Editing Causantín mac Cináeda (section)

== Sources ==
[[Image:Constantine's Cave 7.jpg|thumb|A signboard in [[Fife]], [[Scotland]] concerning Causantín]]

Very few records of 9th century events in northern Britain survive. The main local source from the period is the ''[[Chronicle of the Kings of Alba]]'', a list of kings from Cináed mac Ailpín (died 858) to [[Cináed mac Maíl Coluim]] (died 995). The list survives in the [[Poppleton Manuscript]], a 13th century compilation. Originally simply a list of kings with reign lengths, the other details contained in the Poppleton Manuscript version were added from the tenth century onwards.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 87–93; Dumville, "Chronicle of the Kings of Alba".</ref> In addition to this, later king lists survive.<ref>Anderson, ''Kings and Kingship'', reproduces these lists and discusses their origins, further discussed by Broun, ''Irish origins''.</ref> The earliest [[genealogical]] records of the descendants of Cináed mac Ailpín may date from the end of the tenth century, but their value lies more in their context, and the information they provide about the interests of those for whom they were compiled, than in the unreliable claims they contain.<ref>Broun, ''Irish Identity'', pp. 133–164; Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 220–221.</ref> The Pictish king-lists originally ended with this Causantín, who was reckoned the seventieth and last king of the Picts.<ref>Broun, ''Irish Identity'', pp. 168–169; Anderson, ''Kings and Kingship'', p. 78.</ref>

For narrative history, the principal sources are the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' and the Irish annals. While [[Scandinavia]]n [[sagas]] describe events in 9th century Britain, their value as sources of historical narrative, rather than documents of social history, is disputed.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 277–285; Ó Corráin, "Vikings in Scotland and Ireland" ...</ref> If the sources for north-eastern Britain, the lands of the kingdom of [[Northumbria]] and the former Pictland, are limited and late, those for the areas on the [[Irish Sea]] and [[Atlantic]] coasts — the modern regions of north-west England and all of northern and western Scotland — are non-existent, and [[archaeology]] and [[toponymy]] are of primary importance.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', p. 12.</ref>