From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Neithon of Alt Clut (d. 620?) was the ruler of Alt Clut (modern Dumbarton Rock). According to the Harleian genealogies, he was the son of Guipno map Dumnagual Hen. It has been suggested by Alfred Smyth that he is the same man as King Nechtan the Great of the Picts,^[1] perhaps the Nechtan son of Canu who according to the Annals of Ulster died in 621.^[2] The Senchus fer n-Alban tells us that Gartnait, the son of Áedán mac Gabráin, King of Dál Riata, sired a son named Cano,^[3] but unless the Harleian genealogies are to be ignored, this would make Gartnait and Dumnagual Hen the same persons, as the respective fathers of Gartnait and Guipno. However, it is possible that either as a Alt Clut Briton ascending the throne of Pictland, or as a Pict ascending the throne of Alt Clut, his genealogy might have been altered, and it is notable that in the Pictish king-lists he is called "Nechtan, nepos Uerb", suggesting that it was a descent from Uerb that mattered in Pictland, and not his unimportant father Guipno/Canu. Alan Orr Anderson pointed out that Uerb is probably the Pictish form of Ferb (gen. Feirbe), a female name. ^[4] MacQuarrie suggests that Neithon was indeed the Pictish king Nechtan, but does not take any stance of the Guipno/Canu problem.^[5]

• Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922).
• Smyth, Alfred, Warlords and Holy Men, (Edinburgh, 1984)
• MacQuarrie, Alan, "The Kings of Strathclyde", in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow, (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 1-19.
• Williams, Anne, Smyth, Alfred P., and Kirby, D.P., (eds.), A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain, (London, 1991), s.v. "Nechtán", p. 183

• Annals of Ulster
• Harleian genealogy 5