Here and there, on Mainland, we meet with graves of the heathen times,

which are not at all uncommon in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles. They

are, however, of much lower elevation than those previously mentioned,

and in general rise very little above the surface of the soil. In some

of these, as in Shetland, besides urns, containing burnt bones and

ashes, bodies have at times been found that have been buried without

being burnt; together with swords of the Scandinavian kind before

described, heads of lances, daggers, and knives; as well as bone combs,

bowl-formed brooches of brass, and various other ornaments, evidently of

Norwegian workmanship.

Just as the barrows, or grave hills, in Mainland, indicate by their

peculiar size that in the heathen times the island was the chosen place

of assembly for the mightiest men in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles, so

also do the monuments of the early middle ages show that it continued to

maintain its former pre-eminence after heathenism had ceased. Farthest

towards the north-west, in the parish of Birsay, (Birgisherað), are to

be seen considerable remains of the old castle, inhabited in the most

ancient times by the jarls. Near the coast lies the Island of Brough

(Burgh) of Birsay, on which also are seen traces of fortifications that

have served to protect the jarls’ castle on the side of the sea. In the

neighbourhood of this castle, Jarl Thorfin built a church, called Christ

Church, in which both he and Jarl Magnus were buried. The latter,

however, being afterwards canonized, his body was taken to Kirkwall. In

the twelfth century, Bishop Wilhelm, the first bishop of the Orkneys,

had his throne in this church. In Orphir (“Orfjara”), on the south coast

of the island, was another castle where the jarls usually dwelt, until,

together with the bishops, they fixed their abode at Kirkwall.

This town, which lies close to an excellent harbour, and opposite the

Island of Shapinsay, has for about seven hundred years been the capital

of the Orkneys and the Shetland Isles. It seems, however, to have

existed even earlier, as a village, or small trading place. Its name,

“Kirkjuvágr” (“Kirkevaag,” _Eng._ Church-bay), since corrupted into

Kirkwall, was derived from a church which stood there. The elevation of

the town to be the residence of jarls and bishops took place in the

twelfth century, after Jarl Ragnhild had built a large cathedral there,

to which he caused to be conveyed the body of St. Magnus, the patron

saint of the island, to whom the cathedral was consecrated. Thus the

body of the saint effected for the town what its excellent harbour had

not been able to accomplish. In the parish of St. Ola’, within the town,

there was formerly also a church consecrated to St. Olaf, the patron

saint of Norway, but it has long since been demolished.

The traveller cannot but dwell, when in Kirkwall, on the remembrance of

the departed splendour of the island, as he views the proud ruins of the

jarls’ castle, which, however, in its last form was not built till the

fifteenth century, and of the bishops’ castle, in which King Hakon

Hakonsön of Norway died on the 16th of December, 1263. But what is still

more striking to him who has leisure to examine it thoroughly, is the

magnificent Church of St. Magnus, incontestably the most glorious

monument of the time of the Norwegian dominion to be found in Scotland.

Only one other cathedral church in all Scotland, namely, St. Mungo’s, in

Glasgow, has in its most essential parts escaped perfectly uninjured

from the violent religious commotions produced by the Reformation. The

annexed sketch (partly after a drawing by Billings) will, at least,

better serve to convey an idea of the remarkable appearance of this

cathedral than any detailed description. Its length is 230 feet, its

breadth 55 feet, or, if the transepts be included in the measurement,

101 feet, and its height about 50 feet. The arched vaults of the nave

rest on 28 pillars, of which the four, in particular, that bear the

tower are distinguished by their size and tasteful forms.

According to the Orkneyinga Saga, Jarl Ragnvald, by the advice of his

father Kol, made a vow to St. Magnus that he would build a splendid

church in his honour, if he (Ragnvald) succeeded in gaining the mastery

over the islands. He obtained the dominion of them in the year 1137, and

immediately afterwards began to lay the foundation of St. Magnus’

Church. “At first,” says the Saga, “the work went on so rapidly that

subsequently there was not done near so much in four or five years. Kol

was the person who, in fact, defrayed the expenses of the building, and

determined how everything was to be. But by degrees, as the work

proceeded, the expenses became burthensome to the jarl, whose pecuniary

means were much exhausted. He therefore asked his father what he should

do? Kol advised him to alter the law by which, upon the death of the

owners, the jarls had hitherto succeeded to all the allodial land in the

islands, so that the heirs had to redeem it, which they found very hard.

The jarl, therefore, summoned the inhabitants to a _Thing_, and offered

to sell them their right of Udal, so that they should no longer be

obliged to redeem it. The matter was easily arranged on both sides. The

jarl obtained a mark for every acre throughout the islands, so that

there came in money enough for the building of the church, which is very

handsome.”

[Illustration: [++] St. Magnus’ Church]

History, however, as well as the building itself, teaches us that the

whole church, as it now stands, was by no means the work of Kol and

Ragnvald. For, first, it is known that the pillars farthest towards the

east and west, marked in the annexed ground plan with the faintest

shade, belong to additions made at a far later period (viz., as late as

the sixteenth century); and secondly, it is not even decided whether Kol

and Ragnvald built the whole of the remaining part of the church, the

transepts included, or whether they built only that part of the present

choir which, from the two eastern pillars of the tower, comprises the

six nearest pillars to the east, marked on the ground plan with the

darkest shade. Between this last-named portion of the choir, which is

undoubtedly the oldest part of the church, and the portion lying to the

west, whose pillars on the ground plan have a rather lighter shade,

there is a perceptible difference of style.

That zealous and skilful archæologist, Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., of

Canons Ashby, to whom I am indebted for the original of the following

ground plan, likewise did me the favour to give me, among several large

drawings, a very excellent, but here very reduced, section of that part

of the choir which is certainly known to have been built by Kol and

Ragnvald. The section is taken from the middle of the nave, and

represents a part of the northern side walls nearest to one of the

pillars of the tower. It enables us to form an idea of the very

considerable size of the church, and of the importance of Kol’s and

Ragnvald’s labours, as well as readily to perceive in what style the

church was originally built. This style, which in England is called the

Norman, was indeed already somewhat obsolete in more southern districts

at the time when St. Magnus’ Church was built; but it was quite natural

that, so far northwards, it should be retained somewhat longer,

especially as the architect was a native of the still more northern

country of Norway.

[Illustration: [++] St. Magnus’ Church - Floorplan]

[Illustration: [++] St. Magnus’ Church - Interior]

The next considerable portion of the cathedral which might possibly have

been built by Kol and Ragnvald, or at least about their time, and which

includes the transepts, the two western pillars of the tower, and the

six pillars (three on each side) farther towards the west, has, indeed,

like the very oldest part, round arches. But in these, as well as in the

whole architecture, a much later style is clearly visible. It is, as we

have said, doubtful whether this part of the church is also to be

ascribed to Kol and Ragnvald. “Supposing that it is (says Sir Henry

Dryden, in a letter accompanying the drawings), I explain the difference

of scale and workmanship thus. Ronald began a church on a _much_ smaller

scale than the present St. Magnus. He became short of money, alienated

seignorial rights in Orkney, got plenty of money, and went on with the

church on a larger scale, and with better workmen than before. But (adds

Sir Henry), though I spent eighteen weeks at the building, and have

thought over the thing many times, I cannot make out the history of the

building to my own satisfaction. There is no doubt that there is a great

deal of copying in it; _i. e._, of building at one time in the style of

an earlier one. In Scotland the semicircular arch is used in all styles,

down to the year 1600.” In the additions made to St. Magnus’ Church to

the east and west, in the sixteenth century, round arches are also found

between the chief pillars.

In the winter of 1263-1264 the body of the Norwegian king Hakon Hakonsön

was deposited in the cathedral; and somewhat more than twenty years

afterwards the Norwegian princess Margaret (the maid of Norway),

daughter of King Erik, the priest-hater, and of Margaret, daughter of

the Scotch King, Alexander the Third, was buried in it. Upon the death

of Alexander, her mother’s father, in 1289, Margaret, though only seven

years of age, became queen of Scotland, but died in Orkney on her

passage from Norway, in 1290. The cathedral naturally received the dust

of most of the Norwegian jarls, bishops, and other mighty men, so long

as the Norwegian dynasty lasted; but for their monuments we now seek in

vain. By the alterations and rebuilding in the interior of the church

they have all been long since destroyed.

For a Scandinavian, the church derives its greatest interest not only

from the fact that it was founded, and partly built, by a Norwegian

jarl, but more particularly from the circumstance that a Norwegian

chief, the layman Kol, is expressly stated to have been the person “who

was chiefly answerable for the building, and determined how everything

should be.” For we thus find on the British Islands, and far towards the

North, a manifestation of the same desire to build splendid churches and

convents, which farther southwards, as for instance in Normandy, so

vividly animated the Christian descendants of the emigrant Vikings. The

oldest part of St. Magnus’ Church will, on a close inspection, show not

a few resemblances to several of the nearly contemporary, but somewhat

older, Norman churches in Normandy.

----------

SECTION VIII.

Pentland Firth.—The Highlands.—Caithness.—Sutherland.—Fear

of the Danes.

The Orkneys are separated towards the south from the most northern part

of the Scotch Highlands by a firth about eight miles in breadth, called

Pentland Firth (_Old N._, Petlandfjörðr, the fiord of the land of the

Picts?). The maelstrom, or whirlpool, in this firth, where the currents

from the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean meet, is at least as violent and

dangerous as the “Röst,” so famed in ancient times, between the Orkneys

and Shetland. Even in calm weather the meeting currents raise the waves

to an astonishing height, so that at times the whole firth is one sheet

of white foam. If it happens that the current runs hard against the

wind, or if a severe storm blows, it would not be advisable for any

vessel to venture out into the firth. In the gales of winter,

particularly from the north-west, the sea rises to such a height where

the huge swell of the Atlantic is inclosed between the Orkneys and

Scotland, and beats against the coast with such force, that the foam is

driven far into the country, even over cliffs that stand more than four

hundred feet above the sea! The Island of Stroma (_Old N._,

“Straumsey”), which has obtained its name from the current, lies about

the middle of the firth; and by the eastern entrance of it are the

Islands of Pentlandskerries (_Old N._, “Petlandsker;” or _Danish_,

“Pentlandskjære;” _Eng._, sunken rocks off the Pentland Firth), near

which the waves form whirlpools that are still called by the inhabitants

“Swelchies” (or Svælg: _Old N._, “Svelgr;” _Eng._, gulf).

The old Sagas, indeed, expressly point out the dangers of the Pentland

Firth. Thus, when Olaf Trygvesön came from the West to the Orkneys with

the intention of Christianizing the islands, he was obliged to run into

the harbour of Asmundarvág (now Osmondwall) in the south of Hoy, because

Pentland Firth was not navigable; and on the return of King Hakon

Hakonsön from the Hebrides in 1263, one of his ships was lost in the

Röst, and another escaped only with the greatest difficulty.

Nevertheless the ancient Norwegians and Danes navigated this dangerous

firth regularly, and do not seem to have considered it as forming any

real boundary between the Orkneys and Scotland. At an early period the

Norwegians had settled themselves along the south coast of the Pentland

Firth, and founded colonies there which soon became so preponderatingly

Norwegian that they might almost be regarded as inseparable parts of the

Orkney jarldom. On this account the two most northern counties of

Scotland, both of which united originally bore the Gaelic name of

Catuibh, are still called after the original Norwegian forms,

“Caithness” (_Old N._, “Katanes,” the naze of Catuibh) and “Sutherland”

(_Old N._, Suðrland), or the land in the south; that is, as regards the

Orkneys. It would be perfectly inexplicable, in any other way, why the

north-western part of Scotland should be called the south land, or

Sutherland. It is, moreover, a remarkable proof of the Norwegian origin

of these names, that even the present Gaelic inhabitants do not adopt

them, but always call Sutherland, after the old fashion, “Catuibh.” For

the sake of distinction, however, they call Caithness “Gallaibh,” or the

stranger’s land, because so many Norwegians immigrated to, and settled

in, that county in preference to Sutherland.

The district of Caithness, or, as it was often called in ancient times,

“Næsset,” forms a real naze, shooting out into the sea in a

north-eastern direction. Its farthest point towards the north-east is

called Duncansby Head (formerly “Dungalsnýpa”), from the neighbouring

Duncansby (formerly “Dungalsbœr”). The broadest bay on the north coast

trends in between the promontories of Dunnet Head and Holburn Head; the

latter of which, by protecting Thurso Bay from western and north-western

gales, renders it a tolerably good harbour, in a place where good

harbours are scarce on this northern coast. Supposing, now, that we land

in the Bay of Thurso, by the town of that name, we soon discover the

outlet of the rivulet called Thurso Water (_Old N._, “Þorsá,” or

Thorsaa, Thor’s rivulet), which has given the easily-recognised

Scandinavian name both to the town and bay. The town and its immediate

environs afford a great number of Norwegian memorials. The Norwegian

king Eistein imprisoned the Orkney jarl Harald Maddadsön in Thurso

itself. Close to the eastern side of the town stands a more recent

monument, “Harald’s Tower,” erected over the body of Jarl Harald, who

fell there in a battle in 1190. Not far from thence is the mansion

called Murkle (formerly “Myrkhóll”), where, in the tenth century,

Ragnhilde, the daughter of Erik Blodöxe and of Gunhilde, caused her

husband, Jarl Arnfin, to be murdered. Immediately to the west of the

town, near Scrabster (“Skarabólstaðr”), are to be seen the ruins of the

palace formerly inhabited by the bishops of Caithness and Sutherland. In

the twelfth century Bishop Ion was blinded and mutilated there, at the

instigation of Jarl Harald. Five miles west of Scrabster, and close by a

foaming waterfall, stands the mansion of “Forss,” by the river Forss

Water. The rivulet called Thorsaa runs through a valley in ancient times

called Thorsdal (“Þórsdalr”), adjoining another valley “Kálfadalr,” or

Calf-dale (either the present Calder or Cuildal), in which Jarl Ragnvald

was attacked and killed by Thorbjörn Klærk. In the “Dales of Caithness”

(probably near Dale and Westdale, by Thurso Water) a battle was fought

in the tenth century between Jarls Ljot and Skule, in which the latter

fell.

Similar memorials present themselves everywhere on the promontory, with

the exception, however, of the most western and more mountainous part,

adjoining the frontiers of Sutherland. This district is still inhabited

by a Gaelic population, the remnant of the ancient inhabitants, as is

sufficiently testified both by the Gaelic names of places and the Gaelic

language of the people. In Caithness, as well as everywhere else in the

British Isles, it has been the fate of the Gaels or Celts to be driven

to the poor and mountainous districts, whilst more fortunate strangers

have taken possession of the fertile plains. The whole of the northern

and eastern part of Caithness is a rather flat and open country, over

which the sea wind sweeps freely without being intercepted by woods.

Fertile and well-cultivated arable land is mingled with heaths, marshes,

and small lakes. Wherever the soil is capable of cultivation, both on

the coasts and in the interior, a great number of undoubted Norwegian

names of places are still found scattered about, of the selfsame form as

those in Orkney and the Shetland Isles: as, for instance, those ending

in _toft_ (as Aschantoft, Thurdystoft, formerly “Þorðarþupt”) _seter_

(“setr”), _busta_, _buster_, or _best_ (originally “bolstaðr”); but

particularly in ster (staðr). The bays, which are mostly small and

narrow, are generally called _goe_ (from “gjá,” an opening). The larger

ones are called _wick_ (Viig); whence the town of Wick, the most

important hamlet in Caithness, derives its name; but they are never

called, as in the islands lately mentioned, _wall_ (“Vágr,” or “Vaag”).

Here and there a mighty barrow lifts its head, and sometimes—as, for

instance, near Barrowston, parish of Reay—so extremely near the coast of

Pentland Firth, that the spray washes over it. In general we shall not

be mistaken in imagining that we have found in such barrows the last

resting-places of the daring Vikings, who, not even in death, could

endure to be far separated from the foaming maelstrom.

At times the common people dig up in these mounds pieces of swords and

various kinds of ornaments, especially the peculiar bowl-formed

brooches, of a sort of brass, which are very frequently discovered in

the Scandinavian North, and particularly in the Norwegian and Swedish

graves of the times of the Vikings. These are never found in England;

and in Scotland they are discovered only in the Orkneys and Sutherland,

as well as in some of the Western Islands, where the Norwegians also

settled.

[Illustration: [++] Brooch]

Tall bauta stones are to be seen in several places in Caithness, to

which some legend about “the Danes” is generally attached; they now

stand in a leaning position, as if mourning over the departed times of

the heroic age. A monument of a somewhat later period, according to

tradition that of a Danish princess, who suffered shipwreck on the

coast, was also formerly to be found in a churchyard near Ulbster.

Danish fortifications, consisting partly of square towers, once existed

along the coast, principally near the navigable inlets; but these also

have now, for the most part, disappeared.

With several intervals, Caithness was subject to Norwegian jarls until

some time in the fourteenth century, or for about as long a period as

Orkney and the Shetland Isles. After that time, however, it does not

seem to have been oppressed to such a degree as those islands; which

circumstance, in conjunction with the originally great number of

Norwegian settlements in the country, is the cause that even in the

present day we are not referred only to inanimate memorials of the

ancient Norwegian population. The present living inhabitants bear a

decided and unmistakable impress of their Norwegian descent. The

language in the plains of Caithness, and in the open valleys, is the

same dialect of the English as is spoken in Orkney and the Shetland

Isles, because the transitions from Norwegian to English have been the

same. The people have in some parts, as in the parish of Wick, pure

Scandinavian names: Ronald (Ragnvald), Harold, Swanson (Svendsen),

Manson (Magnuson), and others; and their tall and personable figures, as

well as their light hair and broad faces, render them a striking

contrast to the shorter and more swarthy Highlanders. As the descendants

of an old Gaelic and of an old Norwegian population adjoin one another

in Caithness, we have an excellent opportunity of observing, on a small

scale, how the Norwegians and Danes have actually implanted in the

British Isles a more seafaring spirit and greater nautical skill. Even

to the present day the Gael, in Caithness, as well as throughout the

Highlands, has a decided aversion to the sea, nay, a downright fear of

its dangers. It is pretty well known that in general, and except on the

most urgent necessity, one should not venture out into the Pentland

Firth in boats steered and rowed by Gaels or Highlanders; for, in the

event of a storm, all steady command is speedily lost, and gives place

to anxious irresolution. The descendants of the old Norwegians, on the

contrary, who are familiar with the sea from childhood, and amongst whom

lies Wick, the most important fishing station in Scotland, show

themselves precisely in the hour of danger the worthy sons of their

forefathers, the ancient Vikings. It is only the man at the helm who

speaks, and he gives his orders in a few decisive words. He is

punctually obeyed, and the misfortune is said to be rare, if his

coolness, joined to his knowledge of the sea and its currents, do not

gain the victory over the violence of the storm and the turbulence of

the billows. This seafaring population of Caithness do not, like the

Highlanders, disdain to resort to fishing, in order to bring home the

riches of the sea. As their soil, moreover, is by no means barren, and

as they have naturally greater activity and more inclination to work

than the Highlanders, as well as, through their English dialect, greater

facility in their traffic with the more southern districts, it is not to

be wondered at that the prosperity of Caithness manifests a great and

constant progress. We may even justly assert that the descendants of the

Norwegians in Caithness are in a far more fortunate situation than their

kinsmen in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles.

In ancient times, a Norwegian population speaking its native language,

was undoubtedly spread over the whole eastern coast of Caithness, as

well as over several districts of Sutherland. But the English language,

which in our times has superseded the Norwegian, ceases to be the common

language of Caithness immediately to the south of the parish of Wick. A

line drawn from Clyth Ness, in a north-western direction to the

before-mentioned mansion of Forss to the west of Thurso, will indicate,

as near as may be, the boundary between Gaelic and English. If, however,

we travel southwards from the parish of Wick, through the parish of

Latheron, where the common language is already Gaelic, we, nevertheless,

pass a great many villages and farms bearing Norwegian names; as, for

instance, Lybster and Forse (by a waterfall). The mountains here begin

to be higher, and to stand closer and closer together towards the sea.

At length, after passing the deep valley of Berrydale (_Old N._,

“Berudalr”), and the beautiful wood-crowned banks of its river, we

ascend the steep mountain ridge called “the Ord of Caithness,” which

runs boldly out into the sea, and forms a natural boundary between the

narrow projecting promontory of Caithness and the broader Sutherland.

The first large valley in Sutherland to the south of this mountain ridge

is Helmsdale, which is watered by a river of no mean size. That

Helmsdale is a Norwegian name (in the Sagas “Hjalmundsdalr”) is at once

evident from the present Gaelic inhabitants calling the valley in pure

Gaelic, “Strath Ullie,” or with a strange confusion of language, Strath

Helmsdale; for as Strath signifies in Gaelic a valley or dale, the word

_dale_ is added both at the beginning and end. It is a similar

repetition which we so often hear when the “Orkney Isles” are spoken of,

in the original language “Orknö,” but which, translated as now used, is

Orknö Öerne (or the “Orkney-islands-islands”). Along Helmsdale River

several places are met with whose original Norwegian names are still to

be discerned; as, for instance, Eilderabol, Gilaboll, Dviaboll, and

Leiraboll. All these have the ending _bol_, which is peculiar to a

number of Norwegian names of places in Sutherland and in some of the

Hebrides; but which, in Caithness, the Orkneys, and Shetland Isles, as

well as in Lewis and several of the Hebrides, appears in the longer form

of “bolstaðr.” To the north-west of Helmsdale are the vales of Kildonan,

which run up as far as the Vale of Strathmore in Caithness. Here, it is

supposed, on the frontiers of Caithness and Sutherland, lay

“Eisteinsdalr,” so famed in history as the spot where the Scotch king

William encamped in the year 1198. It is, however, very uncertain

whether “Easterdale” in Strathmore be in any way connected with the name

of Eisteinsdal.

On leaving Helmsdale the coast opens, and fertile and beautiful fields

begin to expand themselves. Past Midgarty and Wester Gartie (the middle

and western Gaard, or farm, from _Old N_. “garðr”?) the road runs along

the shore of the Bay of Dornoch (an arm of the “Breidifjördr,” or broad

firth mentioned in the Sagas, in which the Moray Firth is also included)

to the little village of Brora, which is built on a considerable river,

and where for a long period the only large bridge in Sutherland was to

be found. It was possibly from this circumstance that the Norwegians

gave the village its name (“Brúrá,” the bridge rivulet). A river in

Iceland is also still called Brúrá, from a bridge which crosses it. The

ancient seat of the Earls of Sutherland, Dunrobin (Robin’s tower, from

_dun_, a tower), lies on the seashore, in the neighbourhood of Brora,

surrounded by fine corn-fields and considerable tracts of woodland. The

latter, however, were planted at a recent period. In the background rise

considerable mountains, covered with heath. In this place, so highly

favoured by nature both as regards scenery and fertility, the Norwegian

jarls who ruled over Sutherland undoubtedly had one of their chief

residences; as, for instance, Sigurd Jarl, a brother of Ragnvald

Möre-Jarl, Sigurd the Stout (+ 1014), and his son Thorfin (+ about

1064). Norwegian antiquities, like those discovered in Caithness, are

found in graves near Dunrobin, particularly the well-known bowl-formed

brooches or buckles. In the neighbourhood several places with Norwegian

names can be pointed out; for instance, just south of Dunrobin, in the

fertile valley by the river Fleet, Mickle Torboll and Little Torboll

(from _Thor_ and _bol_); and on the coast, Skelbo, Skibo, and Embo (from

_bol_, or perhaps more correctly from _bœr_, _bö_). Sigurd, the first

conqueror of Sutherland, is said to have extended his dominion as far as

Ekkjalsbakke. As _bakki_ in the ancient language signifies the bank of a

river, there cannot be the least doubt that Ekkjal is the river Oykill,

which still forms the southern boundary of Sutherland. Sigurd himself is

said to have been interred at Ekkjalsbakke. He gained the victory in a

foray over the Scotch jarl Melbrigd, and cut off his head, which, in the

overweening pride of his triumph, he hung to his saddle; but a sharp

tooth that projected from the head chafed his leg, and caused a wound

which proved his death. On different parts of the banks of the Oykill

numerous barrows are seen, indicating the many battles that have been

fought in ancient times on the frontiers of Sutherland. But nobody is

able to point out the barrow of Sigurd Jarl; the tradition relating to

it has vanished with the Norwegian population.

For the rest, names of places prove that the Norwegians had also settled

themselves along the coast to the south of the Oykill. On the narrow

naze called Tarbet Ness, between Dornoch and Cromarty Firths, are the

villages of Arboll and Wanby, as well as the town of Tain, whose Gaelic

name, “Bailed Dhuich” (or St. Duthus’ Town), shows at once that “Tain”

must be of foreign origin. Tain is, moreover, a corruption of “Þing,” a

_Thing_; and in like manner the somewhat considerable town of Dingwall,

at the extremity of Cromarty Firth, was originally called “Þingavöllr,”

or _Thingwalla_; whence the remarkable fact is evident, that the

Norwegians were once sufficiently numerous in these districts to have

both an inferior _Thing_ (Tain) and a superior one (Dingwall). Dingwall,

like Tain, besides its original Norwegian name, has also the Gaelic one

of Inverphaeron. As the Norwegians, therefore, must have permanently

possessed considerable tracts in these districts, it is clear that their

settlements on the east coast of Scotland must have extended quite down

to Inverness-shire and Moray. The before-mentioned stronghold of

Burghead in Moray, which the Northmen maintained to the last extremity,

lies pretty close to the east of Cromarty Firth, the inlet to Dingwall.

As the Norwegian language and other Norwegian characteristics have given

way to the Gaelic tongue, manners, and customs, in the former Norwegian

districts on the north coast of Scotland, from Clyth Ness in Caithness

to Dingwall on the Firth of Cromarty, we can scarcely be surprised that

the north coast of Sutherland, whose rocks and heaths offered much fewer

allurements to the Norwegians than the fertile valleys and plains of the

east coast, and which were therefore far less colonized by them, should

have preserved distinct traces of these foreign conquerors only in a few

names of places. A remarkable instance of the Gaelic language having

expelled the Norwegian is to be found immediately on the borders of

Caithness, in the valley of Halladale. In a river there are two

waterfalls, of which the uppermost is called Forsinard, and the lower

one Forsindin. In both these names the Norwegian “Fors” is not to be

mistaken; but Gaelic terminations have in later times been added by the

Gaels, so that Forsinard now signifies the upper Fors, and Forsindin the

under, or lower, Fors. Halladale is likewise frequently called by the

additional Gaelic name of Strath—“Strath Halladale.”

This much, however, is clear, that the whole of the north and west coast

of Sutherland was once colonized by Norwegians. Besides various names of

places west of Halladale, which likewise end in _dale_, such as

Armadale, Swordale, and Torrisdale, it is surprising that we should

still meet with pure Norwegian names on four of the largest firths of

the north-west of Sutherland; viz., on the north coast the “Kyle of

Tongue” (from “túnga,” a tongue of land, a naze), together with the

adjoining village, Kirkiboll (Kirkebolet); further, Loch Eriboll, with

the large farm of Eriboll (the _bol_ on the Eir, or tongue of land, from

the _Old N._ “eyri”); the Kyle of Durness, or Dyrnæs, with the _bol_, or

dwelling, of Crossboll; and lastly, on the west coast, not far from Cape

Wrath, Loch Laxford (Laxfjorden, or the Salmon Firth; _Old N._,

“Laxafjörðr”). “Loch” is the Gaelic name for a lake or firth, and

consequently, in Loch Laxford, expresses tautologically the existence of

a fiord or firth; just as the name “valley” is twice expressed in Strath

Helmsdale and Strath Halladale. The last three of the above-mentioned

firths seem to have been of much importance to the Norwegians. There is

an excellent harbour in Loch Eriboll, which is still frequented by

numerous ships. The neighbourhood round Loch Durnes afforded excellent

opportunities for hunting the deer, particularly on Durnæs itself, which

extends between Loch Durnes and the Atlantic up to Cape Wrath (_Old N._,

“Hvarf”), and which, still later in the middle ages, was celebrated for

its excellent deer. Loch Laxford, which obtained its name from the

salmon (Lax) in the river and at its mouth, is commonly known to the

present day as one of the rivers in Scotland most abounding with that

fish. Several isolated rocks in the sea by the coast of Sutherland are

called, as in the Shetland Isles, “stacks;” and in several names of

islands we meet with the Scandinavian _sker_ or _skjær_; such as

Skerroar (Skjæröerne, the rock islands); and in Loch Eriboll, Dhusker,

Skerron, and others. A little island near the middle of the west coast

is called Calva (_Old N._, “Kálfey,” or the Calf Island), a name

frequently given by the Northmen to small islands that lay in the

neighbourhood of a larger one (for instance, the Calf of Man). For the

rest, Calva is one of the last decidedly recognisable Scandinavian names

of places on the west coast of Sutherland. The real Norwegian population

evidently ceased at Laxfjord. Norwegian names of places are scarcely to

be found on the coasts of the Highlands to the south of Sutherland. The

country there was so wild, rocky, and remote, that foreign conquerors

could only with the greatest difficulty have maintained a position

against the Highlanders, who were always prepared to make sudden and

dangerous attacks from the mountains in the interior. Aware of this, the

Norwegians seem to have limited themselves, on the western shores of the

Highlands, chiefly to the levying of provisions along the coast, and to

the plundering of cattle and other property. Round about the mouths of

the Highland firths are still to be seen the remains of old castles,

which the Scotch kings, and particularly Alexander the Second, are said

to have built, in order to prevent “the Danes” from making these

devastating descents.

The memory of the conquests and predatory incursions of the Norwegians,

or “Danes,” is still preserved in a remarkable degree among the poorer

classes in Sutherland, as well as in the rest of the Scottish Highlands.

Numberless traditions are in circulation respecting the levying of

provisions by “the Danes;” and barrows, or cairns, are not unfrequently

pointed out, in which a Scandinavian prince, or king’s son, killed by

the natives whilst on some Viking expedition, is said to be buried.

Besides the usual cruelties ascribed to the Danes in the traditions of

the Lowlands, and of England, they are here accused, into the bargain,

of having burnt the forests, and thus caused that want of wood which

acts so injuriously on the climate of the Highlands. In proof of this it

is adduced that roots and trunks of trees, sometimes perceptibly

scorched, are discovered in the turf-bogs of the Highlands. It is not

considered that similar discoveries are very common in other countries,

as, for instance, in Denmark itself; where trunks of trees, especially

firs, have been dug up, precisely as in the Scotch Highlands. They are

the produce of vegetative processes in the pre-historical times; and the

apparent scorching has been produced either by accidental fires, or

more, probably, by the simple mode of felling trees in use among the

aboriginal inhabitants of Europe; who, like certain savage tribes at the

present day, for want of metal tools, were obliged to burn the trunks of

trees which they wished to fell.

By way of amends, the Danes have now and then the honour of being

regarded in the Highlands as having been the teachers of the natives.

One of the first jarls of the Orkneys was, according to the legends,

called by the name of Torf Einar, because he was the first who caused

turf to be dug on a point of land (Torfnæs) in Scotland. This

promontory, probably the present Tarbet Ness, was at all events either

in Caithness or Sutherland; and it is certainly a remarkable

coincidence, that the common people of that district still relate that

“the Danes” taught them to burn turf. We likewise hear at times that

“the Danes” taught the use of hand querns, or hand-mills; nay, even that

the favourite national instrument of the Highlanders, the bagpipes, was

originally introduced by the Danes. In short, if anything, whether good

or bad, be of doubtful origin, it is frequently attributed to “the

Danes.”

But it is peculiar to the north-western and most remote districts of the

Highlands, that the common people still harbour no small degree of dread

lest “the Danes” should return, and repeat their cruel devastations.

About thirty years ago (according to J. Loch, “An Account of the

Improvements on the Estate of the Marquis of Stafford,” London, 1820,

8vo.), English engineers were employed in measuring all the heights in

Sutherland. This caused much sensation among the natives, who thought

that these engineers were sent by the Danes to make maps and plans of

the country, previously to the arrival of the Danish army. They imagined

that the king of Denmark had an old feud with the Mackays, and that he

was now coming to take a sanguinary revenge on the whole clan.

During my stay in Sutherland I had repeated occasion to convince myself

not only that the fear of the Danes has not yet died away there, but

also that tradition has connected with them things with which they had

nothing whatever to do.

Close outside the town of Dornoch, on the east coast of Sutherland,

there stands a stone pillar in an open field, which is simply the

remains of one of those crosses so frequently erected, in Roman Catholic

times, in market-places. As a matter of course, the arms of the jarls of

Sutherland are carved on one side of the stone, and on the other are the

arms of the town—a horse-shoe. Tradition, however, will have it that the

pillar was erected in remembrance of a battle fought on this spot, in

which the Jarl of Sutherland commanded against “the Danes.” In the heat

of the battle, while the Jarl was engaged in personal combat with the

Danish chief, his sword broke; but in this desperate situation he was

lucky enough to lay hold of a horse-shoe that accidentally lay near him,

with which he succeeded in killing his adversary. The horse-shoe is said

to have been adopted in the arms of the town in remembrance of this

feat. In the cathedral church of Dornoch is a carved stone monument of

the middle ages, representing one of the ancient bishops who once

resided in Dornoch. He also is said to have fallen in the same battle,

but my authority, the person who showed me over the church, added:—“I am

proud to tell that the Danes were defeated.”

Having employed myself in examining, among other things, the many

so-called “Danish” or Pictish towers on the west and north-west coast of

Sutherland, the common people were led to believe that the Danes wished

to regain possession of the country, and with that view intended to

rebuild the ruined castles on the coasts. The report spread very

rapidly, and was soon magnified into the news that the Danish fleet was

lying outside the sunken rocks near the shore, and that I was merely

sent beforehand to survey the country round about; nay, that I was

actually the Danish King’s son himself, and had secretly landed. This

report, which preceded me very rapidly, had, among other effects, that

of making the poorer classes avoid, with the greatest care, mentioning

any traditions connected with defeats of the Danes, and especially with

the killing of any Dane in the district, lest they should occasion a

sanguinary vengeance when the Danish army landed. Their fears were

carried so far that my guide was often stopped by the natives, who

earnestly requested him in Gaelic not to lend a helping hand to the

enemies of the country by showing them the way; nor would they let him

go till he distinctly assured them that I was in possession of maps

correctly indicating old castles in the district which he himself had

not previously known. This, of course, did not contribute to allay their

fears; and it is literally true, that in several of the Gaelic villages,

particularly near the firths of Loch Inver and Kyle-Sku, we saw on our

departure old folks wring their hands in despair at the thought of the

terrible misfortunes which the Danes would now bring on their hitherto

peaceful country.

----------

SECTION IX.

The Hebrides.—The Northern Isles: Lewis and Harris; (Næs);

Skye.—Ossian’s Songs.—Iona.

The rocky western coast of the Highlands south of Sutherland was not, as

I before mentioned, permanently inhabited by the Norwegians. They had,

indeed, regular settlements on the west coast, but these were on the

islands. They were here secure from the sudden attacks of the Gaels, or

Highlanders, who, generally speaking, would scarcely have ventured out

on a sea which then swarmed with Vikings. The farther, therefore, the

islands were from the mainland, so much the more secure would the

Norwegian settlers be, and so much the greater, in effect, did their

colonies become. By degrees they settled themselves on all the islands

along the west coast, from Lewis to Man, which they called under one

name, “Suðreyjar,” or the southern islands, from their situation with

regard to the Orkneys and Shetland Isles. Sometimes, however, they did

not reckon Man among them, and then divided the rest of the islands into

two groups, in such a manner, that only the islands to the south of Mull

were called “Suðreyar,” whilst Mull itself, and the islands to the

north, obtained the name of “Norðreyar.” The Irish, and the rest of the

Gaels, on the contrary, after the conquest of the islands by the

Norwegians, called them “Inis Gâl” (the foreigners’ isles).

The most northern and largest of the northern isles was the extensive

one which forms the present Lewis and Harris (the “Ljóðhus” of the

Sagas). It is separated from Scotland by the broad, stormy, and troubled

channel called the Minch. The southern part of it only, or Harris, where

the mountains reach the height of between two and three thousand feet,

can be called mountainous, for the rest of the island is rather flat,

devoid of wood, and covered with heaths and moors. Some good arable land

is, however, to be met with here and there along the coasts. Even in

very early times this island was very densely inhabited by the Gaels, of

which, among other things, some immense rows of stones, near Callernish,

bear witness. In like manner, the Norwegians must, at a later date, have

had considerable colonies in it. On this head we must not, of course,

implicitly rely on the numerous traditions related by the common people

about the landing of “the Danes,” their rising power, and subsequent

overthrow. But, what is more certain, the names of not fewer than about

ten large lakes in the island still retain the Norwegian termination

_vat_ (“vatn,” Vand, water); and three of the largest are called Loch

Langavat (the long water). Several coves (Vige) in Harris are called

_vagh_ (“vagr”); as Groesavagh, Flodavagh; and in Lewis _wick_, as

Sandwich (Sandvig; _Eng._, Sand-bay), and Norwich (Nordvig; _Eng._

North-bay). To these may be added a great number of Norwegian names of

places ending in _stra_ or _sta_ (staðr, stead); as Little Scarristra,

Meickle Scarristra (Harris); Erista, Mangersta (Lewis); in _bost_

(bolstaðr), as, in Harris, Nisibost, Hagabost, Chillibost; and in Lewis,

Callbost, Habost, Luirbost, Crossbost, Melbost, Garrabost, and others

(in all about thirteen). Further, we find such names as Laxay (Laxá,

Laxaa; _Eng._, Salmon river), Laxdale, Nether Holm and Upper Holm, Tong

(túnga), &c. These Norwegian names of places are met with as well

towards the south and west as on the east coast, where they are most

numerous about Loch Seaforth (Sæfjörðr), and in the vicinity of the

little town of Stornoway. But they are chiefly concentrated at one

point, the most northern in the island, in a district which still

retains the pure Norwegian name of “Ness.”

On this Naze, or promontory, are the lakes Langavat and Steapavat; the

valleys Dibidale, Eorodale, North Dell, and South Dell; the manors and

towns Skegersta, Swainbost, Habost, Cross, and at the farthest extremity

Oreby or Eoropie (“Eyribœr,” the town on the Eir or Naze?); with the

adjacent headland of Raven, which may possibly have been called after

Odin’s sacred bird. At all events, there is good ground for assuming,

from these names of places, that the promontory had a pre-eminently

Norwegian population, which, indeed, is unmistakably apparent even at

the present day.

Throughout Harris and Lewis, for instance, the Gaelic inhabitants are

small, dark-haired, and in general very ugly. But no sooner do we arrive

at Ness, than we meet with people of an entirely different appearance.

Both the men and women have in general lighter hair, taller figures, and

far handsomer features. I visited several of their cabins, and found

myself surrounded by physiognomies so Norwegian, that I could have

fancied myself in Scandinavia itself, if the Gaelic language now spoken

by the people, and their wretched dwellings, had not reminded me that I

was in one of those poor districts in the north-west of Europe where the

Gaels or Celts are still allowed a scanty existence. The houses, as in

Shetland, and partly in Orkney, are built of turf and unhewn stones,

with a wretched straw or heather roof, held together by ropes laid

across the ridge of the house, and fastened with stones at the ends. The

houses are so low, that one may often see the children lie playing on

the side of the roof. The family and the cattle dwell in the same

apartment, and the fire, burning freely on the floor, fills the house

with a thick smoke, which slowly finds its way out of the hole in the

roof. The sleeping-places are, as usual, holes in the side walls.

It is but a little while ago that the inhabitants of the Naze, who are

said to have preserved faint traditions of their origin from Lochlin

(called also in Ireland, Lochlan), or the North, regarded themselves as

being of better descent than their neighbours the Gaels. The descendants

of the Norwegians seldom or never contracted marriage with natives of a

more southern part of the island, but formed among themselves a separate

community, distinguished even by a peculiar costume, entirely different

from the Highland Scotch dress. Although the inhabitants of Ness are

now, for the most part, clothed like the rest of the people of Lewis, I

was fortunate enough to see the dress of an old man of that district,

which had been preserved as a curiosity. It was of thick coarse woollen

stuff, of a brown colour, and consisted of a close-fitting jacket, sewn

in one piece, with a pair of short trousers, reaching only a little

below the knees. It was formerly customary with them not to cover the

head at all. In a carefully compiled Scotch and English guide book

(Anderson’s Guide, 1842) it is stated, that “The islanders of the

northern part of Lewis, with their long, matted, and uncombed hair,

which has never been restrained by hat or bonnet from flowing as freely

in the wind as their ponies’ manes, and their true Norwegian cast of

countenance, form living portraits of the ancient Norsemen. The other

inhabitants are chiefly of Celtic origin.” The difference between the

descendants of the Gaels and of the Norwegians is consequently so

apparent that it is as striking to a Scotchman or an Englishman as to a

Scandinavian.

It is said on the island that the inhabitants of Ness are more skilful

fishermen and better sailors than the rest of the men of Lewis. However

that may be, as a pretty numerous Norwegian population on it has long

kept itself unmixed and distinct from the Gaels, it is not improbable

that those men of Lewis who are related to have formerly harried

Shetland, until they were entirely defeated in a great battle in

Mainland, may have been inhabitants of Ness, who, after the custom of

the ancient Norwegians, went on expeditions beyond sea, either to gain

booty, or, more probably, to decide some old dispute by the sword. That

men of Lewis, of Gaelic descent, who have never liked the sea, but, on

the contrary, always feared it, should have ventured repeatedly, and in

great numbers, so far as Shetland, altogether exceeds belief.

On the coasts of Lewis and Harris are several small islands, with still

recognisable Norwegian names, such as Calvay (“Kálfey”), Pabbay

(“Papey”), Skarpa (Skarpey), Scalpay (Skalpey), together with the places

called Meathallybost, Bernera (Bjarnarey), and others. In the south-west

there are three large islands in a row; North Uist, Benbecula, and South

Uist (in the Sagas “Ivist”), where there are also evident traces of a

Norwegian population. A small island to the west of North Uist is called

Kirkibost (Kirkjubolstaðr); on Benbecula there are the lakes Loch

Ollevate and Langavat, as well as the _Vaage_, or inlets, Uskevagh,

Kenlerevagh, and Riavagh; and on South Uist there are likewise lakes and

inlets called _vat_ and _vagh_; to which may be added such names of

places as Frobast, Kirkidale, Hillisdale, and lastly, a mountain called

Heckla, probably from the well-known volcanic mountain in Iceland. In a

bay in the middle of South Uist are the islands Calvay and Pabbay. There

is still a great number of small isles on the coasts of these islands,

whose names in a greater or less degree all betray their Norwegian

origin; for instance, Grimsa (“Grimsey”), Barra (“Barey”), Lingay

(“Lyngey”), Hellesay (“Hellisey”), Eriskay (“Eiriksey”), and others. The

Norwegians must even have visited the little island of St. Kilda, which

lies about eighty miles west of Lewis; at least, two of the

often-mentioned and peculiarly Scandinavian bowl-formed brooches have

been discovered on the island; one of them I have seen in the

Andersonian Museum, in Glasgow. Similar brooches were also found, with a

skeleton, in the island of Sangay, between Harris and North Uist.

To the east of North and South Uist is the large island of Skye

(“Skið”), separated from the Highland mainland by a narrow sound

(“Skiðsund”). Between its more northern part and the mainland, where the

sea is broader, are the islands of Rona, Raasay (“Hrauneyjar”), Scalpa

(“Skálpey”), Pabba (“Papey”), and Longa (“Langey”). Skye, towards the

south, is remarkable for its numerous and lofty mountains, whose

beautiful forms are visible at a great distance. Towards the north the

island becomes gradually flatter and broader. In the west and north-west

parts it is indented by deep firths, round which are to be found the

most fertile districts in the island. The east coast, on the contrary,

is not so capable of cultivation, as it has large tracts of moorland

heath and sand. The Norwegians, therefore, advisedly chose to settle on

the western and north-western firths, which, besides being more fertile,

were not so exposed to the attacks of the Gaels as the eastern and

south-eastern coast, which very nearly approach the mainland. Not a few

Scandinavian names of places may be still clearly recognised near Loch

Snizort, such as Scuddeburgh, Skabost, Braebost, and, near a waterfall,

Forscachregin (the Norwegian _Fors_ with a Gaelic termination). By

Dungevan Loch are the inlets Kilmaluag and Altivaig, and the villages

Husabost, Collbost, and Nisabost. By Loch Bracadale (the “Vestrifjorðr”

of the Sagas) are Fors, Orbost, Collbost, and Eabost. By Loch Harporth,

Carabost; and by Loch Eynort, Husedalebeg and Husedalemore; which

latter, in a mixture of Norwegian and Gaelic, signify little and great

Huusdal (Housedale); and, with a similar mixture, Ghionaforsenary. A

little more inland is the valley of Tungadelebeg, where the Gaelic beg

(little) is added to the Norwegian Tungadal.

From the frequent Gaelic terminations and corruptions of the Norwegian

names, it is sufficiently evident that the Norwegian language has lost

its former dominion in the island, and that the Gaelic has resumed its

ancient pre-eminence. The western districts of Skye, as well as the

previously-mentioned Norderöer, or northern islands, from Lewis to

Barrahead (which last are often called under one name, “the Long

Island”), are precisely those places in the Highlands where the Gaelic

tongue is most unmixed, and where the greatest quantity of old Gaelic

traditions and songs still survives among the people. It was here also,

that a great number of the world-renowned songs of Ossian were first

composed. It is true we no longer hear the people sing them, but there

can nevertheless be scarcely any doubt, particularly if we regard the

perceptible traces of the ancient metre in the Gaelic texts, that the so

frequently and warmly disputed edition by Macpherson is really founded

on ancient songs, although these may have been somewhat altered by lapse

of time, and by a not very happy translation. They have quite a peculiar

interest for the Scandinavian North, from the striking agreement in tone

and spirit which they present to several of the songs of the Sagas and

Edda. These last, again, afford a strong proof of the genuineness of

those attributed to Ossian, since the songs of the Sagas and Edda, at

the time when Macpherson published his Ossian, were either not at all,

or but very imperfectly known, even in Scandinavia itself, not to speak

of other countries. The real age of Ossian’s songs is very uncertain,

and very difficult to discover; but this much is clear, that they

indicate a lively intercourse between Alba (Scotland) and Lochlin

(Scandinavia), long before the times of the Vikings, and previously to

all historical accounts of connections between those countries. We

cannot, however, venture to conclude from this that the Orkneys, or any

other part of Scotland, were at so early a period inhabited by a

Scandinavian people. That such a colonization should really have taken

place before the time of the Vikings, which began at the close of the

eighth century, there are not only wanting historical and archæological

proofs, but likewise all internal probability.

Mull (“Myl”) is the largest of the most southern Norderöer, or northern

islands, but it is not richest in memorials of the Northmen. In the

narrow strait or sound (“Mylarsund”) which separates the island from the

mainland, there lies straight before Tobermory, the most important place

in the island, the little island of Calve (“Mylarkálfr”); and somewhat

farther south of Tobermory, on a rivulet by the coast, are the ruins of

the palace of Aros (from “árós;” _Dan._, Aarhus, the mouth of the

rivulet or Aa), once frequently inhabited by the rulers of these

islands, called “Lords of the Isles.” Another river in Mull, well

stocked with fish, was formerly called Glenforsay (Monro, “Description

of the Western Isles,” 1594), from the Norwegian “forsá” (Fosaa; _Eng._,

Waterfall-river), to which the Gaelic _glen_ has since been added. With

the exception, perhaps, of Assapoll (from _-bol_), in the south-west,

the island has no Norwegian names of places. Of such names, however,

several are to be met with on the islands west of Mull, particularly on

Coll (“Kóln”), where we find Crossapull, Gisapoll (from _bol_), Arnabost

(-bolstaðr), and Balehough; and on Tiree, Tyrvist, together with

Kirkapoll, Heylipoll, Vassipoll, and Crossipoll. In the bay formed by

Mull, towards the west, are found many small islands with originally

Norwegian names, such as Ulva (“Ulfey”), together with Soriby, Gometra

(“Guðmundarey”), and Staffa (“Stafey”), so famed for its stalactic

caverns.

But of all the Hebrides, none is more renowned than Iona (Ithona, “the

Waves’ Island”), or Icolmkill, “the island with Columba’s cells,” which

lies in the open Atlantic, near the south-west point of Mull. It is not

distinguished either by size and fertility or by numerous and splendid

ruins; it is now but an inconsiderable island, with some few remains of

churches, conventual buildings, and ancient Christian sepulchral

monuments. But about thirteen centuries ago it was the light of the

western world; for, after St. Columba settled there, it became the

central point whence Christianity diffused itself towards the east and

north, over Scotland and the surrounding islands. Iona thus obtained

such repute for sanctity, that it was said that a deluge which was to

overwhelm Ireland, and the islands round about, would have no power to

inundate it. Tradition adds, that, for this reason, the ancient Irish,

Scotch, and Norwegian kings, besides many other chiefs and mighty men,

both at home and abroad, chose Iona as their place of burial; and that

at the commencement of the sixteenth century, no fewer than three

hundred and sixty splendid stone crosses, or tombstones, were still to

be found on the island, which, however, with some few exceptions, have

now entirely disappeared.

According to an old description of the island, by Dean Monro (1594),

there was to the north of the Scotch graves an inscription, which ran

thus:—“Tumulus regum Norwegie,” or, “the tombe of the Kings of Norroway,

in the quhilk tombe, as we find in our ancient Eriske cronickells, there

layes eight Kings of Norroway, and also we find in our Eriske

cronickells, that Coelus, King of Norroway, commandit his nobils to take

his bodey and burey it in Colmkill, if it chancit him to die in the

isles; bot he was so discomfitit, that ther remained not so many of his

army as wold burey him there.” By the kings of Norway here mentioned we

must of course understand only the kings of the Sudreyjar, or southern

islands, and the Irish kings of Norwegian descent. It is in itself very

probable that these kings often desired to be buried in Iona, where the

first bishops of the proper Sudreyjar, “the bishops of the isles,”

dwelt, and whose church of St. Mary was consequently the chief church in

the islands. The tombs of the kings, however, can at present scarcely be

pointed out with certainty; we only know that they must have been in the

large and still visible burial-place consecrated to St. Oran. On this

place there is likewise a little chapel consecrated to the same saint,

which, according to the opinion of some, is of Norwegian workmanship—a

point, however, which must be very doubtful.

In the chapel are to be seen the remains of a carved monument erected in

the year 1489 to Lachlan Mackinnon (Mac Fingon), and on it, underneath

the inscription, is a ship, which is still to be found in the family

arms of the Mackinnons, but which is said to have been originally the

heraldic bearing of the Norwegian kings in the Isle of Man.

[Illustration: [++] Monument - Boat Decoration]

The Island of Iona was of special importance in ancient times, not only

to Scotland, but to the Scandinavian North. From it Christianity was

assuredly disseminated among the Norwegians in the Sudreyjar, or

southern isles, the Orkneys, and the Shetland Isles; whence, again, it

was often carried by Vikings and merchants to Norway and Iceland. In the

latter place, where not a few men from the southern isles were among the

first colonists, there was even a church dedicated to St. Columba.

Whilst, therefore, heathen Norwegians plundered and destroyed the

churches and convents of Iona, the Christian Norwegians seem to have

respected its sanctity. The Sagas, which call it “Eyin helga” (the holy

island), state, that the Norwegian king, Magnus Barfod (Barefoot), when

in his first expedition to the Sudreyjar and Ireland, in the year 1097,

he came to “the holy island,” gave all the inhabitants a guaranty of

peace and security, and allowed them to retain their possessions. It is

also stated that “King Magnus opened the little Kolumkille Church, and

went therein; but that he directly locked the door again, and said that

no one should dare to enter; and since that time the church has never

been opened.”

----------

SECTION X.

The Sudreyjar, or Southern Isles.—Cantire.—Islay.—Man.—Names of

Places.—Runic Stones.—Kings.—Battle of Largs.—“Lords of the

Isles.”—Tynwald in Man.

Iona was not always accounted one of the northern isles. Farther towards

the north, on the north-west coast of Mull, are the islands of

Treshinish, and among them a steep rocky island, called Cairnburg, which

is said to have formed, at all events at times, the boundary between the

northern and southern isles, or Sudreyjar. Cairnburg is accessible only

at one spot, and by its height above the sea it forms an important

stronghold, which in former times was often numerously garrisoned. The

Sagas, which call the island “Bjana,” or “Bjarnarborg,” state that it

was one of those strong fortresses in the southern isles, the surrender

of which was in vain demanded by King Alexander the Second of Scotland,

from the Norwegian tributary king, Ion Dungadson; and tradition still

tells that “the Danes” often fought for the possession of this important

place.

“The Sudreyjar” (in which, among the larger islands, were included

Colonsay, Oransay, Jura, Islay, Arran, Bute, the Cumbr Islands, and

likewise the Peninsula of Cantire) are, strictly speaking, far from

being so numerous as the northern islands; but in general they are

distinguished from these by a richer and more fertile soil, which is the

result of their more southern and more protected situation. This remark

applies particularly to the charming islands of Arran (“Hersey”), Bute

(“Bót”), and the Cumbr Isles (Kumreyar), which lie eastwards of the

Peninsula of Cantire (“Satiri”), at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde; and

which, together with the rocks, heaths, and moors of the Highlands,

possess the woods and corn-fields of the Lowlands. They also enjoy a

fine climate.

But although these last-mentioned islands were often under the dominion

of Norwegian kings and jarls, they do not appear to have been inhabited

by a settled Norwegian population; at all events, Norwegian names of

places have disappeared from them. It is probable that they lay somewhat

too near the hostile coasts of Scotland, and somewhat too far from the

larger Norwegian colonies, for Norwegian settlers steadily to maintain

upon them a position against the Gaels; nay, the Norwegian name,

“Kumreyar,” the Cumbr Islands, seems to indicate that Cimri or Gaels

dwelt upon them.

Names of places on the Peninsula of Cantire, on the contrary, where we

find Smerbys (from _by_), Killipol (from _bol_), Torrisdale, and the

pure Norwegian Skipness, but more particularly on the islands outside

the Peninsula, near the west coast of Argyle, indicate a very

considerable Norwegian colonization. Not only have several of the small

islands Norwegian names, as Scarba (“Skarpey”) and Lunga (“Langey”), but

the largest and most fertile of them, Islay (the “Il” of the Sagas),

which Dean Monro as early as 1594 found to be fruitful, full of good

pastures, abounding with large deer, having many forests, excellent

hunting, and a river called Laxay (the pure _Old N._ “Laxá”) in which

many salmon were caught (“_with ane water callit Laxay, whereupon maney

salmon are slaine_”), still exhibits various traces of decidedly

Norwegian settlements. On its east coast, as is usually the case with

the Hebrides lying nearest to Scotland, few or no Norwegian names of

places are found; but in the middle of the island is Nerby; by Loch

Indal, Lyrabolls, Scarabolls, Conisby, Nerabolls, and Elister; and by a

rivulet, Skeba (“Skipá;” _Dan._, “Skibeaaen,” or the ship rivulet);

whilst on the west side of the island we find Olista, Culaboll, &c. This

agrees very well with the accounts that the kings and jarls of the

Sudreyjar of Norwegian descent had one of their chief residences in

Islay; for it was quite natural that they should surround themselves

with countrymen on whose courage and fidelity they could rely. The

island abounds, moreover, in traditions and pretended memorials of “the

Danes.” Near the bay of Knoch are two large upright stones, called “the

two stones of Islay,” under which it is said that the Danish princess,

Yula, after whom the island is named, lies buried. In various parts of

the island are shown what are called “Danish” castles, encampments, and

fortifications. It is also stated (see Anderson’s Guide), that there is

a circular mound of earth on the island, with terrace-formed steps,

which may possibly have once been used by the Norwegians as a _Thing_

place, like a similar one in the Isle of Man.

The chief seat of the Norwegian power on the islands was, however, still

more southward than Islay, namely, the Isle of Man (the “Mön” of the

Sagas), which lies in the Irish Channel, to the south-west of Solway

Firth, about midway between the coasts of Cumberland and Ireland. A

peculiar dialect of the Gaelic tongue, called Manx, is spoken throughout

this island, and the inhabitants have in general the same appearance as

their Gaelic neighbours in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. But no other of

the western islands affords so many and such incontestable proofs of its

having once had a very wide-spread Norwegian or Scandinavian population,

who spoke their own language, and who, through a long series of years,

must have been the predominant race.

The highest mountain in the island, which is about 2000 feet high, is

called “Sneafell” (_Norw._, Sneefjeld; _Eng._, Snow-mountain). On the

east side is the rivulet and town of “Laxey” (Laxaa); in the south-east

is the long naze, “Langness.” To these may be added the bay called Derby

Haven, which the Norwegians called “Rognvaldsvágr,” whence the

neighbouring Ronaldsway derived its name. There are also the inlets of

Perwick and Fleswick; the islands Calf of Man, Eye (Oë), and Holm, near

the town of Peel; and, lastly, the villages Colby, Greenaby, Dalby,

Kirby (Kirkeby), Sulby, and Iurby (formerly “Ivorby”—Ivarsby?), &c. The

proportionately large number of names of places ending in “by,” which

suddenly appear in Man, in contrast to the more northern islands, with

their pure Norwegian names of places ending in “bol” and

“bolstaðr,”—which, it must be observed, are not to be found on Man,—is a

sort of proof that it received some colonists from the neighbouring old

Danish Cumberland, by which means a mixed Norwegian-Danish population

arose in the island.

The antiquary is much surprised to find on Man not merely one, but

several of those runic stones, with genuine Scandinavian inscriptions,

which he may have sought for in vain in England and Scotland. The

different districts of the island contain altogether about thirty

ancient sculptured monuments or sepulchral crosses; and of these at

least thirteen have once had runic inscriptions, which in great part are

still preserved. It is remarkable enough that these runic inscriptions

are found exclusively in the more northern half of the island (at Kirk

Andreas, two; at Kirk Michael, four; at Kirk Braddan, one; and at Kirk

Onchan, five); whence we may, with some degree of probability, conclude

that, at the time when these runic stones were erected, the Scandinavian

language was the most prevalent one in the northern part of the island.

The chronicles, indeed, state that the Norwegian, Godred Crovan, who

conquered Man in the year 1077, retained the southern part of the island

for himself and his followers; but the before-mentioned runic stones are

certainly older than Godred’s conquest. The inscriptions on the stones

have hitherto been copied and explained only in a very imperfect manner;

but since casts in plaster have been taken of them, their interpretation

has become incomparably easier and more simple. I have myself closely

examined and compared them in two places (at Edinburgh, in the Museum of

the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and at Canons Ashby, in England,

the seat of Sir Henry Dryden, Bart.); and I have since had an

opportunity to renew my examination of all of them, in conjunction with

the learned Norwegian professor, P. A. Munch, to whom I am indebted for

several very important hints relative to their correct interpretation

(amongst others that the rune ᚮ, which in most inscriptions signifies

_o_, must in these always be read as _b_).

[Illustration: [++] Stones - Runic Inscriptions]

The annexed cut, after a plaster cast, represents one of the finest and

best preserved runic stones in Man, namely, at Kirk Braddan, about the

middle of the island.

The stone is fifty-seven inches high, eight inches broad at the base,

and when the cross was whole, had a breadth of twelve inches at the top.

Both its broad and one of its narrow sides are ornamented with serpents

ingeniously interwoven, whilst the fourth side has the following runic

inscription:

“Thurlabr Neaki risti krus thana aft Fiaks ... bruthur sun Jabrs.”

(“Thorlaf Neaki erected this cross to Fiak ... brother, a son of

Jabr.”)

Another extremely well-preserved monumental cross, on which are carved

various scrolls, animals, birds, and other things, such as horses, a

stag, cows (?), swine, &c., stands in Andreas churchyard, and has the

following inscription:—

“Sandulf ein suarti raisti krus thana aftir Arin Biaurg kuinn sina.”

(_i. e._, “Sandulf the Swarthy erected this cross to his wife

Arnbjörg.”)

[Illustration: [++] Monument: Andreas Churchyard]

(The drawing of this monument, as well as those of the following

inscribed stones, is borrowed from W. Kinnebrook’s “Etchings of the

Runic Monuments in the Isle of Man,” London, 1841, 8vo. But the faulty

inscriptions in that book are here corrected.)

[Illustration: [++] Monument: Kirk Michael]

In the middle of the village of Kirk Michael, close to the northern

corner of the churchyard, is a stone not less richly sculptured than the

preceding one, with all sorts of figures of stags, dogs, serpents,

horses, horsemen, &c., which are placed round a large cross covered with

interlacings, or scrolls. The inscription on it runs thus:—

“Jualfir sunr Thurulfs eins Rautha risti krus thana aft Frithu

muthur sina.” (Or, “Joalf, son of Thorolf the Red, erected this

cross to his mother Frida.”)

At the end of the inscription is carved the figure of a man (probably

Joalf), with a shield on his arm and a lance in his hand. (See the

annexed cut.)

The language of the inscriptions, as well as the Scandinavian names

which appear in them,—as Thorlaf, Arnbjörg, Frida, and particularly the

names compounded after the genuine Scandinavian fashion, as Sandulf the

Swarthy, and Thorolf the Red,—sufficiently prove that these monuments

were erected by Northmen, or Norwegians, to their relatives who had died

in the Isle of Man. A piece of runic stone in the wall of Michael’s

Church bears the name of Grim the Swarthy (“Grims ins Suarta”); and in

some similar fragments of inscriptions near Kirk Onchan we find the

names of Thurid (“Thurith raist runir,” _i. e._, Thurith engraved runes)

and Leif (“tra es Laifa fustra guthan son Ilan”). The well-known

Scandinavian name, Asketil, is also found on the remains of a runic

inscription in the museum in Douglas (“p. Askitil vilti i

trigu——aithsaara siin;” _i. e._, whom Asketil deceived in security,

contrary to his pledge of peace). At the same time, however, we may

infer from names like Neaki, Fjak, and Jabr, that the Northmen must,

when these inscriptions were written, have already mingled with the

original Gaelic inhabitants of Man. A stone at Kirk Michael, which is

ornamented with a finely sculptured cross, on the sides of which are

seen a stag, a dog, a harper, and two figures apparently in an attitude

of prayer, has a Norwegian inscription with purely Gaelic names, such as

Mal Lumkun and Mal Muru:—

“Mal Lumkun raisti krus thana eftir Malmuru fustra sin...;” (_i.

e._, “Mal Lumkun erected this cross to his foster father Malmor.”)

[Illustration: [++] 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.

About the same time that the proper Suðreyar were, with, regard to

ecclesiastical matters, united with Man, many of them were, as to

secular government, separated from that island; although, since the time

of Harald Haarfager, all had been governed by the same kings. Jarl

Somerled, who was related in various ways to the Norwegian chiefs on the

islands, had assumed the dominion of Cantire, Argyle, and Lorn (the

“Dalir i Skotlandsfirdi” of the Sagas). After a naval battle, in the

year 1156, with the Manx king, Godred Olavesön, Jarl Somerled compelled

Godred to resign to him all the Sudreyjar from Mull to Man, which

possessions afterwards remained in his family (“Dalverja-Ætt”). His

youngest son, Dugal, the founder of the family of the Mac Dougals of

Lorn, obtained Argyle and Lorn, whilst Cantire and the islands were

assigned to his eldest son Ragnvald, or Reginald. Meanwhile Godred

Crovan’s successors reigned over Man, and frequently, as it seems, over

the islands to the north of Mull likewise, and particularly Lewis. They

constantly sought to strengthen their diminished power by forming

alliances with royal families, and other powerful races in Ireland,

Scotland, and Norway. Thus King Harald Olafsön, whose father King Olaf

Godredsön had, in the year 1230, repaired to King Hakon Hakonsen in

Norway, and taken the oath of allegiance to him, married King Hakon’s

daughter Cecilie; but on the voyage home from Norway in 1248, the royal

couple perished in the dangerous Somburg Röst, to the south of Shetland,

together with the Manx bishop, Lawrence, and a numerous retinue of Manx

chiefs. Harald’s brother, King Ragnvald, was shortly afterwards murdered

by the knight Ivar, and was succeeded on the throne by his youngest

brother Magnus, who was the last of Godred Crovan’s descendants, and

above all the last Norwegian who filled the throne of Man.

The Scotch kings had long been aiming at the expulsion of the Norwegians

from the north and west of Scotland. Alexander the Second (1214-1249)

repeatedly sent ambassadors to King Hakon, in Norway, offering to

purchase the right of that kingdom to the Norwegian possessions in

Scotland; but as they did not succeed, Alexander declared that he would

not rest till he had planted his banner on the farthest point of the

Norwegian dominions in Scotland. But whilst he lay with part of his army

at the island of Kerrera (“Kjarbarey”), not far from Mull, he fell sick

and died, after which the army was disbanded. However, his successor,

Alexander the Third (1249-1289), zealously prosecuted the plan for the

expulsion of the Norwegians. The Scots having at length begun to ravage

the Sudreyjar, and particularly the Isle of Skye, with fire and sword,

King Hakon, when the tidings reached Norway, equipped a large fleet, and

issued orders for an expedition to avenge the attack that had been made

on his dominions.

Accordingly, in 1263, he sailed with a large and well-appointed force to

Elwick (“Ellidarvik”) on Shapinsay, in the Orkneys, and thence to

Ragnvaldsvaag (“Rögnvaldsvágr”) under South Ronaldshay, near Pentland

Firth. He had despatched several ships before him to the Sudreyjar,

whose crews devastated the coasts of Sutherland, particularly the

district around the firth of Durness (“Dyrnes”), where they destroyed a

castle and burnt more than twenty mansions. The King then sailed to the

before-mentioned isle of Kerrera, where he assembled his fleet,

consisting of about 200 ships. King Magnus from Man, and King Dugal from

the Sudreyjar, joined him there; but Ion, the other king of the

Sudreyjar, or, as he was called in Scotland, Ewen, was exempted by King

Hakon from fighting against the Scots. King Hakon permitted his men to

devastate the islands and coasts of the Firth of Clyde. Some of his

chiefs sailed up Loch Long (“Skipafjörðr”), and hauled their ships over

the narrow strip of land, called Tarbet, into Loch Lomond (“Lokulofni”),

whence they harried the surrounding district of Lennox (“Lofnach”).

Meanwhile verbal messages passed between the Norwegian and Scottish

kings, but without leading to any reconciliation. The time was thus

whiled away till late in the autumn, when King Hakon anchored with his

fleet under Cumbrey in the Clyde, opposite the hamlet of Largs. Here he

was assailed by such a furious storm, that his Norwegians, unacquainted

with the equinoctial gales on the west coast of Scotland, imagined that

the tempest had been evoked by witchcraft. Some of the King’s ships were

driven ashore near Largs, when the Scots immediately began to attack

them. As the Scotch king had in the meantime arrived on the spot with a

large army, a fierce battle took place on the plain near Largs (3rd of

October, 1263), in which the Norwegians, who were exhausted by their

endeavours to save their ships, and who on account of the storm could

not avail themselves of their whole force, were overpowered. King Hakon

then sailed with the remainder of his fleet round Cape Wrath to

“Goafjörðr” (undoubtedly the excellent harbour in Loch Eribol in

Sutherland), and after suffering much from violent storms and tempests,

at length again reached Ragnvaldsvaag in the Orkneys. He now prepared to

pass the winter in Kirkwall, where, however, he shortly afterwards died

(16th December, 1263).

The battle of Largs, the last combat in these western regions between

the kings of Scotland and Norway, was of a decisive character. The kings

in Sudreyjar and Man, who could now no longer venture to reckon upon

adequate protection from Norway, submitted to the dominion of the Scotch

king. King Magnus Hakonsön, of Norway, found it most advisable (1266) to

cede Norway’s supremacy over the Sudreyjar and Man to the Scottish crown

for the sum of 4000 marks sterling and a yearly tribute of 100 marks.

But the Scots did not obtain immediate possession of Man. King Magnus

died there in 1265, and was buried in the convent of Russin, near Derby

Haven (“Rögnvaldsvágr”), which one of his forefathers had founded, or at

all events enlarged, in 1134, and which already contained the bones of

several Norwegian kings, chiefs, and ecclesiastics (as, for instance, of

Bishop Reginald, + 1225; King Olave Godredsön, + 1237; and the chief

Gospatrick, + 1240). With Magnus the family of Godred Crovan became

extinct; but the powerful knight Ivar assumed the dominion of Man; and

it was not till the year 1270 that the Scots, who had landed in

Ragnvaldsvaag, succeeded, in a hard-fought battle, in killing Ivar,

together with a great number of the leading men of the island, who had

fought desperately for their independence.

Thus was terminated the actual Norwegian dominion over the Sudreyjar. As

the battle of Largs considerably contributed to this event, it is no

wonder that this battle, and above all King Hakon’s expedition, still

figure in Scottish traditions. On the battle-field near Largs—where

human bones, as well as “Danish axes” and swords, are often found—are

still to be seen two almost unique barrows or tumuli, the most

remarkable in Scotland, being about 25 feet high, and nearly 20 feet

broad at the top, in which the Norwegians and Scots who had been slain

are said to have been buried. One of the mounds, which stands just at

the back of the town, and close to the shore, is probably the grave of

the Norwegians; for the Sagas, whose accounts agree on the whole so

exactly with the localities that they must have been derived from

eye-witnesses, relate that King Hakon, the day after the battle, buried

his dead on the coast, in the neighbourhood of a church. The other mound

stands on the plain, a few thousand paces farther off. According to the

statements of the common people, on the day of the battle, blood flowed

instead of water in a little rivulet or beck that runs past “Killing

Craig.” A number of smaller barrows and scattered stones, formerly to be

seen on the plain, were likewise ascribed by tradition, though certainly

without reason, to the same battle. They undoubtedly belonged to a far

more ancient time; as is also the case with an excellent silver-gilt

brooch found near Hunterston, about three miles from Largs, which was at

once said to have been lost by some Norwegian who fled from the field of

battle. There is a short Scandinavian runic inscription scratched on the

back of it; but, from what has hitherto been deciphered, it would rather

seem to denote the name of a Scotchman than of a Norwegian. Professor

Munch reads, and certainly with good reason, as follows:—

“Malbritha a dalk thana” ... or, “Melbrigd owns this brooch.”

In workmanship, moreover, it resembles the contemporary Irish and Scotch

more than Scandinavian ornaments.

The remembrance of this last expedition of the Norwegians is scarcely

less vivid in several of the harbours which King Hakon visited with his

fleet; as, for instance, Lamlash (“Melasey”), in Arran; Sanda (“Sandey”)

near the south point of Cantire, where are shown the remains of a chapel

and a churchyard, in which are said to repose the bones of many Danish

and Norwegian chiefs; also in Gigha (“Gúdey”); Kerrera (“Kjarbarey”),

with its “Danish” fort “Gylen;” and lastly, in Kyle Rhee (the King’s

Strait), and Kyle Akin (Hakon’s Strait?), in the straits between the

Isle of Skye and Lochalsh, on the coast of Ross-shire. According to a

tradition, which is, however, entirely without foundation, King Hakon,

in his flight from Largs, was attacked in this strait and killed,

together with a great number of his followers. With similar exaggeration

the Scots relate that all the Norwegians round about in the Sudreyjar

were killed after the battle of Largs. On one of the islands near Barra

was shown, not long since, and perhaps is even still, a heap of human

bones, as the remains of the last Danes murdered there. On Lewis there

is the following tradition—that when the Danes were quartered round

about in the island, and were very troublesome on account of their

oppressions, the Gaels laid a plan to murder them. The “fiery cross” was

circulated through the island, with this brief announcement: “marbhadh

ghach then a Bhuana;” that is, “every one shall kill his guest.” The

strangers, who had not time to assemble together, were thus murdered one

by one.

It cannot admit of a doubt that the Norwegians on the Sudreyjar, who for

centuries had taken fast root in the islands, and become mixed with the

families of the Scotch chiefs, could not thus disappear all at once

without leaving a trace behind them. In Lewis, as I have before proved,

vestiges of a Norwegian population still exist. The best refutation of

the tradition is, however, the circumstance that with the exception of

Man, the Sudreyjar continued to be governed by the same chiefs who had

ruled the islands under the Norwegian dominion; and who, being descended

from Somerled himself, were in a great degree of Norwegian extraction.

Somerled’s successors also continued, after the old fashion, to defy the

Scotch kings, who often sought in vain to subdue the bold “Lords of the

Isles,” so famed in song and legend. Sometimes they declared themselves

independent, and sometimes they were compelled to yield to the superior

force of the kings, and acknowledge them as their feudal lords; until at

length, but not before the sixteenth century, the power of these island

chieftains was entirely subdued. Even to the present day many Highland

clans assert that they are descended from the Danes, or Norwegians. This

much is at all events certain, that several clans have Scandinavian

blood in their veins, as appears clearly enough from the names of

Clan-Ranald (from Reginald or Ragnvald) and Clan-Dugal (from Dubhgall,

“the dark strangers,” the usual name for the Danes); both which clans,

it is expressly stated, are descended from Somerled. To these may be

added the clan of Macleod in Skye, whose chiefs still commonly bear the

pure Norwegian names of “Torquil” and “Tormod.”

But the enduring influence of the Norwegian dominion in the Sudreyjar is

best established by the fact that since the battle of Largs, the Isle of

Man, through all the vicissitudes of fate, and after passing by sale

into the possession of the English crown, has uninterruptedly retained

its peculiar position as a kingdom, having its own originally Norwegian

or Scandinavian constitution, and its annual assemblies on the identical

Thing-hill, Tynwald (or, as it was formerly called Tingualla,

“Þingavöllr”), from which, about a thousand years ago, the Norwegians

governed the Sudreyjar. Although the British Parliament makes laws for

England, Ireland, and Scotland, they are of no validity in the Isle of

Man, unless they are in accordance with the ancient laws and liberties

of the island, and, after being confirmed by its own Parliament, are

proclaimed from Tynwald Hill.

The Manx Parliament, whose origin is lost in the mists of remote

antiquity, but whose establishment is usually ascribed to the Danish

king Orry (Erik?), who settled in the island in the beginning of the

tenth century, consists of the three “estates” of the island: 1st, the

king, or superior lord; 2nd, the governor and council; 3rd, the

twenty-four representatives of the island (“Keys, or Taxiaxi”). The

upper house, or council, consists of the bishop, two superior judges

(“deemsters”), and six other of the highest officers in the island. The

representatives in “the house of Keys” fill up vacancies themselves, and

hold their seats for life, without being in any way responsible to the

people for their votes.

This aristocratic mode of election reminds one of the time of the

Norwegian conquest, when the Norwegians made themselves lords over the

natives. The _Thing_, or Tynwald Court, which can be assembled by the

governor at any time whatever, possesses, according to old Scandinavian

custom, both the judicial and the legislative power. The house of Keys

is the first, and the Council the second court of appeal for certain

causes, after they have been tried by the inferior courts in the island.

The Council can reject proposals for laws brought in by the house of

Keys, and the king again can reject the united proposals of both houses.

On the other hand, what all the three estates have agreed on becomes a

law (“a Tynwald act”); but it is not in force until it has been

proclaimed from Tynwald Hill.

This hill, which stands in the midst of a valley on the west coast of

the island, close to the northern side of the town of Peel, is said to

have been originally raised with earth taken from all the seventeen

parishes in the island. It forms four terraces, or steps, the lowest of

which is eight feet broad, the next six feet, the third four feet, and

the topmost six feet. There are three feet between every step, or

terrace, and the circumference of the hill is about 240 feet. It is

covered with green sward. (See Cumming. “The Isle of Man.” London,

1848.)

Once a year, on St. John the Baptist’s Day, the governor of Man,

attended by a military escort, sets out from Castle Town, and, together

with the Tynwald Court, attends divine service in St. John’s Chapel,

situated a few hundred paces from the hill. After the service, the whole

court repairs in solemn procession to the hill, whence all the laws that

have been passed in the course of the year are proclaimed in English and

Manx. The procession then returns to the chapel, where the laws are

signed and sealed.

Amongst all the Scandinavian Thing-hills, or Thing-walls (“Þingavellir”)

that can be traced in the old Danish part of England, in the Norwegian

part of Scotland, as well as in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, and

which also formerly existed in Iceland, Norway, and throughout the

North, Tynwald in Man is the only one still in use.

It is, indeed, highly remarkable that the last remains of the old

Scandinavian _Thing_, which, for the protection of public liberty, was

held in the open air, in the presence of the assembled people, and

conducted by the people’s chiefs and representatives, are to be met with

not in the North itself, but in a little island far towards the west,

and in the midst of the British kingdom. The history of the Manx _Thing_

court remarkably illustrates that spirit of freedom and that political

ability which animated the men who in ancient times emigrated from

Norway and the rest of the Scandinavian North.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE

NORWEGIANS IN IRELAND.

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SECTION I.

Nature and Population of Ireland.—The “Danish” Conquests.—Traditions

about the “Danes.”—Political Movements.

Ireland may still be justly called the chief land of the ancient Celtic

tribes. Long after the Britons and Caledonians had been driven out by

the Romans and Anglo-Saxons, and obliged to fly to the remotest mountain

districts of the west, their Irish kinsmen retained firm possession of

the whole large and fertile country of Ireland. Subsequently, it is

true, the Irish also were compelled to give way before the conquests of

the Norwegians and English; yet they continued to inhabit the greater

part of the country in vastly superior numbers; and even in the

districts conquered by foreigners, which were mostly confined to the sea

coasts, they dwelt intermingled with the new immigrants. In spite of the

attempts of the English to subdue and annihilate the nationality of the

Irish, they continued to preserve throughout the middle ages their

ancient language and their characteristic manners and customs. With all

their power the English have not even been able to root out the Roman

Catholic religion, which to the present day forms the predominant church

of the Irish. It is only in later times that they have succeeded in

gaining a firmer footing in Ireland than they previously possessed. The

English language and customs are continually making greater progress

towards the west; and the Irish, who can no longer withstand England’s

power, seek in great numbers, like their kinsmen in Scotland, a new

asylum in America. The struggle is the more severe in proportion as the

Irish are more numerous than the Celtic population in Scotland and

England. The last violent throes of the once powerful and mighty Irish

nationality now fearfully agitate Ireland, which has been so long and so

severely tried by oppression, pestilence, and famine.

One of the most active causes of the misfortunes of Ireland and the

Irish is, however, the same that occasioned the ruin of the Celts in

England and Scotland; namely, that they could never sincerely unite

together. They have always abandoned themselves too much to eastern

indolence and quiet, regardless of the march of civilization, and

neglecting to avail themselves sufficiently of the rich resources

afforded by their native land. For, although it is true that there are

considerable tracts of boggy land in Ireland, and that many districts

are but little capable of cultivation, yet in the main Ireland is

exceedingly well adapted for agriculture. The neighbourhood of the

Atlantic produces mild breezes, which permit neither frost nor snow to

be of long duration, and consequently promote a rare and luxuriant

vegetation. In few countries do we behold so many creeping plants, and

such beautiful and verdant fields and pastures, as in Ireland, which,

from its green meadows, has obtained the appropriate name of “the

Emerald Isle.” The land is intersected by rivers partially navigable,

abounding in fish, and its coasts are washed by a sea—which not only

from its rich fisheries, but from the facilities which it affords to

navigation, particularly towards America—might, if properly used, become

an inexhaustible source of wealth.

From time immemorial Ireland was celebrated in the Scandinavian North

for its charming situation, its mild climate, and its fertility and

beauty. The “Kongespeil” (or “Mirror of Kings”), which was compiled in

Norway about the year 1200, says that “Ireland is almost the best of the

lands we are acquainted with, although no vines grow there.” The

Scandinavian Vikings and emigrants, who often contented themselves with

such poor countries as Greenland and the islands in the North Atlantic

Ocean, must therefore have especially turned their attention to “the

Emerald Isle,” particularly as it bordered very closely upon their

colonies in England and Scotland.

But to make conquests in Ireland, and to acquire by the sword alone

permanent settlements there, were no easy tasks. The remote situation of

Ireland, so far towards the west in the Atlantic Ocean, was of itself no

slight defence. With the exception of certain tracts, principally on the

east coast, the land is full of mountains, which everywhere afford

secure retreats from an invading enemy. In our days Ireland, the second

of the British Isles in point of magnitude, has a population of between

six and seven millions, chiefly of ancient Irish, or Celtic origin; and

in ancient times, when the Celts were entirely independent, and absolute

masters of the country, the population does not appear to have been much

less numerous. Ireland, moreover, distinguished itself by adopting

Christianity, together with its accompanying civilization, at a very

early period, which, however, was not able to put an end to the cruel

and sanguinary disputes that raged between the different tribes

composing its population. Thus the proportionately few and scattered

Norwegians, who could reach Ireland only by sea, and who could derive

assistance only from their countrymen settled upon the coasts of England

and Scotland, had to contend with a numerous, and by no means unwarlike

people, inhabiting an extensive and mountainous country. To obtain

assistance in the hour of need from their own Scandinavian home was, on

account of the great distance, a physical impossibility. When,

therefore, we consider that neither the Romans nor the Anglo-Saxons ever

obtained a footing in Ireland, although they had conquered the adjacent

country, England; and when we further reflect upon the immense power

exerted by the English in later times in order to subdue the Celtic

population of Ireland, and the many centuries which elapsed before they

even partially succeeded, we cannot help being surprised at the very

considerable Scandinavian settlements which, as early as the ninth

century, were formed in Ireland, and at the great influence which the

Norwegians, according to the concurring evidence of the Irish and

Scandinavian chronicles, must for more than three centuries have

exercised in all the most important places in the country.

On his first entrance into Ireland, a Scandinavian traveller will be

immediately reminded of the ancient dominion of his countrymen. It

cannot possibly escape his observation what a striking part the

Norwegians—or, as they are there exclusively called, the “Danes”—play in

the popular legends and traditions of Ireland. That, like the

north-western districts of Scotland, it should have best preserved the

popular life of ancient times with its songs and legends, must, it is

true, be ascribed to its remote situation. Everywhere, even far in the

interior of the country, we are shown Danish raths (mounds and

entrenchments), and among others the so-called “Danes-cast,” a long

ditch and rampart in Ulster. “Danish cooking-places” are also pointed

out, consisting of small circular spaces set round with stones, and

bearing traces of embers and burnings, some of which are met with

scattered about on heaths and moors. In the ancient copper mines in the

south of Ireland roundish stones with a dent round the middle are now

and then dug up, which it is evident were used in former times in

working the mines. These stones are called by the common people “Danes’

hammers.” In like manner they generally call most of the antiquities

that are dug up, whether weapons or ornaments, “Danish.” Tales

calculated to awaken horror of outrages of the Danes are connected with

all these pretended Danish memorials; and the farther we travel into the

remote western districts, the more terrible are the tales we hear of the

distress and cruel oppressions which the inhabitants endured under their

Danish conquerors. Nevertheless the Irishman has preserved, like the

Englishman, the remembrance of the Danes’ contempt of death, and

irresistible bravery. “That might even frighten a Dane,” says the

Irishman at times, when speaking of some desperate undertaking. A kind

of superstitious fear of the redoubted Danes seems in some places to

have seized the common people; at least it is an acknowledged fact, that

in several parts of the country they continue to frighten children with

“the Danes.”

Similar ideas about the Danes are to be met with even among the more

enlightened portion of the people. Not long ago, it was a firm belief

among many educated men in Ireland, that there were still families in

Denmark, who could not forget the dominion they had formerly exercised

in Ireland, and who bore a title derived from the large estates which

their forefathers had once conquered and possessed there. It was

likewise commonly supposed that the Danes had carried with them from

Ireland a great number of manuscripts, which were said to be preserved

in one of the large collections of books in Copenhagen; as if, forsooth,

it had been one of the chief aims of the bold and dangerous expeditions

of the ancient Norwegians at that remote period, to carry off scientific

treasures, and above all, manuscripts written in Irish, and,

consequently, in a language that was for the most part entirely

incomprehensible to them. In the last century in particular, and at the

beginning of the present one, the Irish literati attributed to the

Danes, or rather to the Norwegians, much to which, strictly speaking,

they could have no valid claim.

The remarkable round towers, whose stone walls are built in so

workmanlike a manner, and which are so evidently of Christian

origin—being erected both as belfries, and as places of security for the

clergy, and certainly _against_ the Scandinavian Vikings and

conquerors—were nevertheless proclaimed to be “Danish towers.” The large

stone rooms, or sepulchral chambers in cairns, that are found in several

places in Ireland, as at New Grange, and which have so striking an

agreement with the sepulchral chambers in the Scandinavian North and

other countries, dating from the pre-historical, and so-called stone

age, were also called “Danish;” although we know from the Sagas, as well

as from the Irish chronicles, that the “Danes,” or rather the Norwegian

Vikings, sometimes opened these sepulchres, in order to take out any

treasure that might have been buried in them by the natives. In several

other instances, the Irish were not disinclined at times to regard the

Norwegian conquests in a somewhat too favourable light.

Recently, however, they have gone to the opposite extreme. Everything

possible that is bad, but nothing whatever that is good, is ascribed to

the Scandinavian conquerors. In Ireland, as in Scotland and England, it

is at present the commonly received opinion that the Norwegian

conquerors did nothing but plunder and burn, and thus annihilated a very

considerable civilization, which had prevailed in Ireland for centuries

before the Norwegian expeditions. The “Danes” are, besides, accused of

subverting the independence of Ireland, and of being the sole cause of

her subsequently coming under the dominion of England. It is remarkable

enough, however, that the Irish appear entirely to forget that the fault

must be ascribed to themselves. They were so divided, and at such

variance with one another, that, in spite of their vast numbers and

boasted civilization, they could not unite to resist a mere handful of

Scandinavians, who came from a great distance across the sea, and still

less could they resist their powerful English conquerors.

This change in the opinions commonly received in Ireland concerning the

Danish conquests has been effected more particularly by the late

political movements. It is but little known in the Scandinavian North

that, since the Repeal agitation in Ireland, the Danish conquests and

the Danish name have been used as a constant and effective means of

agitating against England; yet such is actually the case.

When O’Connell stepped forward as the mouth-piece of Irish nationality,

to revive the ancient independence of Ireland, and if possible to

restore its Parliament, by means of a repeal of the Union, it was of

course important for him to awaken in his countrymen a feeling of

freedom. With this design, he looked to Ireland’s earlier history, and

particularly to the period when she formed an independent kingdom. But

that time was extremely remote. As early as the close of the twelfth

century the English had firmly established themselves in Ireland; and

the Danes before them had, for several centuries, held dominion over the

most important places in that country. Had O’Connell, therefore, wished

to dwell on the time of Ireland’s real independence, he must have

reverted to a period more than a thousand years ago. But he shrewdly

foresaw that the vast and uneducated mass of the people, whom he chiefly

wished to agitate, would not be able to follow him. He therefore chose

historical events that lay nearer, and of which the remembrance still

lived among the people; and, as his chief aim was to irritate the Irish

against the “Saxons” (or English) he laid great stress upon the glory

which the Irish had acquired in former combats against that people, as

well as against the “Danes,” who had preceded them in conquering

Ireland.

Nothing could have been better adapted to O’Connell’s object than the

traditions and exaggerated notions about the Danes, still so widely

diffused among the poorer classes in Ireland. O’Connell knew how to

flatter with dexterity the vanity and self-love of the Irish, by

representing how great a triumph they had achieved in former times, by

driving out the Danes, and annihilating a dominion founded with so much

bravery and wisdom. If he drew no direct conclusion from this, he let

it, however, be sufficiently seen, that as the Irish were formerly able

to expel their Danish conquerors, there was nothing to prevent them from

chasing the hated “Saxons” from their coasts. At one of his great

meetings, held on Tara Hill, where the ancient Irish kings were crowned

in the time of Ireland’s independence, he reminded his countrymen that

their forefathers had, in the year 978, gained on that spot a

considerable victory over the “Danes.”

On the coast about three miles to the north-east of Dublin, is the plain

of Clontarf, where, in the year 1014, a great battle was fought between

the “Danes” and the Irish. This battle, one of the most sanguinary in

all the wars of the Norwegians and Irish, was gained by the latter,

whose king Brian Boroimha (or Brian Boru) fell just as victory declared

for his army. A victory over the Danes like this must naturally always

occupy a prominent place in the historical reminiscences of the Irish;

and their historians throughout the middle ages, and down to our own

times, have accordingly dwelt with extreme complacency on the

description of the bravery of the Irish and of their king. But it did

not suffice O’Connell and his followers to adhere to historical

realities. They followed the chroniclers of a later period, by whom the

victory of Clontarf has been delineated in far too brilliant colours. In

songs, pamphlets, and speeches, the battle of Clontarf was now

represented as having completely annihilated the Danish power in

Ireland, and saved her independence and freedom. According to these

accounts, not a single Dane or Norwegian would seem to have remained in

Ireland after the battle. Brian Boroimha (Boru) was extolled to the

skies, as a martyr for the deliverance of his country from the yoke of

the oppressors. And in the intoxication of enthusiasm thus produced, his

portrait, together with a picture of the battle of Clontarf, was

distributed among the people in immense quantities, and at the very

lowest price. On the tickets of members of the Repeal Association, which

were ornamented with the names of the most important national triumphs

of the Irish, as well as with portraits of the victors, the battle of

Clontarf, and Brian Boru’s portrait, stood at the top.

When at length this representation of the battle of Clontarf, as one of

the most important fought by Ireland for liberty, had been so impressed

upon the common people that it seemed an event which had only recently

taken place—and which, at least in the lively imaginations of the Irish,

might possibly enough be repeated—O’Connell gave out that he would hold

a great repeal meeting on the plain of Clontarf. Everybody knew

beforehand that the real meaning of O’Connell’s speech was, that just as

the Irish, with Brian Boroimha at their head, had formerly defeated the

Danes on that very place, and thus saved Ireland’s freedom, so should

they now in like manner follow O’Connell (who, besides, gave himself out

for a descendant of Brian Boru[?]), and make every sacrifice to wrest

back their lost independence from English, or “Saxon,” ascendancy. The

English government, however, forbade the meeting, and indicted

O’Connell. But the same extravagant notions respecting the national

importance of the battle of Clontarf naturally continued to be generally

received; and that not only amongst the adherents of O’Connell, or “Old

Irelanders,” as they are called, but also among the members of a

political party, the “Young Irelanders,” which has arisen since, and

whose aim it is to sever the connection with England by open force. In

the seditious songs of both these parties the Danes and the English

generally share the same fate, as the war-cry, “The Saxon and the Dane,”

constantly forms the burthen of the songs. It is but very rarely that an

Irish repealer (for instance, Mr. Holmes) dares venture to express an

opinion that it would probably have been no detriment to Ireland if the

“Danes” had remained settled there. This, when explained, means that the

Danes would never have been so dangerous to the independence of Ireland

as the English have since become; and that the Irish, united with and

assisted by the Danes, would certainly have had a fleet capable of

resisting any attacks of their powerful English neighbours(?).

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SECTION II.

Irish and Scandinavian Records.—Finn Lochlannoch.—Dubh-Lochlannoch.—The

Names of the Provinces.

One of the many complaints made by the Irish against the Danes, and

particularly of late, is, that by destroying Irish civilization they

likewise choked the vigorous germs of a national literature, which, in

consequence of the early introduction of Christianity, had begun at a

very early period to take root among the Irish people. The existence of

a literature, particularly like the ancient Irish, in the vernacular

language of the country, must of course always afford a strong proof of

a certain degree of education among the people. During the late

political agitation in Ireland, the old Irish literature, of which

various remains are still preserved, was therefore extravagantly

extolled, with the view of proving how glorious and enlightened was the

age of Ireland’s long-vanished independence.

Whatever opinion may be formed of the remaining relics of this ancient

literature, which are mostly limited to chronicles in the form of

annals, and a few old songs, it is at all events agreed that they are of

very peculiar importance as regards a knowledge of the Norwegian and

Danish expeditions. It is true that the Scandinavian Sagas and

chronicles contain many accounts of the achievements of the Norwegians

in Ireland, both in war and peace; but the Irish records of them are

still more copious. The oldest Irish chronicles relate almost as much to

the battles of the Norwegians and Danes with the Irish, as to the

internal state of Ireland. A singular chronicle in Irish, of the close

of the eleventh century, about “the Wars of the Irish and the Northmen,”

was discovered a few years ago. It contains not only a complete account

of every battle between the Irish and Northmen, down to that of

Clontarf, but also various information respecting the settlements of the

Norwegians in Ireland, their mode of warfare, weapons, &c. That this

chronicle must have been composed not long after the battle of Clontarf,

is proved by the fact that it is referred to as an old record in another

Irish work, called “The Book of Leinster,” written in the first half of

the twelfth century. The above-named ancient chronicle—the publication

of which, by that distinguished Irish scholar, Dr. Todd, cannot be far

distant—will, in conjunction with the rest of the Irish accounts

relative to the Norwegian expeditions into Ireland, afford an excellent

opportunity for comparison with the narratives of our Scandinavian

Sagas. Meanwhile we have already sufficient information at hand to

compare the accounts of the conquerors and the conquered—a method by

which the historical truth will evidently come forth more clearly than

if we were obliged to adopt exclusively the one-sided statements of

either party.