The resemblance which we have noted between Icelandic and Irish customs seem to justify us in suggesting that they may be due in part to some influence exercised by the one people upon the other. There is in fact a certain amount of evidence which renders such influence probable. We know that Irish poets and story-tellers were welcome guests at the court of the Scandinavian kings in Ireland. In an elegy on Mathgamain, Brian’s brother,[243] one of the Munster bards, says he finds it difficult to reproach the foreigners because of his friendship with Dubhcena, Ivarr’s son.[244] And during the lifetime of Brian, Mac Liag, Brian’s chief poet, and Mac Coisse, poet and story-teller to Maelsechnaill II., visited the court of Sigtryggr and remained there for a whole year. On their departure they gave expression to their feelings of regret in a poetical dialogue:—
Mac Liag:
It is time for us to return to our homes,
We have been here a whole year;
Though short to you and me may seem
This our sojourn in Dublin,
Brian of Banba deems it too long
That he listens not to my eloquence.[245]
Another poem of Mac Liag’s, in which he addresses the Scandinavians of Dublin as “the descendants of the warriors of Norway,” was also composed in Dublin, at the court of ‘Olaf of the golden shields,’ soon after the battle of Clontarf.[246]