Note 409 — Chapter VI · THE KINGDOM OF SCONE.

Mors Tuathalain Abbas Cindrighmonaigh.—Tigh. The events of the reign of this Hungus, including the foundation of St. Andrews, are, by the artificial system by which this part of the history has been manipulated, removed back to the fourth century; but as a war with a Saxon king at that early period was too monstrous, that part of the legend is transferred to a later Hungus. A chronicle, however, annexed to a MS. of Wynton, gives us very nearly the true date. ‘The zeire of God sevyn hunder lxi., ye relikis of Sanct Androw ye apostle com in Scotland’ (Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 387). Adhelstan, with whom the battle was fought, is supposed to have given his name to Athelstaneford on the Tyne in East Lothian. If the name is historical, and not merely taken from the later Athelstane who invaded Scotland in the tenth century, it must have belonged to a ‘dux’ or commander under the king of Northumbria, and the name of Aedlsing occurs in the genealogies of the Bernician family annexed to Nennius about this time, who may be the person meant.