The life of St. Cadroë gives us almost a contemporary notice of the Cumbrian kingdom. St. Cadroë was a native of Alban, and flourished in the reign of Constantin who fought at Brunanburh, and left him to go on a foreign mission. He came to the ‘terra Cumbrorum,’ and Dovenaldus, the king who ruled over this people, received him gladly and conducted him ‘usque Loidam civitatem quæ est confinium Normannorum atque Cumbrorum.’—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 116. There he is received by Gunderic, a nobleman, who takes him to King Erick at York, who is no doubt Eric Bloody Axe, whom Aethelstan had settled in the country.
[511]. 949 In this year came Olaf Cuaran to Northumberland.—Sax. Chron.
‘In[‘In] viio anno regni sui predavit Anglicos ad amnem Thesis et multitudinem rapuit hominum et multa armenta pecorum; quam predam vocaverunt Scotti predam Albidosorum idem Nainndisi. Alii autem dicunt Constantinum fecisse hanc predam querens a rege, id est Maelcolaim, regnum dari sibi ad tempus hebdomadis, ut visitaret Anglicos. Verum tamen non Maelcolaim fecit predam, sed instigavit eum Constantinus ut dixi.’ The people plundered are here called Albidosi, that is Nainndisi. The Pictish Chronicle was evidently translated into Latin from a Gaelic original, and this latter word is evidently Na Fhinndisi, the F when aspirated being silent. It means the White Tisians, a white people of the Tees, and Albidosi is an attempt at a Latin rendering. The Danes of Northumberland belonged to the branch of the Northmen called Dubh Gall, or Dubh Gennti, that is black strangers; but the followers of Eric Bloody Axe were Norwegians, who were termed Fin Gall, or Finn Gennti, that is white strangers. Eric’s people had therefore probably been settled on the Tees, and were the objects of Malcolm’s attack, as they had been placed there to oppose the Danes.
[512]. The Ulster Annals have in this year, ‘Battle against the men of Alban, Britain, and Saxons, by the Galls,’ which seems to refer to the above event; Eric’s people, or the Galls, opposing the people of Alban, the Cumbrians, and the Bernicians.
[513]. A.D. 954 Maelcoluim mac Domhnaill Ri Albain occisus est.—An. Ult.
Et occiderunt viri na Moerne Maelcolaim in Fodresach, id est, in Claideom.—Pict. Chron. This word Claideom was evidently in the original Claitheamh tir, or Sword land, a name given in one of the Pictish traditions to Magh Gherghinn or Moerne.—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 319.
[514]. In hujus tempore oppidum Eden vacuatum est ac relictum est Scottis usque in hodiernum diem.—Pict. Chron. In this chronicle ‘oppidum’ is the usual rendering of the Gaelic Dun.
[515]. Classi Sumerlidionum occisi sunt in Buchain.—Pict. Chron.
[516]. That this description applies to Eric’s followers appears from the saga, which says that ‘King Eric had many people about him, for he kept many Northmen who had come with him from the east, and also many of his friends had joined him from Norway. But as he had little land he went on a cruise every summer, and plundered in Shetland, the Sudreys, Iceland, and Bretland, by which he gathered property.’ On his death his sons go to Orkney, stay there in winter, and in summer ‘went on viking cruises, and plundered in Scotland and Ireland.’
[517]. Dubh is an epithet meaning black. The version of the Pictish Chronicle in the Irish Nennius calls him Cinaed vel Dubh.