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11 - Vikings by Allen Mawer · Vikings

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of the Vikings by Allen Mauer. This LIBRYVANX
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Kevin Johnson,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten Scandinavian influence in Ireland. At the time of
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  Speaker 1: the Viking invasions of Ireland, the various provincial kingdoms were
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  Speaker 1: held in loose confederation under the authority of the ardry
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  Speaker 1: or high king. But these kingdoms stood in constantly shifting
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  Speaker 1: relations of friendship and hostility towards one another, and were
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  Speaker 1: themselves often split into factions under rival chieftains. There was
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  Speaker 1: no national army like the English fiert. Rather, it consisted
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  Speaker 1: of a number of tribes, each commanded by their own chief,
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  Speaker 1: and though the chief owed allegiance to the king, the
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  Speaker 1: bond was a frail one. The tribe was further divided
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  Speaker 1: into septs, and the army was utterly lacking in any
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  Speaker 1: cohesive Priss principle. It is no wonder that for many
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  Speaker 1: years the Irish showed themselves quite unable to cope with
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  Speaker 1: the attacks of forces so well organized as those of
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  Speaker 1: the Norse and Danish Vikings. In vivid contrast to the
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  Speaker 1: chaos in political and military organization stand the missionary enthusiasm
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  Speaker 1: of the Irish Church and the high level of education
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  Speaker 1: and culture which prevailed among her clergy and literati in
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  Speaker 1: the Orkneys and the Shetlands. Such names as Papa Westray
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  Speaker 1: or Papa Stronse bear witness to the presence of Irish
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  Speaker 1: priests or Popeye as the Norsemen called them. Irish anchorites
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  Speaker 1: had at one time settled in the Pharaohs, and when
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  Speaker 1: the Norsemen first settled in Iceland Bracket circa eight seventy
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  Speaker 1: under Bracket, they found Irish monks already there. The monastic
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  Speaker 1: schools of Ireland were centers of learning and religious instruction
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  Speaker 1: for the whole of Western Europe, while Irish missionaries had
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  Speaker 1: founded monasteries in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France. Unfortunately, religion
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  Speaker 1: and culture seemed to have been almost entirely without influence
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  Speaker 1: on the body politic, and as the Vikings had, at
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  Speaker 1: least in the early days, no respect for the religion
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  Speaker 1: or the learning of the Irish nation, there was nothing
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  Speaker 1: to prevent them from devastating Irish monasteries and carrying off
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  Speaker 1: the stores of treasured wealth which they contained. No plunder
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  Speaker 1: was more easily won, and it was only when they
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  Speaker 1: themselves had fallen under Christian influences and had come to
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  Speaker 1: appreciate Irish literary and artistic skill, that they showed themselves
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  Speaker 1: more kindly disposed towards these homes of learning. One feature
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  Speaker 1: must at once strike the observer who compares the Viking
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  Speaker 1: settlements in Ireland with those in England, viz. That Viking
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  Speaker 1: influence in Ireland is definitely concentrated in the great coast
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  Speaker 1: towns Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, and the districts
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  Speaker 1: immediately around them. Irish place nomenclature bears very definite witness
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  Speaker 1: to this fact. Ford in Strangford and Carlingford, Loakes, Waterford
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  Speaker 1: and Wexford is Old Norse fjorther A Fiord Low in
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  Speaker 1: Arklow and Wicklow is Old Norse low Low, lying flat
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  Speaker 1: grasslands lying by the water's edge. The Old Nurse a
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  Speaker 1: an island is found in Lambay, Dalkey, Dursay Head and
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  Speaker 1: Ireland's Eye bracket. For Ireland's A and A bracket, Howth
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  Speaker 1: is Old Norse hofooth a Head, Carnsore and Greenore Point
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  Speaker 1: contain Old Norse air a sandy point pushing out into
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  Speaker 1: the sea. Smirwick contains the familiar Old Norse vik a
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  Speaker 1: bay or creek, while the Copeland islands off Belfast Lauch
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  Speaker 1: are the old Norse Kopemannayer the Merchant's islands. All these
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  Speaker 1: are found on or off the coast. While the number
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  Speaker 1: of Scandinavian names found Inland is extremely limited, the most interesting,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps is like Slip on the Life, a name derived
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  Speaker 1: from Old Norse. Lachsalaup, Salmon, Leip, Donegal, Fyngaal and Goltier
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  Speaker 1: are Celtic names, but they mark the presence of the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Gaul or foreigners, while the stir in Ulster, Leinster
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  Speaker 1: and Munster is Old Norse stather bracket plural of stather
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  Speaker 1: place abode, and a bracket suffixed to the Old Gaelic
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  Speaker 1: names of these provinces. There was free intermarriage between Norse
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  Speaker 1: and Irish, but the strength of the clan system kept
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  Speaker 1: the races distinct, and there was no such infiltration of
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  Speaker 1: the whole population as took place in the English danelog.
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  Speaker 1: This system prevented any such settlement of Norsemen upon their
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  Speaker 1: own farms as took place in England, and the invaders
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  Speaker 1: lived almost entirely in the coast, towns and the districts
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  Speaker 1: in their immediate neighborhood, busying themselves with trade and shipping.
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  Speaker 1: Though the settlements were limited in their extent, we must
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  Speaker 1: not underrate their influence on Irish history. Generally, they give
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  Speaker 1: the impetus there as elsewhere to the growth of town life,
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  Speaker 1: and from the period of Viking rule dates the origin
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  Speaker 1: of the chief Irish towns to them also was due
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  Speaker 1: the great expansion, if not the birth of Irish trade.
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  Speaker 1: Mention has been made of the wealth of Limerick, drawn
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  Speaker 1: chiefly from trade with France and Spain, and the other
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  Speaker 1: towns were not behind Limerick. The naval power of Dublin
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  Speaker 1: stretched from Waterford to Dundalk. The Irish Channel swarmed with
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  Speaker 1: Viking fleets, and many of the shipping terms in use
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  Speaker 1: in Gaelic are loanwords from the North. It is probably
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  Speaker 1: to the trading activities of Vikings from the chief's ports
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  Speaker 1: of Ireland that we owe the sprinkling of names of
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  Speaker 1: Norse origin which we find along the Welsh coast from
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  Speaker 1: the d to the Severn, Great wormshead Anglesea, ramsay E,
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  Speaker 1: Skokholm Island, Flatholm and Steepholme, and to them may be
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  Speaker 1: due the establishment of Swansea earlier Swainsea, Haverford West and
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  Speaker 1: possibly Bideford as Norse colonies in the Bristol Channel. We
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  Speaker 1: know in later times of several Norsemen who were living
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  Speaker 1: in Cardiff, Bristol, Swansea and Haverford West. Norse influence in
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  Speaker 1: Ireland probably reached its climax in the tenth century. The
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  Speaker 1: Battle of Clontarf offered a serious check and then, though
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  Speaker 1: there was still a succession of Norse kings and earls
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  Speaker 1: in Dublin, they had to acknowledge the authority of the Audrey.
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  Speaker 1: The line of sigtrigger of the Silken Beard came to
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  Speaker 1: an end by the middle of the eleventh century, and
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  Speaker 1: the rulership of Dublin fell into the hands of various
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  Speaker 1: Norse families from other Irish settlements and from Man and
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  Speaker 1: the Isles. From ten seventy eight to ninety four it
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  Speaker 1: was under the rule of the Great Conqueror, Godred Crovan
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  Speaker 1: from Man, and its connection with that kingdom was only
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  Speaker 1: severed finally when Magnus Barefoot came on his Great Western
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  Speaker 1: expedition in eleven o three and brought Man into direct
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  Speaker 1: allegiance to the kings of Norway, Celtic influence must have
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  Speaker 1: been strong in the Norse families themselves. Several of the
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  Speaker 1: kings bear Gaelic names, and it is probably from this
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  Speaker 1: period that such familiar names as mclamont, McAlmont, MacIvor San
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  Speaker 1: McQuistan date where the Gaelic patronymic prefix has been added
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  Speaker 1: to the Norse names lagmather, Ivar and Astain. While Norse
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  Speaker 1: power in Dublin was on the decline as a political force,
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  Speaker 1: it is curious to note that the vigorous town life
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  Speaker 1: and the act of commerce instituted by the Norse settlers
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  Speaker 1: made that city of ever increasing importance as a center
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  Speaker 1: of Irish life and Irish interests generally, and there can
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  Speaker 1: be no question that it was the Norsemen who really
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  Speaker 1: made Dublin the capital city of Ireland. The Norse element
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  Speaker 1: remained absolutely distinct, not only in Dublin, but also in
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  Speaker 1: the other cities in which they had settled, right down
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  Speaker 1: to the time of the English invasion in the twelfth century.
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  Speaker 1: Frequent mention is made of them in the records of
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  Speaker 1: the great towns, and they often both claimed and received
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  Speaker 1: privileges quite different from those accorded to the native Irish
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  Speaker 1: or to the English settlers. They were known to the
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  Speaker 1: latter as Ostmen or Easterlings, a term which in this
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  Speaker 1: connection seems to have ousted the earlier norvagiensis or leis, Norees,
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  Speaker 1: leis Norwechi's. The term Austman doubtless represents old Norse austmather,
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  Speaker 1: a man dwelling to the east. Exactly how or where
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  Speaker 1: it first came to be applied to Norsemen, it is
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  Speaker 1: difficult to say. The word has left its mark in
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  Speaker 1: Oxman's Town earlier Ostmanstown, the district of the city of Dublin,
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  Speaker 1: assigned to the Ostmen by the English invaders. Learning and
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  Speaker 1: religion in Ireland suffered grievously from Norse attack, but not
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  Speaker 1: so sorely as in England. There was never a time when
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  Speaker 1: so dark a picture could have been drawn of Irish learning,
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  Speaker 1: as Alfred gives lives of the state of English learning
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  Speaker 1: when he translated the Pastoral Care, and when once the
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  Speaker 1: Vikings began to form settlements, they were themselves strongly affected
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  Speaker 1: by the wealth of literary and artistic skill with which
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  Speaker 1: they found themselves brought into contact. The question of Irish
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  Speaker 1: influence on Norse mythology and literature is a much vexed one.
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  Speaker 1: At present we are suffering from a reaction against exaggerated
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  Speaker 1: claims made on its behalf some thirty years ago. But
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  Speaker 1: while refusing to accept the view that Norse legends divine
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  Speaker 1: and heroic alike are based on a wholesale refashioning and
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  Speaker 1: recreating of stories from Celtic Sagalore, it would be idle
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  Speaker 1: to deny that the contact between the two nations must
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  Speaker 1: have been fertile of result, and that Norse literature, in form,
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  Speaker 1: style and subject matter alike bears many marks of Gaelic influence.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter ten