Fotherdun in this poem is now Fordun, the name of the parish in which Dun Fother, or Dunotter, is situated. By “gentibus”[“gentibus”] probably Norwegians are meant.
[485]. A.D. 900. Domhnall mac Constantin Ri Alban moritur.—An. Ult. The later chronicles transfer his death to Forres, in Morayshire.
[486]. Cujus tertio anno Normanni prædaverunt Duncalden omnemque Albaniam. In sequenti utique anno occisi sunt in Sraithherni Normanni.—Pict. Chron. A.D. 904. Imhair Ua h-Imhair domarbadh la firu Fortrenn agus ar mar nimbi (slain by the men of Fortrenn, and great slaughter around him).—An. Ult. See also Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 405. The passage in the Pictish Chronicle, taken in conjunction with that in the Ulster Annals, shows that the seat of the men of Fortrenn was in Stratherne. The Cronicum Scotorum has in this year ‘Ead Ri Cruithentuaithe do tuitim fri da h-Imhair[h-Imhair] ocus fri Catol. go .d. cedoibh’ (fell by the two grandsons of Imhair and by Catel, along with 500 men). This king of ‘Cruithentuaithe,’ or Pictland, was probably the chief of the men of one of the provinces slain in the previous attack.
[487]. In vi. anno Constantinus rex et Cellachus episcopus leges disciplinasque fidei atque jura ecclesiarum evangeliorumque pariter cum Scottis in Colle Credulitatis, prope regali civitati Scoan devoverunt custodiri. At hoc die collis hoc meruit nomen, id est, Collis Credulitatis.—Pict. Chron. The expression ‘pariter cum Scottis’ has an obvious relation to the expression in the cause assigned by the same Chronicle for the downfall of the Picts, ‘Sed et in jure æquitatis aliis æqui parari noluerunt.’ The scene of this solemn assembly, and its object, throws light upon Bede’s account of the assembly in which Nectan, king of the Picts, issued a decree affecting the church in 710.
[488]. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 136.
[489]. In the Tract ‘De Situ Albaniæ’ (Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 136) four interpretations of this name are given. First, because it was the ‘margo’ or border region of the Scots or Irish, for all the Scots and Irish—Hibernenses et Scotti—are generally called Gaithel from their first leader Gathelus; or secondly, because the Gwyddyl Ffichti—Scotti-Picti—first inhabited it after coming from Ireland; or, third, because the Irish inhabited it after the Picts; or, fourthly, because this part of the region of Scotia borders upon the region of Hibernia. The first is probably the true origin of the name.
[490]. The Pictish Chronicle gives us at this time Dubucan, son of Indrechtaig, mormair Oengusa, who seems to have been succeeded by Maelbrigde, son of Dubican. In the Book of Deer we obtain a glance into the internal organisation of Buchan, which bears out this statement. In the eighth century we had a Ri Athfotla, or king of Atholl, now we have in the Pict. Chron. a Satrapas Athochlach.
[491]. Einar appears to have died about the same time as King Harald Haarfagr, who died in 936. The Ynglinga Saga, the Landnamabok, and the Orkneyinga Saga in the Flateybok, conjoin the expeditions of Thorstein the Red and Sigurd, and make them conquer these districts together; but it is hardly possible to place Sigurd so early, and the Laxdaela Saga makes Thorstein conquer them alone, without any mention of Sigurd. Now Thorstein died in 875, and if Sigurd died in the same year, Einar became earl two years after, which would make him rule from 876 to 936, a period of fifty-nine years, which is hardly credible. Harald Haarfagr succeeded his father in 863, when only ten years old, and his mother’s brother acts as regent. He then, after attaining puberty at least, commences a war with the petty kings of Norway, and finally subdues them all, and after a great battle at Hafursfiord becomes king of all Norway, which, as we have seen, took place in 883. The Northmen then fly from his power and take possession of Orkney and Shetland. They winter there, and in summer maraud in Norway. Harald goes every summer to the Isles, and the Vikings fly before him. At last one summer he makes a great expedition, and sweeps the Shetlands, Orkneys, and Western Isles as far as Man, of the Vikings, and plunders in Scotland. In this expedition he gives Orkney to Earl Rognwald, who transfers it to Sigurd, who becomes rich and powerful, conquers these districts in Scotland, and dies. Now all this could not have taken place between 873 and 875. Harald is said to have been about forty when Einar became earl of Orkney, which would place the commencement of his rule in 893, and make him earl for forty-three years, which is much more probable; and this brings Sigurd’s conquest and death to the first years of Donald’s reign, when, the Pictish Chronicle tells us, ‘Normanni tunc vastaverunt Pictaviam.’
[492]. In the Felire of Angus the Culdee, in his notice of S. Donnan of Egg, the scholiast says that when Donnan went to the island of Egg, he went with his people to the Gallgaidhel (i n-Gallgaedelaib), and took up their abode there.—Reeves’s Columba, orig. ed. p. 304. The Four Masters have, at 1154, mention of the fleet of ‘Gallgaedhel, Arann, Kintyre, Mann, and the coasts of Alban.’ The Ulster Annals have, at 1199, ‘Rolant mac Uchtraigh Ri Gallgaidhel. He was Lord of Galloway.’
[493]. Munch, Chronicle of Man, p. 33.