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(now in the British Museum) was washed overboard,
but recovered. At Whithorn the bishop heard news
of Halfdan’s death, and turned homewards by way of
Kirkcudbright. Now the fact that the relics of St.
Cuthbert found refuge in Cumberland and Galloway
shows that the Danish invasion from which they were
saved took very little hold of these parts. The Vikings
of the Irish Sea were already, if not Christianised, at
least under the influence of Christians, and not hostile
to the fugitive monks, while the natives welcomed
them.
The date and circumstances of Halfdan’s death are
not easily set down. The Libellus above quoted does
not place him on the list of Northumbrian kings. The
Annals of Ulster mention under 876, recte 877,
"Alband," king of the Dubhgaill, killed in a battle on
Strangford Lough with the Finngaill. The tenth-century
History of St. Cuthbert, which calls him and
his brother Scaldingi, Skjöldungs, says that in the end
he became mad and unpopular with his army, which
expelled him ; Symeon of Durham adds that he fled
with three ships from the Tyne, and shortly perished.
These authors then tell the curious story of the
election of Guthred, his successor. Eadred, abbot of
Carlisle, who was with St. Cuthbert’s relics at Craik
in central Yorkshire on the way home, dreamt that
St. Cuthbert told him to go to the Danish army on
the Tyne, and to ransom from slavery a boy named
Guthred, son of Hardecnut (John of Wallingford says
that "the sons of Hardecnut had sold him into
slavery "), and present him to the army as their king.
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