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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1997-04 > 0861607069


From: Stewart Baldwin < >
Subject: Re: SOMERLED, Lord of the Isles
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 07:17:49 GMT


user < > wrote:

>This is his pedigree as I've found:

>Gille Adomnan
>Gillebridge
>Somerled (1030-1083)
>Gille Adomnan
>Gillebridge
>Somerled II, Lord of the Isles (-1164)

>This repetition of three names looks very suspicious and I wonder if the
>author goofed. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

You are right. They are suspicious. In February 1996, I posted an
item to s.g.m which touched on a couple of topics, one of which was
the ancestry of Somerled. The part of that item which is relevant to
Somerled is quoted below:

---------------

The best account of the ancestry of Somerled of which I am aware
is the article "The origins and ancestry of Somerled", by W. D. H.
Sellar, which appeared in "The Scottish Historical Review", vol. 45
(1966), pp. 123-142. This article lists all of the earliest known
manuscripts giving the genealogy of Somerled, and then discusses the
reliability of the genealogy in detail. To make a long story short,
he accepted the genealogy as being probably reliable back to the
early ninth century, as follows:

1. Fergus, probably a member of the minor Irish sept of Ui Maic Uais.

In his article, Sellar rejected as "preposterous fiction" the claim
that Fergus was the same person as the king of Dalriada of that name
who reigned from 778 until 781. His exact line of descent from the
Ui Maic Uais is unknown. (The traditional genealogy of Fergus is
chronologically impossible by several hundred years.)

2. Gofraidh (Godfrey), son of Fergus, whose name betrays a likely
Norse connection, said by the Annals of the Four Masters to have gone
from Oirgiall to Alba (Scotland) at the request of Kenneth MacAlpin
in 836. Godfrey's death is given by the Annals of the Four Masters
as 853. The Annals of the Four Masters are a very late compilation,
and not always to be trusted, but Sellar argued that they should be
accepted as reliable in this case.

3. Maine. (Nothing is known of the next several generations other
than their names.)

4. Niallgus.

5. Suibne.

6. Meargaige. Some have attempted to identify this person with king
Eachmarcach of Dublin, but Sellar shows that this is incorrect.

7. Solam (Solomon).

8. Gilla-Adomnain.

9. Gilla-Brighte.

10. Somerled, d. 1164.

Stewart Baldwin

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