CELTIC SCOTLAND: A HISTORY OF Ancient Alban BY WILLIAM F. SKENE AUTHOR OF THE FOUR ANCIENT BOOKS OF WALES.' VOLUME I. HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. EDINBURGH EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS, PRINCES STREET 1876 All Rights reserved. PREFACE. EACH volume of this work may be regarded as complete in itself so far as the object of the volume is concerned, and will be issued separately. The principal aim of the Author in this first volume of Celtic Scotland has been to endeavour to ascertain the true facts of the early civil history. For this purpose the narratives of her early historians afford no available basis. The artificially-constructed system of history first brought into shape by John of Fordun, and elaborated in the more classical text of Hector Boece, must, for the Celtic period of our history, be entirely rejected. To attempt to found a consecutive historical narrative on the scattered notices in the Roman writers and in the Chronicles, which consist merely of lists of kings with the length of their respective reigns, and notices of a few isolated battles, would be merely to produce an unsatisfactory and unreadable book. On the other hand, a succession of general views of the early periods of its history, founded upon a superficial and uncritical use of authorities, or the too readily accepted conclusions of more painstaking writers, however lively and graphic they may be, might furnish very pleasant |