[[++]] Monument
Some hitherto inexplicable fragments of inscriptions at Kirk Onchan may also possibly contain Gaelic words. The Manx runic stones bear, both in form and workmanship, a striking resemblance to the previously-mentioned sculptured monuments in the Lowlands, and on the north-east coasts of the Highlands. Yet several of the Manx stones exhibit certain peculiarities; as, for instance, the singular scale-covered serpents surrounded with interlacings, which do not appear in a similar form on the Scotch monuments. But as these serpents and interlacings very much agree with ornaments on different antiquities of the heathen times found in Scandinavia, and, as the language of the runic stones is pure Scandinavian, there is every reason to conclude that the splendid specimens on Man were carved by Norwegians, who, though they imitated the monuments in vogue in Scotland, frequently allowed their own characteristically fantastic ideas to display themselves in peculiar devices. This view is confirmed in a remarkable manner by a few Manx runic inscriptions, the real interpretation of which was first given by Professor Munch. On the stone at Kirk Michael, represented below, is the following inscription:—
“Mail Brigdi sunr Athakans smith raisti krus thana fur salu sini sin brukuin Gaut girthi thana auk ala i Mann.” i. e., “Malbrigd, son of Athakan (the) Smith, erected this cross for his soul.... Gaut made this (cross) and all on Man.”
According to this, Gaut, who, to judge from the name, was a Norwegian, erected all the crosses which, it must be observed, were at that time on Man. Another inscription perfectly agreeing with this, though taken from a very much defaced and broken monument near Kirk Andreas, on which has been carved a cross with many scrolls (delineated in Kinnebrook’s work, No. 8), runs as follows:—
“... thana af Ufaig fauthur sin in Gautr girthi sunr Biarnar ...” “(N. N. erected) this (cross) to his father Ufeig, but Gaut Björnsön made it.”
Gaut’s surname, here given, further proves his Norwegian, or Scandinavian, descent. From the language and manner of writing in the Manx inscriptions still extant, we may assume that, with the exception perhaps of some few pieces at Kirk Michael (Mal Lumkun’s inscription) and Kirk Onchan (Leif inscription), which, according to Professor Munch’s opinion, are of a somewhat later period, all these inscriptions were from the artist-hand of Gaut Björnsön. It is even probable that several of the other sculptured stones in Man, which are not known to have had inscriptions (particularly at Kirk Onchan, Kirk Braddan, and Kirk Lonan; see Kinnebrook, Nos. 16, 17, 20, 22, 23), were carved by Gaut, or at least by a Northman. At all events, they are somewhat different from the corresponding stones in Scotland; and some of them (Onchan, 20, and Braddan, 23) prove themselves to be genuine Norwegian runic stones, by the same peculiar figures of dragons and serpents as on those before described.
The circumstance that those sculptured monumental stones in Man, which are Norwegian, have both runic writings and peculiar representations of figures, certainly affords a strong corroboration of the opinion before expressed, that the sculptured monuments, generally so finely executed, which are found on the east coast of Scotland, are in fact, though called “Danish,” not Scandinavian, but Scotch. As, on the other hand, the runic stones in Man have expressly preserved the name of the person who made them—the Norwegian skilled in runes, Gaut Björnsön, who imitated and altered the Scotch models with great expertness and taste—it is clear that the Norwegians in the remote Western Isles must not be regarded, any more than their kinsmen in the Orkneys and in England, as merely rude barbarians, living only for plunder, war, and bloodshed, and having no feeling for anything higher and nobler. The discovery of Gaut Björnsön’s name may be regarded as an instructive addition to the proofs before adduced, that the cathedral in Kirkwall was originally founded, and partly erected, by a Norwegian layman, the chieftain Kol; as well as that there existed at the same time in England a considerable number of Danish, or Scandinavian, coiners. Of the latter, as we shall see, there were likewise several employed by the Norwegian-Danish kings in Ireland. For the rest, these characteristic Scandinavian runic writings suffice to show that, with regard to the civilization then prevailing, the Norwegians or Danes settled in these districts were by no means deficient in education. The Northmen on the Isle of Man were, besides, at a very early period, Christians. Almost all the Manx runic stones are ornamented with the Christian cross; and on a defaced piece of such a monumental stone at Kirk Onchan we even find the words Jesus Christ (“Jsu Krist”). From the language of the inscriptions there is reason to suppose that they were for the most part engraved in the eleventh century. We cannot, therefore, doubt that Christianity must at that time have been already disseminated among the Scandinavian population in the Isle of Man. There was a bishopric in the island in very ancient times; and we learn from history, as well as from the names of the bishops, that in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries several of them were of Norwegian descent; for instance, in 1050-1065, Roolwer (Rolf?); 1077-1100, Aumond M’Olave; 1181-1190, Reginald, or Ragnvald; 1203-1226, Reginald (son of a sister of King Olaf, of Man); and his successor, John Ivarsön. Unfortunately there is a gap in the chronicles of the bishops of Man from about the year 700 to the year 1025. Had they been perfect, we should possibly have been able to find Scandinavian bishops in the island even earlier than 1050.
The Norwegian monuments in the Isle of Man already mentioned are in themselves numerous and considerable enough to convey an idea of the power which the Norwegians must have possessed there. At all events, the names of places and the runic stones contribute in a high degree to strengthen and illustrate the assertion of the Chronicles, that Norwegian kings and jarls held confirmed dominion in the Sudreyjar, or southern isles. When, in the ninth century, the Norwegian king Harald Haarfager succeeded in subjecting the Orkneys and the Sudreyjar, he is said to have appointed a viceroy or jarl in Man. During the tenth and eleventh centuries a long series of Norwegian kings ruled there, whose descent is clearly shown by their names; viz., Godred (Gudröd), Reginald (Ragnvald), Olave, Hacon, Harold, &c. In the eleventh century the connection between these kings and the Norwegian or Scandinavian kings of Dublin was so particularly close, that either the same, or at all events nearly-related kings, reigned over both Man and Dublin.
The kings of Man were tributaries of Norway, and acknowledged the supremacy of that country, although in reality they ruled independently. At that time their dominion extended over the rest of the Sudreyjar. But in the year 1077 the Norwegian, Godred Crovan, succeeded in conquering Man, after a battle near “Scacafell,” or Skyhill, in which King Fingal, a grandson of Sygtrig (Sigtryg), “King of the Danes in Dublin,” fell, as well as Sygtrig Mac Olave, the actual Danish king of Dublin. Godred Crovan now assumed the government of the islands, and appears to have declared himself perfectly independent of Norway. Subsequently he conquered Dublin also, as well as the province of Leinster in Ireland. In order to maintain Norway’s right of supremacy, the Norwegian king, Magnus Barfod, shortly afterwards undertook an expedition to the west. He committed great havoc along the firths of Scotland (“Skotlandsfirðir,” or the coasts by the Caledonian Sea), and in the Sudreyjar, Man, Anglesey, and Ireland, and regained the kingdom which his forefathers had possessed. According to a treaty with the Scottish king Malcolm, all the islands lying to the west of Scotland, which Magnus could approach with sailing vessels, were to belong to Norway. King Magnus accordingly caused his ship to be hauled over the narrow isthmus (Satíriseið) which connects the peninsula of Cantire with the mainland, and which to the present day is called by the Gaels “Tarbet” (a place over which vessels can be dragged). The King himself sat at the helm, and thus acquired the peninsula, besides all the Western Islands. Having appointed his son Sigurd king of the Sudreyjar, he returned home to Norway, where, with several of his followers, he adopted the dress generally worn in the Western Isles. “They went about the streets with bare legs, and wore short coats and cloaks; whence Magnus was called by his men Barfod, or Barbeen” (Barefoot, or Barelegs), says the Icelandic historian, Snorre Sturlesön, who, as is well known, lived in the first half of the thirteenth century. It is remarkable enough that this is the oldest account extant of the well-known Scotch Highland dress, whose high antiquity is thus proved.
The Jarl Ottar, who after Magnus Barfod’s expedition was made governor of Man, was expelled by the inhabitants of that island (“Manverjar”), who chose in his place another jarl named Macmanus (or Magnusön). But a civil war now broke out in the island, and as King Magnus Barfod fell in Ireland in 1103, when on a fresh expedition to the Western Islands, Godred Crovan’s family regained the Manx throne. It appears, however, that they acknowledged the supremacy of Norway; at all events, the previously distinct bishoprics of the Sudreyjar (founded in 838) and of Man were united after Magnus Barfod’s expedition, and connected more closely than ever with Norway, by being subjected to the archbishopric of Trondhjem. From 1181 until 1334 the bishops of the Sudreyjar (“Episcopi Sodorenses”) were consecrated by the Archbishop of Trondhjem. In the year 1380 the bishopric of Man was again separated from that of the other Sudreyjar; but the subsequent bishops of Man have retained to the present day the old title of bishop of Sodor (and Man), taken originally from Suðreyar.