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east-coast kingdoms. Though the U Nill kings routed them at first, they were soon
defeated in a countless slaughter . The Vikings now began to appear regularly on the
inland waterways the Shannon, Lough Derg, the Erne, the Boyne, Lough Neagh and
the Bann. They overwintered on Lough Neagh for the first time in 840 41. They now
began to build longphoirt, fortresses that protected them and their ships, and some of
these became permanent. There was one at Linn Dachaill (Annagassan, Co Louth) by
841 and another at Duiblinn (on the Liffey at or near Dublin). From Annagassan they
raided deep into the midlands, from Dublin they attacked Leinster and U Nill. They
first overwintered in Dublin in 841 42.
These large-scale raids marked the beginning of the occupation of the Irish east mid-
lands and were mounted from Scandinavian Scotland, apparently by aristocratic
freebooters and adventurers, some of whom are named in the Irish annals. This may be
a re-run of what one infers happened in Scotland a generation earlier. First, small
exploratory raids, then heavy plundering and slaving to break the resistance of the
population, and finally occupation and colonisation. However, sometime before the
mid-ninth century, a kingship of Viking Scotland had come into being and, as we have
seen, that kingdom began to exercise authority over the Vikings and their settlements
in Ireland, though not of course over all, for the annals continue to report the activities
125. Oswald Holder-Egger (ed), Vita Findani , MGH SS 15 (1887) 502 06; Rheidar T. Chris-
tiansen, The people of the north , Lochlann 2 (1962) 137 64; C. Omand, The Life of Fintan
translated from the Latin , R. Berry & H. Firth (ed), The peoples of Orkney (Kirkwall 1986) 284
87.
Vikings in Ireland & Scotland 29
of freewheeling adventurers. And this brings us back to Amlab and mar, who took
control of the kingdom of Dublin, certainly from 853.
Some time in the 850s or early 860s the dynasty moved its main operations to
Dublin. We find Amlab, mar and their brother Auisle extremely active in Ireland and
engaging in significant warfare and politics with the major Irish kings.126 Only two
aspect of their activities will be considered here: their dealings with the Gall-Godil
Viking-Irish and their impact on monastic raiding.
The Gall-Godil, make their appearance in the Irish annals in the period 856 58, and
then disappear from the record just as suddenly. It is likely that they originated in
Viking Scotland, and were war bands aristocratically led by men of mixed Scottish
and Viking descent, operating independently of the dynasty and adventuring on their
own account in Ireland. By the middle of the ninth century, a generation (and perhaps
a second generation) of such aristocrats would have come to military age in Scotland,
but this cannot have happened in Ireland where settlement took place much later. The
interpolator of Fragmentary annals is particularly interested in them, and his preoc-
cupations and his opinions have been ill-advisedly shared by some modern
historians.127 The interpolator is extremely hostile to them:
& Scuit ad, 7 daltai do Normainnoibh ad, 7 tan ann adbearar cid Normain-
nigh fri. Maidhidh forra r nd-Aodh, 7 cuirthear a ndeargr na nGall-
Ghaoidheal, 7 cinn imdha do bhreith do Aodh leis; ra dhlighsiot na hEirean-
naigh an marbhadh soin, uair amhail do-nidis na Lochlannaig, do-nidis-siomh
& they are Gaels and foster-children of the Vikings, and sometimes they are
even called Vikings. Aed defeated them and slaughtered the Gall-Godil, and Aed
brought many heads away with him; and the Irish were entitled to do that killing
for as the Vikings did, so also did they [the Gall-Godil] .128
Elsewhere, in an addition to the account of the expedition of Mael Sechnaill, king of
Tara, to Munster in 858, he accuses them of being apostates and of being much more
hostile to the church than the Vikings themselves:
126. For the details see Donnchadh Corrin, High-kings, Vikings and other kings , Ir Hist
Stud 21 (1979) 283-323: 306 14; Bart Jaski, The Vikings and the kingship of Tara , Peritia 9
(1995) 310 51: 316 21.
127. Kathleen Hughes, The church in early Irish society (London 1966) 205; Smyth,
Scandinavian kings, 114 17, 123 26; id. Warlords, 156 57. Marstrander (Bidrag, 6 7) and Dr
Barbara E. Crawford (Scandinavian Scotland (Leicester 1987) 47) are rightly sceptical about the
interpolator s opinions which were evidently not shared by the Irish kings if we may judge from
the contemporary annals.
128. FA 856 (247).
30 Corrin
Gen go ttosadh Maol Seachlainn an turus so do ghabhil rghe Mumhan do
fn, ro bo thuidheachta do mharbadh an ro marbadh do Ghall-Ghaoidhealaibh
ann, air daone ar ttregadh a mbaiste iad-saidhe, 7 ad-bertais Normannaigh
fri, uair bs Normannach aca, 7 a n-altrum forra, 7 ger bó olc na Norman-
naigh bunaidh dona h-eaglaisibh, b measa go mór iad-saidhe, .i. an lucht sa,
gach conair fo Eirinn a mbids Although Mael Sechnaill did not make this
expedition to take the kingship of Munster for himself, it was worth coming to
kill what he killed of Gall-Godil there, for these were people who had forsaken
their baptism, and they were called Vikings because they behaved like Vikings
and they had been fostered by them; and though the real Vikings were evil
towards the churches, these were much worse wherever they were in Ireland .129
None of this moralising occurs in the uninterpolated annals. Here the Gall-Godil first
appear as the allies of Mael Sechnaill, king of Tara, against the Vikings, evidently
those led by mar and Amlab, kings of Dublin: Cocadh mor etir gennti 7 Mael
Sechlainn co nGall-Goidhelaibh lais Great warfare between the Vikings and Mael
Sechnaill, who was supported by the Gall-Godil .130 In the same year, they were in
the north, where Aed Finnliath mac Nill, king of Ailech, heavily defeated them far
inland at Glenn Foichle (Glenelly, in the barony of Upper Strabane, co Tyrone).131
They may have come from Lough Neagh and the Bann. In 857, a leader of theirs,
Caitill Find (whose name is appropriately partly Old Norse, partly Old Irish), is men-
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