[548]. 1006 Bellum itir firu Albain et Saxanu coromaid for Albanchu co fargabsat ar an degh doine.—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 366.
[549]. Sim. de obsessione Dunelm. Simeon places this war in the year 969, but Durham was not founded till the year 995, and Malcolm did not begin to reign till 1005. Mr. Freeman, in his History of the Norman Conquest, vol. i. p. 357, rightly places it in the year 1006. He says, “If it happened at all, it must have been in this year, the only one which suits the position of the king, bishop, and earl spoken of. Ealdhun became bishop in 990, and removed the see to Durham in 995. Malcolm began to reign in 1004. A Northumbrian earldom became vacant in 1006. This fixes the date. The authority of Simeon is, I think, guarantee enough for the general truth of the story, and the silence of the Chronicles and Florence is not conclusive as to a Northumbrian matter.”[matter.”] This conclusion of Mr. Freeman is the more striking as he appears not to have been aware of the passage in the Ulster Annals placing what is obviously the same event under the year 1006.
[550]. Olaf Tryggvesson’s Saga, cap. 52.
[551]. The tract on the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill says that one wing of Brian’s army consisted of ten mormaers of Brian with their foreign auxiliaries. The word Gall, here translated ‘foreign,’ usually means the Northmen, but it seems here used in its general sense of foreign. Though the Mormaer of Marr is the only one named, the whole force of Alban was probably here arrayed on Brian’s side.
[552]. The passage in the tract on the Wars of the Gaedhil enumerates the auxiliary Galls as those of ‘Insi Ore ocus Insi Cat; a Manaind ocus a Sci ocus a Leodus; a Cindtiri ocus a h-Airergoedel[h-Airergoedel] ocus a Barru ocus a Coir breathnaibh ocus a Cornbliteoc ocus a Breathnaibh Cillemuine.’ A copy of a tract on the battle of Cluaintarbh in the author’s possession gives them thus:—‘Sitric mac Lodar Iarla Innsehorc go sluagh (with the host of) Innsehorc ocus Oilein Lochlannach (the Norwegian islands), sluagh (the host of) Innse Cath ocus Maininn, Scithidh, Lodhusa, Cinntire ocus Oirer Gaoidhil ocus Corbrethnuibh (district Britons of) Cille Muine ocus Cor na liagog gona rioghruidhibh (with their kings).’ Though Cath is here ranked among the islands, it is probable that Caithness is meant, and that the Irish writer rendered Cathness by Innsi Cath, supposing the termination ‘ness’ to be Innis. The others are easily recognised except the two last. Cillemuine is the Irish name of St. Davids, which implies they were the Britons of South Wales; but who were the Cornbliteoc of the one list and the Cor na liagog of the other? One would have expected to find Galloway included, and this district may be meant, though the author can give no explanation of the name.
[553]. See for a full account of the battle, the tract on the War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill: edited by Dr. Todd, in the Master of the Rolls’ series; also Dasent’s Saga of Burnt Njal.
[554]. Orkneyinga Saga. Collect. de Rebus Albanicis, p. 340.
[555]. Ibid. p. 346.
[556]. Earl Gilli had his seat in Colonsay, and as Lewis and Skye were separately named as sending their quota to the Norwegian forces at Cluantarbh, it is probable that the islands under his rule consisted of those lying to the south of the Point of Ardnamurchan. St. Berchan seems to indicate that King Malcolm had acquired some right over them when he calls him