SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN IRELAND
At the time of the Viking invasion of Ireland the various provincial
kingdoms were held in loose confederation under the authority of the
_ardrí_ or high king, but these kingdoms stood in constantly shifting
relations of friendship and hostility towards one another, and were
themselves often split into factions under rival chieftains. There
was no national army like the English _fyrd_. Rather it consisted of
a number of tribes, each commanded by its own chief, and though the
chief owed allegiance to the king, the bond was a frail one. The tribe
was further divided into _septs_ and the army was utterly lacking in
any cohesive principle. It is no wonder that for many years the Irish
showed themselves quite unable to cope with the attacks of forces so
well organised as those of the Norse and Danish Vikings.
In vivid contrast to the chaos in political and military organisation
stand the missionary enthusiasm of the Irish church and the high
level of education and culture which prevailed among her clergy and
_literati_. In the Orkneys and the Shetlands such names as Papa Westray
or Papa Stronsay bear witness to the presence of Irish priests or
_papae_ as the Norsemen called them. Irish anchorites had at one time
settled in the Faroes (_v. supra_, p. 6), and when the Norsemen first
settled in Iceland (c. 870) they found Irish monks already there. The
monastic schools of Ireland were centres of learning and religious
instruction for the whole of Western Europe, while Irish missionaries
had founded monasteries in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France.
Unfortunately religion and culture seem to have been almost entirely
without influence on the body politic, and as the Vikings had at least
in the early days no respect for the religion or the learning of the
Irish nation there was nothing to prevent them from devastating Irish
monasteries and carrying off the stores of treasured wealth which
they contained. No plunder was more easily won, and it was only when
they themselves had fallen under Christian influences and had come
to appreciate Irish literary and artistic skill that they showed
themselves more kindly disposed towards these homes of learning.
One feature must at once strike the observer who compares the Viking
settlements in Ireland with those in England, viz. that Viking
influence in Ireland is definitely concentrated in the great coast
towns--Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick--and the districts
immediately around them. Irish place-nomenclature bears very definite
witness to this fact. _Ford_ in Strangford and Carlingford Loughs,
Waterford and Wexford is O.N. _fjorðr_, a fjord, -_low_ in Arklow and
Wicklow is O.N. _ló_, 'low-lying, flat-grassland, lying by the water's
edge.' The O.N. _ey_, an island, is found in Lambey, Dalkey, Dursey
Head, Ireland's Eye (for Ireland's Ey), Howth is O.N. _höfuð_, 'a
head,' Carnsore and Greenore Point contain O.N. _eyrr_, 'a sandy point
pushing out into the sea.' Smerwick contains the familiar O.N. _vík_
a bay or creek, while the Copeland Islands off Belfast lough are the
O.N. _kaupmannaeyjar_, 'the merchants' islands.' All these are found on
or off the coast, while the number of Scandinavian names found inland
is extremely limited. The most interesting perhaps is Leixlip on the
Liffey, a name derived from O.N. _laxahlaup_, 'salmon-leap.' Donegal,
Fingall and Gaultiere are Celtic names, but they mark the presence
of the northern _Gall_ or foreigners, while the -_ster_ in Ulster,
Leinster and Munster is O.N. -_staðir_ (pl. of -_staðr_, place, abode)
suffixed to the old Gaelic names of these provinces.
There was free intermarriage between Norse and Irish (_v. supra_, p.
56), but the strength of the clan-system kept the races distinct and
there was no such infiltration of the whole population as took place
in the English Danelagh. This system prevented any such settlement
of Norsemen upon their own farms as took place in England, and the
invaders lived almost entirely in the coast towns and the districts
in their immediate neighbourhood, busying themselves with trade and
shipping.
Though the settlements were limited in their extent, we must not
underrate their influence on Irish history generally. They gave the
impetus there, as elsewhere, to the growth of town life, and from the
period of Viking rule dates the origin of the chief Irish towns. To
them also was due the great expansion, if not the birth, of Irish
trade. Mention has been made of the wealth of Limerick (_v. supra_,
p. 97), drawn chiefly from trade with France and Spain, and the other
towns were not behind Limerick. The naval power of Dublin stretched
from Waterford to Dundalk, the Irish channel swarmed with Viking
fleets, and many of the shipping terms in use in Gaelic are loan-words
from the Norse.
It is probably to the trading activities of Vikings from the chiefs
ports of Ireland that we owe the sprinkling of names of Norse origin
which we find along the Welsh coast from the Dee to the Severn--Great
Orm's Head, Anglesey, Ramsey I, Skokholm Island, Flat Holme and Steep
Holme, and to them may be due the establishment of Swansea, earlier
_Sweinesea_, Haverfordwest and possibly Bideford, as Norse colonies in
the Bristol channel. We know in later times of several Norsemen who
were living in Cardiff, Bristol, Swansea and Haverfordwest.
Norse influence in Ireland probably reached its climax in the 10th
century. The battle of Clontarf offered a serious check and though
there was still a succession of Norse kings and earls in Dublin they
had to acknowledge the authority of the _ardrí_. The line of Sigtryggr
of the Silken Beard came to an end by the middle of the 11th century,
and the rulership of Dublin fell into the hands of various Norse
families from other Irish settlements and from Man and the Isles. From
1078-94 it was under the rule of the great conqueror Godred Crovan
from Man, and its connexion with that kingdom was only severed finally
when Magnus Barefoot came on his great Western expedition in 1103,
and brought Man into direct allegiance to the kings of Norway. Celtic
influence must have been strong in the Norse families themselves.
Several of the kings bear Gaelic names, and it is probably from this
period that such familiar names as MacLamont or MacCalmont, MacIver,
and MacQuistan date, where the Gaelic patronymic prefix has been added
to the Norse names Lagmaðr, Ívarr and Eysteinn. While Norse power in
Dublin was on the decline as a political force it is curious to note
that the vigorous town-life and the active commerce instituted by
the Norse settlers made that city of ever-increasing importance as a
centre of Irish life and Irish interests generally, and there can be no
question that it was the Norsemen who really made Dublin the capital
city of Ireland.
The Norse element remained absolutely distinct, not only in Dublin but
also in the other cities in which they had settled, right down to the
time of the English invasion in the 12th century. Frequent mention is
made of them in the records of the great towns, and they often both
claimed and received privileges quite different from those accorded to
the native Irish or to the English settlers. They were known to the
latter as 'Ostmen' or 'Easterlings,' a term which in this connexion
seems to have ousted the earlier _Norvagienses_ or _les Norreys_, _les
Norwicheis_. The term 'Ostman' doubtless represents O.N. _Austmaðr_,
a man dwelling to the east. Exactly how or where it first came to be
applied to Norsemen it is difficult to say. The word has left its mark
in Oxmanstown, earlier Ostmanstown, the district of the city of Dublin
assigned to the Ostmen by the English invaders.
Learning and religion in Ireland suffered grievously from Norse attack
but not so sorely as in England. There was never a time when so dark a
picture could have been drawn of Irish learning as Alfred gives of the
state of English learning when he translated the _Pastoral Care_, and
when once the Vikings began to form settlements they were themselves
strongly affected by the wealth of literary and artistic skill with
which they found themselves brought into contact. The question of Irish
influence on Norse mythology and literature is a much vexed one. At
present we are suffering from a reaction against exaggerated claims
made on its behalf some thirty years ago, but while refusing to accept
the view that Norse legends, divine and heroic alike, are based on a
wholesale refashioning and recreating of stories from Celtic saga-lore,
it would be idle to deny that the contact between the two nations must
have been fertile of result and that Norse literature in form, style
and subject-matter alike, bears many marks of Gaelic influence.