Consecrated King by his cousin St Columba ca. 574 (Williamson, David. Debrett's kings and queens of Britain. Topsfield, Mass. : Salem House Pubpishers, 1986, pg. 228).
West Scottish king (of Dalriada) (The concise dictionary of national biography. London : Oxford University Press, 1969, pg. 10).
aka Edhan Aiden, Aedan; King of DalRiada, King of Scots Argyll
The sources for Áedán's life include Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; Irish annals, principally the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of Tigernach; and Adomnán's Life of Saint Columba. The Senchus fer n-Alban, a census and genealogy of Dál Riata, purports to record his ancestry and that of his immediate descendants. None of these sources are contemporary. Adomnán's work was written in the very late 7th century, probably to mark the centenary of Columba's death. It incorporates elements from a lost earlier life of Columba, De virtutibus sancti Columbae, by Cumméne Find. This may have been written as early as 640; neither the elements incorporated from Cumméne's work nor Adomnán's own writings can be treated as simple history. Bede's history was written 30 years after Adomnán's. The surviving Irish annals contain elements of a chronicle kept at Iona from the middle of the 7th century onwards, so that these too are retrospective when dealing with Áedán's time.
The Rawlinson B 502 manuscript, dated to c. 1130, contains the tale Gein Branduib maic Echach ocus Aedáin maic Gabráin (The Birth of Brandub son of Eochu and of Aedán son of Gabrán). In this story, Áedán is the twin brother of Brandub mac Echach, a King of Leinster who belonged to the Uí Cheinnselaig kindred. Áedán is exchanged at birth for one of the twin daughters of Gabrán, born the same night, so that each family might have a son. The Prophecy of Berchán also associates Áedán with Leinster. John Bannerman concluded that "[t]here seems to be no basis of fact behind these traditions." Francis John Byrne suggested that the Echtra was written by a poet at the court of Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó, an 11th-century descendant of Brandub, and was written to cement an alliance between Diarmait and the Scots king Máel Coluim mac Donnchada ("Malcolm III"), who claimed to be a descendant of Áedán. A lost Irish tale, Echtra Áedáin mac Gabráin (The Adventures of Áedán son of Gabrán), appears in a list of works, but its contents are unknown. Áedán is a character in the epic Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin, but the events which inspired the tale appear to have taken place in the middle of the 7th century. He also appears in the tale Compert Mongáin.
Áedán additionally appears in a variety of Welsh sources, making him one of the few non-Britons to figure in Welsh tradition. Welsh sources call him Aedan Bradawc, meaning "The Treacherous" or "The Wily". He may have earned this epithet after the collapse of an alliance with Rhydderch Hael, king of the nearby Brittonic kingdom of Alt Clut; enmity between them is remembered in the Welsh Triads and elsewhere. Another Triad records Áedán's host as one of the "Three Faithful War-Bands of the Island of Britain", as they "went to the sea for their lord". This may point to an otherwise lost tradition concerning one of Áedán's sea expeditions, such as to Orkney or the Isle of Man. Additionally, several Welsh works claim a Brittonic pedigree for Áedán. The Bonedd Gw?r y Gogledd records him as a descendent of Dyfnwal Hen of Alt Clut, though the genealogy is much confused (Gauran is given as his son, rather than father). The Cambro-Latin De Situ Brecheniauc and Cognacio Brychan claim his mother was Luan, daughter of Brychan of Brycheiniog in Wales.[7] Though these pedigrees are inconsistent and likely dubious, they are notable in highlighting Áedán's close association with the Britons (wikipedia)