It is obvious that the event in the second sentence preceded the first, and that it was a night attack.
Florence of Worcester says that Penda with thirty legions and an equal number of noble chiefs entered Bernicia for the purpose of attacking Oswy.
There is a very ingenious paper by Mr. D. W. Nash, in the Cambrian Journal, vol. iv., Second Series, p. 1, in which, identifying this battle with the battle of Catraeth, which forms the subject of the poem of the Gododin, he was the first to point out the probability of the scene of the battle being in the north. He identifies the town Judeu with Bede’s Giudi, but supposes it to be the same as Jedburgh, and endeavours to show from the poem itself that it relates to this battle. The author concurs with him so far that the battle in which Penda was slain took place in the north, and that by the ‘regio Loidis’ Lothian is meant, and he can hardly doubt that the name ‘Gaius Campus’ is merely a Latin rendering of Catraeth; but he cannot agree in the identification with Jedburgh, because Catraeth was evidently on the sea-shore, and Bede, whose authority cannot be questioned, places Giudi in the Firth of Forth. He can discover no resemblance between the incidents in the poem and this battle, though the locality may be the same. Tighernac has at 656 ‘Cath Pante regis Saxonum in quo ipse cum xxx regibus cecidit. Ossiu victor erat.’ The Chronicle annexed to Nennius has in 656 ‘Strages Gaii Campi,’ and in 657, ‘Pantha occisio,’ thus placing the battle and the death of Penda in two different years, but this is against all authorities.
[328]. Æqualibus pene terminis regnum nonnullo tempore coercens, Pictorum quoque atque Scottorum gentes, quæ septentrionales Brittanniæ fines tenent, maxima ex parte perdomuit, ac tributarias fecit.—B. ii. c. v.
[329]. 658. Mors Gureit regis Alocluaithe.—An. Ult.
[330]. A.D. 653 Bass Ferich mac Totalain et Ectolairg mac Fooith regis Pictorum.—Tigh.
[331]. A.D. 657 Bas Tolarcain mac Ainfrith Ri Cruithne.—Tigh.
[332]. Idem autem rex Osuiu tribus annis post occisionem Pendan regis, Mercionum genti, necnon et cæteris australium provinciarum populis præfuit: qui etiam gentem Pictorum maxima ex parte regno Anglorum subjecit.—B. iii. c. xxiv.
[333]. Bede, B. iii. c. xxv.
[334]. Ib., B. iii. c. xxvi. His expression is ‘in Scottiam regressus est.’ In another place (B. iv. c. iv.) he says ‘Interea Colmanus, qui de Scottia erat episcopus, relinquens Britanniam, tulit secum omnes quos in Lindisfarnensium insula congregaverat Scottos; sed et de gente Anglorum viros circiter triginta, qui utrique monachicæ conversationis erant studiis imbuti. Et relictis in ecclesia sua fratribus aliquot, primo venit ad insulam Hii, unde erat ad prædicandum verbum Anglorum genti destinatus. Deinde secessit ad insulam quandam parvam, quæ ad occidentalem plagam ab Hibernia procul secreta, sermone Scottico Inisboufinde, id est, insula vitulæ albæ, nuncupatur. In hanc ergo perveniens, construxit monasterium, et monachos inibi, quos de utraque natione collectos adduxerat, collocavit.’ It might be thought that by the expression ‘in Scottiam regressus,’ Bede considered Hii or Iona as being in Scottia, but Bede elsewhere uses Scottia invariably for Ireland, and in narrating Saint Columba’s mission to Iona he says, ‘venit de Hibernia Britanniam.’ He therefore probably, when he says Colman was de ‘Scottia,’ meant that he came from Ireland and returned there eventually, merely visiting Iona on his way.