Recent from talks
Giric
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Giric
Giric mac Dúngail (Modern Gaelic: Griogair mac Dhunghail; fl. c. 878–889), in modern English his name is Gregory or Greg MacDougal and nicknamed Mac Rath ("Son of Fortune"), was a king of the Picts or the king of Alba. The Irish annals record nothing of Giric's reign, nor do Anglo-Saxon writings add anything, and the meagre information which survives is contradictory. Modern historians disagree as to whether Giric was the sole king or ruled jointly with Eochaid, on his ancestry, and if he should be considered a Pictish king or the first king of Alba.
Although little is now known of Giric, he appears to have been regarded as an important figure in Scotland in the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages. Scots chroniclers such as John of Fordun, Andrew of Wyntoun, Hector Boece and the humanist scholar George Buchanan wrote of Giric as "King Gregory the Great" and told how he had conquered half of England and Ireland too.
The Chronicle of Melrose and some versions of the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba say that Giric died at Dundurn in Strathearn.
Giric's name is associated with that of St Cyricus, who, as a small child, was martyred along with his mother during the Diocletianic persecution in the early fourth century. According to the Chronicles of the Kings of Scotland, St Cyricus was Giric's patron saint, not only because his name is homophonous with the Latin form of the saint's name, Ciricum, but also because the first church dedicated to St Cyricus was established during Giric's reign at a place called Ecclesgreig (now St Cyrus) in Aberdeenshire. The feast day of saint is 16 June, and on (or near) that day in 885 there was a solar eclipse, which has become associated with the kingship of Giric and Eochaid, inasmuch as not long after the occasion of the eclipse, the two "were expelled from the kingdom."
Various theories have been put forward regarding the relationship between Eochaid and Giric, who by all accounts was the elder of the two. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, which was written in Latin, used the phrase alumnus ordinatorque to describe relationship of Giric to Eochaid. Translator T. H. Weeks chose to translate that phrase into English as "teacher and prime minister", yet in the same section offered "foster-son" for alumnus, translating "Eochodius, cum alum(p)no suo, expulsus est nunc de regno" as "Eochaid with his "foster-son" was then thrown out of the kingdom".
There is a tendency in popular history books and web sites to refer to the two as "cousins" or "first cousins once removed".
However, this cousin kinship is only speculation since the ancestry of Giric is obscure. Rhun, the father of Eochaid, is known to have been "a king of the Britons", but little is known of Dungal, the father of Giric, which may be the reason for the speculation that he (Dungal) did not have a royal lineage. Perhaps a writer for the popular web site Undiscovered Scotland found the best solution, referring to Giric as Eochaid's "rather shadowy kinsman".
Two scholars have defined the two in political rather than kinship terms. A. Weeks, commentator, speculated, "Possibly Giric was not of royal blood, so he used Eochaid as a puppet". In 1904, Sir John Rhys, professor at University of Oxford, reached a similar conclusion, positing that "the real relation in which Girg probably stood to Eochaid was that of a non Celtic king of Pictish descent wielding the power of the Pictish nation with Eochaid ruling among the Brythons of Fortrenn more or less subject to him". What is known of the two is that in 878 Giric killed Aed (uncle of Eochaid) "in battle" in the town of Nrurim, which was probably north of Stirling. Then Giric and Eochaid, whatever their relationship, ruled jointly for eleven years.
Hub AI
Giric AI simulator
(@Giric_simulator)
Giric
Giric mac Dúngail (Modern Gaelic: Griogair mac Dhunghail; fl. c. 878–889), in modern English his name is Gregory or Greg MacDougal and nicknamed Mac Rath ("Son of Fortune"), was a king of the Picts or the king of Alba. The Irish annals record nothing of Giric's reign, nor do Anglo-Saxon writings add anything, and the meagre information which survives is contradictory. Modern historians disagree as to whether Giric was the sole king or ruled jointly with Eochaid, on his ancestry, and if he should be considered a Pictish king or the first king of Alba.
Although little is now known of Giric, he appears to have been regarded as an important figure in Scotland in the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages. Scots chroniclers such as John of Fordun, Andrew of Wyntoun, Hector Boece and the humanist scholar George Buchanan wrote of Giric as "King Gregory the Great" and told how he had conquered half of England and Ireland too.
The Chronicle of Melrose and some versions of the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba say that Giric died at Dundurn in Strathearn.
Giric's name is associated with that of St Cyricus, who, as a small child, was martyred along with his mother during the Diocletianic persecution in the early fourth century. According to the Chronicles of the Kings of Scotland, St Cyricus was Giric's patron saint, not only because his name is homophonous with the Latin form of the saint's name, Ciricum, but also because the first church dedicated to St Cyricus was established during Giric's reign at a place called Ecclesgreig (now St Cyrus) in Aberdeenshire. The feast day of saint is 16 June, and on (or near) that day in 885 there was a solar eclipse, which has become associated with the kingship of Giric and Eochaid, inasmuch as not long after the occasion of the eclipse, the two "were expelled from the kingdom."
Various theories have been put forward regarding the relationship between Eochaid and Giric, who by all accounts was the elder of the two. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, which was written in Latin, used the phrase alumnus ordinatorque to describe relationship of Giric to Eochaid. Translator T. H. Weeks chose to translate that phrase into English as "teacher and prime minister", yet in the same section offered "foster-son" for alumnus, translating "Eochodius, cum alum(p)no suo, expulsus est nunc de regno" as "Eochaid with his "foster-son" was then thrown out of the kingdom".
There is a tendency in popular history books and web sites to refer to the two as "cousins" or "first cousins once removed".
However, this cousin kinship is only speculation since the ancestry of Giric is obscure. Rhun, the father of Eochaid, is known to have been "a king of the Britons", but little is known of Dungal, the father of Giric, which may be the reason for the speculation that he (Dungal) did not have a royal lineage. Perhaps a writer for the popular web site Undiscovered Scotland found the best solution, referring to Giric as Eochaid's "rather shadowy kinsman".
Two scholars have defined the two in political rather than kinship terms. A. Weeks, commentator, speculated, "Possibly Giric was not of royal blood, so he used Eochaid as a puppet". In 1904, Sir John Rhys, professor at University of Oxford, reached a similar conclusion, positing that "the real relation in which Girg probably stood to Eochaid was that of a non Celtic king of Pictish descent wielding the power of the Pictish nation with Eochaid ruling among the Brythons of Fortrenn more or less subject to him". What is known of the two is that in 878 Giric killed Aed (uncle of Eochaid) "in battle" in the town of Nrurim, which was probably north of Stirling. Then Giric and Eochaid, whatever their relationship, ruled jointly for eleven years.
Recent media