De Situ Albanie: Encyclopedia II - De Situ Albanie - Text

De Situ Albanie - 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.

De Situ Albanie - 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.

De Situ Albanie - 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.

De Situ Albanie - 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.

De Situ Albanie - 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.

De Situ Albanie - 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.

De Situ Albanie - 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 of the Kingdom of Scotia is nearest to the Kingdom of Ireland.

De Situ Albanie - 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.

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