Whilst the symbolic tale of the men rowing Edgar down the river may be an unhistorical embellishment, most of the names accorded to the eight kings can be associated with contemporary rulers, suggesting that some of these men may have taken part in a concord with him. Although the latter accounts allege that the kings submitted to Edgar, the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" merely states that they came to an agreement of cooperation with him, and thus became his ("co-workers", "even-workers", "fellow-workers"). One possibility is that the assembly somehow relates to Edmund's attested incursion into Cumbria in 945. According to the same source, when Edmund Cumbria to Máel Coluim mac Domnaill, he had done so on the condition that the latter would be his ("co-worker", "even-worker", "fellow-worker", "together-wright"). Less reliable non-contemporary sources such as "De primo Saxonum adventu", both the Wendover and Paris versions of "Flores historiarum", and "Chronica majora" allege that Edgar granted Lothian to Cináed in 975. If this supposed grant formed a part of the episode at Chester, it along with the concord of 945 could indicate that the assembly of 975 was not a submission as such, but more of a conference concerning mutual cooperation along the English borderlands. Although the precise chronology of Cumbrian expansion is uncertain, by 927 the southern frontier of the Kingdom of Strathclyde appears to have reached the River Eamont, close to Penrith. As such, the location of the assembly of 973 at Chester would have been a logical site for all parties.