Perhaps the Strathclyde Welsh were the more likely to combine with the Scots. What Irish there were is hard to say. A Danish king, Anlaf, came from Ireland with many ships to help at Brunanburh in 937. Whether he or others had really Irish soldiers is uncertain. There had been intercourse between Ireland and Scotland long before this: Columba came over to Iona about 560; but there had been no claim of rule over Ireland by the English.
thoroughly Christian] Augustine was sent to England by Gregory in 596. With the battle of the Winwæd in 654 (says J. R. Green) 'all active resistance on the part of the older heathendom came to an end. Christianity . . . became the faith of the New England at large.'
the first signing] One among several passages in the Sagas about this practice. Prim-signa, to give the prima signatio or signaculum crucis preliminary to christening. The social advantages with the liberty of belief thereby ensured are naïvely described here. Also this 'prim-signing' gave a right to burial at the edge of churchyards where consecrated and unconsecrated ground meet. This we see in the case of Egil himself at the end of the Saga.
Ch. LI.—Olaf] There were several of this name. Constantine was king of the Scots when Athelstan came to the throne, and had apparently long been so, as he is called 'hoary warrior' in the poem on Brunanburh. This Olaf Jónsson thinks was Constantine's son-in-law. An Olaf (or Anlaf) took part in the battle of Brunanburh, he was Danish, he came from Ireland, and he, as well as Constantine, escaped from the field: but a son of Constantine was slain. We cannot reasonably expect absolute accuracy about names and small details of earlier English and Scotch history in an Icelander writing near the end of the twelfth century.
Ragnar Lodbrok] A famous man of whom romantic stories are told. The Danish invasion in the middle of the seventh century is said to have been undertaken by his sons to avenge the fate of their father, cast by a Northumbrian king into a cave of vipers.
Danish] The Danes became masters of Northumbria and occupied it long before this. Palgrave names many towns which were called the 'Danish Burghs.' 'In these burghs there appears to have settled a large and effective population composed of the higher classes of the Danish warriors' (Palgrave's England, vol. i., p. 115). And later of the events, about 880, 'Halfdane completed his conquest by dividing great part of the Northumbrian territory amongst his followers, who, settling amongst the Angles, were at last so mixed with them as to form almost one people.'
Bretland . . . Hring . . . Adils] It is impossible to identify for certain these Welsh earls or kinglets. In 922 we read in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 'the kings of the north Welsh Howel, Cledauc, and Jeothwel . . . sought him (Edward) for lord.' Palgrave writes 'Edwall' for the last of these three: 'Adils' is not unlike this.
now were disloyal] On the early events of Athelstan's reign the Chronicle is very brief. Indeed (if we except the poem on Brunanburh), there is on all Athelstan's reign but one (not very full) page in Thorpe's translation, as compared with ten full pages on Edward's reign. Of the year 926 we read: 'In this year fiery beams of light appeared in the north part of the sky. And Sihtric died, and king Athelstan assumed the kingdom of the Northumbrians; and he subjugated all the kings that were in this island: first Howel king of the West Welsh, and Constantine king of the Scots, and Owen king of Gwent, and Ealdred son of Ealdulf of Bamborough; and with pledge and with oaths they confirmed peace, in the place which is named Eamot (Emmet?), on the ivth of the Ides of July
