FOOTNOTES
[1] Zimmer was of the opinion that the Norsemen made their way to Ireland as early as the seventh century. He bases his theory on an entry in the Annals of Ulster and in certain other Irish annals (under the year 617) recording “the devastation of Tory Island by a marine fleet.” (über die frühesten Berührungen der Iren mit den Nordgermanen, p. 279 ff. in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 1891. Bd. I., pp. 279-317.) But this attack is likely to have been due to Saxon or Pictish raiders rather than to the Norsemen.
[2] Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 807.
[3] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 811, 820-824, 827, 830.
[4] Some writers would identify Turgeis with Thorgils, son of Harold Fairhair, who with his brother Frothi went on a viking expedition to Ireland. They captured Dublin, and Thorgils reigned there for a long time as king. In the end, however, he was betrayed by the Irish and was killed. (Heimskringla: Haralds saga hins hárfagra, ch. 35.)
This account of Thorgils certainly bears a resemblance to that of Turgeis contained in the Irish chronicles and Giraldus Cambrensis (cf. Todd: Introduction to War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, I., ii.), but it is of course incorrect to say that Turgeis was a son of Harold Fairhair.
[5] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 841.
[6] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 13.
[7] Ib., p. 15.
[8] The Irish chroniclers use a variety of names for the Scandinavians: Dibearccai (outlaws), Gaill (foreigners), Gennti (Gentiles), and Pagánaigh (Pagans). They also distinguish between Danes and Norsemen. The Danes were known as Danair, Danmarcaigh, Dubh Gennti (Black Gentiles), and Dubh-Gaill. The word Dubh-Gaill (Black Foreigners) still survives in the personal names Doyle and MacDowell and in the place-name Baldoyle. The Norsemen were called Finn-Gaill (Fair Foreigners), Finn-Genti, Nortmannai (Lat. Northmanni) and Lochlannaigh (i.e., men of Lochlann or Norway).
[9] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 851 (= 852).
[10] Three Fragments of Annals, p. 127.
Vogt (Dublin som Norsk By, p. 66) suggests that Olaf was related to Turgeis, the first Norse King of Ireland, and to Earl Tomrair (O.N. Thórarr), “tanist of the King of Lochlann,” who fell in the battle of Scaith Neachtain (847). On the other hand it may be noted here that the Annalist errs in making Olaf a brother of Ivarr the Boneless.
[11] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 870.
[12] Three Fragments of Annals, p. 195. The Landnámabók, II., ch. 15 says that “Olaf fell in battle in Ireland,” but this is surely a mistake.
[13] Annals of Ulster, sub anno, 872 (= 873).
[14] Cf. War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 27. Cf. also the entries in the Annals of Ulster:
“Ruaidhri, son of Muirmenn King of the Britons came to Ireland, fleeing before the Black Foreigners” (an. 876).
“The shrine of Colum-Cille and all his relics were brought to Ireland to escape the Foreigners” (an. 877).
[15] The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill (p. 27) mentions another battle between Fair and Black Gentiles, in which many of the latter were killed.
[16] It is extremely difficult to identify these two princes owing to the similarity between their names. It has been suggested that Sighfrith is the Siefredus or Sievert who ruled jointly with Guthred-Cnut (d. c. 894) as King of Northumbria, while Sitriucc son of Ivarr is probably the “Sitric comes” whose name appears on a coin dating from this period. (See A. Mawer: The Scandinavian Kingdom of Northumbria, pp. 11-13. Saga-book of the Viking Club, VII. Part I.)
[17] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 916.
[18] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 918. War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 37. An entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A.D. 921), referring to the result of this battle, runs:—“In this year King Sihtric slew his brother Niel.” There is, however, no evidence in Irish sources that Sihtric and Niall were brothers, or even half-brothers.
[19] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 920, 921, 923, 925.
[20] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 923.
[21] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 920.
[22] Annals of Ulster, A.D. 919.
[23] Ib., A.D. 927.
[24] Ib., A.D. 937. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A. Annal, 937.
[25] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, D. Annal 941.
[26] Ib., E. Annal 942; Annals of Clonmacnoise, A.D. 934.
[27] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A. Annal 944.
[28] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, E. Annals 949, 952.
[29] Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 978, 979; Annals of Ulster, A.D. 979 (= 980).
[30] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 77.
[31] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 115; Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 997.
[32] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 153. Njáls Saga, ch. 155. In the Annals of Loch Cé (A.D. 1014) Brodar is called the earl of York (iarla Caoire Eabhroigh).
[33] War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 151.
[34] Ib., pp. 151-191; Njáls Saga, chs. 155-157, Annals of Loch Cé, A.D. 1014; Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1013.
[35] Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin (ed. by J. T. Gilbert), II. 81; Chartularies of St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin (ed. by Gilbert), I. 258; II. 251; Giraldus Cambrensis: Topographia Hibernica, V. 187.
The name “Ostmen” is generally supposed to have been first given to them by the English, but the word is Norse (i.e., Austmenn, plural of Austmathr, “a man living in the East”) and therefore must have been current in Ireland before the English invasion. It may be suggested that the name was applied to the original Scandinavian settlers in Ireland, to merchants and other later comers from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Cf. the nickname Austmathr, given to a certain Eyvindr by the Scandinavian settlers in the Hebrides because he had come there from Sweden.
[36] Chartularies of St. Mary’s Abbey, I. 267; ib., I. 227, 234, etc.; Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin, I. 55; II. 96.
[37] A Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland (ed. by H. S. Sweetman), I. 24.
[38] Ib., II. p. 426.
[39] For interesting articles on the Ostmen in Ireland see A. Bugge: Sidste Afsnit af Nordboernes Historie i Irland, pp. 248-315 (Aarb ger for nord. Oldk. 1900); and E. Curtis: The English and the Ostmen in Ireland (English Historical Review, XXIII., p. 209 ff.).
CHAPTER II.
INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE GAILL AND THE GAEDHIL DURING THE VIKING PERIOD.
The existence of the Gaill-Gaedhil or foreign Irish in Ulster and various parts of Munster[40] during the years 854-856 shows that even in the early part of the ninth century there must have been considerable intercourse between the Vikings and the native population. For some of the Gaill-Gaedhil were partly of Irish, partly of Norse extraction; others, as the annalist explicitly states, were Irishmen who had been fostered by the Norsemen, and in consequence had forsaken Christian practices and lapsed into Paganism.[41] From a chance allusion in a tenth century text[42] it would seem that they could speak Gaelic, but so badly that the expression “the gicgog of a Gall-Gaedheal” was generally understood to mean halting or broken Gaelic.
They are mentioned in the Annals for the first time[43] in 854, in which year Aedh Finnliath, King of Aileach, won a great victory over them in a battle fought at Glenelly, in Tyrone.[44] After this they took an active part in the Irish wars, fighting like mercenaries on different sides—at one time in alliance with the árd-rí, Maelsechnaill, who was at war with the Norsemen;[45] again, with an Irish clan against the Dublin Vikings under Ivarr,[46] and still later we find them joined with the men of Waterford in opposition to the árd-rí.[47] Led by Caittil Find (O.N. Ketill + Ir. find—fair) they made their last stand against the Dublin Vikings under Olaf and Ivarr, but were defeated with heavy losses, and after this there is no further record of their activities in Ireland.[48] On one occasion at least, they fought with the Viking armies in England. According to the account of the siege of Chester (c. 912) preserved in the Three Fragments of Annals, many Irishmen, foster-children of the Norsemen, formed part of the besieging army under the chieftain Hingamund,[49] who had been expelled from Dublin some time previously. To these Irishmen Aethelflaed, the lady of the Mercians, sent ambassadors appealing to them as “true and faithful friends” to abandon the “hostile race of Pagans” and to assist the Saxons in defending the city. The Irish then deserted their former allies and joined the Saxons, “and the reason they acted so towards the Danes,” adds the chronicler, “was because they were less friendly with them than with the Norsemen.”[50]
The Vikings who formed settlements in Ireland during the reign of Turgeis (839-845) seem to have mingled freely with the Irish, for we find them not long after their arrival stirring up the clans to rebellion against the árd-rí[51] and joining the native princes on plundering expeditions. The annals mention several such alliances. Cinaedh, Prince of Cranachta-Breagh, who had revolted against Maelsechnaill with a party of plunderers, laid waste the country from the Shannon eastward to the sea.[52] Another Irish prince, Lorcan, King of Meath, accompanied Olaf and Ivarr when they broke into the famous burial-mounds[53] at New Grange, Knowth and Dowth, on the Boyne, and carried off the treasures which they found there. After the great naval battle between Danes and Norsemen in Carlingford Lough (A.D. 852) Danes and Irish frequently united forces against the common enemy, and on one occasion—after the two armies had won a victory over the Norsemen in Tipperary—the Danish chieftain Horm and his men were escorted in triumph to Tara where they were received with great honour by the árd-rí.[54] Even after the arrival of Olaf the White, who brought about a temporary reconciliation between the two parties of “Foreigners,” a detachment of Danes remained on in the service of Cearbhall, King of Ossory.[55]
The Irish chronicler, in alluding to the Norse practice of billeting their soldiers in the Irish farmhouses, lays stress on the feelings of hostility entertained by the Irish towards this “wrathful, foreign, purely Pagan people.” Yet, we not infrequently find instances of friendly intercourse, as in the well-known story of Olaf-Trygvason and the peasant.[56] It appears that after Olaf’s marriage to Gyda, sister of Olaf Cuaran, he occasionally visited Ireland. Once he sailed there with a large naval force, and being short of provisions went on land with his men on a foraging expedition. They seized a large number of cows, and were driving them towards the shore when a peasant ran after them and begged Olaf to give him back his cows. Olaf told him to take them, if he could separate them from the rest without delaying their journey. The peasant had with him a large sheep-dog, which he sent in among the herd, and the dog ran up and down and drove off as many cows as the peasant claimed. As they were all marked in the same way it was evident that the dog knew all his master’s cows. Then Olaf asked if the peasant would give him the dog. “Willingly,” was the reply. So Olaf gave him in return a gold ring, and assured him of his friendship. The dog was called Vígi, “the best of all dogs,” and Olaf had it for a long time. Years later, after the great naval battle in which Olaf lost his life, “Vígi lay on a mound and would take no food from anyone, although he drove away other dogs and beasts and birds from what was brought to him… Thus he lay till he died.”[57]
Moreover, the evidence of both Norse and Irish sources goes to show that all through the ninth and tenth centuries there was extensive intermarriage between the two peoples. Marriages of the invaders with the women whom they had carried off as captives must have taken place from an early period,[58] and we know definitely that the kings and chieftains on both sides frequently strengthened their alliances by unions between members of the royal families. According to the Landnámabók many distinguished Icelanders traced their descent to Kjarval, i.e., Cearbhall, King of Ossory (d. 887), an ally of Olaf and Ivarr. His grandson, Dufthak (Ir. Dubhthach)[59] was the founder of an Icelandic family, and three of his daughters, Kormlöth (Ir. Gormflaith),[60] Frithgerth[61] and Rafarta[62] married Norsemen. The Landnámabók speaks of Kjarval as having been King of Dublin while “Alfred the Great ruled in England… and Harold Fairhair in Norway,”[63] a statement which is often doubted because unsupported by the evidence of the Irish historians; but it is not at all unlikely, since Cearbhall was remotely connected with the Dublin royal house through his granddaughter Thurithr, who married Thorsteinn the Red, son of Olaf the White.[64]
There is no mention of Authr, Olaf’s Norse wife, in the Annals, but we hear incidentally[65] that Olaf, while in Ireland, married a daughter of Aedh Finnliath, King of Aileach. After he became árd-rí (864) Aedh turned against the Norsemen, and having plundered all their fortresses in the north of Ireland marched towards Lough Foyle, where they had assembled to give him battle. Aedh was victorious, and some years after he again defeated the Foreigners, who were at this time in alliance with his nephew Flann; Flann himself and Carlus, son of Olaf the White being numbered among the slain. We also hear of other Irish Kings who were closely related to their Viking opponents. Laxdaela Saga contains an interesting account of a slave-woman who was bought at a market in Norway by an Icelander called Höskuldr. The woman was dumb, but Höskuldr was so struck by her appearance that he willingly paid for her three times the price of an ordinary slave, and took her back with him to Iceland. A few years later, happening to overhear her talking to their little son, Olaf Pái, he discovered to his amazement that her dumbness was feigned. She then confessed that her name was Melkorka (Ir. Mael-Curcaigh) and that she was the daughter of Myr Kjartan, a king in Ireland, whence she had been carried off as a prisoner of war when only fifteen years old.
When Olaf was grown up his mother urged him to visit Ireland in order to establish his relationship with King Myr Kjartan, “for,” she said, “I cannot bear your being called the son of a slave-woman any longer.” Before they parted she gave him a large finger-ring and said: “This my father gave me for a teething-gift, and I know he will recognise it when he sees it.” She also put into his hands a knife and belt and bade him give them to her nurse: “I am sure she will not doubt these tokens.” And still further Melkorka spoke: “I have fitted you out from home as best I know how, and taught you to speak Irish, so that it will make no difference to you where you are brought to shore in Ireland…”[66]
The saga goes on to describe the voyage to Ireland, the landing there, and Olaf’s reception by King Myr Kjartan.
Myr Kjartan may be identified with Muirchertach “of the Leather Cloaks,” King of Aileach, who like his father Niall Glundubh distinguished himself by his spirited resistance to Norse rule in the first half of the tenth century.[67] Donnflaith, another of his daughters and mother of the árd-rí, Maelsechnaill II., married Olaf Cuaran. Their son, Gluniarainn, reigned in Dublin after his father’s retirement to Iona, and appears to have been on friendly terms with Maelsechnaill.[68] The relationship between these two families becomes more complicated owing to the fact that Maelsechnaill’s own wife, Maelmuire (d. 1021), was a daughter of Olaf.[69]
But perhaps no figure stands out so prominently in the Irish and Norse chronicles[70] of the second half of the tenth century as Gormflaith (O.N. Kormlöth) who first married Olaf Cuaran, then his enemy Maelsechnaill II., and finally Brian Borumha, from whom she also separated.
The interchange of family and personal names which took place to such an extent during the Viking period also points to the close connection between the foreigners and the Irish. As early as 835 mention is made of one Gofraidh (O.N. Guthröthr), son of Fergus, who went to Scotland from Ireland in order to strengthen the Dal Riada and died some time after as King of the Hebrides.[71] The Dublin Viking who led an attack on Armagh in 895 had an Irish name, Glun-iarainn, obviously a translation of O.N. Jarn-kné. He was in all probability a relative of Iercne or Jargna (corrupt forms of Jarn-kné) who ruled in conjunction with Zain or Stain (O.N. Steinn) as King of Dublin (c. 850);[72] while other earls of Dublin, Otir mac Eirgni,[73] Eloir mac Ergni or Largni[74] and Gluntradna, son of Glun-Iarainn would also appear to have been of the same royal family.[75] Irish names occur more frequently in Norse families during the tenth and eleventh centuries; we find Uathmaran, son of Earl Bairith (O.N. Barthr); Camman,[76] son of Olaf Godfreyson; Giolla Padraig, Dubhcenn[77] and Donndubhan, sons of King Ivarr of Limerick;[78] Niall, son of Erulb (O.N. Herjulfr); Cuallaidh, son of King Ivarr of Waterford; Eachmarach, and very many others.[79] On the other hand, we may note the prevalence of such common Norse names as Ivarr, Guthröthr, Sumarlithi among the Irish, especially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Several of these names still survive, as, for instance, MacAuliffe (O.N. Óláfr); MacCaffrey (O.N. Guthöthr); MacCalmont or Lamont (O.N. Lögmathr); Kettle (O.N. Ketill); Kitterick (? Ir. Mac + N. Sigtryggr); MacKeever (O.N. Ivarr); Manus and MacManus (O.N. Magnus); Quistan (Ir. Mac. + O.N. Eysteinn); Reynolds (O.N. Rögnvaldr); Sigerson (O.N. Sigurthr) and MacSorley (O.N. Sumarlithi).
Both Gaill and Gaedhil, so dissimilar in many ways, benefited by their intercourse with one another. In Ireland the Vikings played an important part in the development of trade; they also promoted the growth of town life. We may trace the beginnings of the seaport towns, Dublin, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford, to the forts built by them near the large harbours in the ninth and tenth centuries. In Dublin coins were minted for the first time in Ireland[80] during the reign of Sihtric Silken Beard (c. 989-1042). Moreover, the large number of loan-words from Old Norse which made their way into Irish shows that the Irish learned in many other ways from the invaders, notably in shipbuilding and navigation.
So far as literature and art are concerned, the period of the Viking occupation is one of the most interesting in the history of Ireland. In spite of the destruction of the monasteries and the departure of numbers of the monks[81] to the Continent the work of the great schools was carried on and there was considerable literary activity;[82] in 914 and 924, respectively, the great crosses at Clonmacnois and Monasterboice were set up; cumhdachs, or book-shrines of plated gold and silver, were made for the three great manuscripts, the Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow and the Book of Armagh; carved gold, silver, and bronze work reached a high level of excellence in the famous Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch; and during the years which intervened between the battles of Gleann Mama and Clontarf, Romanesque architecture was introduced into Ireland. Irish art did not remain wholly free from Scandinavian influence. In the Cross of Cong (A.D. 1123) the Celtic interlaced patterns are found side by side with the “worm-dragon” ornament, while the crosier of Clonmacnois, the psalter of Ricemarsh and the shrine of St. Patrick’s Bell are decorated in the style known as “Hiberno-Danish.”[83]
The Vikings, on the other hand, came under the influences of Irish art and literature. We find marks of Celtic influence not only in the sculptured crosses erected by the Norsemen in the North of England and Man, but even in Scandinavia itself.[84] Moreover, there are strong reasons for supposing that the rise of the prose saga among the Icelanders may be the outcome of their intercourse with the Irish in the ninth and tenth centuries.