Note 317 — Chapter V · THE FOUR KINGDOMS.
Reading edition
642. Domnall-brecc in cath Srathacauin in fine anni in Decembre interfectus est xv. regni sui ab Ohan rege Britonum.—Tigh. The Annals of Ulster have in the same year ‘Domhnall-breacc in bello Sraith Cairinn in fine anni in Decembre interfectus est ab Hoan rege Britonum.’ The upper part of the Vale of the Carron, through which the river flows after rising in the Fintry hills, is called Strathcarron, but it also bore the name of Strathcawin. Thus in the Morton Chartulary there is a charter by Alexander II., which mentions ‘Dundaf et Strathkawan que fuerunt foresta nostra’ (Ap. to Pref., vol. i. p. xxxiv). Dundaf adjoins Strathcarron. The letter h in Ohan or Hoan is redundant. The name is Oan, a form of Owen, or Eugein. There is in the Welsh poem of the Gododin a stanza which obviously relates to this event. It is repeated in the poem with some verbal variations, but it may be thus rendered:—
I saw the array that came from Pentir (Kintyre);
It was as victims for the sacrifice they descended.
I saw the two out of their town they did fall,
And the men of Nwython brought destruction;
I saw the men beaten or wounded who came with the dawn,
And the head of Dyvnwal Vrych ravens devoured it.
The author is indebted to Professor Evans of New York for pointing out that Pentir is the Welsh equivalent of Cindtire, or Kintyre, and for correcting the erroneous rendering of the first lines in the Four Ancient Books of Wales.—See Archæologia Cambrensis for April 1874, p. 122.
Now this Oan who slew Domnall Breacc is evidently the Eugein who appears in the Welsh genealogies attached to Nennius as the ancestor of the later kings of Alclyde—(see Chron. Picts and Scots, Pref. xcv), and who was son of Beli, son of Neithon, who is obviously the Nwython of the poem, and by his men the Strathclyde Britons are meant. The Annals of Ulster have, at 649, ‘Cocat huae Naedain et Gartnait meic Accidain’ (war of the grandson of Naedan and Gartnaidh son of Accidan). The grandson of Naedan was no doubt Oan or Eugein, and his opponent a Pict.