Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - II. The Danelaw - 4. The Kingdom of York
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kingdom was a small one, the eastern part of Scotland
from the Forth to the Moray Firth, and he
was hard pressed on all sides by the Vikings of
Orkney, the Hebrides, Galloway, and Northumbria.
It was an error on the part of thirteenth-century
lawyers to construe this into feudal homage;
and the Saxon chroniclers no doubt overstated the significance
of the meeting. But it showed that Æthelstan was
soon to be master of England, though the Cumbrian and
Scottish kings could not keep their pledges of alliance.
Sigtrygg O’lvar, "king of Black and White Gaill,"
died in 927 (Ulster Annals rectified). By a former
wife he left sons, Guthfrith, Harald and Olaf Cuaran;
"Sithfrey and Oisley" (Sigfrith and Háisl) are also
mentioned as Sigtrygg’s sons, killed at Brunanburh.
Guthfrith, trying to succeed his father at York, was
expelled by Æthelstan, and took refuge with the
Scots; so did Olaf, who became son-in-law to King
Constantine. The countenance given to the Viking
chiefs was regarded by Æthelstan as a casus belli. In
934 he led his army into Strathclyde, put to flight
Owain of Cumbria and marched through Constantine’s
country to "Wertermor and Dunfoeder"
(identified by Skene with Kirriemuir and Dunnotar,
near Stonehaven), while his fleet ravaged the coast as
far as the Norse settlement of Caithness.
Brunanburh (937) was the "return match." Such
an invasion called for revenge, and Constantine
organised revenge on a grand scale. Three chief
powers joined their arms—the Scots, the Cumbrians,
and the Vikings of the West. The Orkney and
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