[400]. Pinkerton, who was the first to see the difference between the statement in the Albanic Duan and the latter Chronicle, and to give the preference to the former, quotes from the Annals of Ulster the following:—A.D. 740, Death of Dunlaing, son of Duncan, king of the sept of Argyle (Argal); and A.D. 811, Angus, son of Dunlaing, king of Argyle (Ardgail), died; and argues from them that these were the remains of the Dalriads who continued to possess part of the country of Argyll (vol. ii. p. 127). He quoted, however, from a bad copy of the Annals of Ulster. In the original the word is Ardgail, a district in Meath, in Ireland, and has no connection with the name Argyll. See also the introduction to Fordun’s Chronicle, ed. 1872, vol. ii. p. xlvi note.
[401]. 744 Factum est prælium inter Pictos et Britones.—Sim. Dun. Hist. Regum. 750 Eadberctus campum Cyil cum aliis regionibus suo regno addidit.—Bede, Chron.
[402]. 750 Cath etir Pictones et Britones, id est a Talorgan mac Fergusa et a brathair et ar Piccardach imaille friss (and his brother and a slaughter of Picts with him).—Tigh. 750 Bellum inter Pictos et Brittones id est, Gueith Mocetauc et rex eorum Talorgan a Brittonibus occiditur.—An. Cam. It is plain that these were the same Picts whom Muredach the Dalriad attacked in 736, as Talorgan appears at their head on both occasions.
[403]. 752 Taudar mac Bile Ri Alochlandaih (Alochluaithe) mortuus est. Cuth a sreith in terra Circin inter Pictones invicem in quo cecidit Bruidhi mac Maelchon.—Tigh. Circin was the name of one of the seven sons of Cruithne, and of the seven districts which bore the same names. It enters into Magh Girgin as the plain of Circin, softened to Moerne or Mearns.
[404]. 756 Eadberht rex, xviii. anno regni sui, et Unust rex Pictorum duxerunt exercitum ad urbem Alcluth. Ibique Brittones in deditionem receperunt prima die mensis Augusti. Decima autem die ejusdem mensis interiit exercitus pene omnis quem duxit (Eadberhtus) de Ouania ad Niwanbirig, id est, ad novam civitatem.—Sim. Dun.
[405]. 760 Dunnagual filius Teudubr moritur.—An. Cam.
[406]. 761 Aengusa mac Fergusa rex Pictorum mortuus.—Tigh. Oengus Pictorum rex obiit, qui regni sui principium usque ad finem facinore cruento tyrannus perduxit carnifex.—Bede, Chron. There seems to have been some doubt as to the year of his death, as Simeon of Durham has at 759, ‘Ipso quoque anno Unust Pictorum rex defunctus est;’ and Tighernac enters his death twice, having also at 759, Aengus ri Albain mortuus; but 761 seems to be best supported.
[407]. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 138.
[408]. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 183.
[409]. Mors Tuathalain Abbas Cindrighmonaigh.—Tigh. The events of the reign of this Hungus, including the foundation of St. Andrews, are, by the artificial system by which this part of the history has been manipulated, removed back to the fourth century; but as a war with a Saxon king at that early period was too monstrous, that part of the legend is transferred to a later Hungus. A chronicle, however, annexed to a MS. of Wynton, gives us very nearly the true date. ‘The zeire of God sevyn hunder lxi., ye relikis of Sanct Androw ye apostle com in Scotland’ (Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 387). Adhelstan, with whom the battle was fought, is supposed to have given his name to Athelstaneford on the Tyne in East Lothian. If the name is historical, and not merely taken from the later Athelstane who invaded Scotland in the tenth century, it must have belonged to a ‘dux’ or commander under the king of Northumbria, and the name of Aedlsing occurs in the genealogies of the Bernician family annexed to Nennius about this time, who may be the person meant.