FOOTNOTES
[149] Only one reference is to be found in the Annals. See Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 728.
[150] Eoin MacNeill: “The Norse Kingdom of the Hebrides” (Scottish Review, Vol. XXXIX., pp. 254-276).
[151] It is interesting to recall that a new development in shipbuilding, probably due to the same causes, was taking place in England about the same time. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle first mentions a naval encounter with Vikings under the year 875, and some twenty years later describes the long ships, “shaped neither like the Frisian nor the Danish,” which Alfred had commanded to be built to oppose the oescs, or Danish ships.
[152] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 912.
[153] Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 939.
[154] Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 953 (= 955). Annals of Ulster, A.D. 963.
To this entry the annalist adds the following note: “Quod non factum est ab antiquis temporibus.”
Cf. Three Fragments of Annals (A.D. 873): “Bairith (O.N. Barthr), drew many ships from the sea westwards to Lough Ree…”
[155] Ancient Norway was divided by Haakon into districts (Skipreithur) each of which had in wartime to equip and man a warship: the number of these districts was fixed by law. Gulathingslög, 10. Cf. The Victorious Career of Cellachan of Cashel, p. 151, n; etc. Cf. The Saga of Haakon the Good (Heimskr.), ch. 21.
[156] The Victorious Career of Cellachan of Cashel, pp. 29, 86.
[157] Ib., pp. 89-102.
[158] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 109.
[159] Ib., p. 133.
[160] Ib., p. 137.
[161] See A. Bugge: Norse Loan-words in Irish (Miscellany Presented to Kuno Meyer, p. 291 ff.).
W. A. Craigie: Oldnordiske Ord i de Gaeliske Sprog (Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi, X., 1894).
C. Marstrander: Bidrag til det Norske Sprogs Historie i Irland.
K. Meyer: Revue Celtique, X., pp. 367-9, XI., pp. 493-5, XII., pp. 460-3.
[162] Marstrander (op. cit., p. 21) suggests that the word is connected with the O.N. dialectal form berling, “a little stick or beam under the shallows in a boat.”
[163] Cf. the list of authorities referred to ante, pp. 38, 39.
[164] The Norsemen sometimes adopted Irish fashions in their dress. The great Viking Magnus, who was killed in Ireland in A.D. 1103, was usually called “barelegs” (O.N. berfaettr) because he always wore the Irish kilts; and his son, Harold Gilli, who could speak Irish better than Norse, “much wore the Irish raiment, being short-clad and light-clad.” It was probably from his Irish cuaran, or shoes of skin that Olaf Sihtricsson, the famous King of Dublin received his nickname.
[165] In the Annals of the Four Masters (A.D. 960), lagmainn is the name given to certain chieftains from the Hebrides who plundered the southern and eastern coasts of Ireland.
[166] The word occurs only once in Irish: cf. The Victorious Career of Cellachan of Cashel, p. 140.
[167] The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 203, says that when the Norsemen were fleeing after the battle of Clontarf, Earl Broder, accompanied by two warriors, passed by the tent in which King Brian was. One of these men, who had been in Brian’s service, saw the King and cried “Cing, Cing” (This is the King). “No, no, acht prist, prist” said Broder (No, no, it is a priest, said Broder).
[168] These annals state that on one occasion (A.D. 869) Cennedigh of Leix, a brave Irish chieftain, was pursued by the Norsemen, who “blew their trumpets and raised angry barbarous shouts, many of them crying ‘nui, nui.’”
[169] Marstrander (op. cit., p. 156) suggests, however, that roth may be an archaic form of the Irish ruadh, ‘red.’
[170] Cf. W. A. Craigie: Gaelic Words and Names in the Sagas and Landnámabók. (Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, Band I., pp. 439-454).
A. Bugge: Vesterlandenes Indflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden, ch. 9. See especially pp. 358-359.
[171] There is an interesting account of the gelt in the Old Norse Konungs Skuggsjá (Speculum Regale):
“It happens that when two hosts meet and are arranged in battle-array, and when the battle-cry is raised loudly on both sides, cowardly men run wild and lose their wits from the dread and fear which seize them. And they run into a wood away from other men, and live there like beasts and shun the meeting of men like wild beasts. And it is said of these men then when they have lived in the woods in that condition for twenty years, that feathers grew on their bodies like birds, whereby their bodies are protected against frost and cold…”
Cf. Kuno Meyer: On the Irish Mirabilia in the Old Norse “Speculum Regale” (Eríu, Vol. IV., pp. 11-12).
This bears a striking resemblance to a certain passage in the mediæval romance Cath Muighe Rath (Battle of Moy Rath, p. 232. Ed. by O’Donovan). It may also be compared with another romance, which probably dates from the same period, viz., Buile Suibhne, (The Madness of Suibhne, ed. by J. G. O’Keefe for the Irish Texts Society). Cf. also Hávamál (ed. Gering), str. 129, etc.
[172] Vilbald, a descendant of Kjarval, King of Ossory, had a ship called Kuthi, cf. Landnámabók, IV., ch. II. Todd (War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 299, n.) suggests Ir. Cuthach.
[173] According to Jáns Saga hins Helga, ch. 14 (Biskupa Sögur I., Kaupmannahófn, 1858) King Magnus Barelegs sent an Icelander with other hostages to King Myrkjartan of Connacht. When they arrived there, one of the Norsemen addressed the King in these words: “Male diarik,” to which the King replied “Olgeira ragall,” i.e., Ir., olc aer adh ra gall, (it is a bad thing to be cursed by a Norseman.)
[174] minnthak was the name given by Hjorleif’s Irish thralls to the mixture of meal and butter which they compounded while on board ship on their way to Iceland. They said it was good for quenching thirst. Cf. Landnámabók, I., ch. 6.
[175] Cf. Whitley Stokes, op. cit., pp. 186, 191.
[176] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 13.
Cf. also Three Fragments of Annals, p. 146: “In a battle fought between the Irish and the Norsemen the latter were driven to a small place surrounded by a wall. The druid Hona went up on the wall, and with his mouth open began to pray to the gods and to exercise his magic; he ordered the people to worship the gods…”
[177] Cf. Thorfinssaga Karlsefnis, ch. 3; Vatnsdaela Saga, ch. 10; Tháttr af Nornagesti, ch. 11; Hrólfs Saga Kraka, ch. 3; etc.
[178] e.g., C. Haliday: The Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin, p. 12 ff. Margaret Stokes, op. cit., pp. 96-98.
[179] Cf. War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 8.
[180] The expression used is quievit in Christo and occurs only in MS. A. As neither MS. B nor any of the other annals mention Ivárr’s conversion it may be that the scribe of the former has unintentionally slipped into using a formula which was customary in recording the death of a Christian.
[181] Landnámabók, II., ch. 16.
[182] Landnámabók, I., ch. 12.
[183] Ib., V., ch. 15.
[184] Ib., I., ch. 13.
[185] Ib., I., ch. 15.
[186] Ib., IV., ch. 11.
[187] Njáls Saga, ch. 101.
[188] Landnámabók, V., ch. 15.
[189] Ib., III., ch. 12.
[190] Ib., I., ch. 12.
[191] Three Fragments of Annals, pp. 120-124.
[192] Cf. Gylfaginning, chs. 51, 52.
[193] Hýmiskvitha, pass. Cf. W. S. Calverley: The Ancient Crosses at Gosforth, p. 168.
[194] P. M. C. Kermode: Manx Crosses, pp. 180-184.
[195] Ib., pp. 170-179.
[196] Ib., pp. 86-95, 195-199.
[197] Ib., pp. 150-153.
[198] Ib., pp. 203-205.
[199] Ib., pp. 209-213.
[200] Ib., p. 169.
[201] Ib., pp. 212-213.
[202] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 919. The same source in recording Gothfrith’s death (A.D. 933) speaks of him as “the most cruel of the Norsemen.”
[203] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MS.D., A.D. 925.
[204] Ib., MSS. A., 942, D. 943.
[205] Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 979.
[206] Ib., A.D. 1021.
[207] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 207.
[208] Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 982.
[209] Ib., A.D. 1011.
[210] Ib., A.D. 994.
[211] Eyrbyggja Saga, chs. 4 and 10; Kjalnesinga Saga, ch. 2; etc.
[212] Cf. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MS.A. Annal, A.D. 876, Kjalnesinga Saga, ch. 2; etc.
[213] Landnámabók, II., ch. 12.
[214] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, pp. 196, 198.
[215] Annals of Tigernach, A.D. 1028, 1036.
[216] Ib., A.D. 1042.
[217] The Whole Works of Sir James Ware Concerning Ireland, Vol I., p. 301. (Ware quotes from the Black Book of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin.)
[218] Ib., p. 306.
[219] Ib., pp. 309-311.
[220] Ib., pp. 525-6.
[221] Ib., p. 504.
Cf. J. MacCaffrey: The Black Book of Limerick. Introduction, chs. 5 and 7.
[222] The History of Ireland, by Geoffrey Keating (ed. P. S. Dinneen). Vol. III., p. 298.
[223] Ware, op. cit., p. 505.