Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 1 (of 3), History and ethnologySkene, W. F. (William Forbes)
History
Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 1 (of 3), History and ethnology
Skene, W. F. (William Forbes)
Celts -- Scotland; Civilization, Celtic; Scotland -- Antiquities, Celtic; Scotland -- History -- To 1603
The Chronicle annexed to Nennius has, at 573, ‘Bellum Armterid,’ to
which a later MS. adds—‘Inter filios Elifer et Gwendoleu filium
Keidiau; in quo bello Gwendoleu cecidit: Merlinus insanus effectus
est.’—_An. Camb._ A more detailed account will be found in the
Proceedings of the S. A. Scot. (vol. vi. p. 91), in a notice of the
site of the battle of Ardderyd. The Welsh genealogies annexed to
Nennius, as well as those in the tract on the Gwyr Gogled, or men of
the north (_Four Ancient Books of Wales_, ii. 455), show us very
clearly the native and the Roman party. The former are in both
documents traced to Coil Hen, who is supposed to have given his name
to the district of Kyle in Ayrshire, and to them belonged both Eliffer
and Gwendolew. The latter are brought by both from Dungual Hen, or the
aged, but in this document he is made grandson of Maxim Guletic, or
Maximus the emperor; but in the former and older account he is
grandson of Ceretic Guletic, whose pedigree is traced from Confer or
Cynfor, the reputed father of Constantine, who usurped the empire in
406. This Ceretic, the Guletic or leader of the North Britons, being
four generations earlier than Rhydderch, must have lived in the middle
of the fifth century, and I do not hesitate to identify him with the
Coroticus to whom St. Patrick addressed his letter written between 432
and 493. It is addressed ‘ad Christianos Corotici Tyranni subditos.’
It is to be given to his soldiers, ‘tradenda militibus mittenda
Corotici.’ He will not call them his fellow-citizens (civibus meis),
St. Patrick being a native of Strathclyde—sed civibus dæmoniorum. He
calls them ‘Socii Scotorum atque Pictorum apostatarum’—the Scots and
the apostate Picts of this region. And again he says that his sheep
have been plundered by robbers—‘jubente Corotico ... traditor
Christianorum in manus Scottorum et Pictorum;’ and again that ‘ingenui
homines Christiani in servitute redacti sunt, præsertim
indignissimorum pessimorum apostatarumque Pictorum.’ It shows
Coroticus as the Guletic, or one of the Tyranni who succeeded the
Romans in command of soldiers, and in close contact with apostate
Picts. This falling off of the Britons and Picts will be further
illustrated in another part of this work. For a more detailed account
of the Men of the North, see the _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, vol.
i. chap. x., and the genealogical tables there given. Among the
descendants of Dungual Hen will be found another grandson, Nud, also
called Hael or liberal, whose son Dryan fought at Ardderyd; and at
Yarrow, in the centre of the districts more especially connected with
the Roman party, a stone has been found with the following
inscription, part of which only can be read:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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