De Situ Albanie

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De Situ Albanie (dSA) is the name given to the first of seven Scottish documents found in the so-called Poppleton Manuscript, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. It was probably written sometime between 1202 and 1214, in the reign of the William the Lion, by a French-speaking resident of Scotland (north of the Forth), as an introduction to the compilation.

The title is taken from the opening words of the piece, which reads:

"De Situ Albanie que in se figuram hominis habet quomodo fuit primitus is septem regionibus diuisa quibusque nominibus antiquitus sit uocata et a quibus inhabitata"

Contents

[edit] De Situ Albanie & The Seven Kingdoms

The piece proceeds to carry out the purpose highlighted in the introduction. It recounts that Albanectus, son of Brutus, had seven sons; and that, on his death, the kingdom was split into 7 parts, each one corresponding to a son. The writer lists the seven ancient kingdoms/sons of Albania/Albanectus.

LIST ONE (or DSa)

The author then tells us that Bishop Andreas of Caithness, a Gael, related another list. This list contradicts the first, as when, for instance, the seventh kingdom in Andreas' list is Argyll rather than Caithness.

LIST TWO (or DSb)

  • Forth to Tay
  • Forth to Hilef
  • Hilef to Dee
  • Dee to Spey
  • Spey to Druimm nAlban
  • Moray and Ross
  • Argyll (Arregaithel)

The author shows no awareness that the two lists contradict each other. Since the author was probably a Scotto-Norman, this should not surprise us. There have been suggestions that the first list corresponds to a list of Bishoprics, leaving the second as more authentic. What is certain is that the medieval Scots did have legends of seven ancient kingdoms.

[edit] Reputation & Status

The author' motive for writing the dSA and compiling the Scottish Poppleton remain unknown, although he probably can be seen in the tradition of Geoffrey of Monmouth. David Howlett has recently put a case forward that the structure of the text is based on a biblical-literary paradigm, but this is extremely far-fetched and has not been accepted.

In the past, the dSA was regarded as an anachronism, and hence as a window on the Gaelic or Pictish past. It has frequently been used as a source for the so-called seven ancient Kingdoms of Pictland. It was thought that, for instance, the first list represented the ninth century when Argyll was in Pictland, while the second list represented the period before that, before Argyll was taken, and before Caithness was lost.

However, this conception of the document has been discredited in recent years. Firstly by Isabel Henderson, and more recently by the Glasgow-based medievalist Dauvit Broun. Most likely, the document has little if nothing at all to do with the Picts.

The document in fact makes perfect sense in the early thirteenth century, and much of his information can actually be traced to the other Scottish documents in the Poppleton MS. For instance, the names of seven sons of Cruithne (=Albanactus?) are given in the Pictish kinglist that follows one document after the dSA. (There is another source for the seven kingdoms myth, in a Gaelic quatrain contained in versions of the Lebor Bretnach). Pictland likely had no such structure, and if it did, it was unknown to the author of dSA, except perhaps through Bishop Andreas.

Other matters of interest are the man-simile, the lingustic discussions, and the light the document sheds on the relationship between the Gaelic language (Scottica) and Scottish national identity. On matters such as these, the dSA is in fact a wonderfully useful historical document.

[edit] Bibliography (1)

  • Broun, Dauvit, "The Seven Kingdoms in De Situ Albanie: A Record of Pictish political geography or imaginary Map of ancient Alba?" in E.J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, (Edinburgh, 2000, rev. 2005)
  • Chadwick, H.M., Early Scotland: The Picts, The Scots & The Welsh of Southern Scotland, (Cambridge, 1949)
  • Henderson, Isabel, The Picts, (London, 1967)
  • Howlett, David, "The Structure of De Situ Albanie," in Simon Taylor (ed.) Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in Scotland, 500-1297, (Dublin/Portland, 2000), pp. 124-45
  • Watson, W.J., The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1926)

[edit] Text

The following text is based on Alan Orr Anderson's (1923, pp. cxv-cxix). Some controversial words have been retranslated and some misleading translations altered. Untranslated words are in Italics.

[edit] Abstract

Regarding the situation of Albania, which in form is as a man; how it was first divided into seven kingdoms; by which names it was called and by whom inhabited.

[edit] Introduction

We read in the histories and chronicles of the ancient Britons, and in the ancient gesta and annals of the Scots and Picts, that the kingdom that is now corruply called Scotia was of old called Albania (after Albanectus, the youngest son of Brutus, the first king of the Britons of Britannia maiora); and after a long interval of time, it was called Pictauia, after the Picts, who reigned in it for a period of 1070 years (or according to others, 1360 years); and now it is corruptly called Scotia.

And the Scots have reigned for a period of 315 years, to that year in which Willelmus Rufus, brother of Máel Coluim (that man of honorable life and virtue), received the kingdom.

[edit] Albania As A Man

The Kingdom [Albania] bears the form and figure of a man. Its principal part, that is to say, the head, is in Argyll, in the west of Scotia above the Irish sea; and its feet are upon the sea of Norway. And the mountains and wastelands of Argyll resemble the head and neck of a man. And his body is the mountain that is called the "Moinid," which extends from the western sea to the eastern sea; and his arms are the mountains that divide Scotia from Argyll. The right side extends along Moray and Ross and Mar and Buchan; his legs are the two principal and noble rivers which descend from the mountains named above, that is, the Moinid, and which are called the "Tae" [=Tay] and the "Spe" [=Spey]; one of them flows to this side of the mountain, and the other beyond it to the Norwegian sea. Between this man's leg are Angus and Mearns, to this side of the mountain; and beyond the mountain other lands, between Spey and the mountain.

[edit] Seven Brothers, Seven Parts

Now this land was divided in ancient times by seven brothers into seven parts. Of these the principal is Angus with Mearns, so named after Enegus [=Óengus], the eldest of the brothers. And the second part is Atholl and Gowrie. The third part in Strathearn with Menteith. The fourth of the parts is Fife with Fothriff. And the fifth part is Mar with Buchan. The sixth is Moray and Ross. The seventh part is Caithness, to this side of the mountain, and beyond the mountain. because the mountain of Mound divivdes Caithness through the middle.

So each of these parts was called a kingdom; and rightly, because each one of them had within it a sub-kingdom. For this reason were these seven aforesaid brothers regarded as seven kings, because they had under them seven sub-kings.

[edit] Seven Brothers, Seven Kingdoms

These seven brothers divided the kingdom of Albania into seven kingdoms, and in his time each one of them reigned in his kingdom.

As a trustworthy narrator has told me - Andreas, a venerable man, an ethnically Scottish [=Gaelic] bishop of Caithness, and a monk of Dunfermline - the first kingdom extended from the excellent piece of water that is called in Scottish [=Gaelic] the "Froth," in British [=Welsh] the "Werid'," and in Romance [=French] the "Scottewatre" that is, the Water of the Scots (which divides the kingdoms of the Scots and of the English, and runs near the town of Stirling ) to another noble river called the "Tae" [=Tay]. The second kingdom [from the Tay, or the Forth?] to the Hilef [River Isla?] encircling [the first kingdom] like the sea as far as the mountain that is called "Athran" [= Airthey?]. The third kingdom from the Hilef to the Dee The fourth from the Dee to the great and wonderful river that is called the "Spe" [=Spey], the greatest and best river in all Scotia. The fifth kingdom from the Spey to the mountain of Brumalban (=Druimm nAlban). The sixth kingdom was Moray and Ross. The seventh was Argyll.

[edit] Etymology of Arregathel

The name Arregathel [=Argyll] means margin of the Scots or Irish, because all Scots and Irish are generally called "Gattheli" [=Gaels], from their ancient warleader known as "Gaithelglas" [=Gaidel Glass/Gaidheal Glas]. And the Irish always landed there in order to do injuries on the Britons. Or possibly for this reason, because the Scots and Picts dwelt there after their return from Ireland; or because the Irish occupied these parts in opposition to the Picts; or because of what is more certain, that that part of the Kingdom of Scotia is nearest to the Kingdom of Ireland.

[edit] History of the Scots in Albania/Pictauia

Fergus, son of Erc, was the first of the descendents of Conaire to receive the kingdom of Albania to the Irish Sea and Inchgal [=Hebrides]; in other words, from the mountain of Druimm nAlban to the Irish Sea and Inchgal. Thereafter, the kings of the bloodline of Fergus reigned in Druimm nAlban or Brumherc (=Druimm nErenn?) until the time of Alpin, son of Eochaid. Cinaed, this is Alpin' s son, the first king of the Scots, reigned prosperously in Pictauia for sixteen years.

[edit] Bibliography (2)

  • Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500-1286, Vol. 1, (Edinburgh, 1923), pp. cxv-cxix
  • Anderson, Marjorie O., Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1973), pp. 240-243
  • Skene, William F., Chronicles of the Picts and Scots: And Other Memorials of Scottish History, (Edinburgh, 1867), pp. 135-137
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