The 'Chronicle of the Kings of Alba', or 'Scottish Chronicle', is a short written chronicle of the
Kings of
Alba, covering the period from the time of King
Cináed I mac AilpÃn (d.
858) until the reign of King
Cináed II mac MaÃl Coluim (r.
971–
995).
W.F. Skene called it the 'Chronicle of the Kings of Scots', and some have called it the 'Older Scottish Chronicle', but ''Chronicle of the Kings of Alba'' is emerging as the standard scholarly name.
The sole surviving version of the text comes from the
Poppleton Manuscript, now in the
Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris. It is the fourth of seven consecutive Scottish documents in the manuscript, the first six of which were probably put together in the early
thirteenth century by the man who wrote ''
de Situ Albanie''. The ''Chronicle'' is a vital source for the period it covers, and, despite some later
Francization, is very much written in
Hiberno-Latin, showing evidence of a scribe with some knowledge of contemporary
Middle Irish orthography. The original text was without doubt written in
Scotland, probably in the early
eleventh century, shortly after the reign of Cináed II, the last reign it relates.
Bibliography
★
Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500-1286'', Vol. 1, (Edinburgh, 1923)
★
Anderson, Marjorie O., ''Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland'', (Edinburgh, 1973)
★
Skene, William F., ''Chronicles of the Picts and Scots: And Other Memorials of Scottish History'', (Edinburgh, 1867)
External links
★
English translation of the text, with
Short notes