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THE NEW EDINBURGH HISTORY OF SCOTLAND THE NEW EDINBURGH HISTORY OF SCOTLAND GENERAL EDITOR: ROGER A. MASON NEHS2
FROM PICTLAND TO ALBA FROM PICTLAND TO ALBA, 789–1070 FROM PICTLAND TO ALBA 789–1070 789–1070 ALEX WOOLF ALEX WOOLF
In the 780s northern Britain was dominated by two great kingdoms – Pictavia, centred in north-eastern Scotland, and Northumbria, which straddled the modern Anglo-Scottish border. Within a hundred years both of these kingdoms had been thrown into chaos by the onslaught of the Vikings and within two hundred years they had become distant memories.
This book charts the transformation of the political landscape of northern Britain between the middle of the eighth and the middle of the eleventh centuries. Central to this narrative is the mysterious disappearance of the Picts and their language and the sudden rise to prominence of the Gaelic- speaking Scots who would replace them as the rulers of the North.
From Pictland to Alba pays close attention to the fragmentary sources which survive from this darkest period in Scottish history and guides readers past the pitfalls which beset the unwary traveller in these dangerous times. Many of the sources are presented in full and their value as witnesses are thoroughly explored and evaluated. Unlike most other volumes dealing with this period, this is a book which ‘shows its workings’ and encourages readers to reach their own conclusions about the origins of Scotland.
Alex Woolf is Lecturer in Early Scottish History at the University of St Andrews. ALEX WOOLF
Series cover design: River Design, Edinburgh Cover illustration: Photograph of the Hunterston Brooch, made around AD 700 and discovered in Hunterston, Ayrshire in the 1830s. © The Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland.
Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh 22 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.eup.ed.ac.uk ISBN 978 0 7486 1234 5 The New Edinburgh History of Scotland
From Pictland to Alba The New Edinburgh History of Scotland
General editor: Roger Mason, University of St Andrews Advisory editors: Dauvit Broun, University of Glasgow; Iain Hutchison, University of Stirling; Norman Macdougall, University of St Andrews; Nicholas Phillipson, University of Edinburgh
From Caledonia to Pictland to James Fraser, University of Edinburgh
From Pictland to Alba – Alex Woolf, University of St Andrews
Domination and Lordship – Richard Oram, University of Stirling
The Wars of Scotland – Michael Brown, University of St Andrews
The First Stewart Dynasty – Steve Boardman, University of Edinburgh
Scotland Re-formed – Jane Dawson, University of Edinburgh
Empire, Union and Reform – Roger Mason, University of St Andrews
Nation, State, Province, Empire – Ned Landsman, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Industry and Unrest – Iain Hutchison, University of Stirling
Impaled upon a Thistle –present Ewen Cameron, University of Edinburgh From Pictland to Alba ‒
Alex Woolf
Edinburgh University Press © Alex Woolf,
Edinburgh University Press Ltd George Square, Edinburgh
Typeset in / Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN (hardback) ISBN (paperback)
The right of Alex Woolf to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act .
Publisher’s acknowledgement Edinburgh University Press thanks Mercat Press, publishers of the Edinburgh History of Scotland,for permission to use The New Edinburgh History of Scotland as the title for this ten-volume series. Contents
Maps and Genealogical Tables vi Acknowledgements vii General Editor’s Preface ix Note on Spelling and Pronunciation xi Introduction Land and People: Northern Britain in the Eighth Century
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Chapter The Coming of the Vikings Chapter The Scaldingi and the Transformation of Northumbria Chapter Last Days of the Pictish Kingdom (–) Chapter The Grandsons of Cinaed and the Grandsons of Ímar Chapter The Later Tenth Century: A Turmoil of Warring Princes Chapter The Fall of the House of Alpín and the Moray Question
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Chapter Scandinavian Scotland Chapter Pictavia to Albania
TableofEvents Guide to Further Reading The Principal Medieval Chronicles used in this Volume Bibliography Index Maps and Genealogical Tables
Map I. Northern Britain and Ireland c. Map I. Northumbria and its principal churches Map I. Dál Riata Map . Scandinavia in the Viking age Map . The wanderings of St Cuthbert’s body in the late ninth century Map . Southumbria Map . Æ elstan’s campaign of Map . Suggested locations for the battle of Brunanburh, Map . The central transit zone of the Alpínid kingdom in the tenth and eleventh centuries Map . Gaelic Cenéla in the Alpínid kingdom Map . Anglo-Scottish relations c.
Table . Some Northumbrian kings of the later eight century Table . The Dál Riatan origins of the men of Alba Table . The Moray dynasty Table . Scandinavian kings of the early eleventh century Table . Cumbrian kings of Strathclyde Table . The descent of Gospatric son of Maldred Table . Congalach of Knowth and the kingship of Tara Table . The relationship between Magnus Haraldsson of Norway and Ingibjorg of Orkney Table . Comparison of generation lengths in Viking Age dynasties Table . The relationship of Thorsteinn to Sigur r Table . Thorfinnr the Mighty and his kinsmen Acknowledgements
I was first asked to write this book, volume two in a projected series, shortly after I had arrived in Scotland nearly a decade ago. As the new boy on the block, and a foreigner, I felt both flattered and overawed by the commission. Since then I have taught myself the history of Scotland in the early and central middle ages through the process of teaching others, principally undergraduates first in the University of Edinburgh and, since , in the University of St Andrews. I owe a great deal to the gen- erosity and professionalism of my immediate colleagues in both these universities. Above all, however, I owe my introduction to and education in early Scottish history to my friends Dauvit Broun, Thomas Clancy, Stephen Driscoll, Katherine Forsyth and Simon Taylor who have encouraged and helped me at every stage of the way. Over the years all of them have been drawn, one by one, into the employ of the University of Glasgow. To this list of ‘usual suspects’ can be added my successor at Edinburgh, James Fraser. Since moving to St Andrews I have gained a great deal from the friendship and support of Barbara Crawford of the Strathmartine Centre, whose knowledge of Scandinavian Scotland is second to none and who, perhaps unusually for an academic, finds it easy to agree to differ. Furth of Scotland, mention must be made of Catherine Swift and Colmán Etchingham who for some years have been the main organisers of the Irish Conference of Medievalists at which many of the ideas presented in this volume were first aired; as both facilitators and critics Cathy and Colmán deserve thanks. Conversations with Lesley Abrams and David Parsons have, over the years, greatly enhanced my understanding of many aspects of the early middle ages but especially those relating to Scandinavian settlement. In the closing stages of the work mention must be made of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, who funded a period of leave during viii which much of the final draught of the book was completed. My colleagues Roger Mason, the general editor of the series, and Michael Brown, author of the only volume in the series to have appeared at the time of writing, have given invaluable guidance as to the final shape of the book. Dauvit Broun and Simon Taylor have read the entire text in manu- script and contributed enormously to the finished product. Finally, I must make mention of two people who were involved at the beginning of the project. John Davey, lately retired, conceived the project and per- suaded Edinburgh University Press to take it up. Throughout his career in publishing he was a great supporter of serious works on Scottish history and cultural heritage. The late Patrick Wormald was one of the original publisher’s readers for my initial proposal for this volume. His support and encouragement at this time and at another very difficult point in my career deserve my enduring gratitude. I am truly sorry that he did not live to see this book. General Editor’s Preface
The purpose of the New Edinburgh History of Scotland is to provide up- to-date and accessible narrative accounts of the Scottish past. Its authors will make full use of the explosion of scholarly research that has taken place over the last three decades, and do so in a way that is sensitive to Scotland’s regional diversity as well as to the British, European and transoceanic worlds of which Scotland has always been an integral part. Chronology is fundamental to understanding change over time and Scotland’s political development will provide the backbone of the narra- tive and the focus of analysis and explanation. The New Edinburgh History will tell the story of Scotland as a political entity, but will be sen- sitive to broader social, cultural and religious change and informed by a richly textured understanding of the totality and diversity of the Scots’ historical experience. Yet to talk of the Scots – or the Scottish nation – is often misleading. Local loyalty and regional diversity have more fre- quently characterised Scotland than any perceived sense of ‘national’ sol- idarity. Scottish identity has seldom been focused primarily, let alone exclusively, on the ‘nation’. The modern discourse of nationhood offers what is often an inadequate and inappropriate vocabulary in which to couch Scotland’s history. The authors in this series will show that there are other and more revealing ways of capturing the distinctiveness of Scottish experience. Of no period is this more true than of the three centuries between 789 and 1070 tackled in this volume by Alex Woolf, a period when Scotland as we know it did not exist, when Northern Britain was peopled by at least five distinct linguistic groups, and when Viking invasions sparked intense and often violent competition between rival ethnic groups for political and territorial dominance. Moreover, the scarcity of contempo- rary sources makes all the more challenging the task of constructing a x political narrative that makes sense of the demise of a once-powerful Pictish kingdom and the emergence of the Gaelic-speaking Scots of Dál Riata as Kings of Alba and the dominant power in North Britain. This truly is the ‘dark age’ of Scottish history. Alex Woolf rises to this chal- lenge with style, not only guiding the reader through the available sources, but also reinterpreting them, drawing on available archaeologi- cal evidence and a wealth of comparative European perspectives to inter- rogate them as never before. The result is a remarkably innovative account of the history of Northern Britain that, ignoring modern ‘national’ preconceptions, and reading history forwards rather than back- wards, provides a ground-breaking explanation of the formation and development of the Scottish kingdom of Alba in terms of its complex interactions with contemporary Anglo-Saxon, Gaelic and Scandinavian polities and cultures. Authoritative and illuminating, this is an up-to-date and compelling account of what is undoubtedly the most obscure period of Scotland’s history. Note on Spelling and Pronunciation
In the period covered by this book at least five different languages were spoken as vernaculars in the territories that now make up Scotland and many of the written records of the age were produced in a sixth language, Latin. In the representation of personal names (and a handful of techni- cal terms) I have tried to adopt a consistent policy.
Names which were current in Gaelic are represented in the standard Middle Irish form which represents the established written forms of the age. This rule has been adopted partly because it is the closest we can come to a true representation of the names as they would have sounded to the people who bore them, and partly because the vast majority of the source materials for Scottish Gaels in this period were written in Ireland and deal largely with Irish affairs. Since Irish historiography has long since abandoned the use of modern anglicised forms for early medieval names, such as Angus and Donald for Óengus and Domnall, and since we are dependent upon editions of chronicles and other medieval texts undertaken by students of Irish history it is only sensible to follow their practice in representing medieval names. Early Gaelic orthography is not simple but what follows presents a basic guide. At the beginning of words most consonants have the same value as in modern English with the caveat that ‘c’ is pronounced as ‘k’. In the middle or at the end of words, however, the following consonants tend to have modified values as indicated: xii
c g p b t d b v d [where ‘ ’ the sound at the end of English ‘with’] g y [ as in ‘youth’] m v f [ ] [that is, it becomes silent] In some compound names the initial consonant of a name is preceded by a lower case consonant, for example, Cenél nGabráin meaning ‘kindred of Gabrán’, in such cases the ‘true’ initial is replaced by the lower case prefix so, in this case we pronounce ‘Kenél Navráin’. The digraph ‘th’ is voiced much as in modern English and ‘ch’ as in ‘loch’. ‘S’ is sounded as ‘sh’ before ‘i’ and ‘e’. Accents on vowels signify their length and also give some indication of where to lay stress in the word. If the letter ‘e’ appears at the end of a name, following a consonant it should be pronounced (unlike English ‘stone’ or ‘lime’). Some common names: Domnall Dovnal Oengus Oinyus Cinaed Kiney Aed Ey Mael Sechnaill Malshechnal There is also something called an ‘epenthetic’ vowel which appears between an ‘l’ or ‘r’ and an immediately following consonant. It is little more than a pause for breath and is perhaps best represented by an apos- trophe: Alba Al’ba, Colmán Kol’maan.
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The British Celtic language was widely spoken across Britain and in northwestern France during the early middle ages. This language is the ancestral language of modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton, although at this period most its dialects were not distinct enough to be classed as sep- arate languages. Some historians of Scotland and northern England have, in recent decades, begun the habit of describing the British spoken in the north as ‘Cumbric’ but this is not really justified or necessary and one xiii suspects that it is to some extent motivated by nationalistic concerns that the Welsh of today might claim northern British history and literature for themselves. Almost all the records of medieval British, barring a few names here and there, survive in manuscripts made in Wales in the central or later middle ages and thus it is sensible to keep in line with modern Welsh historiography, as we have kept in line with Irish historiography, to make cross-referencing easier. Unfortunately the Welsh tradition, in con- trast to the Irish, has been to modernise name forms. Thus, in this book I have followed different conventions for the representation of British and Gaelic. In doing so, however, I have been maintaining the policy followed by the Scottish Historical Review, Scotland’s premier periodical in this field. Modern Welsh orthography is extremely consistent. Most letters are sounded as in English with the following exceptions: c k [without exception] f v ff f ll the sound in the middle of the word ‘antler’ dd u ‘i’ as in ‘linen’ w the vowel sound in ‘cook’ unless followed by a vowel in which case it has the English value y [the neutral vowel, or ‘schwa’, found at the end of ‘snooker’] unless there are two ‘y’s in a word in which case the second is the vowel in ‘with’ [thus Aberystwyth ‘Aber stwith’] ch ‘ch’ in loch rh ‘hr’ Some common names: Dyfnwal D vnooal [the Gaelic name Domnall is probably a bor- rowing of this name] Owain O ‘wine’ Rhydderch Hr erch
English and Irish writers of the early middle ages seem to have believed that the Picts had their own language which was distinct from British. Unfortunately, no extended texts written in the language of the Picts xiv survive and the place-names, personal names and a handful of loanwords which do survive are indistinguishable from British. In the s Kenneth Jackson suggested that there had been two Pictish languages, one a dialect of British and the other of non-Celtic origin. This view is not as popular as it once was, although it is not entirely without support- ers. In this book I have chosen to describe the British spoken in Pictavia as ‘Pictish British’, on the analogy of ‘Scottish Gaelic’, thus stressing both its common heritage with British and its distinctive character. The possible relationship between Pictish British and other British dialects is discussed at length in Chapter , here it is only necessary to discuss briefly its orthography. Our understanding of Pictish British orthogra- phy is based almost exclusively on the Pictish version of the Pictish king- list. The one liberty I have taken in this book is to represent the common letter cluster ‘uu’ as ‘w’. Below are some Pictish names in the three Celtic orthographies:
Pictish British British (Welsh) Gaelic Onuist Ungust Oengus Wrguist Gwrwst Fergus Wen Owain Eogan(án) Bridei Brydw Brude Naiton Neithon Nechtan
Most of the sound values in Old English, the language of the Anglo- Saxons, were similar to those in modern English. It is generally the case that historians of the Anglo-Saxon period standardise name forms to the Late West Saxon spelling system and that pattern has been followed here. It should be noted, however, that when names end in ‘e’, like Oswine, the final ‘e’ should be voiced and does not effect the preceding ‘i’ – this is ‘Os’ ‘win’ ‘e’ not ‘Os’ modern English ‘wine’. The major differences lies in the existence of certain characters not retained in modern English: