'Gartnait' ('Gartnait son of Domelch' in the
Pictish Chronicle king lists) (died
597) was king of the
Picts.
The
Annals of Tigernach record the death of his predecessor,
Bridei son of Maelchon in 581, and the death of ''Gartnaidh king of the Picts'' in 597. The king lists state that he was followed by
Nechtan.
William Forbes Skene, in his commentary on
John of Fordun's chronicle, notes that
Walter Bower associates the legend of
Nechtan son of Erip,
Saint Brigid and the foundation of the
monastery of
Abernethy with this king, called "Garnard son of Dompnach".
[1]
It has been proposed that Gartnait was the same person as Gartnait, son of
Áedán mac Gabráin of
Dál Riata and that the Domelch of the king lists was his mother. This rests on the now unpopular idea that Pictish succession was
matrilineal. If this is correct, Gartnait may have been the father of Cano mac Gartnáin, the subject of the 9th century tale ''
Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin'' and may have been the
eponymous ancestor of the "genus Gartnáin" of
Skye.
[2]
The early 8th century figures Talorg mac Congusa, who is reported by the
Annals of Ulster in 734 to have handed over his brother to
Óengus mac Fergusa to be drowned,
[3] and another brother, Cú Bretan, who died in 740, are said to have been descended from Gartnait son of Áedán.
[4]
Notes
1. Skene's notes to Fordun, IV, xii.
2. Bannerman, pp.92–94.
3. Bannerman, p.109; the same report is found in the Annals of Tigernach and the Annals of Clonmacnoise.
4. Ancestry, Bannerman, p.66, p.67, note 72; Cú Bretan's death is in the Annals of Ulster, s.a. 740.
References
★
Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286'', volume 1. Reprinted with corrections. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990. ISBN 1-871615-03-8
★ Bannerman, John, ''Studies in the History of Dalriada.'' Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1974. ISBN 0-7011-2040-1
★
John of Fordun, ''Chronicle of the Scottish Nation'', ed.
William Forbes Skene, tr. Felix J.H. Skene, 2 vols. Reprinted, Lampeter: Llanerch Press, 1993. ISBN 1-897853-05-X
External links
★
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at
University College Cork includes the ''Annals of Ulster'', ''Tigernach'', ''the Four Masters'' and ''Innisfallen'', the ''Chronicon Scotorum'', the ''Lebor Bretnach'' (which includes the ''Duan Albanach''), Genealogies, and various Saints' Lives. Most are translated into English, or translations are in progress.
★
Annals of Clonmacnoise at
Cornell
★
Pictish Chronicle