Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/42

 xxxiv PEEFACE. " Chronicle." This legend is expressly said to have been taken from the books of the Picts. The copy in the "Book of Ballimote" and the second copy in the " Book of Lecain" have apparently been tran- scribed from some older copy, without adverting to its being written in double columns, as the list of the thirty Brudes is mixed up with the rest of the text ; but fortunately the first copy in the "Book of Lecain" is without this element of con- fusion, and enables the correct text to be easily restored.^ It is followed by a fragment, which has been printed under c, from a MS. in the Bod- leian, which appears to have contained a copy of the Irish Nennius, and gives the list of the subsequent kings as they are found in the " Pictish Chro- " nicle." The passage in Irish, which is printed in italics, having apparently been inserted by the Irish scribe to adapt it to Irish traditions, and the last four kings having, from the use of Irish words, been likewise apparently added by him. The additions under letter d, appear to contain the Irish form of the legend of the settlement of the Picts, in con- nexion with the Milesian fable, in which they are brought direct to Ireland, and from Ireland to Scot- land. This addition consists, first, of a prose state- ment, and, secondly, of a poem, which bears within it evidence of having been compiled not later than the end of the reign of Macbeth, in 1058. It is to ^ See No. XLiv. for a transcript of the same piece, coutaiuing a similar confusiou.