David E. Thornton

Edgar and the eight kings, AD 973: textus et dramatis personae

The purpose of the paper is to examine in detail the alleged submission by Welsh, Scottish and Scandinavian rulers to the English king Edgar at Chester in 973, and particularly the claim made in a number of Anglo-Norman chronicles that these rulers rowed Edgar up and down the River Dee as part of this submission. All relevant texts (both explicit descriptions and possible allusions) will be presented and analysed, and the identities of the Celtic and Scandinavian rulers will be considered. The paper will argue that the rowing episode is a post-Conquest fictional embellishment based on earlier Old English material, and that the meeting at Chester in 973 was a ‘peace summit’ rather than a straightforward submission.

Identifying Celts in the Past: A Methodology

This article examines the problem of identifying individuals within and between medieval historical sources, especially medieval Irish chronicles and genealogies. A content analysis of these two groups of document provides the basis for a numerical methodology for nominal record linkage. Comparisons and contrasts are made with the methods and techniques open to modern historians, and the characteristic nature of different types of primary source is emphasized.

Clann Eruilb: Irish or Scandinavian?

Among a number of early modern collections of Ui Neill genealogies are two pedigrees entitled Genelach Clainne Eruilb (‘Genealogy of the Descendants of Erulb’) which are of interest as they contain a relatively high proportion of Scandinavian personal names. The scheme of the two pedigrees, with dates supplied from the chronicles, can be set out diagramatically thus: Clann Eruilb evidently took its name from Erulb mac Murchada, who is the common ancestor of the two constituent lines. As recorded in the manuscripts, the pedigrees do not go back beyond Aed Allan mac Fergaile (king of Tara, 734–43) but could be extended to Eogan mac Neill Noigiallaig, eponymous ancestor of the Cenel nEogain kings of Ailech.