CHAPTER III.

LEGENDARY ORIGINS.

[Sidenote: The problem to be solved.]

The occupation of the lands which formed the territory of the kingdom of Scotland in the reign of Alexander the Third, the mutual relation of the different races by which it was held, the connection of the Celtic portion of the population with the soil, the tenure by which they possessed it, and the different classes in their social organisation which it discloses, present to us the problem which we have to solve, and we have now to trace the history of the early institutions from which its phenomena were derived, and the extent to which they have been affected by internal change or by external influence.

[Sidenote: Early traditions.]

But before entering upon this inquiry it may be well to see what legend or tradition tells us with regard to the Celtic portion of the population, with which we have now mainly to do. Such legends or traditions are either intended as a means of conveying some early facts in the history of the race in a popular form, or of clothing some truths in a symbolic dress, or they are merely the picturesque imaginations of their early sennachies or native historians. Those which relate to the Celtic population of Scotland are derived from two different sources. They are either Welsh or Irish, that is, they are the legends of either the Cymric or the Gaelic race, and in estimating their relative value it is necessary to take their probable origin and character into account. Some of them are what may be termed ethnic legends. They are designed to perpetuate the popular conception of the origin and early settlements of the race, but they are the creation of a period when there had been some progress in the culture of the people, and when they possessed a rude literature derived in the main from the spread of Christianity and the establishment of Christian institutions among them. Their authors felt the necessity of connecting the early history of the country with the events of Biblical or Classical history, and it assumed the shape of a fictitious narrative which belongs to the mythic period of their annals. Others again may be called linguistic legends, and were rude attempts to account for peoples nominally distinct, and from pride of race regarding each other as independent races, possessing the same language and using a cognate form of speech. Others were what may be truly called historical legends, and handed down in a more or less modified shape events which we have reason to think actually took place; while others again were purely artificial, and were simply the rude and fantastic creations of the popular mind, which felt the necessity of filling up the dark period of the annals of their race with imaginary events calculated to gratify their national feeling and their natural love of the marvellous.

[Sidenote: Ethnic legends.]

The ethnic legends invariably connect the origin of the people with Biblical or Classical history, and assumes that some of the races which formed the oldest population of the country, and were really indigenous, had immigrated from some foreign land. We find it assuming two different shapes. In the one the different nations constituting the early population were separate colonies which proceeded from foreign countries and entered the land at different periods. Thus Bede tells us of the early population of Britain that it was first peopled by a colony of ‘Brittones’ who came from Armorica; that then the Picts came from Scythia, and the nation of the Scots came from Ireland; and he places these successive colonies prior to the Roman invasion of Britain. The legendary history of Ireland presents the early history of its population in the same aspect. The account of the successive colonies which occupied Ireland is supposed to have been narrated to Saint Patrick by her earliest historian Fintan, who lived before the Flood, and remained alive during the whole of the centuries which elapsed till the introduction of Christianity. The Book of Ballimote contains a poem supposed to have been written by him. If he was a real personage, he may have been Fintan Munnu, a celebrated Irish saint who died on 25th October 634, but the poem is no doubt a later composition, and a translation is here inserted as giving in short compass these successive peoplings of the island, and as a good specimen of their early legends.

As the learned historian has related, namely Fintan:—

1.

‘Should any one inquire of me about Eire, I can tell most accurately Respecting every invasion which took place From the beginning of all pleasing life.

2.

‘Ceasair set out from the East, The woman who was daughter of Beatha, Accompanied by fifty daughters, As also by three men.

3.

‘The deluge came on. Bith resided at his mountain without secrecy, Ladra at Ard Ladran, And Ceasair at her corner.

4.

‘As to me, I remained a year under the flood At Tul Tinnde of strength. There had not been slept, nor will there be slept, A sleep better than that which I had.

5.

‘I was then in Ireland; Pleasant was my condition When Partholon arrived From the Grecian country in the East.

6.

‘I was also in Ireland While it was uninhabited, Until the son of Agnoman arrived, Neimead of pleasant manners.

7

‘Fir Bolg and Fir Gaillian Arrived a long period afterwards. The Fir Domnan then arrived, And landed in Irrus westward.

8.

‘After them the Tuatha De arrived Concealed in their dark clouds I ate my food with them, Though at such a remote period.

9.

‘Then came the sons of Milead From Spain southward. I lived and ate with them, Though fierce were their battles.

10.

‘A continuity of life Still remained with me, For in my time Christianity was here established By the king of heaven of the clouds.’

The history of these successive colonies is elaborated with many details in the fictitious history of Ireland during the mythic period, but it is unnecessary for our purpose to enter into these details except in so far as they bear upon the legendary history of the people of Scotland.[106]

Another form of the ethnic legend is one common to the early history of all countries during the mythic period. In it the race is personified in an _eponymus_ who is the supposed ancestor and founder of it, and their supposed settlement in the country in which they are first found is prefigured in a marriage with a female whose name has an obvious relation to it, and thus an ethnic family is produced, the sons of which usually represent the territorial divisions of the country. This family has therefore a territorial as well as an ethnic meaning, and the filiation does not always imply affinity of race, but may indicate no more than the joint occupation of the country by the different tribes personified in the members of the ethnic family. We have an instance of this form of the legend in the well-known fable contained in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s fabulous history, where Brutus, the _eponymus_ of the Britons, appears as the first colonist in the island, and has three sons, Locrinus, Camber, and Albanactus, representing the Lloegry of England, the Cymry of Wales, and the people of Alban or Scotland, as well as in the older form of the legend, where Brutus and Albanus are brothers. In the Irish form Gathelus or _Gaidelglas_, the _eponymus_ of the Gael, marries Scota the daughter of Pharaoh, by which the settlement of the Gael in Scotia or Ireland is prefigured, and his period is brought back so as to connect his history and that of his race with the Biblical narrative. His descendant Milesius, son of Bile, son of Breogan, is also said to have married Scota, daughter of Pharaoh, and actually settles the race in Ireland. We find, however, this feature of the legend, which represents the territorial divisions of the country by the sons of the supposed colonist, running through the whole of the first form of the legend. Thus Partholan, the first colonist after the flood, arrives with three sons, Rughruidhe, Slainge, and Laighlinne, and after their death he divides Ireland between four sons, Er, Orba, Fearann, and Feargna. The second colonist, Nemead, has a wife, Macha, from whom Ardmacha or Armagh takes its name, thus signifying the principal seat of the race; and he has three sons, Iarbheineoil, Fergus Leithdearg, and Starn, and Ireland is divided into three parts between Beothach son of Iarbheineoil, Briotan son of Fergus Leithdearg, and Simon son of Beoain son of Starn. The people of Nemead are then driven out of Ireland by the Fomoraigh or sea pirates, and depart in three bodies. One under Beothach goes to the north of Europe, another under Briotan to the north of Britain, and the third under Simon to Greece. The third colonists, the Firbolg, come from Greece under Dela, a descendant of Simon, and by him Ireland is divided into five districts between his five sons, Slainge, Gann, Seangan, Geannan, and Rughruidhe; and these were the five provinces of Ireland—Leinster, possessed by Slainge; Thomond and Desmond, the two divisions of Munster, by Gann and Seangan; Connaught by Geannan, and Ulster by Rughruidhe. Here we have a reproduction of two of the sons of Partholan in Slainge and Rughruidhe. We have again a threefold division of Ireland under the fourth colonists, the Tuatha De, supposed to be the descendants of Beothach, son of Iarbheineoil; and the three sons of Cearmadha Milbeoil their king—MacCuil, MacCeacht, and MacGreine—have three queens, Eire, Fodla, and Banba, which are simply the three oldest names in Ireland. Milesius too has three sons, Eber, Heremon, and Ir, of whom the former possessed the two Munsters, Heremon Leinster and Connaught, and Ir Ulster; and here again we find the same reproduction of previous names, for Eber has the same four sons, Er, Orba, Fearann, and Feargna,[107] who are attributed to Partholan, and the descendants of Ir who occupied Ulster were termed the race of Rughruidhe from a descendant of that name. We also find that this filiation from the same parents does not imply identity of race, for the descendants of Ir, to whom the name of Rughruidhe especially belongs, and who peopled the north of Ireland, appear throughout the Irish Annals under the name of Cruithnigh, and were no other than the Picts who were settled in Ireland.

[Sidenote: Linguistic legends.]

The form which the linguistic legend usually assumes is that of a colony of soldiers obtaining wives from another people whose language they adopt, and perhaps the most curious specimen is that told of the Britons of Armorica by Nennius. He tells us that when Maximus, who was declared emperor in Britain, went over to Gaul to maintain his pretensions, he withdrew from Britain its military force, and, unwilling to send his soldiers back to their wives, children, and possessions in Britain, settled them in Armorica, where they became the Armorican Britons, and some MSS. have the following addition:—These Armorican Britons, having laid waste and depopulated the country, took the wives and daughters of the previous inhabitants in marriage, but cut out their tongues that their children might not learn their mother tongue. Hence they were called _Letewiccion_ or half speech.[108] The meaning of this tale is, that identity of language is implied by the marriage of the leaders of one people with the wives and daughters of another, and a dialectic difference could only be accounted for by depriving the females of the power of speech. The story told by Bede that the Picts had no wives, and first asked them of the Britons and were refused, and then obtained them from the Scots, is likewise a legend, intended to account for that people, or at least the greater portion of them, speaking a Gaelic dialect; and in the same manner the oldest poem which narrates the settlement of the Milesian Scots in Ireland tells us that ‘Cruithne, the son of Cinge, took their women from them;’ and then after—

There were no charming noble wives For their young men. Their women having been stolen, they made affinity With the Tuatha Dea.[109]

Here we have the same story of the Picts, as personified in their _eponymus_ Cruithne taking their wives from the Milesians, and the latter replacing them by wives taken from the previous inhabitants of the Tuath De. The meaning is obviously linguistic, and such legends are intended simply to express a community of language between the supposed military colonies and the people from whom they obtained their wives.

[Sidenote: Historical legends.]

Some of these legends have, however, a historical basis, such as those which relate to supposed settlements of the race of the Scots in Britain. These contain an element of truth, in so far as temporary settlements of the Scots took place in Britain in the fourth century, when they first appear in history, and joined the Picts, Saxons, and Attacotti in assailing the Roman province in Britain; and still more when a permanent settlement of the Scots on the west coast north of the Firth of Clyde undoubtedly took place in the beginning of the sixth century, and the small Scottish kingdom of Dalriada was formed.

[Sidenote: Artificial character of early Irish history.]

Others of these legends, however, are undoubtedly purely artificial, and the entire legendary history of Ireland prior to the establishment of Christianity in the fifth century partakes largely of this character. It presents us with a minute detail of the colonies supposed to have preceded the settlement of the Scots, with the names and families of their leaders, the exact period, even to the day of the week, of their settlement, the duration of their occupation of the country, the succession of their kings, and the history of the extinction of the colony either by pestilence or expatriation. Then we have the reigns of 116 pagan kings of the Scots, who reigned during twenty-one centuries, given with an extraordinary minuteness and elaboration of detail, and the accompaniment of marvellous incidents, which betrays its legendary character. Ethnic and linguistic legends are of course interwoven in it, and it may contain fragments of history, such as the revolt of the _Attachtuatha_ or servile classes against their lords, and the territorial changes in the divisions of the land and the location of the tribes which took place from time to time; but the marvellous character of the events continues to the establishment of Christianity, as we see in the narrative of the reigns of three last pagan kings, the first of whom, Niall, who reigned from 379 to 405, subjected all Britain and a great part of the Continent to his sway, and received hostages from nine kingdoms, whence he was called Niall of the nine Hostages; Dathy, who was killed by a flash of lightning at the foot of the Alps in the year 428; and Laogaire, who was slain by the elements between two mountains called Erin and Alban for refusing obedience to the mission of St. Patrick. The chronology of this legendary history, too, is entirely artificial, and though some parts of the narrative may have a historic basis, the dates assigned to them are as little to be trusted as the rest of the history itself. One of the tales contained in the Book of Ballimote, by which the knowledge of this wonderful history was supposed to have been preserved to historic times, will furnish a good example of what the imagination of its framers was capable of producing, and it has an interest for us from the connection it had with the great apostle of Scotland, as that of Fintan had with the apostle of Ireland. We are there told that the entire colony of Partholon’s people were destroyed by the plague, excepting one man, Tuan the son of Starn, the son of Seara, Partholon’s brother’s son, and God metamorphosed him into various forms, so that he lived from the time of Partholon to that of Columcille, to whom he related all the information, history, and conquests of Ireland that took place from Ceasair’s time to that period, and then we have the following poem:—

1.

Tuan, son of Cairill, as we are told, Was freed from sin by Jesus; One hundred years complete he lived, He lived in blooming manhood.

2.

Three hundred years in the shape of a wild ox He lived on the open extensive plains; Two hundred and five years he lived In the shape of a wild boar.

3.

Three hundred years he was still in the flesh In the shape of an old bird; One hundred delightful years he lived In the shape of a salmon in the flood.

4.

A fisherman caught him in his net, He brought it to the king’s palace; When the bright salmon was there seen, The queen immediately longed for it.

5.

It was forthwith dressed for her, Which she alone ate entire; The beauteous queen became pregnant, The issue of which was Tuan.

[Sidenote: Cymric legends.]

These legends, however, though it has been thought to indicate their real character and to inquire how far they may be supposed to embody ethnologic and linguistic facts or to contain an element of historic truth, in reality concern us only in so far as they tend to throw light upon the constituent elements of the Celtic population of Scotland and the corresponding territorial divisions of the land. So far as regards the early Celtic peoples south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, we must turn in the first instance to the Cymric legends.[110] They tell us that this population may be referred to three races, the Brython, the Romani, and the Gwyddyl. Thus in a poem contained in the Book of Taliessin we find them thus alluded to:—

Three races cruel from true disposition, Gwyddyl and Brython and Romani, Create discord and confusion; And about the boundary of Prydain, beautiful its towns, There is a battle against chiefs above the mead vessels[111]

Although the word _Gwyddyl_ is in modern Welsh usually translated _Irish_, yet there can be no doubt that it was originally used in a much wider sense as the equivalent of the Irish word _Gaidheal_, and was applied to the whole Gaelic race wherever located. Of this there is ample evidence in the old Welsh poems. The Brython are, of course, the Brettones of Bede, or rather here that part of them which occupied the districts extending from the Derwent to the Clyde, and formed the ancient Cumbria. In the same poem they appear under their national name of Cymry, when it is said,

From Penryn Wleth to Loch Reon (that is, from Glasgow to Loch Ryan), The Cymry are of one mind, bold heroes.

By the Romani, those leaders of the Britons are meant who were supposed to have derived their descent from the Roman military or civil commanders, as when Gildas tells us that the Britons ‘took arms under Ambrosius Aurelianus as their leader, who was of the Roman nation, and whose parents had been adorned with the purple;’[112] and Nennius, who calls him _Embres Guletic_, says that his father was a consul of the Roman nation.[113] We find also many of the great leaders of the Britons termed _Guledig_, the equivalent of the Latin Imperator, and usually expressed by the epithet Aurelius or Aurelianus; and to them no doubt the great national hero Arthur also belonged, who, according to Nennius, led the kings of the Britons against the Saxons as their Dux Bellorum,[114] and whose actions, so far as they are historical, belong to this part of Britain. Of the last two races, the Brython and the Romani, we have an account in an old document, ‘The Descent of the Men of the North.’[115] Here the Cymry, who occupied the northern districts, are said to be the descendants of Coel Hen, or the aged, whose name is preserved in the central district of Ayrshire, now termed Kyle, and of his son, Ceneu. Their descendants appear to have consisted principally of three tribes. They are thus noticed: ‘Three hundred swords of the tribe of Kynvarch, and three hundred shields of Kynwydyon, and three hundred spears of the tribe of Coel. Whatever object they entered into deeply, that never failed.’ The leader of the tribe of Cynvarch, whose grandfather, Gorust Ledlwm, was either son of Coel or of his son Ceneu, was the celebrated Urien Reged, whom Nennius mentions under the name of Urbgen as fighting against Roderic, son of Ida, the founder of the Anglic kingdom of Bernicia, and known in the Welsh poems by the name of Flamddwyn or the Flamebearer. This tribe appears to have occupied the districts lying between the Northern Wall and the Forth, to which the names of Reged and of Mureif were applied. The second tribe was that of Kynwydyon, whose grandfather Garthwys was grandson of Ceneu. The four sons of Kynwyt Kynwdyon are given as the leaders, two of whom are termed Clydrud Eiddyn and Cadrod Calchvynyd, from which we may infer that this tribe was located partly in the district extending from the Esk to the Avon, in which Duneyddyn or Edinburgh, and Caereiddyn or Caredin, are situated, and partly in the district of which Calchvynyd or Kelso was the chief seat. The latter were probably the people afterwards termed the Tevidalenses. The rest of the descendants of Coel were grouped under the name of Coeling, and extended from the Clyde to Loch Ryan, their principal territories being the districts of Carrawg, Coel, and Canawon, which, under the modern form of Garrick, Kyle, and Cuningham, form the county of Ayr.

After thus noticing the three tribes under which the supposed descendants of Coel were ranged, the descent of the Men of the North proceeds to give the pedigrees of those said to be of Roman descent. They are all deduced from Dyfnwal Hen, or the aged, who, in this document, is made the grandson of Macsen Guledig, or Maximus the Roman Emperor, but in the genealogies annexed to Nennius is said to be the grandson of Ceredig Guledig, whose ancestor Confer or Cynvor was the mythic father of Constantius, the father of the Emperor Constantine. These were obviously the Romani of the poem, and can be mainly traced in connection with the central districts of Annandale, Clydesdale, and Tweeddale. The principal race included among them was that of the provincial kings of Strathclyde, descended from Rydderch Hael, who is mentioned in Adamnan’s _Life of Saint Columba_ as reigning in Alclyde or Dumbarton, and whose history is so intimately connected with that of Kentigern, the great apostle of Strathclyde.[116]

To the race of the Gwyddyl or Gaidheal the old Welsh traditions undoubtedly attach the Ffichti or Picts, to whom they invariably give the name of Gwyddyl Ffichti.[117] They occupied the small district extending from the Pentland or Pictland Hills to the river Carron, which was known to the Welsh as Manau Guotodin or Gododin, and to the Irish as the Plain of Manann, from whence they are said by Nennius to have driven out the sons of Cunedda, from whom the kings of North Wales were descended. They also possessed the larger district of Galloway, from the mouth of the Nith to the Irish Sea. This district takes its name from the term applied by the Welsh to its inhabitants, of Galwydel, from which the Latin form of Galwethia was formed;[118] and we find the name of Scoti Picti, which is obviously a Latin rendering of the Welsh term Gwyddyl Ffichti, applied by the author of the _Descriptio Albaniæ_, who was certainly a Welshman, to the Picts, who, Bede tells us, formed the population of the western districts north of the Clyde, afterwards known by the name of Arregaithel, before the Scots formed their settlement of Dalriada there.

[Sidenote: Legendary origin of transmarine tribes.]

For the legendary origins of the tribes of transmarine Scotland, or the districts north of the Forth and Clyde, we must, however, mainly look to Irish sources, and we find them pervading nearly the whole of the mythic history of Ireland, and cropping up here and there in the course of its artificial chronology.

[Sidenote: The Nemedians in Scotland.]

Alban, or Scotland, is first brought into connection with these legendary narratives of the primitive colonisation of Erin, or Ireland, in the history of the second colony—that of the Nemedians, or sons of Neimead. After a great battle with the sea-robbers termed the Fomoraigh, they were defeated, and none escaped save the crew of one ship, consisting of thirty men under three chiefs, Simon Breac, son of Starn, son of Neimead; Iobaath, son of Beothuigh, son of Iarbhanieoil, son of Neimead; and Briotan Maol, son of Fergus Leithdearg, son of Neimead. They then resolve to leave Ireland, and taking seven years to prepare for this emigration, they fit out three fleets, under their three leaders. One fleet, under Simon Breac, goes to Thrace. A second, under Iobaath, to the north of Europe; and the third, under Briotan Maol, to Dobhar and Iardobhar in the north of Alban, where they dwelt with their posterity. Now from this third colony the oldest legendary accounts bring two of the West Highland clans. These are the Clan O’Duibhn, or Campbells, and the Clan Leod, or MacLeods.[119] The former clan first appear in the occupation of the central district of Dalriada encircling the lake of Lochaw, around which lay territories of the Dalriadic tribes of Lorn and Gabhran, and their oldest genealogies bring them from this Briotan, son of Fergus Leithdearg. The Clan Leod emerge, after the termination of the Norwegian kingdom of the Isles, in possession of Lewis, Harris, and the northern districts of Skye, and they are deduced from Laigh Laider, his brother, also a son of Fergus Leithdearg.

[Sidenote: The Firbolg and Tuath De Danan in Scotland.]

After remaining in Greece two hundred and sixteen years, the followers of Simon Breac, the first of the three leaders of the sons of Neimead, return to Ireland in three tribes—the Firbolg, Fir Domnan, and Fir Gaileoin, under five brothers, who divide Ireland into five provinces. They are in their turn conquered by the Tuatha De Danan, the descendants of the second tribe of the Nemedians, who, after remaining a long time in the north of Europe, where they possessed four cities—Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias—pass over into the north of Alban, where they remain seven years in the same districts of Dobhar and Iardobhar, which had been colonised by Briotan Maol, bringing with them from Falias the Lia Fal, or celebrated Coronation Stone; from Gorias, the sword used by their leader; from Finias, his spear; and from Murias, the mystic caldron of the Dagda. After remaining seven years in Alban, they go to Ireland and conquer the Firbolg in the great battle of Magh Tuireadh; and the few Firbolg who escaped this battle fly to the Western Isles, and occupy Arran, Isla, Rachrain, and other islands, where they remained till they were driven out by the Cruithnigh or Picts, and returned to Ireland, when they were received by Cairbre Niadhfher, king of Leinster under the Milesian Scots. Then follows the legendary settlement of the Scots under the three sons of Milesius, Heber, Heremon, and Ir, and their cousin Lughadh, son of Ith, before whom the mythic race of the Tuatha De Danan gave way. The transactions between them form one of the most picturesque of these Irish legends, the details of which need not be given here;[120] but the Tuatha De Danan yield the plains of Erin to the Scots, retaining only the green mounds, known by the name of Sidh, and then being made invisible by their enchantments, became the Fir Sidhe, or Fairies, of Ireland.

[Sidenote: Pictish legends.]

With the mythic settlement of the Milesian Scots in Ireland commence the legends of the settlements of the Cruithnigh or Picts in Scotland; and as Ireland was divided into five provinces between five brothers, sons of the leader of Firbolg, and afterwards by the sons of Milesius, so we find in the legend an early division of Alban into seven provinces between the seven sons of Cruithne, the ‘eponymus’ of the Pictish race. Five of these provinces can be identified. Fibh, the eldest of the seven brothers, represents Fife; Fodla, the third, _Athfhotla_ or Atholl; Fortrenn, corresponds with the district between the Tay and the Forth, consisting of Stratherne and Menteath, and which, as at one time the seat of the monarchy, gave its name to the kingdom of the Picts; Caith, with Caithness; and Circinn, with that district which included _Maghghirghinn_, or the plains of Circinn, a name corrupted into Moerne or the Mearns. The remaining two, Fidach and Ce, though the names cannot now be identified, obviously represent the intermediate districts of Ross, Moray, Buchan, and Mar. Another form of the legend represents the Cruithnigh or Picts coming from Ireland in the time of the sons of Milesius, under Cruithnechan, son of Cinge, son of Lochit, to assist the Britons of Fortrenn to fight against the Saxons, and the Britons yielded their clans and their swordland to them, that is, _Cruithentuath_, and they took possession of the land. The same legend assumes the form, in connection with the Picts of Dalaradia in Ulster, from whence they came, of twice eighteen soldiers of the tribes of Thracia who accompanied the sons of Milesius to Ireland, and cleared a swordland among the Britons, consisting first of _Maghfortrenn_ or the plains of Fortrenn, and then of _Maghghirghinn_ or the plains of Cirginn, or as another edition has it of _Cruithentuath_.[121]

[Sidenote: The Milesians in Scotland.]

In the long line of mythic pagan monarchs sprung from the sons of Milesius, two come prominently forward as waging war in Scotland, and hence termed kings of Erinn and Alban, and under the second of these a settlement is said to have been made. The first of these imaginary monarchs is Aengus, of the line of Heremon, termed Ollmucadh, from _oll_ great, and _mucadh_ swine, because he is said to have possessed the largest swine in his time in Ireland. According to the Annals of the Four Masters he reigned in the year of the world 3773, or 1421 years before the birth of Christ. He is said to have fought fifty battles against the _Cruithentuath_, or Picts of Scotland, and the Firbolg; twelve battles against the Longbardai, and four battles against the Colaisti, whoever they may be.[122] The second was Reachtaidh Righdearg, or red-wristed, of the line of Heber, who is said in the same Annals to have reigned in the year of the world 4547, or 647 years before the birth of Christ. He led his forces to Alban under Forc and Iboth. ‘They gained great battles, so that great districts were laid waste in Alban, until the men of Alban submitted to Reachtaidh Righdearg, so that he was king of Erinn and Alban, and it was from them sprang the two tribes Tuath Forc and Tuath Iboth in Alban.’[123]

These supposed settlements, however, become more frequent and distinct as we pass the birth of Christ and approach the historic period of this early Irish history. Between the Christian era and the fifth century, when Christianity was introduced into Ireland, and something like a true chronological history may be said to commence, two events come prominently forward in this mythic history. The first is the rising of the _Attachtuatha_ or servile class of the population of Ireland, and their massacre of the nobles of Ireland. These _Attachtuatha_ are said to have been the remains of the Firbolg and other colonists who preceded the arrival of the Milesian Scots and formed a population of subject tribes under them, and they have been improperly identified by the Irish historians with the Attacotti of the Roman historians, who were a British nation and belonged to a later period. The story as given in the Leabhar Gabhala, or Book of Conquests, is this.—On the death of Crimthan Nianair, king of Ireland, of the race of Heremon, about ten years after the birth of Christ, the nobility of Ireland were massacred at a great feast at Magh Cro, where they were entertained by the Attachtuatha. They were all cut off except three queens who were pregnant, and went over the sea. One was Baine, daughter to the king of Alban, who gave birth to Feredach Finn Fechtnach, the son of Crimthan. The second was Cruife, daughter to the king of Britain, and mother of Corb Olum of Munster; and the third was Aine, daughter of the king of Saxony, who was mother of Tipraide Tireach, king of the Cruithnigh of Ulster. The Attachtuatha then set up Cairpre Caitcheann, or cat-headed, one of their own race, as king, who reigned five years over Ireland. He was succeeded by his son Morann, who was a just and learned man, and he resolved to recall the three legitimate heirs. Feradach Finn Fechtnach was elected king, and the Attachtuatha swore by heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, and all the elements, that they would be obedient to them and their descendants as long as the sea surrounded Ireland. Feradach was succeeded by Fiatach Finn, also of the line of Heremon, and he by Fiacha Finnfolaidh, son of Feradach, who, after a reign of seventeen years, was killed by the provincial kings, at the instigation of the Attachtuatha, at the slaughter of Maghbolg. And again we have a repetition of the same story. The only person who escaped was his wife Ethne, daughter of the king of Alban, who was pregnant of his son Tuathal. Elim, son of Conra, king of the Cruithnigh of Ulster, who had on this occasion joined the Attachtuatha, then became king, and after a reign of twenty years was slain in the battle of Aichill by Tuathal, called Teachtmar or the acceptable, who came from Alban with a large force. Tuathal is said to have fought 133 battles against the Attachtuatha, whom he reduced to obedience in the various provinces. He altered the arrangement of the five provinces by uniting the two Munsters into one province, and formed a fifth province of Meath as mensal lands for the monarchy, by taking four portions from each of the other four provinces. Upon the portion taken from Munster he built Tlachtga, now called the Hill of Ward, and there the festival of the Fire of Tlachtga was held, and the Druids were wont to assemble On the portion taken from Connaught he established the chief seat at Uisneach, now Usnagh Hill, and there the great fair called the Convention of Uisneach was annually held in May. On the portion taken from Ulster he constructed Taillte, now Telltown, as the chief residence. It was here that alliances were made and contracts ratified, and the fair of Taillte was held. On the portion taken from Leinster the royal capital of Teamhar or Tara was established where the Feis Temrach was held every third year, the laws were ordained and published, and the Ardri or sovereign of Ireland was inaugurated. Tuathal is then said to have celebrated the Feis Temrach, at which the princes and chieftains of the kingdom assembled, who all swore by the sun and moon, and all the elements, visible and invisible, that they would never contest the sovereignty of Ireland with him or his race. Undoubtedly this formation of the province of Meath, with its four royal residences, survived to historic times, and has an unquestionable historic basis.

Another of its great landmarks is the contest which is supposed to have taken place in the second century between Conn Ced Cathach, or of the hundred battles, of the line of Heremon, and Eoghan Mor, called Modha Nuadhat, of the line of Heber, and which led to a division of Ireland into two parts separated from each other by a ridge termed Eisgir Riada, leading from Dublin across the island to Galway, composed of a line of gravel hills which existed long after. The northern half was termed Leth Cuinn or Conn’s half, and the southern Leth Mogha or Mogha’s half. This division is mentioned by the old chronicler Tighernac as having been made in the year 165,[124] and is undoubtedly recognised by Bede when he distinguishes the northern province of the Scots from the nations of the Scots who dwell in the southern parts of Ireland.[125] Cormac, son of Art, and grandson of Conn, is said to have sent a fleet across Magh Rein, or the plain of the sea, in the year 240, so that it was on this occasion that he obtained the sovereignty of Alban.[126] He is said by Tighernac to have obtained the name Ulfata, or ‘the people of Ulster at a distance,’ because he banished the Pictish tribes of Ulster to Manann and Innsigall in the year 254.[127]

[Sidenote: The race of Ith in Scotland.]

These supposed settlements in Scotland during this mythic period were, however, not entirely confined to the kings of the lines of Heber and Heremon, sons of Milesius, but are also attributed to another line of kings descended from Lughaidh, son of Ith, who was father’s brother of Milesius. We read in an ancient tract that ‘these are the tribes of the Gael that are not of the sons of Miledh, nor of the Tuatha De Danann, nor of the Firbolg, nor yet of the Clann Neimhead, and that widely did this tribe spread throughout Erin and Alban. For it is boasted that Maccon obtained sway over the world, and it is certain that he conquered the west of Europe, without doubt that is Alban and France and Saxon land and the island of Britain. And it is boasted concerning Daire Sirchreachtach that he obtained sway over all the west of Europe; and some of the learned say that he won the whole world. And it is stated that Fathadh Canann obtained the government of the whole world from the rising to the setting sun, and (if it be true) that he took hostages of the streams, the birds, and the languages.’[128] The first of these conquerors of the line of Ith, in point of time, was said to be this Daire Sirchreachtach. He had six sons, all called Lughaidh. The eldest was Lughaidh Laidhe. Another was Lughaidh Mal, ‘who won the world from Breatain Leatha or Armorica to Lochlann or Scandinavia, and from Innsi Orc or the Orkneys to Spain.’ The old tract called the Dinnseanchas, says of Carnn Mail in Ulster, ‘Whence was it named? It is not difficult to tell. It was otherwise called Carnn Luighdheach, from Lughaidh Mal, who was driven from Erinn with a fleet of seven ships; and from Alban he set out for Erinn with the great fleet of Alban, and they give battle to the Ulster men and defeated them. Every man that came into battle with Lughaidh carried a stone, and thus the carn was formed, and it was on it Lughaidh was standing while the battle was fought;’ and an old poem quoted in this tract says,

Lughaidh Mal, who destroyed much, Was banished out of Erinn. With a fleet of seven ships the king’s son sailed From Erinn to the land of Alban. He fought for the eastern country In battles, in conflicts, From Eadain to the wide-spreading Lochlann, From the islands of Orc to Spain. When he obtained the powerful kingdom, He brought with a numerous army, So that the harbours of Uladh were filled, With the barks of a fierce champion.[129]

Lughaidh Laidhe, the eldest son of Daire Sirchreachtach, was also called _Macniadh_, or son of the champion, and had a son Lughaidh, called _Maccon_, or the son of the dog. He is said by the Four Masters to have reigned in Ireland from the year 196 to 225. His sons were said to be the three Fothadhs—Fothadh Airctheach, Fothadh Cairptheach, and Fothadh Canann. The first is said to have been king of Ireland for one year in 289, and to have slain his brother; and of the third, Fothadh Canann, we are told that he obtained the government of the whole world from the rising to the setting sun, and took hostages of the streams, the birds, and the languages, and that from him descended the tribe of Mac Cailin, or the Campbells, in Scotland.[130] These three brothers are by other books stated to be of the race of the Ui Eachadh of Uladh or Ulster, that is, of Pictish descent.

[Sidenote: The race of Colla in Scotland.]

In the fourth century before Christ the three Collas play a great part in the mythic history of Ireland, and are likewise connected with a supposed settlement in Scotland. Cormac, the son of Aet, and grandson of Conn of the hundred battles, whom we have already adverted to, has a son, Cairbre Liffechair, so called from the river Liffey near which he was nursed, who likewise becomes _Ardri_ of Erinn. He has two sons, Fiacha Sraibtaine and Eochaidh Doimlein. The former marries Aeifi, daughter of the king of the Gallgael, and was the father of Muredach Tirech, from whom the subsequent kings of Ireland of the race of Niall derived their descent. The latter marries Oilich, daughter of the king of Alban, called by some Vadoig, by others Uigari, and has three sons, Caerill, Muredach, and Aedh. These take the name of Colla, and are called respectively Colla Meann, Colla da Crioch, and Colla Uais. These Collas slay their uncle Fiacha, and Colla Uais becomes king of Ireland, but is driven from thence with his brothers in 326 by Muredach Tirech, and takes refuge with his paternal grandfather the king of Alban, from whom he receives _Buannacht_ or military maintenance. Three hundred warriors were his host. After remaining three years in Alban the three brothers return to Erinn, each with a following of nine warriors, and having been reconciled with Muredach Tirech, who tells them they ought to conquer some territory as an inheritance, they are joined by seven ‘catha’ or battalions of the Firbolg of Connaught, and with their assistance attack the king of Ulster, march to the Carn of Achadhleithderg, from whence they fought seven battles, one on each day of the week, and on the last slay the king of Ulster, plunder and burn his capital, of Emania, and acquire a large territory as their swordland, which was termed Oirgialla, and was possessed by their descendants. This is the story of the three Collas, and in this manner the great Pictish kingdom, of which Emania was the capital, was supposed to come to an end in the year 331, and the Cruithnigh of Ulster confined to the district of Dalaradia on the east coast of Ulster. From Colla Uais the Sennachies both of Erinn and Alban deduced the descent of Somerled, who became the Regulus of Arregaidhel and of half of the Western Isles, and from whom sprang the potent clan of the MacDougalls, Lords of Lorne, and the MacDonalds, Lords of the Isles.[131]

[Sidenote: The last three pagan kings of Ireland in Scotland.]

The long line of mythic pagan kings of Ireland terminates with a group of three monarchs who succeeded each other, and are each said to have made extensive conquests beyond the bounds of their island kingdom. The first of these is Crimthan Mor mac Fidhaig, of the line of Heber, who reigned from 366 to 378, and is said to have extended his sway over Alban, Britain, and Gaul. Of him one of the oldest of the Irish documents, Cormac’s Glossary, says, under the word Mugeime, ‘that is the name of the first lapdog that was in Ireland. Cairbre Musc, son of Conaire, brought it from the east from Britain, for when great was the power of the Gael on Britain, they divided Alban between them into districts, and each knew the residence of his friend, and not less did the Gael dwell on the east side of the sea, as in Scotia or Ireland, and their habitations and royal forts were built there. Hence is called _Duin Tradui_, or the triple-fossed fort of Crimthan Mor, son of Fidach, king of Erinn and Alban to the Ictian Sea.’[132] His successor was Niall Mor, or the great, who reigned from 378 to 405. He also extended his conquests over Alban, Britain, and Gaul, and was slain at the mouth of the Loire on the shore of the Ictian Sea. He was termed Niall naoighialla, or ‘of the nine hostages,’ as he received hostages from nine nations which he had subjected to his rule. The last of these great conquerors was Dathi, who reigned from 405 to 428. He, too, extended his conquests over Alban, Britain, and Gaul, and was killed by a flash of lightning at _Sliabh Ealpa_, or the foot of the Alps.[133] He is said, in another document, to have been king of Erinn, Alban, Britain, and as far as the mountains of the Alps, where he went to revenge the death of his predecessor Niall, and was said by some to have been slain by the same arrow which killed the latter. His body was brought back to Erinn by his son, who gained nine battles by sea and ten by land by means of it, for when they exhibited the body they crushed their foes. Dathi is said to have fought many battles in Alban, viz., the battle of Magh Circain and the battle of Srath.[134] A tale called ‘The Expedition of Dathi to the Sliabh n-Ealpa’ gives the following account of his invasion of Scotland:—‘He invites all the provincial kings and chiefs of Erinn to a great feast at Tara, and there decides upon making an expedition into Alban, Britain, and Gaul, following the foot-steps of his predecessors Crimthan Mor and Niall. His fleet assembles at _Oirear Caoin_, probably Donaghadee, where he embarks with his troops and sets sail for Alban. Immediately upon his landing Dathi sends his Druid to Feredach Finn, king of Alban, who was then at his palace of ‘Tuirrin brighe na Righ,’ calling on him for submission and tribute, or an immediate reason to the contrary on the field of battle. The king of Alban refused either submission or tribute, and accepted the challenge of battle, but required a few days to prepare for so unexpected an event. The time for battle at last arrived; both armies marched on Magh an Chairthé (the plain of the pillar stone) in Glenfeadha, Dathi at the head of his Gael, and Feredach leading a large force composed of Scots, Picts, Britons, Gauls, Northmen, and Gallgaidheal. A fierce and destructive fight ensued between the two parties, in which the forces of Alban were at length overthrown and routed with great slaughter. When the king of Alban saw the death of his son and the discomfiture of his army, he threw himself headlong on the ranks of his enemies, dealing death and destruction around him, but in the height of his fury he was laid hold of by Conall Gulban, a son of Niall naoighialla, who, taking him up in his arms, hurled him against the pillar stone and dashed out his brains.’ The scene of this battle has ever since been called _Gort an Chairthé_ (the field of the pillar stone), and the Glen _Glenn an Chatha_ or the battle glen. ‘Dathi set up a surviving son of the late king on the throne of Alban, and receiving hostages and submission from him, passed onwards into Britain and Gaul, in both of which countries he still received hostages and submissions wherever he proceeded on his march.’[135]

Another of the legendary settlements in Alban is connected with the same Feredach Finn, king of the Cruithnigh of Alban, and may be placed about the same time. The story is this:—‘Daol, the daughter of Fiachra, king of Musgry, was the wife of Lughaidh, son of Oillill Flannbeg, king of Munster. She became enamoured of her stepson Corc, son of Lughaidh by a former wife, and on his refusal follows the example of Potiphar’s wife with Joseph, when Corc is banished by his father. He goes to Feredach, king of Alban, from whom he received great honours and his daughter in marriage, by whom he had two sons, Cairbre Cruithnecan and Maine Leamhna. The mother’s name was Leamhan Mongfionn, and these sons were settled in their mother’s patrimony. Cairbre Cruithnecan fixed on _Maghghirghinn_, or the plain of Circinn, and from him descended Ængus Eamhan, king of Alban. Maine fixed on _Maghleamhna_, or the plain of Leamhan, and from him are the Luimnigh Albain or people of the Levenach or Lennox.’ The river Leamhan or Leven took its name from Leamhan, daughter of Feredach Finn, who was drowned in it, and an old poem has been preserved by Muredach Albanach, several of whose compositions have been preserved in the Book of the Dean of Lismore, and who appears to have lived between 1180 and 1220.[136] It was written in the time of Aluin og, Mormaer of Leamhain, or Lord of Lennox, who, there can be little doubt, was the same person with Alwyn, first Earl of Lennox, who was his contemporary. It is addressed to the river Leamhan or Leven, and refers to the same legend. The poem is so curious that it may be given at length.

Muredach Albanach sang thus:—

Noble thy spouse, O Leamhan! Alun oge, the son of Muireadhach, His waving hair without blackness, Descendant of Lughaidh of Liathmhuine.

Good thy luck in white-skinned spouses, Since the time thou didst love thy first spouse, For the son of the king of Bealach it was ordained That Leamhain should be his spouse.

Gearr-Abhann was thy name of old, In the reign of the kings, Until Corc of Munster came over the sea With waving hair above his eyes.

When came Fearadhach Fionn, Son of the king of Alban of the Carpets of Gold, When he made with Corc alliance. Upon coming into his lordship

Fearadhach gave—to me it seems well— His daughter to fair-haired Corc. Full of his renown is Tara of Meath, Leamhain was the name of the daughter.

A queenly birth brought forth Leamhan, Maine, son of Corc of the long hair. She cherished in her bosom the bird For Corc of Cashel of the hounds.

One day that Leamhain was (The mother of Maine of the slender fingers) With fifty maidens of white soles, Swimming in the river’s mouth,

She is drowned in the bosom of the port. Leamhain, the daughter of Fearadhach, Thou art named Leamhain after that, A remembrance not bad to be related.

Seldom was the tramp of a Gall battalion Upon thy green borders, O river! Oftener with thee, O Leamhain! The son of a hind above thy Innbhears.

There has grown up to thee Alun oge, Son of Mureadhach of the smooth roads, Splendid the colour of his pure fresh hands, A scion of the wood of the first Aluin.

Not alone drinking ale Is Alun oge, descendant of Oilleall. The branch of the race of Alun sits With an hundred to drink from the same gallon.

Though there should be but one tun of wine To the race of Corc of the comely kings, Not happy the fair-headed son of Corc Should he save the wine from death.

The Mormaer of Leamhan of the smooth cheek, The worthy son of Ailin’s daughter, His white hand, his side, his foot; Noble is thy spouse, O Leamhan![137]

Such, then, being the record of these supposed conquests of Alban and settlements in the country presented to us in the early history of Ireland, their general effect upon the Gaelic population of Scotland is thus given in another ancient document preserved to us by the Sennachie McFirbis:—

‘The Clan Domnall, Clann Ragnall, Clann Alasdair, Clann Tsithig (Sheehy), Clann Eachan, Clann Eadhain, Clann Dubhghal, and Clann Ragnall mic Domnall Ghlais, are of the race of Eremon.

‘MacGille-Eoin or MacGille a Ea-in (MacLean), the two MacLeods (Harris and Lewis), MacConnigh (Mackenzie), Mac a Toisigh (Macintosh), Murmor Hundon (Mormaer of Moray?), are of the race of Conaire.

‘Murmor Abhaill (Mormaer of Atholl), Murmor Mair (Mormaer of Mar), Murmor Gall (Mormaer of Galloway), MacCenedig (Kennedys), Muirgeach og, Lord of Granta (Grants), MacCregan (MacGregor?), are also of the race of Eremon.’[138]

The first group here given evidently belongs to the supposed settlement by Colla Uais of the race of Heremon, and consists of the great clans of the MacDonalds and MacDougalls, and their branches, descended from Somerled, the great Lord of Argyll, whose traditionary pedigree is deduced from Colla. The second as certainly comprises those supposed to be descended from the six sons of Erc, whose pedigree is deduced from Conaire, a king of Ireland;[139] but among them are included the MacLeods, whose legendary origin, as we have seen, belongs to an older race. The third, said to be also descended from the race of Eremon, seems to be composed of those who could not be included in either of the two former groups, and likewise presents inconsistencies. The Mormaers of Athol were of the royal family, and afterwards Stewarts, and under the title of the Mormaer of Mair, and of Muirgeach og, by whom the earls of Lennox descended from Aluin og, son of Muredach, seem meant the race deduced from Corc, king of Munster, who was of the line of Heber, are here included among the descendants of the line of Heremon.

[Sidenote: How far have these legends a historic basis?]

The turning-point in the chronology of the early history of Ireland may with some reason be fixed at the battle of Ocha, which was fought in the year 478, and placed the first Christian monarch on the throne of Ireland. It obviously separates the artificially-constructed history of the pagan period which makes so large a demand upon the assent of the historian from that succession of events which corresponds with all the historic dates we possess, and commends itself readily enough to our belief. With the change produced by that event all that is fantastic, improbable, and artificial ceases, and the incidents recorded are more natural and in better accordance with what we should expect to find. In the oldest records of Irish history it appears as a great era from which the dates of its events were reckoned, and is connected as such with another settlement of Scots in Alban. We are told by the synchronist Flann Mainistrech that twenty years elapsed from the battle of Ocha till the children of Erc, son of Echach Muinremhair, passed over into Alban, viz., the six sons of Erc, the two Anguses, the two Loarns, and the two Ferguses[140].

The question then at once arises, To what extent have these legends a historic basis, and how far may we accept them as true elements in the history of the population of Scotland?

This question we may at once answer in so far as regards the last settlement in the series which we have extracted from that history. The passing over of the sons of Erc into Alban twenty years after the battle of Ocha is undoubtedly a true event. It was the foundation of the small Scottish kingdom of Dalriada on the west coast north of the Firth of Clyde by a colony of Scots, which took place in the year 498, and the death of its first king, Fergus mor mac Erce, is recorded by Tighernac in the year 501. The annals of this little kingdom may now be considered as well ascertained. But can we attribute the same certainty to the conquests supposed to have been made prior to the battle of Ocha? These present several features calculated to lead us to a different conclusion. On looking over the entire succession of those supposed conquests and settlements in Alban, we can hardly fail to recognise the same legends repeated at different times and cropping up in different forms. Thus the supposed conquests of the race of Lughadh, son of Ith, who were a different race from the Milesian Scots, and the settlement of Fothadh Canann, from which sprang the Clann Mhic Cailin or Campbells, seems merely a repetition of the much older settlement of the sons of Neimhead in the districts of Dobhar and Iardobhar in Alban, who were likewise a different race from the Milesian Scots, and from whom also sprang the Clann Mhic Cailin or Campbells; and when the Fothadhs appear not as of the race of Ith but as of the race of the Ui Eachach of Ulster, that is, Irial Glunmhar, son of Conall Cearnach, who had two sons, Forc and Iboth, they become Cruithnigh, and their settlement the same as that of the two tribes Tuath Forc and Tuath Iboth; and this again connects them with the supposed conquest by the mythic king Rechtgidh Righdearg, who in another document appears as Fothadh Righdearg. In the name Forc we can recognise the old name of the river Forth, which again connects them with the district between the Tay and the Forth, which appears to have been intended by the Dobhar and Iardobhar; but this is the same district which was called by the Picts Fortrenn, and to which, according to the Pictish legend, Cruithnechan, the son of Lochit, son of Cinge, came with his Picts to help the Britons of Fortrenn, and superseded them there; and this again corresponds with the statement that the descendants of Braodn, son of Fergus Leithdearg, who had occupied Dobhar and Iardobhar with his Nemedians, were driven out by the Cruithnigh. And when we are told that Cruithnechan settled his Picts in Magh Fortrenn and Maghghirghinn, we surely have the same legend repeated in the supposed settlement of the sons of Corc, king of Munster, when Cairpre Cruithnechan and Maine Leamhna settle in Maghghirghinn and Maghleamhna. We can see that under these legends there simply lies an attempt to express in these stories the popular conception of the ethnic relations of local tribes. While in these tales the true localities which form the scene of them are veiled under fictitious names which it is difficult to identify, there are others where the apparent distinctness and accuracy with which the localities are given cast an air of verisimilitude over the narrative, and lead to the supposition that there must have been some historic foundation for them; but in these cases it will generally be found that they are real historic events, which belong to the historic period, but have been transported to the imaginary realm of mythic narrative by some process arising from some fancied resemblance in the names of the actors. The most striking instance of this is in the tale of the conquests in Alban by the Dathi, the second last of the pagan monarchs of Ireland. The scene is laid in Maghghirghinn, but this name we know is the original form of the name corrupted into Mearns, and belongs to a district now represented by Kincardineshire, but which formerly appears to have included part of Forfarshire south of it and Mar on the north. Here he fought the battles of Srath and Maghghirghinn, and the other names mentioned in the story can also be identified.

Tuirrin, the palace of the Pictish king Feredach Finn, is no doubt the hill of Turin in the parish of Rescobie in Forfarshire, about 600 feet high, on the top of which, according to the writer in the old Statistical Account, ‘there has evidently been anciently a stronghold or place of defence, consisting of various extensive contiguous buildings, with a circular citadel of about forty yards in diameter. The situation has been well chosen, being secured by an impregnable rock in front, much like the face of Salisbury Crags, and of difficult access all around. It is now called Kemp or Camp Castle.’[141] Glenfeadha finds its modern representative in Fithie in the adjoining parish of Farnell, where too we find Gort an Chairthé corrupted into Carcary. This battle seems, however, to have been an historic event, and to have really taken place in the eighth century, for the old chronicler Tighernac records, in the year 752, the battle of Strath, in the land of Circinn or Maghghirghinn, between the Pictones, in which Bruidhi, son of Maelchon, was slain.[142] There, by an anachronism which it is difficult to explain, the well-known Bruidhe mac Maelchon, who died 200 years before, takes the place of Feredach Finn. This battle really took place in the reign of the great Pictish king Angus, son of Fergus; but we find in 763, eleven years after this battle was fought, the Pictish throne occupied by Cinadon, son of Feredach, and, at the same time, the prince who ruled over Dalriada, after its conquest by the Pictish monarch, is Muredach ua Dathi, or grandson of Dathi. The same battle appears a century later in Hector Boece’s fictitious narrative, where the Scots under their king Alpin defeat and slay on the same spot Feredach, king of the Picts.

When we see these Irish monarchs, however, not only conquering Alban and making settlements there, but extending their conquests over Britain and Gaul, and carrying their arms even to the foot of the Alps, it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that we have here localised as Irish kings some of the Roman emperors connected with the Roman province in Britain, and some of their acts transferred to Ireland, and that this is the true source of many of these fabulous events, so far as there is any foundation for them at all. Thus we find a parallel to the revolt of the Attachtuatha, or servile tribes of Ireland, against the Milesian kings, which was finally suppressed by Tuathal Teachtmhar, in the insurrection of the serf population of Gaul, called the Bagaudæ in the reign of the emperor Diocletian, which was suppressed by his colleague Herculius Maximian. Cairbre Cinncait, who was enabled to seize the throne of Ireland as their leader, and reigned five years, has his counterpart in Carausius, who, by the help of these Bagaudæ, revolted against Maximian, and ruled for seven years in Britain as an independent emperor. Conn of the hundred battles, under whom Ireland became divided into two provinces, may be a shadow of Constantine the Great, in whose time the provinces of Britain were divided; and in Niall of the Nine Hostages, and Dathi the fighter of so many battles, who carried their arms to the foot of the Alps, we may possibly recognise Theodosius and Maximus, the emperors who preceded the termination of the Roman power in Britain, and fought battles in North Britain.

The Conquests in Alban under Crimthan Mor mac Fidhaigh, and his designation as king of Erinn and Alban, have perhaps a historic foundation of a different kind. The first really historical appearance of the Scots in Britain is in the year 360, when, in conjunction with the Picts, they attacked the Roman province in Britain. The attack was repeated by the Scots and Picts, who were now joined by the Attacotti and Saxons in 364, and they ravaged the whole province till the year 369, when they were driven back by Theodosius, and the province restored. Now the Annals of the Four Masters place the commencement of Crimthan’s reign in 366, and he reigned twelve years. The period of his supposed conquests in North Britain synchronises with the appearance of the Scots in Britain, as recorded by the Roman historian. So also the subsequent conquests under Niall Mor and Dathi, and the supposed settlement of the Munster Scots under Corc, king of Munster, with the three devastations of the province by the Picts and Scots recorded by Gildas, the first two of which were repelled by the Roman general Stilicho, and the last by the provincial Britons themselves. The period of these attacks extended from the year 360 to 409, but it is quite clear, from the concurrent testimony of all the authorities which record them, that the Scots were driven back to Ireland, and that they effected no permanent settlement in Britain till the end of the sixth century, when the Dalriadic colony was established in the southern part of the great western district of Arregaithel or Argyll.

[Sidenote: Early connection between Scotland and Ireland.]

We have then, prior to that date, merely temporary conquests in the province of Britain, commencing in 360, which afford the sole historic basis to these supposed settlements, and there is no reason to suppose that prior to 360 a single Scot ever set foot in North Britain. The connection between the two countries of Scotland and Ireland was, notwithstanding, a very intimate one. It is quite clear that prior to the settlement of the Scots in Dalriada, the great nation of the Cruithnigh or Picts formed the sole inhabitants of Britain north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde; but while we find them during the historic period likewise in possession of that part of the province of Ulster known as Dalnaraidhe or Dalaradia, and Uladh, extending from the Boyne along its eastern shore to the border of Irish Dalriada, and likewise of that part of Meath termed Maghbreg or Bregia, yet these early legends present them to us as forming the original inhabitants of the north of Ireland, and as constituting one great nation peopling the northern districts of Britain and Galloway on the east side of the Channel, and the whole province of Ulster and part of Meath on the western, while the Scots occupied the rest of Leinster and the whole of Connaught and Munster. The Cruithnigh of both countries were thus substantially one people, and remained so till the beginning of the seventh century, and during this time there must have been a constant intercommunication between the tribes on both sides of the Channel, as well as a community of early legends among them. Thus the Pictish Chronicle tells us that thirty kings of the name of Bruide ruled over Hibernia and Albania during a period of 150 years, and the Irish Nennius derives the statement from the books of the Cruithnigh, while an early legend of the Picts of Dalnaraidhe states that ‘thirty kings of the Cruithnigh ruled over Erin and Alban, viz., of the Cruithnigh of Alban and of Erin, viz., of the Dalnaraidhe from Ollamhan, from whence comes Mur Ollamhan at Teamhair or Tara to Fiacha mac Baedan, who fettered the hostages of Erin and Alban.’ This latter event was in the historic time, and must have occurred between 589 and 626, when Fiacha mac Baedan was king of Ulster. From this period may therefore be dated the political separation of the Picts of Alban from those of Erin, who had hitherto been governed as one nation. The same legend likewise informs us that ‘seven kings of the Cruithnigh of Alban governed Erinn in Teamhair or Tara. Ollamh was the name of the first king that governed Erinn at Teamhair and in Cruachan thirty years. It is from him Mur Ollamhan at Teamhair is; by him was the feast of Teamhair first instituted.’ Then, after naming his six successors, the legend adds, ‘These then are the seven kings that ruled over Erin of the Cruithnigh of Alban.’[143] These seven kings, however, appear in the list of the mythic pagan kings of Ireland, and are placed as such by the Annals of the Four Masters as far back as from the year of the world 3883 to 4019, that is, from the year 1317 to 1181 before Christ, each of the seven kings reigning exactly thirty years. The first was Ollamh Fodla, who is, of course, said to be of the race of Ir, and to him is attributed the tribal organisation of his people; for according to the Annals of the Four Masters, ‘it was he also that appointed a Toisech over every Triocha Ceud or barony, and a Bruighigh over every Baile or township, who were all to serve the king of Erin.’ Under the name of Fodla he appears in the Pictish Chronicle as one of the seven sons of Cruithne, and two of his successors, viz., Gede Ollgudach and Finnachta, appear in the list of the Pictish kings of Scotland among his immediate successors, and precede the thirty kings of the name of Brude. The numbers peculiar to the Pictish legends are seven, and thirty, and have, of course, no chronological significance.

But the most brilliant period of the mythic history of these Cruithnigh of Ulster was that when the champions of the Order of the Red Branch at Eamhain or Emania were supposed to have performed their great achievements. They are placed in the fabulous history about the commencement of the Christian era, and here we find abundant indications of the close connection between the Cruithnigh of Erin and of Alban. Among these ancient Irish tales are three which are termed the Three Sorrowful Stories of Erin, namely the story of the tragical fate of the children of Lir, the story of the children of Uisneach, and the story of the sons of Tuirinn.[144]

From the second of these tales we learn that about this time Cathbad, a Druid of the Picts of Ulster, has three daughters. The eldest, Dectcum, was the mother of the celebrated champion Cuchullin; the second, Albe, was the mother of Naisi, Ainle, and Ardan, the three sons of Uisneach; and the third, Finncaemh, was the mother of Conall Cearnach. These champions were all trained in a military school at Sgathaig in the island of Skye, kept by Aife and her father Scathaidh, and by Aife Cuchullin had a son, Connlaoch, whose history forms one of the Fenian tales. The place called Sgathaig can be still identified. On the west side of the parish of Slate in Skye, on an isolated rock overhanging the arm of the sea termed Loch Eishart, are the remains of an old castle now termed Dunscaich; and below it, at a little distance from the shore, is a small island on which is still to be seen one of those ancient vitrified forts which are so closely connected with these Fenian tales. It is likewise called Dunsgathaig or Dunscaich, and was no doubt the site of Aife’s supposed school. Looking across this arm of the sea, the magnificent and most picturesque range of the Coolins form the principal feature in the landscape, and hence the three sons of Uisneach, supposed to have been trained to the use of arms here, are termed in the tale ‘The Three Falcons of Sleibhe Cuillinn,’ that is, of the Coolin hills, now improperly termed Cuchullin hills.[145] On their return to Ulster, Naisi, the eldest, falls in love with a fair girl Deirdri, who had been reared in a tower by Conchubhar, king of Ulster, with the view of making her his wife. Naisi carries her off, and, accompanied by his two brothers and one hundred and fifty warriors, goes to Alban, where they settled in a wild therein, and obtained maintenance of quarterage, that is, an appanage or land of maintenance to be held for service from the king of that country. The sons of Uisneach are said in the tale to have defended by the might of their hands a district and a half of Alban, and are called ‘the Three Dragons of Dunmonadh,’ which seems to have been the residence of the kings, as it afterwards was of the Scottish kings of Dalriada, and may be identified as the isolated hill in the Crinan Moss on the banks of the river Add, the top of which bears the remains of a strong fortification, and which was also called Dunadd. In another poem Naisi is said to have visited the daughter of the Lord of Duntreoin on his return from the north of Invernois or Inverness, and this is Duntroon, an old castle on the north side of Loch Crinan.

The place where the sons of Uisneach settled, and where they obtained their land of maintenance, was on the north shore of the arm of the sea called Loch Etive, where their seat was no other than that remarkable vitrified fort crowning the summit of a considerable hill on the shore of the bay of Ardmuchnish, now called Dun mac Sniochan, a corruption of the name _Dun mhic Uisneachan_, and to which Hector Boece gave the fanciful name of Beregonium. Here they are said to have had three booths of chase—one in which they prepared their food, one in which they ate it, and one in which they slept. Conchubhar now resolves to tempt them to return to Ulster, with the treacherous purpose of killing them and taking Deirdre, but is told that they will not come unless either Cuchullin, or Conall Cearnach, or Fergus, son of Roigh, another of the champions of the Red Branch, will go for them and ensure their safety. Cuchullin and Conall Cearnach both refuse, but Fergus agrees to go, finds them at _Loch-n-Eite_ or Loch Etive, and at the _Dainghion mhic n-Uisnech_ or fastness of the sons of Uisneach, and persuades them to return, much against the wish of Deirdre, who expresses her regret at leaving that eastern land with its delightful harbours and bays, its dear beauteous plains of soft verdure, and its sprightly green-sided hills, and then utters a beautiful lament on leaving that ‘beloved land, that eastern land, Alban with its wonders.’[146] Deirdre tells Fergus that the sway of the sons of Uisneach in Alban is greater than that of Conchubhar in Erin, and her lament bears this out, for the scenery of it embraces the whole of the eastern part of Argyllshire from the Linnhé Loch to Loch Long, and among the places mentioned we can identify Glen Etive at the head of Loch Etive, Inistrynich in Loch Awe, Dun Suibhne or Castle Swen in Knapdale, Glenlaidhe, or Glenlochy, and Glenurchy at the east end of Loch Awe, Glenmasan and Glendaruel in Cowall.[147] Alban now drops out of the tale, and it is unnecessary for our purpose to follow further the tragical fate of the sons of Uisneach after their return to Ulster. We find, however, that Conall Cearnach, another of these heroes of the Cruithnigh of Ulster, has left his traces in the same part of the country, for Dean Munro, in his description of the Western Isles in 1549, tells us of Dunchonill, one of the group of the Garveloch Isles which lie off the coast of Lorne—‘Dunchonill, are iyle so namit from Conal Kernache, are strength, which is alsmeikle as to say in Englische, are round castle.’ One of the legends of the Cruithnigh of Ulster tells us that Conall Cearnach married Loncetna, the daughter of Echdhe Eachbeoil of Alban, who was a Cruithnigh, by whom he had Irial Glinmar, and adds, ‘This was the cause which brought Cuchulain and Curoi son of Daire from Alban to Erin.’[148] The mother of Curoi, we learn from other legends, was Moran Mannanach, the sister of Loncetna. A curious notice of the Pictish king Echdhe Eachbeoil and the intimate connection between the Cruithnigh on both sides of the Irish Channel has been preserved to us in the very ancient document called Cormac’s Glossary, where, under the word ‘Fir, _i.e_. find’ or white, we are told—‘This, then, was the appearance of the cows of Echaid Echbel from Alban which Curoi captured, that is, white cows with red ears;’ and another MS. adds—‘These cows, then, of Echaid Echbel used to come to graze from Ard-Echdai Echbeil, from Alban into the district of Dalriatta, and they used to be in Seimne Ulad. Curoi, however, carried them off by force from the Ulad or Ulster men.’[149]

We thus see how completely the idea of a close connection, amounting to identity both of race and nation, between the Pictish inhabitants of North Britain and the Cruithnigh of Ireland, runs through these popular tales, and expresses a true state of matters which goes far to explain the supposed conquests and settlements under the Irish kings of the mythic and heroic period in Scotland. Although attributed to kings of the different races into which the descendants of Milesius were supposed to be divided, we can see that there is always a tendency to connect them with the Cruithnigh of Ulster. Thus the Fothadhs are by one account of the race of Ith, and by another Cruithnigh of Ulster. When we read of the sons of Nemhead settling in Dobhar and Iardobhar in North Britain, under Braodn the son of Fergus Leithderg, we are reminded at once of the historic king of the Picts, Brude, son of Urgust or Fergus. When we are told that the Tuatha De Danaan proceeded from the same district and bestowed upon Ireland the three designations of Eire, Fodla, and Banba, from the names of the three queens of their three last kings, we cannot avoid noticing that these three names are likewise preserved in Scotland in the river Earn;[150] in Fodla, one of the seven districts named after the seven sons of Cruithnigh, and which is preserved in Athfotla, the old name of Atholl; and in Banff. We see too that whenever a Scot is said during this mythic period to have settled in Alban he is usually said to be the son of the daughter of a Pictish king, and to have inherited through his mother. Thus Colla Uais, of the race of Eremon, has a Pictish mother, and so have the two sons of Corc, king of Munster; and there is reason to suppose that among the Pictish tribes marriage was exogamous and that the son of a Pictish mother even by a stranger was held to belong to the tribe of his mother. Other points of a connection between these Irish legends and those of Scotland also suggest themselves. In the story of the insurrection of the Attachtuatha, or servile tribes of Ireland, against the Milesian Scots, we are told that the nobility of the latter were cut off at a great banquet given by the Attachtuatha, and that none escaped except three nobles who were in their mothers’ womb. This same legend is reproduced in the legendary history of Scotland, when the supposed destruction of the Picts by the Scots in the ninth century is said to have been effected in the same manner, the nobles of the Picts having been cut off by the Scots at a great banquet.[151]

[Sidenote: The twofold division of the Picts and the establishment of Scone as the capital of the kingdom.]

The twofold division of the Scots, supposed to have taken place in the reign of Conn of the hundred battles, has also its parallelism in Scotland; and if Bede recognised the division of Ireland into the two provinces of the Northern and the Southern Scots, he equally viewed the territory occupied by the great Pictish nation as consisting of the two provinces of the Northern and the Southern Picts, who were separated from each other ‘by steep and rugged mountain chains, within which the latter had seats,’ a description which can only apply to the great chain of the Mounth, extending from the Eastern Sea to the Western Sea, and separating the counties of Aberdeen and Inverness from those of Kincardine, Forfar, and Perth; and to those minor chains proceeding from it on the south, which, as they terminate in the more level country, form the great barrier of the so-called Grampians. Towards the end of the great Pictish kingdom we find Scone appearing as the principal seat and central point of the monarchy, and Fordun gives as one tradition ‘that it had been anciently fixed as the principal seat of the kingdom by both the Pictish and Scottish kings;’ and as another ‘that the ancient kings, even from the time of Cruithne, the first king of the Picts, had made it the seat of the kingdom of Alban.’[152] Scone is situated on the left bank of the river Tay, and within the ancient district of Gouerin or Gowry, and the circumstances connected with this district, and with Scone as the ancient capital of Scotland, present features very analogous to those recorded in the legend by which the province of Meath was formed, and Teamhair or Tara constituted the chief seat of the monarchy. As Meath was situated where the four ancient provinces of Ulster, Connaught, Munster, and Leinster meet, so also Gowry is placed in a central position where the four ancient provinces of Alban—namely those of Stratherne and Menteath, of Atholl (to which it appears at one time to have been attached), of Angus and Mearns, and of Fife and Fothreve—touch each other. As the originally small district of Meath was enlarged into a province by adding four districts, each of which was taken from one of the other districts, so we find that there were four royal manors of Gowry, viz. those of Scone, Cubert, Forgrund, and Straderdel.[153] These too surround a small central district, and each lies contiguous to one of the four provinces. Scone, forming the western district of Gowry, is separated by the river Tay from the old province of Fortrenn; Cubert or Coupar-Angus, on the north-east, adjoins Angus or Forfarshire; Forgrund, now Longforgan, on the south-east, is separated by the Tay from a parish in Fife bearing the same name; and Stratherdel or Strathardle, on the north, lies within the barrier of the Grampians, and stretches along the eastern boundary of Atholl. As Meath was the old mensal land set apart for the support of the Crown, so we find Gowry too appears to have been a Crown demesne; and as Teamhair or Tara was not only the place where the Ardri or sovereign of Ireland was inaugurated, and the laws of the kingdom framed and published, but was so completely regarded as the central point of the monarchy that the kingdom was often termed the Kingdom of Tara, so we find the ancient kings of Alban inaugurated and the laws of the kingdom promulgated at Scone; and when Kenneth, the first of the Scottish line, overthrew the Pictish dynasty, he is said in the oldest chronicler who records the event to have acquired ‘the kingdom of Scone.’[154]