Giric of Scotland
Giric, King of Picts and Scots (ruled 878–889 ?). The sources for the succession in what (c.
900) became the Kingship of
Alba are meagre and confused following the peak of
Scandinavian devastation in 875-6. The descendants of
Cináed mac Ailpín in the male line lost the kingship between 878 and 889. Two names of possible kings in this period are
Eochaid and Giric. Giric is very obscure; he may have been Eochaid's guardian; and he may have lost power following a
solar eclipse.
By the
12th century, however, he mysteriously acquired legendary status as liberator of the
Scottish church from
Pictish oppression and (fantastically) conqueror of
Ireland and most of
England. As a result Giric, was later known as
Gregory the Great. This tale appears in the variant of the
Chronicle of the Kings of Alba which is interpolated in
Andrew of Wyntoun's
Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland. Here Giric, or Grig, is named "Makdougall", son of Dúngal. Giric, and Eochaid, are omitted from the
Duan Albanach, but they are not unique in this.
Duncan argued that the association of Giric and Eochaid in the kingship is spurious, that Giric alone was king of the Picts, which he claimed as the son of daughter of Cináed mac Ailpín, and that the report that he was Eochaid's guardian (
alumpnus) is a misreading of uncle (
auunculus). Smyth proposed that Giric was a nephew of
Cináed mac Ailpín, the son of his brother
Domnall, which appears to rest on what is probably a scribal error. If the entry is accurate, then it would seem reasonable to accept the remainder, which states that an otherwise unknown Causantín mac Domnaill (or mac Dúngail) was king, but Smyth does not do so. Finally, Hudson has suggested that Giric, rather than being a member of Cenél nGabráin dynasty of Cináed mac Ailpín and his kin, was a member of the northern Cenél Loairn descended dynasty of
Moray, and accepts the existence of Giric's supposed brother Causantín.
The
Chronicle of Melrose and some versions of the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba say that Giric died at
Dundurn in
Strathearn.
In a recent discussion of the "
Dunkeld Litany", which was largely fabricated in
Schottenklöster in
Germany in late Medieval and Early Modern times,
Thomas Owen Clancy offers the provisional conclusion that, within the emendations and additions, there lies an authentic 9th century Litany. The significance of this Litany for the question of Giric's authenticity and kingship is contained in a prayer for the king and the army: the king named is Girich.
*
Alan Orr Anderson,
Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286, volume 1. Reprinted with corrections. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990. ISBN 1-871615-03-8
*
Dauvit Broun, "Giric, King of Picts" in John Cannon (ed.)
The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0-19-860514-5
*
Thomas Owen Clancy, "Scottish Saints and National Identities in the Early Middle Ages" in Alan Thacker & Richard Sharpe (eds),
Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002. ISBN 0-19-820394-2
* A.A.M. Duncan,
The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002. ISBN 0-7486-1626-8
* Alfred P. Smyth,
Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80–1000. E.J. Arnold, London, 1984 (reprinted Edinburgh UP). ISBN 0-7486-0100-7
* Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth & D.P. Kirby,
A Biographical Dictionary of Dark-Age Britain. Seaby, London, 1991. ISBN 1-85264-047-2
*
The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba (CKA)
*
Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland in
Middle English and
Latin, at the
University of Texas (The account of "King Gregour" is found in chapters cvii–cviii.)
