[46] _An. Ult._ 856. Laxdæla Saga and Landnamaboc in _Col. de Reb. Alb._, p. 65 to 69. The _Gallgael_ must be distinguished from their rivals the _Oirir-Gael_, or Gael of the coasts (_i.e._, of _Argyle_). Mr. Skene (_Highlanders_, pt. 2, c. 2) considers them to have been identical, on the strength of a passage which, I think, scarcely bears him out. When the fleet of Turlough O’Connor ravaged Tir Conal and Inch Eogan in 1154 (A. F. M.), the clan Eogan sent to hire “Longus Gallgaidhel, Arann, Cinntire, Manann et Cantair Alban” ships of the Gallgael, Arran, Kintyre, Man, and “the coasts of Alban,” _i.e._ Oirir-Gael. Gallgael must here mean the Islesmen. The Orkneyinga Saga (_Antiq. Celt.-Scan._, p. 180) calls the Caithness men Gaddgedlar or Gallgael; in short, it was the name of the two races when blended, and in later days there was a continual struggle for superiority between the Oirir-Gael and the Gallgael--represented by the families of Somarled and of the later kings of Man,--in which the former were ultimately successful, uniting at length under one head the dominion of Argyle and the Isles. There is a slight discrepancy in the accounts of Ketil contained in the Sagas. He was leader of the Gallgael when Harfager was an infant, and appears to have succeeded Godfrey MacFergus, whose name betokens a mixed descent, and who died in 853 (_A. F. M._, 851). The Gallgael possessed the islands before the time of Harfager. [47] _Ekkialsbakka_, according to Mr. Skene “the Mounth;” according to Johnstone, the Ochil Hills, appears to be rightly translated by Mr. Laing (_Heimskringla_, vol. 1., p. 291); “the banks of the Ekkial, or Oikell, a river which still marks the limits of Sutherland, the ancient _Sudrland_ of the Orkney Jarls. [48] _Antiq. Celt.-Scand._ (_Landnamaboc_), p. 20, 21. [49] _Chron. Sax._ 875. Halfdan was a brother of Ivar. According to _Sim. Dun. Hist. Dun._, l. 2, c. 13, he was driven from Northumbria very soon after he settled there, and perished miserably, slain by “his own people.” He was probably the Albdan Toshach of the Dugall, who was killed in battle by the Fingall in 877 at Loch Cuan, or Strangford Lough. _An. Ult._ 876. [50] Compare _An. Ult._ 874 with _Chron._ 3, _Innes’ Ap._ “Thorstein ruled as king over these districts, Caithness and Sutherland, Ross, Moray, and more than the half of Scotland”--_Landnamaboc_. “Thorstein at length became reconciled with the King of Scots, and obtained possession of the half of Scotland, over which he became king.”--_Laxdæla Saga_ (_Col. de Reb. Alb._, p. 66 to 69). Such were the results of Thorstein’s victory, which were evidently admitted by the old chronicle in its brief notice, “Normanni annum integrum degerunt in Pictavia.” The half of Scotland plainly refers to the ancient territories of the Northern Picts.