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.
FOOTNOTES
[40] _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 855, 856; _Annals of the Four Masters_,
A.D. 856.
[41] _Three Fragments of Annals_, pp. 128, 129, 138, 139.
[42] _Airec Menmam Uraird Maic Coisse_, sec. 29 (Marstrander: _Bidrag
til det Norske Sprogs Historie i Irland_, p. 10).
[43] With the Gaill-Gaedhil are often identified a body of plunderers,
members of Meath and Cavan clans, who in the year 845 devastated large
tracts of territory “after the manner of the Gentiles” (_Annals of
Ulster_, A.D. 845). The Annalists call them “sons of death” (_maic
báis_), possibly a term applied by the monastic chroniclers to a
people who had abandoned their Christian baptism, and who had profaned
churches and religious houses. (Cf. Marstrander, _op. cit._, p. 7, n.)
[44] Cf. _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 854. _Three Fragments of
Annals_, A.D. 852, referring to the same event, mention the “fleet of
the Gaill-Gaedhil.”
[45] _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 855.
[46] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 856.
[47] _Fragments of Annals_, A.D. 858.
[48] There was also a mixed Norse and Gaelic population in Galloway
(the word is a corruption of _Gall-Gaedhil_, Welsh Galwydel) as well
as in the Hebrides (Ir. _Innse Gall._, _i.e._, the “Islands of the
Foreigners or Norsemen”) and other parts of Scotland. There is a
reference to these Gaill-Gaedhil in the _Four Masters_ (A.D. 1154):
“The Cinél Eoghain and Muirchertach, son of Niall, sent persons over
the sea to hire the fleets of the Gaill-Gaedhil of Aran, Cantire and
the Isle of Man and the borders of Scotland in general, over which Mac
Sgelling was in command…” (For other references see Marstrander, _op.
cit._, p. 9.)
By _Gaddgethlar_ the Norsemen understood “the place… where Scotland and
England meet” (cf. _Orkneyinga Saga_, ch. 28). It is also interesting
to note that in Norse sources the inhabitants of Galloway are called
_Vikinga-Skotar_, a direct translation of Gaill-Gaedhil.
O’Flaherty (_Ogygia_, p. 360) thought that the Gaill-Gaedhil mentioned
in the Annals of the mid-ninth century came to Ireland from Scotland,
but the ancient _Three Fragments of Annals_, which contain the fullest
accounts of the Gaill-Gaedhil (pp. 138-141) speak of them as _Scuit_
(_i.e._, an Irish form of the Latin _Scoti_, a word which is always
used with reference to the Irish before the tenth century). Moreover,
the impression received from reading the _Fragments of Annals_ is that
the Annalist had in his mind the Norse-Gaelic population of Ireland,
not of Scotland.
[49] _Ann. Cambriae_, A.D. 902; (Steenstrup: _Normannerne_, III., pp.
37-41).
[50] _Three Fragments of Annals_, p. 230 ff.
[51] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 845, 852; _Annals of Ulster_,
A.D. 846. _Three Fragments of Annals_, A.D. 862.
[52] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 848.
[53] The plundering of these burial-mounds--“a thing that had never
been done before”--made a deep impression on the Irish Annalists; it
was thought that the Vikings discovered the existence of the treasure
by magic, “through paganism and idol worship” (_War of the Gaedhil with
the Gaill_, p. 115). The same source (p. 25) records the plundering of
Kerry by Baraid (O.N. Barthr) and Olaf the White’s son “who left not a
cave there underground that they did not explore.”
Several references to this practice of the Vikings occur also in
Icelandic literature. It is interesting to compare the Irish accounts
with the following passage from Landnámabók (I., ch. 5): “Leifr (one of
the earliest settlers in Iceland) went on a Viking raid to the West.
He plundered Ireland and found there a large underground house (Icel.
_jarth-hus_). It was dark within until he made his way to a place where
he saw a light shining from a sword which a man held in his hand. Leifr
slew the man and took the sword and much treasure besides.”
[54] _Three Fragments of Annals_, p. 135.
[55] _Ib._, p. 137.
[56] _Heimskringla: Óláfs Saga Tryggvasonar_, ch. 35.
[57] Cf. The story of Samr, (_i.e._, probably Ir. sam, “happy” or
“peaceful”) the Irish hound which Olaf Pai gave to Gunnarr. Samr was
killed while defending his master’s homestead. (_Njáls Saga_, chs. 69,
75.)
[58] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 820; _Fragments of Annals_, p.
166; _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 79; _The Victorious Career
of Callachan of Cashel_, p. 9.
[59] _Landnámabók_, V., ch. 8.
[60] _Ib._, V., ch. 13.
[61] _Ib_., III., ch. 9.
[62] _Ib._, III., ch. 12. Rafarta was the wife of Eyvindr the
Easterner, “who settled down in Ireland and had charge of Kjarval’s
defences” (cf. _Grettis Saga_, ch. 3). _Orkneyinga Saga_ (ch. 11.)
makes Edna (Ir. _Eithne_) another of Kjarval’s daughters to be the
mother of Sigurthr, Earl of Orkney (killed in the battle of Clontarf,
1014); but owing to the chronological difficulty this is hardly likely.
[63] _Landnámabók_, I., ch. 1.
[64] _Ib._, II., ch. 15.
[65] _Three Fragments of Annals_, p. 151. The same source (p. 173)
mentions still another wife of Olaf, “the daughter of Cinaedh,” _i.e._,
in all probability Cinaedh Mac Ailpin, King of the Picts (d. 858).
[66] _Laxdaela Saga_ (translated by M.A.C. Press), chs. 12, 13, 20, 21.
[67] The _Annals of the Four Masters_ record his death under the year
941: “Muirchertach of the Leather Cloaks, lord of Aileach, the Hector
of the West of Europe in his time, was slain at Ardee by Blacaire, son
of Godfrey, lord of the Foreigners.”
Muirchertach’s grandson was killed by Olaf Cuaran. (_Ib._, A.D. 975).
[68] _Ib._, A.D. 981.
[69] _Ib._, A.D. 1021.
[70] _War of the Gaedhit with the Gaill_, p. 142 ff.; _Njáls Saga_,
chs. 153, 154.
[71] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 851.
[72] _Three Fragments of Annals_, pp. 119, 123. _Annals of Ulster_,
A.D. 852.
[73] _Chronicon Scotorum_, A.D. 883.
[74] _Ib._, 886; _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 885.
[75] See A. Bugge: _Nordisk Sprog og Nordisk Nationalitet, i Irland_,
pp. 284, 285. Professor Marstrander (_op. cit._, pp. 45, 46) takes
_Gluntradna_ to be an Irish adaptation of an O.N. nickname _Trönu-Kné_,
to which he compares _Trönubeina, the daughter of Thraell, in the
Rígsthula_, 9.
[76] Cf. the name Grímr Kamban (_Landnámabók_, Hauksbók MS., ch. 19)
which seems to be a Norse form of the Irish _Camman_.
[77] According to A. Bugge, _Dubhcenn_ is a translation of the O.N.
_Svarthöfthi_, but Marstrander (_op. cit._, p. 45) holds that the name
was known in Ireland before the Viking age. It may be suggested that
it was a nickname given to Ivarr’s son by the Irish. Cf. Olaf _Cuaran_
(Ir. _cuaran_, a shoe made of skin); Olaf _Cenncairech_ (_i.e._,
“Scabby-head.”)
[78] Their mother was an Irishwoman, sister of Donnabhan, King of Ui
Fidgenti. Donnabhan himself was married to a daughter of Ivarr, King of
Limerick. (_War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 207).
[79] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 931; _Annals of Ulster_, A.D.
960, 1036, 1042, etc. See also Whitley Stokes: _On the Gaelic Names in
the Landnámabók_ (_Revue Celtique_, III., pp. 186-191).
[80] From the contemporary Irish poems the _Book of Rights_ and _The
Curcuit of Muirchertach Mac Neill_ it may be inferred that in ancient
Ireland all payments were made in kind. With the extension of trade,
however, it is probable that many Anglo-Saxon and other foreign
coins--including those of the Scandinavian Kings of Northumbria,
several of whom also reigned in Ireland--came to be circulated in
Ireland. The Vikings in England struck coins there during the reign of
Halfdanr (d. 877). (Cf. C. F. Keary: _Catalogue of Coins in the British
Museum_, I., p. 202).
[81] One of these fugitives wrote the following lines on the margin of
Priscian’s Latin Grammar in the monastery of St. Gall, Switzerland:
“Is acher ingaith innocht fufuasna fairge findfolt, Ni agor reimm mora
minn dond laechraid lainn na lothlind.”
(_Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus_. Ed. Stokes and Strachan, II., 290.)
_i.e._,
Bitter is the wind to-night, It tosses the ocean’s white hair; To-night
I fear not the fierce warriors of Norway Coursing on the Irish Sea.
(Translation by Kuno Meyer: _Ancient Irish Poetry_, p. 101.)
[82] See Margaret Stokes: _Early Christian Architecture in Ireland_, p.
127.
[83] G. Coffey: _A Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian
Period_ (National Museum, Dublin) pp. 29, 49 and 62.
[84] _Ib._, p. 17.