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This article discusses the possible locations of the Frenessican Sea, a body of water that is referred to in the ninth-century text "Historia Brittonum." Efforts to situate this sea within accounts of Northumbrian political history are considered. The possibility that the term Frenessican is a corruption of the Latin term freneticum, meaning enraged or maddened, that describes the North Sea is considered. The relevance to this evidence for the assessment of the historical geography of Northern Britain is noted. Corresponding evidence regarding the translation of the place name Din Gioaroi is considered.

The story of King Edgar being rowed on the River Dee at Chester in 973 by eight subordinate kings was once well known. This article examines how it was used in popular history writing from the eighteenth century onwards, with greatest development in the mid nineteenth century, and subsequent decline into its present obscurity. It served English political and cultural ends, being used to demonstrate the natural superiority of that race over the others in the Union, particularly the Scots. Decline of imperial sentiment and ignorance of pre-Conquest history have relegated it to incidental mention in county histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]