Comment

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 4:29pm

part of Scotland, and opposite each generic term in Scotch topography is marked--1st, if it occurs in Ireland, and how often; 2d, if it occurs in Wales; and 3d, I have marked the number of times it occur in each district of Scotland from the Index of Retours.

On examining this table, it will be seen that there are five terms peculiar to the districts occupied by the Picts. These are Auchter, Pit, Pitten, For, and Fin. Now none of these five terms are to be found in Welsh topography at all, and For and Fin are obviously Gaelic forms.

It is necessary, however, in examining these terms, which may be called Pictish, to ascertain their old form. Auchter appears to be the Gaelic Uachter, upper; and as such we have it in Ireland, and in the same form, as in Scotland Ochtertire, in Ireland Uachtertire. It does not occur in Wales.

The old form of Pit and Pitten, as appears from the Book of Deer, is Pette, and it seems to mean a portion of land, as it is conjoined with proper names, as Pette MacGarnait, Pette Malduib. But it also appears connected with Gaelic specific terms, as Pette an Mulenn, the Pette of the Mill, and in a charter of the Chartulary of St. Andrews, of the church of Migvie, the terra ecclesiæ is said to be vocatus Pettentaggart--"an taggart" being the Gaelic form of the expression "of the priest."

The old forms of For and Fin are Fothuir and Fothen. The old form of Forteviot is Fothuirtabaicht, and of Finhaven is Fothen-evin. The first

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of these words, however, discloses a very remarkable dialectic difference. Fothuir becomes For, as Fothuir-tabacht is Forteviot; Fothuir-duin is Fordun; but Fothuir likewise passes into Fetter, as Fothuiresach becomes Fetteresso; and these two forms are found side by side, Fordun and Fetteresso being adjacent parishes. The form of For extends, from the Forth to the Moray Firth--that of Fetter from the Esk, which separates Forfar and Kincardine, to the Moray Firth.

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 3:54pm

An examination of some other generic terms will disclose a perfectly analogous process of change. The name for a river is Amhuin. The word is the same as the Latin Amnis. The old Gaelic form is Amuin, and the m by aspiration, becomes mh, whence Amhuin, pronounced Avon. In the oldest forms of the language the consonants are not aspirated, but we have these two forms, both the old unaspirated form and the more recent aspirated form, in our topography, lying side by side in the two parallel rivers which bound Linlithgowshire--the Amond and the Avon. There is also the Amond in Perthshire. We know from the Pictish Chronicle that, the old name was Aman, and the Avon, with its aspirated m, is mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle. It is a further proof that Inver is as old as Aber in the eastern districts, that we find Aman in its old form conjoined with Inver in the Pictish Chronicle in the name "Inveraman."

In Dumbartonshire we find the names Lomond and Leven together. We have Loch Lomond and Ben

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[paragraph continues] Lomond, with the river Leven flowing out of the loch through Strathleven; but we have the same names in connection in Fifeshire, where we have Loch Leven with the two Lomonds on the side of it, and the river Leven flowing from it through Strathleven. This recurrence of the same words in connection would be unaccountable, were it not in example of the same thing. Leven comes from the Gaelic Leamhan, signifying an elm-tree, but the old form is Leoman, and the m becomes aspirated in a latter stage of the language and forms Leamhan, pronounced Leven. Here the old form adheres to the mountain, while the river adopts the more modern.

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 3:53pm

A curious illustration of two different terms lying side by side, which are derived from the same word undergoing different changes, will be found in Forfarshire, where the term Llan for a church appears, as in Lantrethin. It is a phonetic law between Latin and Celtic, that words beginning in the former with pl are in the latter ll. The word Planum, in Latin signifying any cultivated spot, in contradistinction from a desert spot, and which, according to Ducange, came to signify Cimiterium, becomes in Celtic Llan, the old meaning of which was a fertile spot, as well as a church. In the inquisition, in the reign of David I., into the possessions of the See of Glasgow, we find the word in its oldest form in the name Planmichael, now Carmichael; and as we find Ballin corrupted into Ban, and Ballindoch becomes Bandoch, so Plan becomes corrupted into Pan, and we find it in this form likewise

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in Forfarshire, Panmure and Panbride. In the Lothians and the Merse this word has become Long, as in Longnewton and Longniddrie.

The Celtic topography of Scotland thus resembles a palimpsest, in which an older form is found behind the more modern writing. I shall not lengthen this chapter by going through other examples. The existence of the phenomenon is sufficiently indicated by those I have brought forward, and I shall conclude by stating shortly the results of this investigation.

1st, In order to draw a correct inference from the names of places as to the ethnological character of the people who imposed them, it is necessary to obtain the old form of the name before it became corrupted, and to analyse it according to the philological laws of the language to which it belongs.

2d, A comparison of the generic terms affords the best test for discriminating between the different dialects to which they belong, and for this comparison it is necessary to have a correct table of their geographical distribution.

3d, Difference between the generic terms in different parts of the country may arise from their belonging to a different stage of the same language, or from a capricious selection of different synonyms by separate tribes of the same race.

4th, In order to afford a test for discriminating between dialects, the generic terms must contain within them those sounds which are differently affected by the phonetic laws of each dialect.

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5th, Applying this test, the generic terms do not show the existence of a Cymric language north of the Forth.

6th, We find in the topography of the north-east of Scotland traces of an older and of a more recent form of Gaelic--the one preferring labials and dentals, and the other gutturals; the one hardening the-consonants into tenues--the other softening them by aspiration; the one having Abers and Invers--and the other having Invers alone; the one a low Gaelic dialect--the other a high Gaelic dialect; the one I conceive the language of the Picts--the other that of the Scots. 1

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 3:47pm

CUMBRIA AND THE MEN OF THE NORTH.

THE districts comprehended at an early period under the name of Cumbria were of considerable extent; and, as its name indicates, occupied by a Cymric population.

Joceline, who wrote about the year 1180, in his life of Kentigern, states that the limits of his bishopric were coextensive with those of the "regio Cambrensis," and extended from the Roman wall to the "flumen Fordense;" but it originally extended even further south than this, for Joceline was judging by the extent of the diocese of Glasgow, and Carlisle and the district surrounding it had, after the Norman Conquest of England, been formed into an earldom, and in 1132 erected into the diocese of Carlisle. In a document printed in the Iolo MSS., the extent of many of the old Welsh districts is given, and the district of Teyrnllwg is said to have extended from Aerven to Argoed Derwennydd--that is, to the Forest upon the Derwent. This river, which falls into the Western Sea at Workington, now divides the diocese of Chester from that of Carlisle; and as soon as we pass the Derwent, dedications of churches to Kentigern commence. The district south of the Derwent had very early come under the power of the kings of Northumberland,

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and the independent states of the Cymry probably extended from the Derwent and from Stanmore to the Clyde, including Westmoreland (with the exception of Kendal), and the central districts in Scotland, of Teviotdale, Selkirk, and Tweeddale. It comprehended what afterwards formed the dioceses of Glasgow and Carlisle; and its Cymric population appears as a distinct people, even as late as the battle of the Standard, in 1130, where they formed one of the battalions in King David's army, consisting of the Cumbrenses and Tevidalenses.

They appear to have been composed of numerous small states under their petty kings.

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 3:46pm

There is a document in one of the Hengwrt MSS., transcribed about 1300, with the title of Bonhed Gwyr y Gogledd, or Genealogies of the Men of the North--a name used to designate these Northern Cymry. It gives the pedigrees of twelve families, and they fall into three groups--one consisting of six families, whose descent is traced from Ceneu, son of Coel; the second, of five families descended from Dyfawal Hen, or the aged, grandson of Macsen Guledig, the Roman Emperor; and the third, of one family connected with the north, apparently through the female line. The first group again falls into two branches respectively derived from two sons of Ceneu, son. of Coel, Gorwst Ledlwm, and Mar or Mor. To Merchion Gul, the son of Gorwst Ledlwm, are given two sons--Cynvarch, the father of Urien and Elidir Lydanwyn, father of Llywarch Hen. To Garthwys

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or Arthwys, son of Mor, are given four sons--Ceidiaw, the father of Gwenddolew, Nudd, and Cov; Elivir Gosgorddvawr, or of the large retinue, the father of Gwrgi and Perodur; Pabo Post Prydain, or the pillar of Britain, the father of Sawyl Benuchel; Dunawd Vawr, and Carwyd; and Cynvelyn, the grandfather, by his son Cynwyd Cynwydion, of Clyddno Eiddyn, Cynan Genhir, Cadrod Calchvynydd, and Cynvelyn Drwsgl.

The second group, consisting of the descendants of Dyfnwal Hen, also falls into four branches, descended of four sons of Dyfnwal Hen:--Cedig, father of Tudwal Tudclud, the father of Rydderch Hael, Senyllt, father of Nudd Hael, and Servan, father of Mordav; Garwynwyn, father of Caurdav, father of Gwyddno Garanhir; Aeddan Vradog; and Gorwst Briodawr, father of Elidr Mwynvawr.

The genealogies annexed to Nennius in 977 do not greatly differ from this. In the first group of families descended from Coel they add the pedigrees of two additional families--that of Gwallawg ap Leenawg and of Morcant. In the second group, the most important variation is that the descent pf Dyfnwal Hen, the common ancestor is not brought from Macsen Guledig, but from a Caredig Guledic, whose pedigree is taken back to a Confer the Rich; and that the descent of the later kings of Strathclyde from Dyfnwal Hen is given.

Adding, therefore, the two additional families descended from Coel, we have eight in the first group, and five in the second--in all, thirteen; and the following tables will show their connection:--

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 2:21pm

this kingdom of Strathclyde is meant, appears from the Chronicle of 977, now a contemporary record, which has, in 946, "Strat Clut vastata est a Saxonibus."

It is unnecessary for the purpose of this work to follow the history further. Suffice it to say that, in the reign of Malcolm Canmore, Carlisle and that part of Cumbria south of the Solway Firth belonged to the Norman conqueror, and was erected into an earldom for one of his followers; that, on the death of Edgar, that part of it which lay north of the Solway Firth was given to his brother, Prince David, and on his accession to the throne in 1124 became united to the Scottish crown; but that its population remained a distinct element in the population of Scotland for some time after, under the names of Cumbrenses, Brits, and Strathclyde Wealas.

---

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 2:04pm

Tywysogion has the following entry in 890, which, if containing a true fact, will explain this.

"The men of Strathclyde who would not unite with the Saxons were obliged to leave their country and go to Gwynned, and Anarawd (king of Wales) gave them leave to inhabit the country taken from him by the Saxons, comprising Maelor, the vale of Clwyd, Rhyvoniog, and Tegeingl, if they could drive the Saxons out, which they did bravely. And the Saxons came on that account a second time against Anarawd, and fought the action of Cymryd, in which the Cymry conquered the Saxons and drove them wholly out of the country; and so Gwynned was freed from the Saxons by the might of the 'Gwyr y Gogledd' or Men of the North."

That the British line of the kings of Strathclyde came to an end very soon is certain, for the Pictish Chronicle tells us that on the death of Donald "rex Britannorum," who must have died between 900 and 918, "Dunenaldus filiis Ede rex eligitur." He was brother to Constantine, the king of the Scots, and thus the Scottish line was established in the kingdom of Strathclyde. It must have been so much weakened by the loss of Kyle and the other regions wrested from it by the Saxons, and the attacks upon it by the Norwegian pirates, that we can well believe that, a large portion of the population fled to Wales for refuge, and that the influence of the new and powerful kingdom of the Scots led to a prince of that race being placed upon the throne.

In 946 it was overrun and conquered by Edmund, king of Wessex. He bestowed it upon Malcolm, king of the Scots, and from this time it became an appanage of the Scottish crown. The Saxon historians name the region conquered by Edmund as Cumbria, but that

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 2:04pm

In 760 the Welsh Chronicle records the death of Dungual, son of Teudwr. From this date there is a blank in the kings of Alclyde for an entire century--the first notice we have of them again being in 872, when Arthga "rex Britonum Strathcluaide" is slain, "Consilio Constantini filii Cinadon." This Constantine was king of the Scots, and Arthga or Arthgal appears in the Welsh genealogy as descendant in the fourth degree from Dungual. Alclyde is recorded, however, in the Annals of Ulster as having been burnt in 780 and besieged 870 by the Norwegian pirates, who, after a siege of four months, took and destroyed it. According to the Welsh Chronicle, "Arx Alclut a gentilibus fracta est." Strathclyde was again ravaged by them in 875. Arthgal appears to have been succeeded by his son Run, who is called in the Pictish Chronicle "rex Britonum," and said to be the father of Eocha, who reigned along with Grig, by a daughter of Kenneth MacAlpin. This is the last name given in the Welsh genealogy, and one of the copies of the Brut y 

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 2:01pm

Angles had subjected, it would appear that the Pictish population south of the Forth still remained subject to them. The Picts of Manann had come under their power as early as the reign of Edwyn, and therefore still remained within the Anglic kingdom, as appears from their subsequently rebelling against its kings; and the Picts of Galloway seem likewise to have remained under their subjection, as Bede tells us that in 731, when he closes his history, four bishops presided in the province of the Northumbrians, one of whom was Pecthelm in the church which is called Candida Casa, or Whitehorn, "which," he says, "from the increased number of believers, has lately become an additional Episcopal see, and has him for its first prelate." This implies that Whitehorn still remained in the province of the Northumbrians; and in 750, we are told, in the chronicle annexed to Bede, that Ecbert, king of Northumbria, "Campum Cyil cum aliis regionibus suo regno addidit;" that is, Kyle and Carrick, which lay between it and Galloway, and possibly Cuningham, forming modern Ayrshire.

In the same year, however, a great battle is recorded both in the Welsh and the Irish Annals between the Britons and the Picts, in which the Picts were defeated, and Talorgan, brother of Angus, the king of the Picts, slain. The place where this battle was fought is termed in the Chronicle of 977, Mocetauc, in the Brut y Saeson, Magdawc, and in the Brut y Tywysogion, Maesydawc. Maes is the Welsh equivalent for Magh in Gaelic, meaning a plain, and the place meant was no doubt

p. 181

[paragraph continues] Mugdock in the Parish of Strathblane, Stirlingshire, the ancient seat of the Earls of Lennox. In old charters it is spelt Magadavac. In the same year, according to the Welsh Chronicle, and two years after, according to Tighernac, died Teudwr, son of Bile, king of Alclyde, and in 756 Eadbert, king of Northumbria, and Angus, king of the Picts, appear to have united their forces, and we are told by Simeon of Durham that they le d their army "ad urbem Alewith, ibique Brittones inde conditionem receperunt, prima die mensis Augusti."

Comment by Ghillie Dhu on June 6, 2019 at 12:44pm

The great defeat of the combined forces of the Mercians and Britons in 655 by Oswy, king of Northumbria, in which Penda, king of the Mercians, was slain, and Cadwallawn escaped with his life, terminated the power of the latter, and led to the subjection of the Cumbrian Britons to the kings of Northumbria, and two years afterwards the Annals of Ulster record the death of Gureit or Guriad, king of Alclyde. The subjection of the Britons to the Angles lasted till the year 686, when Ecfrid, king of Northumbria, was slain in the battle of Dunnichen, and during that time no king of Alclyde is recorded. It was also during this time that Ecfrid granted to Lindisfarne, Carlisle, with territory to the extent of fifteen miles round it; but the result of the defeat and death of Ecfrid was, as Bede tells us, that a part of the Britons recovered their liberty, and that this part was the British kingdom of Cumbria or Strathclyde appears from this, that the kings of Alclyde again appear in the Annals as independent kings.

In 694 died Domnall MacAuin rex Alochluaithe, and, in 722, Beli filius Elfin rex Alochluaithe. In the Welsh pedigrees annexed to Nennius, a genealogy is given, in which this Beli, son of Elfin, appears, and his descent is there given from Dyfnwal Hen, the ancestor of Rydderch Hael, and stem-father of the second group of northern families.

Although the Britons of Strathclyde had recovered, their liberty, and the Picts had regained that part of the "Provincia Pictorum" north of the Forth which the

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