In addition to all this we have the Manx legal system as a standing witness to Norse influence. The chief executive and legislative authority in the island (after the Governor) is the Tynwald Court. That court takes its name from the Old Norse _Þing-völlr_[13], the plain where the _Þing_[14] or popular assembly meets, and the House of Keys, which is the oldest division of the court, consisted originally of 24 members, a number perhaps due to Scandinavian influence, being a combination of two groups of 12 lawmen (_v. supra_, p. 103). These men who have the 'keys of the law' in their bosom closely resemble the 'lawmen' or speakers of the Icelandic assembly. All laws to be valid must be promulgated from the Tynwald Hill which corresponds to the _lögberg_ or law-hill of the Icelandic _althing_. When the court is held the coroner 'fences' it against all disturbance or disorder, just as in the old Norwegian Gulathing we hear of _vé-bönd_ or sanctuary-ropes drawn around the assembly. It was possibly from Man that a good number of the Norse settlers in Cumberland, Westmorland and North Lancashire came (_v. infra_, pp. 126-7), and others may have settled in Galloway. FOOTNOTES: [13] This word survives in another form in more than one Thingwall among place-names. [14] The word is familiar to us in the form -_ting_ in _hus-ting_, house assembly (originally _hús-Þing_), a council held by a king or earl and attended by his immediate followers, in contrast to the ordinary _Þing_ or general assembly of the people. CHAPTER X SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN IRELAND At the time of the Viking invasion of Ireland the various provincial kingdoms were held in loose confederation under the authority of the _ardrí_ or high king, but these kingdoms stood in constantly shifting relations of friendship and hostility towards one another, and were themselves often split into factions under rival chieftains. There was no national army like the English _fyrd_. Rather it consisted of a number of tribes, each commanded by its own chief, and though the chief owed allegiance to the king, the bond was a frail one. The tribe was further divided into _septs_ and the army was utterly lacking in any cohesive principle. It is no wonder that for many years the Irish showed themselves quite unable to cope with the attacks of forces so well organised as those of the Norse and Danish Vikings.