecessors, must have been the sufferer at Mundingdene, a mile south of Norham, when the obedience of Guthred, son of Hardicanute (rather a mythical personage), to the dictates of Abbot Edred’s vision, in restoring the lands of St. Cuthbert between Tyne and Wear to the Church, was rewarded by the intervention of the Saint in behalf of the sacred territory, when it was invaded by a band of Scots, who were miraculously engulphed in the yawning earth! Sim. Dun. Hist. Dun., l. 2, c. 14. Leland, vol. i. p. 329. It is a pity the miracle was not repeated a few years later, when Reginald Hy Ivar divided these very lands amongst his pagan followers. What with the sac, soc and infangthief, granted by Guthred in the ninth century, the fine of 96 Anglo-Norman pounds, and the near vicinity of the Scots to St. Cuthbert’s territory, the story affords a very fair specimen of the inventions by which the monks occasionally tried to give a title to lands which they often really possessed rightfully, though without legal proof of such right. A miracle or a victory, especially if either were at the expense of the Scots, lent an air of sanctity or authority to the fabrication, which it would have been impious or unpatriotic to doubt.

[59] Innes, Ap. 3. An. Ult. 903. As the annals call the victors “the men of Fortren,” I have rendered the Sraith Eremi of Pinkerton’s version of Chron. 3, Strathearn.