Note 337 — Chapter V · THE FOUR KINGDOMS.
Reading edition
Nam in primis annis ejus, tenero adhuc regno, populi bestiales Pictorum feroci animo subjectionem Saxonum despiciebant, et jugum servitutis a se abjicere minabantur, congregantes undique de utribus et folliculis Aquilonis innumeras gentes, quasi formicarum greges in æstate de tumulis ferventes, aggerem contra domum cadentem muniebant. Quo audito Rex Ecgfridus humilis in populis suis, magnanimus in hostes, statim equitatu exercito præparato, tarda molimina nesciens, sicut Judas Maccabæus in Deum confidens, parva manu populi Dei contra enormem et supra invisibilem hostem cum Bernhaeth subaudaci Regulo invasit, stragemque immensam populi subruit, duo flumina cadaveribus mortuorum replens, ita (quod mirum dictu est) ut supra siccis pedibus ambulantes, fugientium turbam occidentes persequebantur, et in servitutem redacti populi, usque ad diem occisionis regis, subjecti jugo captivitatis jacebant.—Eddii Vit. S. Wilf. c. xix. The name Bernhaeth has all the appearance of a Saxon name, and it is hardly possible to avoid the suspicion that he is the same person as the father of ‘Brectred dux regius Norndanhymbrorum,’ who was slain by the Picts in 698, and who is called by Tighernac, filius Bernith. He may have been the Anglic ruler over the subjected Picts who had joined them, and may have provoked the insurrection in order to make himself independent.