FOOTNOTES:
[5] This phrase is used repeatedly in the Chronicle in connexion with such towns as Bedford, Cambridge, Derby, Leicester and Northampton, and there can be no question that these groups represent the shires which now take their names from these towns. For purposes of convenience we shall henceforward speak of such groups as 'shires.'
[6] See Tennyson's translation.
[7] See Freeman's Old English History for Children for a translation of this poem.
CHAPTER IV
THE VIKINGS IN THE FRANKISH EMPIRE TO THE
FOUNDING OF NORMANDY (911)
The years from 850-865 were perhaps the most unhappy in the whole history of the sufferings of the Frankish empire under Viking attack. The Danes now took up more or less permanent quarters, often strongly fortified, on the Scheldt, the Somme, the Seine, the Loire and the Garonne, while Utrecht, Ghent, Amiens, Paris, Chartres, Tours, Blois, Orléans, Poitiers, Limoges, Bordeaux and many other towns and cities were sacked, often more than once. When Hrœrekr obtained from the young Hárekr of Denmark a concession of certain districts between the Eider and the sea, he gave trouble in that direction and sailed up the Elbe and the Weser alike. His nephew Guðröðr was in occupation of Flanders and the lower valley of the Scheldt.
Besides these Viking leaders, who were active in the Low Countries, we have the names of several others who were busy in France itself. The most famous of these were the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. Berno, who first appeared on the Seine in 855, was Björn Ironside, while it is quite possible that the Sidroc who accompanied him was Sigurd Snake-eye, another son of that famous leader. With Björn, at least according to Norman tradition, came Hastingus (O.N. Hásteinn), his foster-father. Hásteinn was destined to a long and active career. We first hear of him in the annals in 866 when he appeared on the Loire, and it was he who was one of the chief leaders in the great Danish invasion of England in 892-4. The sudden appearance of these leaders was undoubtedly due, as suggested in the previous chapter, to the turn of events in Denmark at this time. During the year of the revolution—854—no attacks were made on France at all and then immediately after came a flood of invaders. The Seine was never free from 855-62 and the Loire district was little better off. The troubled and desolate condition of the country may be judged from the numerous royal decrees commending those who had been driven from their land to the protection of those with whom they had taken refuge and exempting them from payment of the usual taxes. Many even deserted their Christian faith and became worshippers of the gods of the heathen. The difficulties of Charles the Bald were greatly increased by succession troubles both in Brittany and Aquitaine. Now one, now another claimant allied himself with the Northmen, and Charles himself was often an offender in this respect. He initiated the disastrous policy of buying off attack by the payment of large sums of what in England would have been called Danegeld. In 859 occurred an incident which throws a curious light on the condition of the country. The peasants between the Seine and the Loire rose of their own accord and attacked the Danes in the Seine valley. It is not quite clear what followed, but the rising was a failure, and possibly it was crushed by the Frankish nobles themselves who feared anything in the nature of a popular rising made without reference to their own authority. In any case the incident bears witness to a lack of proper leadership by the nobles.
After the year 865 the tide of invasion set from France towards England. These were the years of Alfred's great struggle, and Danish efforts were concentrated on the attempt to reduce that monarch to submission. The Franks themselves had begun to realise the necessity of more carefully organised resistance. They began building fortified bridges across the rivers at certain points in order to stop the passage of Viking ships, and they also fortified several of their towns and cities, thus giving perhaps a hint for the policy later adopted in England by Edward the Elder. Probably the Franks were not above taking lessons from their enemies in the matter of fortification, for the latter had already shown themselves approved masters of the art in such fortified camps as that at Jeufosse on the Seine. In another way also had the Danes showed themselves ready to adapt themselves to new fighting conditions. Not only did they build forts, but we hear of them as mounted, and henceforward horses played an important part in their equipment both in France and England.
During these years the Vikings made one notable expedition far beyond the ordinary range of their activity. Starting from the Seine in 859 under the leadership of Björn and Hásteinn, they sailed round the Iberian Peninsula through the Straits of Gibraltar. They landed in Morocco and carried off prisoners many of the Moors or 'Blue-men' as they called them. Some of these found their way to Ireland and are mentioned in certain Irish annals of the period. After fresh attacks on Spain they sailed to the Balearic Isles, and Roussillon, which they penetrated as far as Arles-sur-Tech. They wintered in the island of Camargue in the Rhone delta and then raided the old Roman cities of Provence and sailed up the Rhone itself as far as Valence. In the spring of the next year they sailed to Italy. They captured Pisa and Luna (at the mouth of the Magra), the latter being taken by a clever stratagem. Hásteinn feigned himself sick unto death and was baptised by the bishop of Luna during a truce. Then news came that Hásteinn was dead and the Vikings asked Christian burial for him. Permission was given and a mock funeral procession entered the city. It was in reality a band of armed men in disguise and the city was soon captured. The real aim of the Vikings in this campaign was the capture of Rome with its mighty treasures, but, for some reason unknown, they made no advance further south. Scandinavian tradition said it was because they mistook Luna for Rome and thought their work already done! Sailing back through the Straits of Gibraltar they returned to Brittany in 862. The Vikings had now almost encircled Europe with their attacks, for it was in the year 865 that the Swedish Rhôs (Russians) laid siege to Constantinople.
When Alfred secured a definite peace with the Danes in 878, those who were averse to settling permanently returned to their old roving life. They made their way up the Somme and the Scheldt and their progress was not stopped by a brilliant victory gained by the young Lewis III in June 881 at Saucourt, near the Somme, a victory which is celebrated in the famous Ludwigslied. During the same years, another Viking host invaded Saxony winning a decisive victory over Duke Bruno on the Lüneburg Heath. After their defeat at Saucourt the main body of the Danes made their way to Elsloo on the Meuse whence they ravaged the Meuse, Rhine and Moselle districts plundering Cologne, Bonn, Coblentz, Aachen, Trèves and Metz. So alarmed was the emperor Charles the Fat that he entered into negotiations with the Danish king Guðröðr who was with the forces at Elsloo. He secured Guðröðr's acceptance of Christianity and the promise of security from further attack at the price of a large payment of Danegeld and the concession to Guðröðr of the province once held by Hrœrekr, with large additions. The exact extent of the grant is uncertain, but it included the district of Kinnem (round Alkmaar and Haarlem) and probably covered the greater part of Modern Holland from the Vlie to the Scheldt. Here Guðröðr lived in semi-independence and might perhaps have established another Normandy within the empire had he not been ruined by too great ambition. He entirely failed to defend his province from attacks, indeed he probably gave them covert support; he intrigued with Hugo, the bastard son of Lothair II, against the emperor, married his sister Gisla, and then asked for additional territories on the Rhine and the Moselle, on the plea that his own province included no vine-growing districts. Guðröðr had now overstepped all reasonable limits: the emperor entered into negotiations with him but secured his death by treachery when a meeting was arranged near Cleves. With the fall of Guðröðr Danish rule in Frisia came to an end, and though we hear of isolated attacks even during the early years of the 10th century, there was no more serious trouble in that district.
In the autumn of 882, encouraged doubtless by the news of the death of Lewis III, the Danes returned from the Meuse to Flanders and during the next three years ravaged Flanders, Brabant and Picardy, establishing themselves strongly at Louvain. In 885 they abandoned these districts and sailed up the Seine, after a nine years' absence. In November they reached Paris with a fighting force of some 30,000 men and a fleet of 700 vessels. The passage up the river was stopped by fortified bridges and the besiegers were fortunate in having as leaders two men of great ability and courage, first Gauzlin, Abbot of St Germain's, and, later, Count Odo of Paris. The position of Paris was at times desperate. The Danes were exasperated by the stout defence and in their eagerness to plunder further up the river dragged many of their ships some two miles overland past Paris, and so reached the upper waters of the Seine. Later, as the result of peaceful negotiations, they obtained permission to pass the bridges on condition that they only ravaged Burgundy, leaving the Seine and Marne districts untouched; thus had the provinces of the Frankish empire lost all sense of corporate union. The Danes soon made their way as far west as Verdun. Here however they were disastrously defeated by Odo, now king of the West Franks (June 888), and in the next year they finally abandoned the siege of Paris making their way to Brittany.
In Brittany they found another army already busy. The Bretons had won a great victory in the autumn of 888 when only 400 out of some 15,000 Danes made their way back to their fleet. The great here from the Seine now joined forces with the remnants of this army, but proved powerless against Duke Alan, and some returned to Flanders in 890, while Hásteinn with the rest sailed to the Somme. The Danes in Flanders were defeated by Arnulf (afterwards emperor) on the Dyle, near Louvain, in 891, but it had no great effect for soon after we find them again as far east as Bonn. A bad harvest in the summer of 892 brought famine in its train and this was more effective in ridding the land of invaders. In the autumn of the year the whole army, horses and all, crossed in one passage in some 250 ships from Boulogne to the mouth of the Limen in Kent and, shortly after, Hásteinn with a fleet of 80 ships left the Somme and sailed to Milton in North Kent. The story of the campaigns there has already been told. For the first time since 840 the Frankish empire was free from invaders. Grievous as were the losses of the Franks, it is well to remember that those of the Danes had been great also. Their fleet had been reduced from 700 to 250 ships, and as the whole army could still go to England in one crossing, that must also have been reduced from thirty to ten or fifteen thousand men.
When the English invasion had failed, those who could not settle in England returned to their French haunts once more. A small force of eight ships and some 200 men sailed up the Seine under one 'Huncdeus' and gradually their numbers were increased by fresh arrivals from abroad. They made their way north to the Meuse, south to the Loire, and east to Burgundy, but their head quarters were on the lower waters of the Seine. In 903 other invaders appeared on the Loire under leaders named Baret (O.N. Bárðr) and Heric (O.N. Eiríkr). The name of Bárðr is mentioned more than once in the contemporary history of the Norsemen in Ireland, and as the Norsemen were driven from Dublin in 902 it is probable that these invaders came from there. The expedition was not a success and the Vikings soon sailed away again. Of the history of the settlers on the Seine after 900 we unfortunately know practically nothing. The Norman historian Dudo attempted in the 11th century to give a connected account but his narrative is confused and unreliable. Odo was dead and Charles the Simple was more interested in conquering Lorraine than defending Neustria. The clergy were weary of the ceaseless spoiling of the monasteries and anxious for the conversion of the heathen, while the nobles were, as usual, selfish and careless of the interests of the country at large. The Northmen made no great expeditions between 900 and 910, but maintained a steady hold on the Lower Seine and the districts of Bessin and Cotentin. They could not extend their territories and the Franks could not drive them from the Seine. At length, largely through the intervention of the clergy, a meeting was arranged between Charles and the Viking leader Rollo at St Clair-sur-Epte, before the end of 911. Here the province later known as Normandy (including the counties of Rouen, Lisieux, Evreux and the district between the rivers Bresle and Epte and the sea) was given to Rollo and his followers as a beneficium, on condition that he defended the kingdom against attack, and himself accepted Christianity. The Danes now formed a definite part of the Frankish kingdom and occupied a position analogous to that of their countrymen in East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia in England, except that the latter after a period of freedom had in course of time to pass definitely under English rule.
The story of the foundation of Normandy is obscure: still more obscure is the origin and history of the leader of the Northmen at this time. Norse tradition, as given by Snorri Sturluson, makes Rollo to be one Hrólfr, son of Rögnvaldr earl of Möre, who was exiled by Harold Fairhair and led a Viking life in the west. Norman tradition, as found in Dudo, made him out the son of a great noble in Denmark, who was expelled by the king and later went to England, Frisia and Northern France. Dudo's account of the founding of Normandy is so full of errors clearly proven that little reliance can be placed on his story of the origin of Rollo. The Heimskringla tradition was recorded much later, but is probably more trustworthy, and it would be no strange thing to find a man of Norse birth leading a Danish host. Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons were Norsemen by family but they appear for the most part as leaders of Danes. How Rollo came to be the leader of the Danes in France and what his previous career had been must remain an unsolved mystery. His name is not mentioned apart from the settlement of Normandy.
The Normans continued to ravage Brittany without any interruption and they were soon granted the further districts of Bayeux, Seez, Avranches and Coutances, which made Brittany and Normandy conterminous.
CHAPTER V
THE VIKINGS IN IRELAND TO THE BATTLE
OF CLONTARF (1014)
In the history of the Vikings in Ireland we have seen how the attempt made by Turges to bring all Ireland under one ruler came to nought by his death in 845. At first this seems to have thrown the Norsemen into confusion and we hear of a series of defeats. Then, in 849, the invasions developed a new phase. Hitherto while the Irish had been weakened by much internecine warfare, their enemies had worked with one mind and heart. Now we read of 'a naval expedition of seven score of the Foreigners coming to exercise power over the Foreigners who were before them, so that they disturbed all Ireland afterwards.' This means that the Danes were now taking an active part in the invasions of Ireland, and we soon find them disputing the supremacy with the earlier Norse settlers. A full and picturesque account of the struggle is preserved for us in the second of the Three Fragments of Irish Annals copied by Dugald MacFirbis. Unfortunately the chronology of these annals is in a highly confused state and it is often difficult to trace the exact sequence of events.
When the Norsemen first saw the approaching fleet they were much alarmed. Some said it was reinforcements from Norway, but others, with keener insight, said they were Danes who were coming to harry and plunder. A swift vessel was dispatched to find out who they were, and when the steersman called out to them inquiring from what land they came and whether as friend or foe, the only answer was a shower of arrows. A fierce battle ensued, in which the Danes killed thrice their own number and carried off the women-folk and property of the Norsemen. In 851 they plundered the Norse settlements at Dublin and Dundalk, but in the next year the Norsemen attacked them in Carlingford Lough. At first the Danes were defeated, but then their leader cunningly exhorted his men to secure by their prayers and alms the patronage of St Patrick, who was incensed against the Norsemen because of the many evil deeds they had wrought in Erin. The battle was renewed and the Danes were victorious. After the battle they made rich gifts to St Patrick for 'the Danes were a people with a kind of piety: they could for a time refrain from meat and from women.' After the fight we learn that the Danes cooked their meat in cauldrons supported on the bodies of their dead foes. The Danes now helped Cerbhal, king of Ossory, against the Norsemen who were harrying Munster, and henceforward we hear again and again how the various Irish factions made use of the dissensions among the invaders to further their own ends.
Matters were further complicated by the fact that many of the Irish forsook their Christian baptism and joined the Norsemen in their plundering. These recreant Irish were known as the Gaill-Gaedhil (i.e. the foreign Irish), and played an important part in the wars of the next few years. The Gaill-Gaedhil were undoubtedly a race of mixed Norse and Gaelic stock and we must not imagine that they sprung suddenly into existence at this time. Long before this the Norsemen and the Gaels must have had considerable peaceful intercourse with one another in their various settlements, and in accordance with well-established Scandinavian custom it would seem that many of the Irish were brought up as foster-children in Norse households and must soon have learned to accept their religion and customs. There was also extensive intermarriage between Norsemen and Irish. The annals speak of several such unions, the most famous being the marriage of Gormflaith, afterwards wife of Brian Borumha, to Anlaf Sihtricsson, while in the genealogies of the Norse settlers in Iceland at the end of this century, Gaelic names are of frequent occurrence. One of the most famous of the leaders of these 'foreign Irish' was Ketill Finn (i.e. the White), a Norseman with an Irish nickname. These foreign Irish fought either by the side of the foreigners or on their own account and we have an interesting story telling how, when Vikings from Ireland made an invasion of Cheshire (c. 912), Aethelflæd, the lady of the Mercians, sent ambassadors to those Irish who were fighting on the side of the invaders, calling upon them to forsake the pagans and remember the old kindness shown in England to Irish soldiers and clergy.
The troubles between Norsemen and Danes were probably responsible for the arrival in Ireland in 853 of Amhlaeibh, son of the king of Norway, to receive the submission of the foreigners. This Amhlaeibh is Olaf the White of Norse tradition. Olaf is represented as ruling together with his brother Imhar (O.N. Ívarr). The annals are not very good authority for the relationship of the Norse leaders to one another, and it is quite possible that Ívarr is really Ívarr the Boneless, son to Ragnarr Loðbrók. Under the strong rule of Olaf and Ívarr Dublin became the chief centre of Scandinavian rule in Ireland, and the Danes and Norsemen were to some extent reconciled to one another. The Irish suffered great losses but some brave leaders were found to face the Norsemen. Cennedigh, king of Leix (Queen's County), came upon a party of them laden with booty; they abandoned the spoil and rushed upon Cennedigh with angry barbarous shouts, blowing their trumpets and many of them crying nui, nui (i.e. probably, in the old Norse speech, knúi, knúi, 'hasten on, hasten on'). Many darts and spears were thrown and at last they took to their heavy powerful swords. All was however of no avail and Cennedigh won a great victory. Less fortunate was Maelciarain, 'champion of the east of Ireland and a hero-plunderer of the foreigners.' He was expelled from his kingdom by the Leinstermen, who envied him in consequence of his many victories over the Norsemen!
The activities of Olaf and Ívarr were not confined to Ireland. In 866 Olaf paid a visit to Scotland, while in 870 both Olaf and Ívarr were present at the siege of Dumbarton. If Ívarr is Ívarr the Boneless, he must then have gone to England and taken part in the martyrdom of St Edmund. In the next year both leaders returned to Dublin with a large number of prisoners—English, Britons and Picts. In 873 Ívarr, 'king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain' died, and about the same time Olaf returned to Norway, possibly to take part in the great fight against Harold Fairhair at Hafrsfjord. The Danes seem to have taken advantage of the removal of Olaf to attempt to throw off the Norse yoke. Fresh fighting took place and the Danes under Albdann, i.e. Halfdanr, king of Northumbria, were defeated on Strangford Lough in 877 with the loss of their leader.
After 877 the War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill notes a period of rest for Ireland, lasting some forty years. This is true to the extent that no large fleets of fresh invaders seem to have come to Ireland during this time—the Vikings were too busy elsewhere, both in England and the Frankish empire—but there were occasional raids from Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and other towns into various districts of Ireland, and the Norsemen were often at variance amongst themselves. Dissensions in Dublin were particularly violent and so much did they weaken Norse rule there that in 902 Dublin fell into the hands of the Irish. The Vikings were driven abroad, some going to Scotland and others to England, where they besieged Chester (v. supra, p. [57]). In the year 914 all the old troubles were renewed. Rögnvaldr, a grandson of Ívarr, fresh from a great victory off the Isle of Man, captured Waterford, and two years later Sigtryggr, another grandson of Ívarr regained Dublin. The Irish attempted resistance under the ardrí Niall Glundubh, but he fell with twelve other kings in a fight at Kilmashogue near Dublin in 919. During the next fifty years Ireland was a prey to ceaseless attacks by Norwegians and Danes alike. Towards the close of the 9th century Limerick had become a stronghold of the Norsemen in the west, and from there they made their way up the Shannon into the heart of the country. Cork was settled in the early years of the 10th century, chiefly by Danes, and from there all Munster was open to attack. Waterford and Wexford, which stood as a rule in close connexion with Dublin, served as centres of attack against Leinster. The Irish made a stout resistance under able leaders and Dublin was 'destroyed' more than once. First among these leaders stands Muirchertach 'of the leather cloaks,' son of Niall Glundubh, a hero who came forward about the year 926. His activities were unceasing. He repeatedly attacked Dublin, took a fleet to the Hebrides where he defeated the Vikings, gaining much spoil, and finally in 941 made a circuit of Ireland, from which he brought back as hostages many provincial kings, including the Norse ruler of Dublin. More famous still in Irish song and story was Cellachan of Cashel. He made war against the Vikings in Munster and for a time had the Norse kingdom of Waterford under his control. Similarly he conquered Limerick, and we find him fighting side by side with Norsemen from both these towns. During these fifty years the Norse kingdom in Dublin stood in close relation with the Scandinavian kingdom of Northumbria. Rögnvaldr, who died in 912, ruled there and so did his brothers Sigtryggr (d. 927) and Guðröðr (or Godfrey) (d. 934). The brothers left sons known respectively as Anlaf Sihtricsson and Anlaf Godfreyson. The latter took part in the great fight at Brunanburh and died in 939. Anlaf Sihtricsson was destined to a longer career. He would seem to have spent his early years in Scotland where he married king Constantine's daughter. It is uncertain whether he fought at Brunanburh, but he came to Northumbria in 941 and captured York. He was expelled from Northumbria in 944 or 945 and retired to Dublin, and the rest of his life was chiefly spent in fighting in Ireland. He was in close alliance with the Norsemen in Man and the Western Islands, and was, for some thirty years, the most powerful Norse ruler in Ireland. Then came the first great blow to Norse rule in Ireland. In 980 Maelsechlainn II, the ardrí, won a great victory at Tara over the foreigners of Dublin and the Islands in which Anlaf's son was slain. The power of the kingdom of Dublin was effectually broken. The Norsemen were compelled to liberate all the hostages in their custody, to pay a fine of 2000 oxen and to remit the tribute which they had imposed on all Ireland from the Shannon eastwards to the sea. Anlaf abandoned his authority and retired on a pilgrimage to Iona, where he died in the same year an inmate of its monastery.
In the meantime events, fraught with important consequences for Norse rule in that country, were gradually developing in a distant quarter of Ireland. In the province of Munster the Dalcassian line of princes first comes into prominence about the middle of the 10th century, and the two most famous of these princes were the brothers Mathgamhain and Brian, commonly known as Brian Borumha. Together the brothers conquered Munster in spite of the support given to the Irish by the Viking settlers, and when their success aroused Ívarr, the ruler of Limerick, they attacked him and won a great victory at Sulcoit near Tipperary (968). Limerick was captured, Mathgamhain died in 976 and Brian was soon acknowledged king of all Munster. He next became master of Leinster, but his rapid advance brought him into conflict with the ardrí and by a compact made in 998, Maelsechlainn practically surrendered the southern half of Ireland to Brian. The ruler of Dublin at this time was Sigtryggr of the Silken Beard, son of Anlaf and Gormflaith, sister of Maelmordha, king of Leinster. In 1000 Leinster with the support of the Norsemen in Dublin revolted, but Brian defeated them and captured Dublin, giving his daughter in marriage to Sigtryggr and himself marrying Gormflaith. In 1002 Maelsechlainn submitted to Brian and the latter became ardrí. There followed twelve years of peace, but Brian's marriage with Gormflaith was his undoing. Quarrelling with her husband, she stirred up Maelmordha of Leinster against him. An alliance was formed between Maelmordha and Sigtryggr, and Gormflaith dispatched embassies to all the Viking settlements in the West, summoning them to the aid of Sigtryggr in a great fight against Brian. Sigtryggr secured the help of Earl Sigurd of the Orkneys and North Scotland by promise of the kingship of Dublin. Ships came from all parts of the Viking world, from Northumbria, from Man and the Western Islands, from Scotland and the Orkneys, and even from Iceland. Dublin was fixed as the trysting-place and Palm Sunday 1014 was to be the time of meeting. Brian mustered all the forces of Munster and Connaught and was joined in half-hearted fashion by Maelsechlainn, who was really waiting to see which way the fortunes of war would turn. Brian advanced into the plain of Fingall, north of Dublin, and the two armies faced one another at Clontarf all Passion week. The Norsemen had learned by magic incantations that if the fight took place before Good Friday their chiefs would perish and their forces be routed, while if the fight took place on Good Friday Brian himself would perish but the Irish would win the day. So they waited until the Friday and then made their attack. The fight was long and the slaughter was terrible. Brian and Sigurd were themselves numbered among the slain. In the end the Norsemen were defeated and Maelsechlainn completed their discomfiture when he cut down the fugitives as they tried to cross the bridge leading to Dublin and so reach their ships. No fight was more famous in Irish history and it seems to have appealed with equally strong force to Scandinavian imagination. Clontarf and Brunanburh are the two great Viking battles which find record in Scandinavian saga, and in the story of Burnt Njal[8] we have a vivid account both of the actual battle and of the events leading up to it. Yet more interesting perhaps is the old lay preserved to us, the Song of the Valkyries, who that same day were seen in Caithness riding twelve together to a bower where they set up a loom of which men's heads were the weights, men's entrails the warp and woof, while a sword was the shuttle and the reels were arrows. They wove the web of war and foretold the fate of king Sigtryggr and Earl Sigurd as well as the sharp sorrow which would befall the Irish[9]. The Norse world was full of this and like portents and there can be no question that the Vikings were themselves conscious that the battle of Clontarf marked a very definite epoch in the history of the Vikings in the West and in Ireland more particularly. The Norsemen remained in possession of their cities, Sigtryggr continued as king of Dublin, but gradually the fortunes of the Norse settlers tended to become merged in the history of the nation as a whole and there was no further question of Scandinavian supremacy in Ireland.