INTRODUCTION. xxxvii 



but sometimes, as in the present instance, the only theory 

 tenable. The earliest known form is " Leodus," which 

 appears in a Gaelic (Irish) account of the battle of Clon- 

 tarf (1014) supposed to have been written by a contem- 

 porary, and the same form appears in an Irish manuscript 

 of 1150. Camden, dropping the Latin termination, called 

 the island " Leod." Naturally enough, the Norse form 

 "Ljodiis" or "Ljodhus," has given rise to the suggestion 

 that the word means the residence of Leod, the pro- 

 genitor of the Siol Torquil. Seeing, however, that Lewis 

 was called " Leodus " about two centuries and a half 

 before the time of Leod, the eponym must be sought 

 elsewhere. 



In the History of the Picts, written by Henry Maule, 

 who lived during the reign of Charles I., or by Sir James 

 Balfour, Lyon King-of-Arms it is doubtful which the 

 existence is mentioned of an account by " ancient monkish 

 and abbay writers," which declares that the eponymus of 

 Lewis was one Leutha, the last of three Pictish kings who 

 ruled in Orkney. Leutha, they state, conquered Lewis 

 from the Cornani, and named the island " Leuthes " after 

 himself. The Cornani may be identified with the Car- 

 nonacae or Carini, the tribe which possessed the west coast 

 of Ross-shire at the period of the Roman occupation of 

 Britain. It is probable that there is a basis of fact for this 

 supposed invasion of Lewis, and that a chief named Leutha 

 perhaps Elatha, the Fomorian pirate of Irish tradition 

 who ruled over the Hebrides actually gave his name to 

 the island. "Leutha" and "Leod" are practically iden- 

 tical, the dental aspirate " th " being the equivalent of " d," 

 while " Leodus " is simply the Latin form of " Leod " ; 

 and the " Lj6dus " of the Norsemen is " Leodus," with the 

 difference of one letter. The efforts made to derive a 

 plausible signification, other than that already mentioned, 

 from the literal meaning of Ljodus or LjodJnis which 

 may be translated as " song-house," or " sounding-house," 

 or " suffragan house " have been unsuccessful for the 

 same reason as it has been impossible to derive any 



c 



