"Never was there a fortress, or a fastness, or a mound, or a church, or a sacred place, or a sanctuary, when it was taken by that howling, furious, loathsome crew, which was not plundered.... Neither was there in concealment under ground in Erinn, nor in the various solitudes belonging to Fians [Footnote 285] or to fairies, anything that was not discovered by these foreign, wonderful Denmarkians through paganism and idol worship."
[Footnote 285: Here is evidence of the existence of legends of the Fianna in the early part of the eleventh century.]
The tables were now completely turned on the foreigners. Instead of the state of vassalage in which they had held the natives, we now find the following state of things:
"There was not a winnowing sheet from Benn Edair (Howth) to Tech Duinn [Footnote 286] in Western Erinn that had not a foreigner in bondage on it, nor was there a quern (hand-mill) without a foreign woman, so that no son of a soldier or of an officer of the Gaedhil deigned to put his hand to a flail or to any labor on earth. Nor did a woman deign to put her hands to the grinding of a quern, or to knead a cake, or to wash her clothes, but had a foreign man or a foreign woman to work for them."
[Footnote 286: House of Donn: the locality of the shipwreck of Donn, son of Milesius, in the south-west of Kerry. Donn was venerated as a fairy chief after his decease, the same as Aenghus of the Brugh, Mananan, Mac Lir, etc.]
Unedifying Doings at Kincora.
After a sojourn from Great to Little Christmas (February 2d) in Dublin, Brian returned to Kincora, (Ceann Coraidh, head of the weir.) Meantime Sitric, son of Anlaf, the defeated Danish prince, fled to the court of Aedh, at Aileach, (north east of Donegal,) and afterward to that of Achy, king of East Ulster, at Down-patrick, but neither king would afford him protection, such was the awe of Brian's power. So, like a brave and wise chief, he proceeded directly to the Court of his conqueror, and requested peace and friendship. These were immediately granted, both from the inherent nobility of Brian's disposition and his desire to have a friendly and devoted governor for the distant city of Ath Cliath.
To strain the bonds that held his new ally to him still tighter, he gave him his daughter in marriage. This might be prudent or the reverse, but to take Sitric's mother Gormflaith (blue-eyed noble lady) for his second wife showed little wisdom. This lady, sister to Maelmordha, King of Leinster, had for her first husband Olaf Cuaran, to whom she bore the Prince Sitric. Her next spouse was Malachy, King of Leath Cuinn, already more than once mentioned. After presenting him with a son, Prince Connor, she was repudiated, and, very little to Brian's domestic comfort, he was selected for her third experiment in matrimony. After sharing his royal bed and board for a season, she was repudiated the second time, and then probably went to add to the discomfort of the fortress of her son in Dublin, or her brother at Naas, or Dunlavin, or Dinn Righ, (Ballyknockan, near Leighlin Bridge.)
"The Njal Saga calls her Kormlada, and describes her as the fairest of all women, and best gifted in everything that was not in her own power, that is, in all physical and natural endowments, but she did all things ill over which she had any power, that is, in her moral conduct."—Burnt Njal, ii. 323.
We find at the period in question frequent marriage alliances between Irish and Danish families. In fact, when a foreign family or tribe had contrived to secure a footing in the country, and the first bitter dislike had blown over, the native chiefs began to look on them as they did each other, and in many cases a stronger feeling of friendship connected the foreign chief and his people to some neighboring native prince or flaith than prevailed among themselves. This was also the case afterward between natives and Anglo-Normans. Nothing could exceed the strength of ties that bound the individuals of a tribe to each other and to their chief, and in most cases the chiefs to the provincial kings, but enthusiasm for the cause of the Ard-Righ or for the general weal of the island was an exceedingly scarce commodity. The same indifferent spirit still exists.