Those Who Came Over the Water
The Irish historian Seamus MacManus tells us in his “The Story of the Irish Race” that, “The history of the Viking period, which began in the eighth century and lasted for about four hundred years, reads like a fairy tale.” (MacManus, 268) When the people of Denmark, Sweden and Norway decided to explore outside of their country, they stumbled upon the fertile, green land of Ireland. Tales of the land spread throughout the Vikings’ ranks and they soon started attacking Irish ports, driving the people out and taking their land. For four hundred years the people of Ireland were terrorized by the Vikings, which is the topic of this essay.
The people of Denmark, soon to be called the Vikings, left their country for several reasons, such as “the inadequate economic resources of their country, due to overpopulation, and a desire to seek warmer and more fruitful lands” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”). Their journey took them to France where they established the Duchy of Normandy, Italy, Greece, and the modern day country of Russia. The Vikings had also come upon the British Isles, almost immediately planting colonies in England and Scotland.
Around the year 795 the Vikings made their first major attack on Ireland. They attacked several isles to the east of Ireland simultaneously, including ”Rechru, now Lambay (...) the Isle of Skye and Glamorganshire in South Wales.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) These Vikings plundered and quickly went back to their ships, their minds full of pictures of the green, fertile land. A land that they told others about, which was worth fighting for.
Years passed with the occasional plunder, usually once a year for most port towns. In most cases the Vikings succeeded in their raids, taking food and gold. However, this was not always the case. “Sometimes they showed poor judgment in choosing their points of attack, as in the year 823 when they scaled the almost inaccessible Scelic Michil (the Skelligs), far out in the Atlantic, and carried off the hermit Etgal, perhaps in spite at finding no treasure on that barren, wind-swept rock.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) This shows that no matter how many times they raided a town or abbey, the Vikings never had enough riches. The fact that they carried off a hermit just because they climbed a rock in the middle of the sea, on which they foolishly expected treasure, makes plain that these people had no financial gain in their own country.
The Norse leader Turgeis decided to make a great attack on Ireland in force in 832. He arrived with a fleet of 120 ships, holding ten or twelve thousand picked men, which he divided into two divisions. “One squadron of sixty ships entered the Liffey, while Turgeis himself with the other sailed up the Boyne.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) From those points bands of invaders entered into the interior of Ireland, carrying boats overland with them when necessary. These invaders spread across the country and made the first permanent Norse settlements in Ireland. Turgeis then set up a number of forts along the river Shannon and across the country from Carlingford Bay to Connacht.
The Vikings had settled on the east coast of Ireland, taking the town of
“Ath Cliath, ‘The Ford of the Hurdles’. It was also named Dubhlinn, ‘Black-pool,’ from the dark colour of the water under the bog. The Norsemen were struck by the excellent location of the village and, consequently, about the year 837, they threw up a strong earthen fort on the hill where now stands the Castle, and for nearly two hundred years Dublin remained an exclusively Norwegian or Danish city and the capital and headquarters of the Vikings in the western Europe.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”)
This meant that the Vikings had a very well placed stronghold which was held as their capital, for both the Norse and the Danes, for almost two centuries. Dublin allowed them access to the seaports while still being very easy to defend.
By the year 845 Turgeis had taken over Armagh, Ireland’s Holy City, and placed himself as the high priest of a new religion. “As if that sacrilege was not sufficient to arouse the special anger of the Irish, he is said to have enthroned his wife Otta upon the high altar of the principal church at Clonmacnois, the next most holy place in Ireland.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) Otta is said to then begin delivering oracles in magic strains to the people of Ireland. However, Turgeis certainly did not do this without making enemies of the five kings of Ireland. Shortly after taking Armagh, in 845, Turgeis was captured and held prisoner by Maelsechlainn, King of Meath. It is said that Turgeis was drowned in Loch Owel as a criminal, or “according to the legends, through a stratagem of Maelsechlainn’s daughter who, accompanied by fifteen young Irish warriors disguised as maidens, kept tryst with him and fifteen of his captains.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) This last option would have meant that Maelsechlainn had great trust in his daughter not to fail or let Turgeis escape. However, the plan must have worked, for Turgeis was dead and his troops retreating up the Shannon where boats were waiting to take them to Normandy.
Thus began a new epoch in the history of the Scandinavian invasion of Ireland. “Hitherto the Vikings, like their great leader Turgeis, were all of Norwegian stock, but with a few Danes and Swedes among them. During the tenth and eleventh centuries, however, the Danes (...) took the lead in Viking activities.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) The Danes were more organised than the Norse, had a more centralised government and, could rely on their kingdom in Northumbria whose capital was York. They were jealous of the victories that the Norse had gained within Ireland and soon proceeded to deprive them of the fruits of their successes, so that it was not just a desire to attack the Irish but purely by accident that the Danes came to Ireland and made it the battleground on which to fight the Norse.
The Danes arrived in 847 in seven score ships upon the eastern shores of Ireland. “They at once proceeded to attack the Norwegians and to contest the possession of the cast settlements with them” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”). Within that year the Norse chieftain Earl Tomar was slain in the battle of SciathNechtin. In 850 the Danes seized and plundered Dublin and defeated the Norse at Carlingford Lough. The battle at Carlingford Lough is said to have continued for three days and three nights. The Vikings fought among themselves for years, destroying and plundering Irish land as they went.
By 851 the Danes had won the battle at Carlingford Lough between them and the Norse. The king of Ireland, Maelsechlainn I, sent messengers to the Danes to congratulate their victory. When the messengers arrived they saw “Five thousand Norwegians with their kings lay dead on the field.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) and the Danes burning the bodies as firewood, putting their kettles on stakes driven through the corpses. Upon this sight the messengers expressed their horror, claiming that it was barbaric. The Danes, however, replied calmly, saying that the Norse would have done the same if they had won.(MacManus, 270)
The two groups of Vikings had soon earned their own names to be called by the Irish. Those of Norse descent were white heathens, for they wore leather tunics in battle, and those of Danish descent were black heathens, for they wore dark chainmail and helmets. The Irish people had always worn regular clothes to battle, occasionally leather tunics if the danger was great. “As they [the Danes] were the first mail-clad warriors the Irish had ever seen, it is no wonder if they seemed to them to be ‘dark blue’ or blue-green,’ as they call them” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) This means that the reason the Norse were white heathens was most likely that they wore lighter coloured leather tunics in comparison to the Danes’ armor.
The Norse soon rallied, and in 842 a new warlord took command over them. His name was Oláfr enn hvíti, “Olaf the White” or Amhlaobh, as he was named in Irish records. Amhlaobh and Ivar, who was also from Normandy, assumed joint kingship over the foreigners in Ireland and established Dublin as their capital. The two kings gained ground in Ireland, establishing vassal states, trading posts and stations for their fleets. Many of the ports hold their Scandinavian names today, including Strangford, Carlingford, Wexford and Waterford.
However, the Danes did not back away from Amhlaobh and his troops. They fortified along the banks of the Shannon, which is one of the furthest reaching rivers in Ireland. The major city they established they called Limerick, or ‘Limerick of the Mighty ships’ (MacManus, 272) as an old chronicler called it. Limerick had a great influence in the kingship of Munster and the distant Hebrides. It soon became a dangerous rival to the Norwegian kingdom at Dublin. The two groups started raiding and hosting each other, just as the native clans of Ireland did. As it happened, each group would ask the Irish for help against the other, and in turn the Irish would seek help from the Vikings to fight other clans. Several historians agree that there was most likely never a war in which the Vikings and Irish were banded together.
The battles between the two groups of Vikings and the Irish clans wreaked havoc across Ireland. When a Viking troop raided, “villages were burned and sacked and there was wholesale slaughter and enslavement of men, women and children.” (MacManus, 273). The farmers of Ireland were force to house the foreign soldiers and a heavy tax was placed upon them.The tax even meant that all the cows’ milk would go to the soldiers first, leaving the leftovers for the villagers. If a citizen failed to pay their taxes, the Vikings would cut the person’s nose off, a custom from their country called ‘nose-money.’ This havoc caused the old clans of Ireland to reunite, leaving the union of the country in pieces.
It all seemed hopeless for the Irish as the century turned. By the early tenth century, the Danes had seized most of Ireland, imposing the foresaid tax. But, the Irish had learned from watching the Vikings how to build large warships and naval tactics. The most celebrated naval battles was commanded by Ceallachan of Cashel, winning back Cashel and most of Munster from the Danes. After a later battle, Ceallachan entered Dublin, “collected great stores of cattle, gold, silver and other treasures, burned the town and departed.” (MacManus, 275). Thus wreaking the Norse Viking’s capital and taking their supplies, leaving them helpless against a siege.
By 980 the Emperor of Ireland, Maélsechlainn of Meath, won a victory over the Danes at the battle of Tara. The Annals of the Four Masters describe this battle in a way no paraphrasing can capture.
“A great army was led by Maélsechlainn, son of Domhnall, King of Ireland, and by Eochaidh, son of Ardgar, King of Ulidia, against the foreigners of Ath-cliath; and they laid siege to them for three days and three nights, and carried thence the hostages of Ireland, and among the rest Domhnall Claen, King of Leinster, and all the hostages of the Ui-Neill. Two thousand was the number of the hostages, besides jewels and goods, and the freedom of the Ui- Neill, from the Simian to the sea, from tribute and exaction. It was then Maélsechlainn himself issued the famous proclamation, in which he said:— "Every one of the Gaedhil [Irish] who is in the territory of the foreigners, in servitude and bondage, let him go to his own territory in peace and happiness." This captivity was the Babylonian captivity of Ireland, until they were released by Maélsechlainn; it was indeed next to the captivity of hell” (The Annals of the Four Masters).
This defeat made by Maélsechlainn and Eochaidh ended the Vikings hold over the Irish. For the remainder of the tenth century the only disputes in the land were between the five kings, as it normally was. However, the Vikings returned in the eleventh century.
A great host of Vikings from Normandy, Flanders, England, Cornwall, the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and still other islands arrived on Palm Sunday, 1014. The Emperor of Ireland at the time, Brian Boru, was then seventy-three years old. Brian fiercely wished to lead his army into battle personally, yet his advisors persuaded him to stay in a tent not too far from the fight. His son, Murchadh, would lead the army instead.
Brian was not willing to fight on Good Friday, as the Vikings wanted, as it was prophesied to the Danes that if the battle was fought on that day Brian would be slain. However, if the battle was fought on any other day, all would fall who stood against Brian. The Danes forced the battle on Good Friday, which was on April 23rd that year. At that time the tide was at its fullest and threatened to cover the battle ground where they fought. The Irish and the Danes faced each other, both sides having around 20,000 men. Although, the Danes were better equipped, in coats of mail while the Irish wore leather tunics.
At the first onset, the Irish met the Danes and were cut down, as their armor was no where near as good as the Danes’. The Danes were winning until Maélsechlainn’s men arrived, who were fresh and unwearied. Maélsechlainn’s men joined the fray and the Danes retreated. Part of the Danes’ army fled to their ships at Clontarf but the returning tide had carried away the boats and stopped the escape of most. Several drowned in the sea trying to escape and heaps of the dead were on the ground. Four thousand of the fallen were the Irish, and seven thousand were Vikings.
The prophecy of Brian’s death came true during the battle. As his advisors had said, he waited in a guarded tent for the battle to finish. A traitor came to the tent with false news of Murchadh’s death. Brian sprang from the tent and raced towards the battlefield when the traitor turned and drew his sword. Within a minute Brian was said to have killed the traitor and then killed himself. The reason for his suicide is never brought to life, although it may have been the grief of seeing all of his fallen troops, or the belief that his son was dead. What truly had been going through his head, we can never know. What we do know, however, is that this final battle ended the Viking-Irish feud. The Vikings left in Ireland took the culture as their own, proclaiming themselves as Irish as the Irish can be.
For almost four centuries the Vikings and the Irish fought over the green, fertile land of Ireland. The Vikings had left their own land of Denmark for mainly financial means, as their country was becoming overpopulated. The people of Ireland were distraught as their land was trampled and plundered by these ‘heathen’ foreigners. In the tenth and eleventh centuries the Irish decided to fight back against the Vikings. In the end the Irish defeated the Vikings, who then stayed in the country and “became as Irish as the Irish themselves.” (MacManus, 283)
The people of Denmark, soon to be called the Vikings, left their country for several reasons, such as “the inadequate economic resources of their country, due to overpopulation, and a desire to seek warmer and more fruitful lands” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”). Their journey took them to France where they established the Duchy of Normandy, Italy, Greece, and the modern day country of Russia. The Vikings had also come upon the British Isles, almost immediately planting colonies in England and Scotland.
Around the year 795 the Vikings made their first major attack on Ireland. They attacked several isles to the east of Ireland simultaneously, including ”Rechru, now Lambay (...) the Isle of Skye and Glamorganshire in South Wales.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) These Vikings plundered and quickly went back to their ships, their minds full of pictures of the green, fertile land. A land that they told others about, which was worth fighting for.
Years passed with the occasional plunder, usually once a year for most port towns. In most cases the Vikings succeeded in their raids, taking food and gold. However, this was not always the case. “Sometimes they showed poor judgment in choosing their points of attack, as in the year 823 when they scaled the almost inaccessible Scelic Michil (the Skelligs), far out in the Atlantic, and carried off the hermit Etgal, perhaps in spite at finding no treasure on that barren, wind-swept rock.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) This shows that no matter how many times they raided a town or abbey, the Vikings never had enough riches. The fact that they carried off a hermit just because they climbed a rock in the middle of the sea, on which they foolishly expected treasure, makes plain that these people had no financial gain in their own country.
The Norse leader Turgeis decided to make a great attack on Ireland in force in 832. He arrived with a fleet of 120 ships, holding ten or twelve thousand picked men, which he divided into two divisions. “One squadron of sixty ships entered the Liffey, while Turgeis himself with the other sailed up the Boyne.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) From those points bands of invaders entered into the interior of Ireland, carrying boats overland with them when necessary. These invaders spread across the country and made the first permanent Norse settlements in Ireland. Turgeis then set up a number of forts along the river Shannon and across the country from Carlingford Bay to Connacht.
The Vikings had settled on the east coast of Ireland, taking the town of
“Ath Cliath, ‘The Ford of the Hurdles’. It was also named Dubhlinn, ‘Black-pool,’ from the dark colour of the water under the bog. The Norsemen were struck by the excellent location of the village and, consequently, about the year 837, they threw up a strong earthen fort on the hill where now stands the Castle, and for nearly two hundred years Dublin remained an exclusively Norwegian or Danish city and the capital and headquarters of the Vikings in the western Europe.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”)
This meant that the Vikings had a very well placed stronghold which was held as their capital, for both the Norse and the Danes, for almost two centuries. Dublin allowed them access to the seaports while still being very easy to defend.
By the year 845 Turgeis had taken over Armagh, Ireland’s Holy City, and placed himself as the high priest of a new religion. “As if that sacrilege was not sufficient to arouse the special anger of the Irish, he is said to have enthroned his wife Otta upon the high altar of the principal church at Clonmacnois, the next most holy place in Ireland.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) Otta is said to then begin delivering oracles in magic strains to the people of Ireland. However, Turgeis certainly did not do this without making enemies of the five kings of Ireland. Shortly after taking Armagh, in 845, Turgeis was captured and held prisoner by Maelsechlainn, King of Meath. It is said that Turgeis was drowned in Loch Owel as a criminal, or “according to the legends, through a stratagem of Maelsechlainn’s daughter who, accompanied by fifteen young Irish warriors disguised as maidens, kept tryst with him and fifteen of his captains.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) This last option would have meant that Maelsechlainn had great trust in his daughter not to fail or let Turgeis escape. However, the plan must have worked, for Turgeis was dead and his troops retreating up the Shannon where boats were waiting to take them to Normandy.
Thus began a new epoch in the history of the Scandinavian invasion of Ireland. “Hitherto the Vikings, like their great leader Turgeis, were all of Norwegian stock, but with a few Danes and Swedes among them. During the tenth and eleventh centuries, however, the Danes (...) took the lead in Viking activities.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) The Danes were more organised than the Norse, had a more centralised government and, could rely on their kingdom in Northumbria whose capital was York. They were jealous of the victories that the Norse had gained within Ireland and soon proceeded to deprive them of the fruits of their successes, so that it was not just a desire to attack the Irish but purely by accident that the Danes came to Ireland and made it the battleground on which to fight the Norse.
The Danes arrived in 847 in seven score ships upon the eastern shores of Ireland. “They at once proceeded to attack the Norwegians and to contest the possession of the cast settlements with them” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”). Within that year the Norse chieftain Earl Tomar was slain in the battle of SciathNechtin. In 850 the Danes seized and plundered Dublin and defeated the Norse at Carlingford Lough. The battle at Carlingford Lough is said to have continued for three days and three nights. The Vikings fought among themselves for years, destroying and plundering Irish land as they went.
By 851 the Danes had won the battle at Carlingford Lough between them and the Norse. The king of Ireland, Maelsechlainn I, sent messengers to the Danes to congratulate their victory. When the messengers arrived they saw “Five thousand Norwegians with their kings lay dead on the field.” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) and the Danes burning the bodies as firewood, putting their kettles on stakes driven through the corpses. Upon this sight the messengers expressed their horror, claiming that it was barbaric. The Danes, however, replied calmly, saying that the Norse would have done the same if they had won.(MacManus, 270)
The two groups of Vikings had soon earned their own names to be called by the Irish. Those of Norse descent were white heathens, for they wore leather tunics in battle, and those of Danish descent were black heathens, for they wore dark chainmail and helmets. The Irish people had always worn regular clothes to battle, occasionally leather tunics if the danger was great. “As they [the Danes] were the first mail-clad warriors the Irish had ever seen, it is no wonder if they seemed to them to be ‘dark blue’ or blue-green,’ as they call them” (MacManus, “The Story of the Irish Race”) This means that the reason the Norse were white heathens was most likely that they wore lighter coloured leather tunics in comparison to the Danes’ armor.
The Norse soon rallied, and in 842 a new warlord took command over them. His name was Oláfr enn hvíti, “Olaf the White” or Amhlaobh, as he was named in Irish records. Amhlaobh and Ivar, who was also from Normandy, assumed joint kingship over the foreigners in Ireland and established Dublin as their capital. The two kings gained ground in Ireland, establishing vassal states, trading posts and stations for their fleets. Many of the ports hold their Scandinavian names today, including Strangford, Carlingford, Wexford and Waterford.
However, the Danes did not back away from Amhlaobh and his troops. They fortified along the banks of the Shannon, which is one of the furthest reaching rivers in Ireland. The major city they established they called Limerick, or ‘Limerick of the Mighty ships’ (MacManus, 272) as an old chronicler called it. Limerick had a great influence in the kingship of Munster and the distant Hebrides. It soon became a dangerous rival to the Norwegian kingdom at Dublin. The two groups started raiding and hosting each other, just as the native clans of Ireland did. As it happened, each group would ask the Irish for help against the other, and in turn the Irish would seek help from the Vikings to fight other clans. Several historians agree that there was most likely never a war in which the Vikings and Irish were banded together.
The battles between the two groups of Vikings and the Irish clans wreaked havoc across Ireland. When a Viking troop raided, “villages were burned and sacked and there was wholesale slaughter and enslavement of men, women and children.” (MacManus, 273). The farmers of Ireland were force to house the foreign soldiers and a heavy tax was placed upon them.The tax even meant that all the cows’ milk would go to the soldiers first, leaving the leftovers for the villagers. If a citizen failed to pay their taxes, the Vikings would cut the person’s nose off, a custom from their country called ‘nose-money.’ This havoc caused the old clans of Ireland to reunite, leaving the union of the country in pieces.
It all seemed hopeless for the Irish as the century turned. By the early tenth century, the Danes had seized most of Ireland, imposing the foresaid tax. But, the Irish had learned from watching the Vikings how to build large warships and naval tactics. The most celebrated naval battles was commanded by Ceallachan of Cashel, winning back Cashel and most of Munster from the Danes. After a later battle, Ceallachan entered Dublin, “collected great stores of cattle, gold, silver and other treasures, burned the town and departed.” (MacManus, 275). Thus wreaking the Norse Viking’s capital and taking their supplies, leaving them helpless against a siege.
By 980 the Emperor of Ireland, Maélsechlainn of Meath, won a victory over the Danes at the battle of Tara. The Annals of the Four Masters describe this battle in a way no paraphrasing can capture.
“A great army was led by Maélsechlainn, son of Domhnall, King of Ireland, and by Eochaidh, son of Ardgar, King of Ulidia, against the foreigners of Ath-cliath; and they laid siege to them for three days and three nights, and carried thence the hostages of Ireland, and among the rest Domhnall Claen, King of Leinster, and all the hostages of the Ui-Neill. Two thousand was the number of the hostages, besides jewels and goods, and the freedom of the Ui- Neill, from the Simian to the sea, from tribute and exaction. It was then Maélsechlainn himself issued the famous proclamation, in which he said:— "Every one of the Gaedhil [Irish] who is in the territory of the foreigners, in servitude and bondage, let him go to his own territory in peace and happiness." This captivity was the Babylonian captivity of Ireland, until they were released by Maélsechlainn; it was indeed next to the captivity of hell” (The Annals of the Four Masters).
This defeat made by Maélsechlainn and Eochaidh ended the Vikings hold over the Irish. For the remainder of the tenth century the only disputes in the land were between the five kings, as it normally was. However, the Vikings returned in the eleventh century.
A great host of Vikings from Normandy, Flanders, England, Cornwall, the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and still other islands arrived on Palm Sunday, 1014. The Emperor of Ireland at the time, Brian Boru, was then seventy-three years old. Brian fiercely wished to lead his army into battle personally, yet his advisors persuaded him to stay in a tent not too far from the fight. His son, Murchadh, would lead the army instead.
Brian was not willing to fight on Good Friday, as the Vikings wanted, as it was prophesied to the Danes that if the battle was fought on that day Brian would be slain. However, if the battle was fought on any other day, all would fall who stood against Brian. The Danes forced the battle on Good Friday, which was on April 23rd that year. At that time the tide was at its fullest and threatened to cover the battle ground where they fought. The Irish and the Danes faced each other, both sides having around 20,000 men. Although, the Danes were better equipped, in coats of mail while the Irish wore leather tunics.
At the first onset, the Irish met the Danes and were cut down, as their armor was no where near as good as the Danes’. The Danes were winning until Maélsechlainn’s men arrived, who were fresh and unwearied. Maélsechlainn’s men joined the fray and the Danes retreated. Part of the Danes’ army fled to their ships at Clontarf but the returning tide had carried away the boats and stopped the escape of most. Several drowned in the sea trying to escape and heaps of the dead were on the ground. Four thousand of the fallen were the Irish, and seven thousand were Vikings.
The prophecy of Brian’s death came true during the battle. As his advisors had said, he waited in a guarded tent for the battle to finish. A traitor came to the tent with false news of Murchadh’s death. Brian sprang from the tent and raced towards the battlefield when the traitor turned and drew his sword. Within a minute Brian was said to have killed the traitor and then killed himself. The reason for his suicide is never brought to life, although it may have been the grief of seeing all of his fallen troops, or the belief that his son was dead. What truly had been going through his head, we can never know. What we do know, however, is that this final battle ended the Viking-Irish feud. The Vikings left in Ireland took the culture as their own, proclaiming themselves as Irish as the Irish can be.
For almost four centuries the Vikings and the Irish fought over the green, fertile land of Ireland. The Vikings had left their own land of Denmark for mainly financial means, as their country was becoming overpopulated. The people of Ireland were distraught as their land was trampled and plundered by these ‘heathen’ foreigners. In the tenth and eleventh centuries the Irish decided to fight back against the Vikings. In the end the Irish defeated the Vikings, who then stayed in the country and “became as Irish as the Irish themselves.” (MacManus, 283)