Vikings' Settlements in Ireland Before 10141 Clare Downham Perhaps The

Vikings’ settlements in Ireland before 10141

Clare Downham

Perhaps the most enduring contribution which Vikings made to Ireland was through their foundation of major coastal towns, most notably those at Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford. However, Vikings also established many smaller settlements which have generally received less attention. In this paper I comment on a range of Viking-influenced settlement, including raiding bases, towns, coastal stations, and rural sites. A broad definition of the word ‘Viking’ has been used to refer to people with Scandinavian cultural affiliations active outside Scandinavia.2 This avoids the seman- tic difficulties posed by ethnic labels: for example, at what point should a Scandinavian settler in Ireland be called Hiberno-Scandinavian? What of Irish people who came to dwell in Scandinavian colonies, whose children may have borne Norse names and adopted Scandinavian cultural traits? The difficulties of being over-specific with ethnic terminology has been emphasised in recent studies, where the argument has been made that ethnic identities are subjectively, rather than objectively, created or assigned.3 Such ambiguities carry over into the interpretation of material culture in Ireland. The first records of Viking-attacks on Ireland relate to the 790s. Pádraig Ó Riain has suggested that the earliest form of Viking-settlement consisted of ships remaining at anchor near a shore or riverbank during a raid.4 The carrying of booty to Viking-ships is recorded in early Irish accounts of the

1 The content of this paper is drawn from the second chapter of my 2003 doctoral dis- sertation. The text was updated for the conference in 2005. I would like to thank David Dumville for his comments and corrections. In this paper I have used Old Norse forms for Scandinavian names and Medieval Irish forms for Irish personal and population-group names. However place-names are given in their modern English form wherever possible. 2 Christine E. Fell, “Modern English Viking”, Leeds Studies in English, n. s., 18 (1987): 111–22; Jesse Byock, Viking Age Iceland (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001), 11–3; Ailbhe Mac Shamhráin, The Vikings: An Illustrated History (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 2002), 9. 3 Dawn Hadley, “Viking and Native: re-Thinking Identity in the Danelaw”, Early Medieval Europe 11 (2002): 46. 4 Ó Riain, “Saint Patrick in Munster”, lecture delivered to the Cambridge Group for Irish Studies, 6 March 2001, also cited by David N. Dumville, “Old Dubliners and New Dubliners in Ireland and Britain: A Viking-Age story”, Medieval Dublin 6 (2004): 83, n. 24. 2 clare downham

Vikings and recent discoveries in Dublin may support his theory. Linzi Simpson has uncovered five furnished warrior-graves around the site of the dub linn or ‘dark pool’ from which the city derives its name. Four of the five burials have carbon-14 intercept-dates of c. AD 800.5 The burials suggest that an early group of raiders stayed long enough to bury their dead in customary fashion. No women or children are attested at the site at this early stage. The earliest non-violent contact recorded between Vikings and Gaels was of an economic nature. This seems to have included the payment of tribute as ‘protection money’ and the ransoming of captives.6 During the 830s a few high-profile Irishmen were captured and then killed ‘at the ships’ of the Vikings, presumably because ransoms had not been agreed.7 Irish chroniclers seem shy of recording successful negotiations; neverthe- less, these can be inferred. Political figures, including Mael Dúin, king of Calatruim (Galtrim, Co. Meath), and Forannán, bishop of Armagh, were seized by Vikings in the 840s but re-appear later in the chronicle-record.8 ‘The Life of St Findán of Rheinau’ provides an insight into early con- tacts between Vikings and Gaels. Findán grew up in Leinster before travel- ling overseas and his Life seems to have been composed by an Irishman

5 Linzi Simpson, “Viking Warrior Burials in Dublin: is this the longphort?”, Medieval Dublin 6 (2004): 11–62. 6 In 798 a tribute of cattle was exacted by raiders at Holmpatrick: Annals of Clonmacnoise s. a. 795 [=798] (The Annals of Clonmacnoise, being Annals of Ireland from the Earliest Times to A.D. 1408, ed. Denis Murphy (Dublin: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1896), 128); Annals of the Four Masters, s. a. 793[=798] (Annala Rioghachta Eireann: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Times to the Year 1616, ed. and trans. John O’Donovan, 2nd ed., 7 vols (Dublin: Hodges, Smith, 1856), I, 396–7); Clare Downham, “The Historical Importance of Viking-Age Waterford”, Journal of Celtic Studies 4 (2004): 75. 7 Annals of the Four Masters, s. a. 829 [=831]; 832 [=833]; 836 [=837] (O’Donovan, I, 444–45); Annals of Ulster, s. a. 830 [=831].6; 832 [=833].12 (The Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131), ed. and trans. Séan Mac Airt and Gearóid Mac Niocaill (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983), I, 286–91); Chronicum Scotorum, s. a. [831] (Chronicum Scotorum: A Chronicle of Irish Affairs, from the Earliest Times to A.D. 1135, with a Supplement con- taining the Events from A.D. 1114 to A.D. 1150, ed. and trans. William M. Hennessy, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores 46 (London: Longman, Green, 1866), 138–9). This practice continued throughout the Viking Age. For a later example see Annals of the Four Masters, s. a. 937 [=939] (O’Donovan, II, 636–7); Annals of Ulster, s. a. 938 [=939].3 (Mac Airt and Mac Niocaill, 386–7); Chronicum Scotorum, s. a. 938 [=939] (202–3). 8 Annals of Ulster, s. a. 841 [=842].5, 845 [=846].4, and 844 [=845].1, 845 [=846].9 (Mac Airt and Mac Niocaill, 300–05); Edmund I. Hogan, Onomasticon Goedelicum Locorum et Tribuum Hiberniae et Scotiae (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1910), 151. Forannán’s event- ful career can be traced in “The Annals of Ulster”: he was captured by Feidlimid mac Crimthainn, over-king of Munster, in 836, then exiled and captured by Vikings in 845. He died in 852.