Giric

Giric mac Dúngail (

Although little is now known of Giric, he appears to have been regarded as an important figure in

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

Giric's name is associated with that of St Cyricus, who, as a small child, was martyred along with his mother during the

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 Giric's relationship 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".^[4]

There is a tendency in popular history books and web sites to refer to the two as "cousins" or “first cousins once removed".^[5]

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",^[6] but little is known of Dungal, the father of Giric, which may be the reason for the speculation that he (Dungal) did not have 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".^[7]

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.”

The entry on Giric in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba is perhaps corrupt. It states:

And Eochaid, son of Run, the king of the Britons [of Strathclyde, and] grandson of Kenneth by his daughter reigned for eleven years; although other say that Giric, the son of another, reigned at this time, because he became Eochaid's foster-father and guardian.
And in [Eochaid's] second year, Áed, Niall's son, died; and his ninth year, on the very day of [St] Cyricus, an eclipse of the sun occurred. Eochaid with his foster-father was now expelled from the kingdom.^[15]

Kenneth is

By the 12th century, Giric had acquired legendary status as liberator of the Scottish church from Pictish oppression and, fantastically, as conqueror of Ireland and most of England. As a result, Giric was known as Gregory the Great. This tale appears in the variant of the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba which is interpolated in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland. Here Giric, or Grig, is named "Makdougall", son of Dúngal.

List "D", which may be taken as typical, contains this account of Giric:

Giric, Dungal's son, reigned for twelve years; and he died in Dundurn, and was buried in Iona. He subdued to himself all Ireland, and nearly [all] England; and he was the first to give liberty to the Scottish church, which was in servitude up to that time, after the custom and fashion of the Picts.^[17]

Giric's conquests appear as