[503]. This was Anlaf Cuaran, son of Sitriuc and son-in-law of Constantin. Mr. Robertson, in a note to his Scotland under her Early Kings, vol. i. p. 56, remarks on this account of Olaf’s descent, ‘that the name of the father of Sitric and his brothers is never mentioned by the Irish annalists, who invariably call them Hy Ivar, or grandsons of Ivar;’ and adds, ‘If one of these Vikings, a Scottish lord of the Gall-Gaidhel or Oirir Gaidhel, had married Ivar’s daughter, the description in the Egills Saga would exactly apply to himself, his wife, and his sons, and it would be only necessary to suppose that the writer of the saga, aware of Olave’s descent from a Scottish Viking, and a granddaughter of Ragnar Lodbroc, made him by mistake the son instead of the grandson of the Scot.’ The Tract on the Wars of the Gaidhil with the Gaill calls Sitriuc, however, Mac Imair, or son of Ivar, but there is no improbability in supposing one of the Gall Gaidhel to have married a daughter of Inguar or Imhair, and his sons to have been adopted and naturalised as Danish vikings. Anlaf being called by Florence of Worcester lord of many islands rather favours the supposition.
[504]. Johnstone, Ant. Celto-Scandicæ, p. 32.
[505]. Sax. Chron. ad an. 937, Thorpe’s translation. The Ulster Annals have the following: 937 Bellum ingens, lacrimabile et horribile inter Saxones et Normannos crudeliter gestum est, in quo plurima millia Normannorum, quæ non numerata sunt, ceciderunt; sed rex cum paucis evasit .i. Amlaiph. Ex altera vero parte multitudo Saxonum cecidit. Adalstan vero rex Saxonum magna victoria dilatus est. And the Annals of Clonmacnoise, which now exist only in a translation made in 1627, give particulars not to be found elsewhere. ‘Awley, with all the Danes of Dublin and north part of Ireland, departed and went over seas. The Danes that departed from Dublin arrived in England, and, by the help of the Danes of that kingdom, they gave battle to the Saxons on the plains of Othlyn, where there was a great slaughter of Normans and Danes, among which these ensuing captains were slain—viz. Sithfrey and Oisle, the two sons of Sittrick Galey; Awley Fivit, and Moylemorrey, the son of Cossewarra, Moyle-Isa, Geleachan, king of the Islands; Ceallach, prince of Scotland, with 30,000, together with 800 captains about Awley mac Godfrey; and about Arick mac Brith, Hoa, Deck, Imar, the king of Dannach’s own son, with 4000 soldiers in his guard, were all slain.’ It must be borne in mind that there were two Olafs in the battle—Olaf or Anlaf Cuaran, son of Sitriuc, King Constantin’s son-in-law, and Olaf or Amlaibh, son of Godfrey or Guthfrith, king of the Danes of Dublin.
[506]. Hacon the Good’s Saga.
[507]. Et in senectute decrepitus baculum cepit et Domino servivit et regnum mandavit Mail(colum) filio Domnail.—Pict. Chron.
[508]. 952 Constantin mac Aeda ri Albain moritur.—An. Ult.
Mortuus est autem Constantinus in x. ejus anno sub corona penitenti in senectute bona.—Pict. Chron.
[509]. Cum exercitu suo Malcolaim perrexit in Moreb et occidit Cellach.—Pict. Chron.
[510]. 944 Strathclyde was ravaged by the Saxons.—Brut of Tywysogion.
946 Stratclut vastata est a Saxonibus.—An. Camb.