[109] _Boece_, bk. 11, c. 8. _Fordun_, l. 10, c. 17. Drumlay is characteristically explained to mean (in good Lowland Scotch) _Droun-it-lay!_ The whole description is transferred by Boece to the reign of Duncan the First, the _Rex Noricus_ of Bowyer assuming the name of Sueno. [110] As Kenneth was the contemporary of the Anglo-Saxon Edgar, it is not to be supposed that he has escaped the claims of the Norman writers, and accordingly, at a time when he was harrying Cumberland, he figures in their pages as an attendant at the court of Edgar at Chester, forming one of a a crew of eight “underkings,” who in token of humble submission rowed the king’s barge in a triumphal procession on the Dee. During another visit to the English court at Lincoln, a crafty suggestion of the Scottish king about the difficulty and trouble of defending Lothian, is rewarded by the gift of the province as a feudal fief, to be held by various acts of homage, amongst others on condition of carrying the crown on all state occasions, whilst manors are provided to cover the expenses of the royal vassal on his progresses towards the southern court! It is curious to remark the tone of increasing feudalism pervading the fabrications of each succeeding century. The composers of the fictions about Kenneth and Edgar, which are only to be found in the later chroniclers connected with St. Albans, have been even more than usually imaginative, and their transparent fabrications remain as a warning to the impartial historian to look with mistrust upon all claims connected with such a tissue of anachronism and fable. _V. Appendix L_, pt. 1. [111] Rathinveramon, “the fort at the mouth of the Almond” where it joins the Tay, is named as the place of his death in _Innes_, Ap. 5, the same locality as the “caput amnis Awyne” of Wynton, _v._ also _Tigh._ 997. It is said to have been the site of the ancient _Bertha_, and was swept away by the great flood at the close of the reign of William the Lion. [112] _Innes_, Ap. 5. _Wynton_, b. 6, c. 10. _An. Ult._ 1004. [113] _Sim. Dun. de obs. Dun._ (_Twysden_, p. 79). _An. Ult._ 1006. Through the error of some transcriber probably, these events are placed by Simeon in the year 969, when neither Malcolm nor Ethelred were reigning, nor was Ealdun bishop of Durham. The real date must have been in 1006, as the Ulster annals mention that in 1005 the Scots were defeated by the Saxons “with great slaughter of their nobles.” Fordun (l. 4, c. 43) has either mistaken this battle for the later one at Carham, or has unblushingly claimed it as a victory. Before the time of Canute the difference in titles of Eorl and Ealdorman, marked the different people over whom the possessor of the title was placed in authority. Oslac is addressed as _Eorl_, Ælfhere and Æthelwine as _Ealdormen_, in the Laws of Edgar, Sup. 15. [114] _Sim. Dun._, as above; _V. Appendix M_.