An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and IrelandWorsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen
History
An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland
Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen
Great Britain -- Civilization -- Scandinavian influences; Northmen -- Great Britain; Northmen -- Ireland
Places in Ireland mentioned in the Sagas, but which formerly could not
be traced, have recently been pointed out by the aid of the Irish
records. The “Kongespeil” states, for instance, that Saint Diermitius
had a church on a small island, “Misdredan” or “Inisdredan,” in the lake
“Logherne.” This island is evidently “Inisdreckan” in Lough Erne, where
formerly St. Diermitius actually had a church. Subsequent transcribers
of the book have clearly enough transformed Inisdreckan into Inisdredan,
Misdredan, &c. The same has been the case with the celebrated King Brian
Boroimha’s castle, which, by a mistake in copying, is called in the
Sagas “Kanntaraborg” or “Kunjáttaborg,” instead of “Kanncaraborg.” Brian
Boroimha’s castle, so celebrated in the Irish songs and legends, was
called in Irish “Ceann-Caraidh” (pronounced Cancara), and was situated
on the river Shannon, not far from Limerick. To the Irish Cancara the
Norwegians, therefore, only added the Scandinavian termination “borg.”
Again, it is stated in the Sagas that one could sail from Reykjanæs in
Iceland to “Jöllduhlaup” in Ireland, in about eight days, or, according
to some readings, even in a much shorter time. Formerly this place was
sought on Lough Swilley, near Cape Malin, in the north of Ireland. But
Jöllduhlaup, which signifies “the course or breaking of the waves,” is
merely a translation into Icelandic of the Gaelic name “Corrybracan”
(Coire Breacain), whereby the Gaels denote a whirlpool between the
little island of Rathlin (or Raghrin) and the north-easternmost part of
Ireland (the county of Antrim). That the ancient Icelanders designated
this precise spot in Ireland is owing in all probability to the
circumstance that the island of Rathlin was in the olden times the chief
station in the passage from Ireland to Scotland, and as such the
rendezvous for a number of merchants and other travellers. Lastly,
Snorre Sturlesön relates that in the beginning of the eleventh century a
desperate naval battle was fought between the Orkney jarl Einar and the
Irish king “Konofögr,” in Ulfrek’s, or Ulfkel’s, Fiord, on the coast of
Ireland. The situation of this fiord, or firth, was entirely unknown
until it was lately discovered that in a document issued by the
English-Irish king John in the year 1210, the Firth Lough Larne, on the
east coast of Ireland, about fourteen miles north of Belfast, was at
that time still called “Wulvricheforð,” which agrees most accurately
with the Icelandic name “Ulfreksfjörðr.” By a remarkable coincidence, a
skeleton was dug up a little while previously just on the shores of
Lough Larne, together with a pretty large iron sword, having a short
guard and a large triangular pommel at the end of the hilt; the form of
which sword (as I shall prove) was not Irish, but pure Scandinavian,
like that of the swords used towards the close of heathenism in the
North. There is every probability that the skeleton and sword belong to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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