3. the Movement South and South-T7est to 9542 the British Isles
Tbe Mopemcnt Soatb and Soath-Wett t0 954 zos which, helped by a civil war instigated by the priest-king of Mun- srer, he spread his elbows to good effect throughout Ulster. By the capture of Armagh, at once a chief town of the north, the most important ecclesiastical centre oflreland, and one ofthe holy places ofwestern Christendom, he acquired wealth, power, reputation, and his place in Irish tradition. To him and his kind is attributed the esta^blishment of harbour-strongholds at Anagassan, Dublin, Wex- ford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, with important consequences 3. The Movement South and South-T7est for the subsequent history of both Norse and Irish Ireland. He is to 9542 the British Isles, the Frankish Empire, the Mediterranean .r Io ror,r-ow rN DETATL THE vrKrNG oNSLAUGHT oN Europe whether nation b1' nationr decade, ninth-century r -decade.by or under thl fou.^ generally accepted heads of individual raids for plunder, expeditlons ol political significance and intention, colonial venture; seeking new land for settlement, and enterprises whose main concern was mercantile and commercial, would be a bis task-and in terms of this book a distorting one' It must be en"ough to trace it in general though one hopes indicative outline' We biein with Ireland in the 83os. thJ Irish coast had suffered sporadically from Norwegian plunderers ever since the first raid on Lambeyin Tg5rand sometimes ihe raiders had penetrated far inland. These were painful depreda- tionsrl but bearable, and left the character of country.and-people unchaneed. But nothing could ever be the same again after the arrival6f the famous Tuigeis from Norway shortly before 84o' Our knowledge of him, unfortinately, is at once inflated and diminished bv the leEendary material associated wjth him several hundred years aiter his"death, when he had become a favourite receptacle for Christian.indignation and alarm.
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