Scandinavian Relations with Ireland During the Viking PeriodWalsh, A.
History
Scandinavian Relations with Ireland During the Viking Period
Walsh, A.
Ireland -- History -- To 1603; Northmen; Scandinavia -- History
In the tenth and eleventh centuries Waterford was strongly fortified,
and, like Limerick, had gates leading into the town.[112] The town
itself was built in the form of a triangle with a tower at each
angle,[113] only one of which, the famous Reginald’s Tower, built in
1003, is still standing. Gualtier (? Ir. _Gall tír_, ‘land of the
foreigners’), a barony lying on the west side of the harbour, is
supposed to have been connected with the ‘Ostmen,’ who were obliged to
settle there after the arrival of the English in 1169.
Cork, the seat of a famous school founded by St. Finbar, fell an easy
prey to the Vikings in the first half of the ninth century. They built
forts there and at Youghal,[114] but in endeavouring to push their way
inland to Fermoy were checked by the Irish (866), and their chief,
Gnimcinnsiolla (or Gnimbeolu)[115] was slain. We hear no more of
Scandinavians here until early in the tenth century when new invaders,
part of the large army which came to Waterford with Raghnall and
Earl Ottarr in 919, gained possession of the town. The new settlers
seem to have been chiefly, if not entirely, Danes (_Danair_ and
_Duibhgeinnti_),[116] and it would seem that with the Danish colonies
at Thurles and Cashel they subsequently came under the authority of
Ivarr of Limerick, “the high-king of the foreigners of Munster.”
Traces of the Scandinavian occupation still remain in the place-names
on the coast, especially in the districts surrounding the seaport
towns. Near Dublin we find Howth (O.N. _höfuth_, ‘a head’) and Skerries
(O.N. _skjær_, ‘a rock’); also Lambey, Dalkey and Ireland’s Eye, all
three containing the O.N. form _ey_, an ‘island.’ The name Leixlip is
probably a form of O.N. _laxhleypa_[117] (‘salmon-leap’) not, as is
generally supposed, of O.N. _lax-hlaup_. The O.N. _fjörthr_ occurs in
Wexford, Strangford and Carlingford (O.N. Kerlingafjörthr).[118] Other
Scandinavian names on the east coast are Copeland Islands (_i.e._,
_Kaupmannaeyjar_, ‘the merchants’ islands’) near Belfast Lough; Arklow,
Wicklow (O.N. _lo_, a low, flat meadow by the water’s edge.); Carnsore
and Greenore (O.N. _eyrr_, ‘a small tongue of land running into the
sea’).
The number of names on the south and west coasts is limited; besides
Water_ford_, we find only Hel_vick_ (O.N. _vík_, ‘a bay’), Dursey
Island, south-west of Cork, and Swerwick Harbour, in Kerry. At least
three well-authenticated place-names have dropped out of use; Dún na
Trapcharla, in Co. Limerick (O.N. (1) _torf-karl_, ‘a turf-cutter’ or
(2) _thorp-karl_, a ‘small farmer’);[119] Jolduhlaup,[120] a cape in
the north of Ireland; and Ulfreksfjörthr,[121] the Norse name for Lough
Larne.
It is also interesting to note that the second element in the names of
the three provinces, Ulster, Leinster and Munster is derived from the
O.N. _stathir_ (plural of _stathr_, ‘a place’), while the name Ireland
(O.N. Iraland) is Scandinavian in form and replaced the old Irish word
Eríu during the Viking period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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