Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History
HIS2141 – VIKINGS AND KINGS IN THE BRITISH ISLES (c. 800-1050) – SPRING 2014
Take-hom e exam in ation
Document 2 (A and B)
These selections from the Irish Annals betoken a fascinating topic for discussion, namely the
relationship between Danish and Norwegian vikings in Ireland and Britain between 837 and 881.
It’s often difficult to clarify the structures and interrelationships among ethnic and cultural
groups in this period because these relationships are complex and intertwined, and they seem to
evolve dynamically from decade to decade, which means they become increasingly entangled in
the tenth and later centuries. The selections are fittingly dated from the mid-ninth century, when
viking activities had evolved from random raids to settlements and vying for political power.
There are several other challenges to our analyses. It is not always easy to distinguish between
heathens and Christians among the Northmen when we know that many of them intermarried
with the native Christian populations and also converted to Christianity for political reasons as
well as genuine religious convictions. Furthermore, the distinction beween the Northmen or
foreigners (dark and fair) is not always clear either, and when Viking-Irish alliances develop,
tactical as well as personal, we get a complex web where we can only follow some key players
described in our sources.
Casualties and holy numbers
Sometimes the extremely high number of men slain in a battle, or the number of men involved in
a raid or attack, doesn’t look plausible. This is apparently symptomatic of influence from the
style of writing we find in heroic legends. The annals and chronicles belong to the earliest
historical writings in western Europe, but this also means that they border on a twilight zone so
to speak between the age of myth and the age of heroes on the one hand, and the dawn of
narrative history proper on the other. With this in mind, it’s possible to glean actual physical
events from these texts, although the degrees of absolute certainty are bound to vary a great deal
more than in later epochs.
What numbers of men slain in various battles and raids is concerned, the reader is struck by the
extensive use of Biblical or holy symbolic numbers, such as 700 and 1200. The Annals of Ulster
tells us that at the rout by Cerball son of Dungal upon Agonn (847.4), at the battle at Sciath
Nechtain (848.5), and at Tigernach’s rout on the Heathens at Daire Disirt Do-Chonna, 1200
people fell in each case. And the Annals of the Four Masters tells us that 1200 foreigners were
killed at Dublin by Cerball son of Dungal in 845, which is indicated to mean 847, so we may be
talking about two different accounts of the same incident. What is striking, however, is the
regularity of numbers applied in these texts.
Northern heathens and Irish Christians
Another thing that becomes clear is that Irish kings were just as fierce as the heathen Northmen.
There has been a widespread common perception that the Scandinavian vikings were fiercer and
more brutal than other people, especially because they were heathens and not Christians, but it
looks like in the early Middle Ages, men of war were men of war, pure and simple, regardless of
religious culture or ideology. And it’s the men of war we are reading about, not the little ordinary
people of Irish and Scandinavian origins alike who may have been quiet and peaceful for the
most part. And entries like the following speak volumes with regard to the complex cultural and
ethnic tapestry we are dealing with:
AU 856.3: Great war between Heathens and Maei-Sechnaill, who was accompanied by 'Foreign-Irish' (Gall-Gofdil).1
These Norse-Gaels who were a mixture of Gaelic and Norse ancestry were apparently referred to
as ”Foreign-Irish” because the Scandinavian element had not been present long enough to be
considered native, although many of them had converted to Christianity and adopted indigenous
cultural customs. The hybrid or dual aspect of such people also made them eligible for
recruitment or alliances by any other group, native or foreign. We find a classic example of an
alliance of Irish and Northmen in this entry:
AU 842.10: Cornman, abbot of Linn Duachaill, was fatally wounded and burned by Heathens
Attacks against churches and clergy was typical of heathen behavior from the start, which is why
it is interesting to learn that the Irish, who were presumably Christian, participated in this fatal
assault on an abbot.
The early Middle Ages was characterized by low literacy. The Scandinavians were not literate at
all to start with (except carving runes) and in Britain, Ireland, and Francia the only literate people
were monks and other clerics, which means that most of these narratives have a certain Christian
flavor (or filter), sometimes even prophetic. So in The Legend of Turgeis we read about the
Gentiles from the north who shall ”confound the men of Erinn.”3 This is connected with the idea
that the Christian God was using heathen savages to punish the gentle Christians for their sins.
From this perspective, the plundering of gold and silver from the churches would make sense if
one imagines one of the perceived sins to have been the very accumulation of wealth in God’s
name at a time when poverty (as well as chastity, humility and piety) were ideals to be striven for
and pleasing to God.
Feuds, treachery and kin-slaying
One element that is very characteristic of the early Middle Ages is internecine feuds and
struggles, and we find this among all kinds of peoples, including the Northmen and the Irish. The
chroniclers show a marked moral displeasure with fratricide and the like, which they describe as
deceitful and treacherous.
AU 867.6: Auisle, one of the three kings of the Heathens, was killed by his relatives, a deed of
treachery and kin-slaying.4
Words like treachery or deceit were not only used in cases of kin-slaying however. We are not
told the details of how such killings took place, but the descriptions indicate that they were
dastardly murders rather than open and honest violence.
Some deaths are openly welcome and cherished:
3
Document 2B
4
CS 881: ... afterwards Barid son of Imar, head of the Northmen, died by a miracle of God and
Cianan.5
The reason for this sentiment seems to be that Barid had just raided the church of Duleek in
Brega.6 The chroniclers don’t involve God in too many dramas; most of them are described
straightforward without judgment of any kind (secular or divine), but in those cases where God is
mentioned, one is tempted to conclude that if a devout native Christian kills a wicked heathen,
God is on his side, but if Christians are slain by heathens, it’s God’s punishment and the
heathens are His thugs.
It is obvious that viking raids, settlements, and bids for regional dominance caused pervasive
socio-political earthquakes all over the British Isles, including Scotland (or Pictland) and Ireland.
On the other hand, Ireland, for instance, was comprised of five hundred kingdoms when the
Northmen arrived, and these kingdoms were characterized by all kinds of internecine feuds and
rivalries for dominance, power, royal succession and territory. With this in mind, the Irish and
the Scandinavians seem to have been very much alike, and the vikings may have distinguished
themselves not so much by fiercer brutality (as is commonly assumed) but by excellent skills and
tactics in warfare. That made them attractive as allies and partners, although partnerships often
entail a price tag in terms of allegiance or even tribute.
Fair and dark foreigners
By 840 the Vikings had become a permanent presence, and their most important fortified camp
was at Dublin.7 In the late 840s, this hegemony of the so-called ”fair foreigners” (presumably
Norwegians) was severely challenged by Irish counterattacks, so many of them moved to
Francia.8 Their toughest and most fateful challenge, however, came from their cousins so to
speak, the so-called ”dark foreigners” (presumably Danes). The following entry is significant:
5
Document 2A
6
Downham, Clare: Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, The Dynasty of Ivarr to A.D. 1014, (Dunedin 2007), Ch. 2: “Ireland”, “The Next Generation”, p. 25.
7
Haywood, John: The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings, (Penguin 1995), “Vikings in Ireland I”, p. 72.
8
AU 849.6: A fleet of 140 ships of the followers of the king of the Foreigners came to exact
obedience from the Foreigners who were (in Ireland) before them, and they threw all Ireland into
turmoil.9
A fleet of 140 ships is a serious and overwhelming force. The Foreigners who were already in
Ireland were apparently the ”fair foreigners” from Norway, and the arriving fleet was manned by
”dark foreigners” from Denmark. When the above entry says that these Danes ”threw all Ireland
into turmoil,” an extreme socio-political earthquake is indicated, shaking up the entire country.
Perhaps this is an exaggeration, especially when we keep in mind how many kingdoms there
were, but if we take the entry for what it’s worth, it’s easy to imagine that the news spread from
Dublin by word of mouth to the rest of Ireland, making the entire population bewildered and
nervous. The widespread turmoil may also indicate repercussions in Waterford, Limerick and
other places throughout Ireand, where Olafr, Sigtryggr, and Ivarr, who were brothers, came to
rule.10 This would mean that the turmoil didn’t happen overnight, but in the course of years to
come.
The arrival of the Danes, the ”dark foreigners,” apparently paved the way for the rise of Ivarr’s
dynasty after some extremely savage battles between the dark and the fair foreigners. These
battles are described in fascinating detail in the ”Saga of Cerball,” from The Fragmentary Annals
of Ireland.11
One interesting detail mentioned earlier is the numbers of ships and men given in these accounts,
140 ships in the above entry, for instance, are 70 x 2, a Biblical number. And in the ”Saga of
Cerball” we read that in 851, ”the Danes killed three times their own number of them”
(Norwegians), and in the following year (852), when the Danes were totally victorious, they once
again killed three times their own number. This may of course be true, in which case the Danes
must have been far superior to the Norwegians in battle, in terms of technique, skill and strength.
9
Document 2A
10
Downham, Clare: Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, to A.D. 1014, Ch. 1: “Ivarr and his Dynasty”, p. 6.
11
Such narratives are often reminiscent of Samson when he beat up the entire Egyptian army (or a
thousand Philistines) armed only with the jawbone of an ass.12
Christ, or St. Patrick, as a god of war
One detail of extraordinary interest is when the Danes, who were ostensibly far more heathen
than the ”fair” semi-Christianized Norwegians, and much fiercer warriors if we are to believe the
3 to 1 ratio, decided to adopt the Christian faith for victory in battle.
’Here is another of my counsels to you: this Saint Patrick who is chief bishop and head of the
saints of Ireland, against whom our enemies have committed many offenses: let us pray diligently
to him, and let us give honorable offerings to him, to bring victory and triumph over those
enemies.' All answered him, and this is what they said: 'Let our protector,' they said, 'be this Saint
Patrick, and the Lord who is master to him, and let our spoils and our treasure be given to his
church.' After that, they proceeded together single-mindedly, virile and manly, against the
Norwegians, and gave battle.13
It was not uncommon for missionaries to ”sell” Christ as a god of war, or war hero, to Saxons
and other northern European heathen tribes. The apparent contradiction between that notion and
the Jesus Christ of the Gospels who surrendered to his mortal opponents without resistance and
was subsequently executed by crucifixion, was somewhat reconciled over time during the high
Middle Ages. Besides, Olaf II Haraldsson (St. Olaf) conquered Norway for Roman Christianity
in 1030, when he died on the battlefield. So the idea of spiritual victory through physical
martyrdom, defeat and death became a part of the Christian faith. But what happened with the
Danes at Dublin back in 852 is more reminiscent of the emperor Constantine’s dream before the
Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, when he had seen a cross with the inscription In Hoc Signo
Vinces or '"By this sign, you will conquer."14 Constantine’s conversion is of crucial historical
importance, because it marks the transition of Christianity from an ethos of pacifism,
non-violence, non-resistance and ”my kingdom is not of this world” to an instrument of the state, a
political tool, mixed with the pre-Christian religious notion of a war god (like Mars of the
It’s not easy to find the exact source for this, because there are different versions, but prof. Paul Halsall has an excerpt from The Conversion of Constantine by Eusebius at the (Jesuit) Fordham University website at
Romans). That seems to be how the Danes came to think of St. Patrick as an advantageous ally in
battle. And it paid off. They slew the Norwegians three times their own number, and that number
was staggering: ”Besides the Danes themselves who were killed, five thousand Norwegian men
of good families were slain.”15 They beheaded them and took the spoils, the gold and silver, and
gave it to St. Patrick in gratitude for the victory. The irony that strikes us here is the circular
nature of this donation. The Norwegians had plundered the gold and silver from the churches, i.e.
from St. Patrick, and now the Danes were giving it back to where it came from.
The ”Saga of Cerball” gives a grotesque description of the Danes’ victory:
When they arrived the Danes were cooking, and the supports of the cooking-pots were heaps of
the bodies of the Norwegians, and even the spits on which the meat was roasting rested their ends
on the bodies of Norwegians, and the fire was burning the bodies, so that the meat and fat that they
had eaten the night before was bursting out of their bellies.16
If we analyze this passage carefully, it doesn’t become exactly clear that the Danes were actually
eating the flesh of the Norwegians and thus practicing cannibalism. That is quite possible, but
it’s not what the text says. The narrator tells us that the Norwegian corpses were used as fuel for
the cooking-pots and to support the spits they used to roast the meat they were eating. He doesn’t
tell us what kind of meat they were eating. If they were eating animal meat and not human flesh,
the concern that the very sight of human corpses with half-digested food bursting out of their
bellies would normally have ruined anyone’s appetite doesn’t enter the picture.
Further development
Later entries in this document also involve Viking activities in Northumberland and Pictland.
York was another Viking stronghold (besides Dublin) dominated by Dark Foreigners or Danes,
although the initial raid on Lindesfarne in 793 seems to have been carried out by Norwegians,
who subsequently followed the Scottish coastline (raiding Iona in the process) and focused
thereafter on the Irish coastline before fortifying themselves at Dublin.
15
Document 2B
16
At the time in question, however, at least a half century later, there was an exodus of Vikings
from Ireland, various reasons, to York, Wales, Pictland, and Francia. Some Norwegians fled
because of the Danish assault on Dublin, but wherever they went they came increasingly under
the influence of Christianity which would eventually conquer Scandinavia itself during the late
tenth and early eleventh centuries. The Christianization of Vikings in Northumbria during the
latter half of the ninth century has been a topic of broad discussions and disagreements among
scholars. One school of thought has maintained that the destruction of Anglo-Saxon monasteries
and churches in Northumbria by the Danes was extremely devastating while others have
concluded that this assumption is grossly exaggerated due to unreliable sources of much later
dates that are misinterpreted.17
The document at hand (Document 2A & 2B) doesn’t report about this issue however. We only
learn about a few dramatic incidents up north (in Northumbria and Pictland), many fierce battles
involving Northmen and Irish. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which ethnicity we’re dealing with
because of the aforementioned complex entanglements.
There is one late entry, however, that merits scrutiny:
AU 871.2: Amlaib and Imar returned to Dublin from Alba (Scotland) with 200 ships and a great
prey of English, British and Pictish persons, whom they brought with them to Ireland in
captivity.18
Amlaib and Imar (or Imair) are synonymous with Olafr and Ivarr, the founder of the Dublin dynasty who
died two years later,19 and the last entry above reveals how powerful this clan had become. The death of
Ivarr the patriarch and founding father so to speak is recorded in a brief sentence as follows:
AU 873.3: Imar, king of the Northmen of all Ireland and Britain, ended his life.
17
Hadley, D.M. The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society and Culture, (Manchester 2006), Ch. 5: “Churches and the Scandinavians: chaos, conversion and change,” pp. 192-196
18
Document 2A
19
As mentioned before, Ivarr’s son Barðr (Barid in the document) ”died by a miracle of God” in
881, which tells us that his death was a good thing to give praise to God for because he was a
Bibliography
Haywood, John: The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings (Penguin 1995)
Downham, Clare: Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, to A.D. 1014 (Dunedin 2007)
Hadley, D.M. The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society and Culture (Manchester 2006)
Document 2A
Document 2B
King James Bible
Websites
Halsall, Paul. Eusebius: The Conversion of Constantine
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/conv-const.asp (visited May 20, 2014)
