Note 498 — Chapter VII · THE KINGDOM OF ALBAN.

The Pictish Chronicle records this battle shortly thus, and claims the victory for the Scots:—‘In xviii. anno bellum Tinemore factum est inter Constantinum et Regnall et Scotti habuerunt victoriam.’ The Northumbrian and the Irish accounts differ both as to the scene and the result of the battle. The anonymous author of the history of St. Cuthbert, attributed to Simeon of Durham, has—‘Regenwaldus rex venit cum magna multitudine navium occupavitque terram Aldridi filii Eadulfi. Fugatus igitur Eldredus in Scottiam ivit, Constantini regis auxilium quæsivit, illum contra Regenwaldum regem apud Corebriege in prælium adduxit. In quo prælio, nescio quo peccato agente, paganus rex vicit, Constantinum fugavit, Scottos fudit,’ etc. Thus making Regnwald land in Bernicia, drive the lord of Bamborough to Scotland, who obtains assistance from Constantin, returns, and he and the Scots are beaten at Corbridge on the southern river Tyne. On the other hand, the Tract on the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill says that they went from Munster into Alban, and there gave battle to Constantin, in which both Regnall and Otter were slain (p. 35). The Ulster Annals say they were the Galls of Loch da Caech, expelled from Erin, and invaded the people of Alban, who prepared to meet them with the assistance of the Northern Saxons, and describes the battle as in the text. The author has endeavoured to reconcile the two accounts by placing the scene of the battle at the northern Tyne in East Lothian. The feature of St. Columba’s crozier being used as a standard is taken from the ‘Fragments of Annals,’ Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 406. See also Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, Introduction, p. xcix.