The Northmen (Notes)

[1] It is uncertain whether this was the island of that name, near Skerries, Co. Dublin, or a place now called Holm-Peel in the Isle of Man. Probably it was the former.

[2] The Saga of Egil Skalligrimson. It describes conditions in the middle of the tenth century.

[3] The Sudreyer, or Sudreys, were the Southern Hebrides. Later the word was corrupted into Sodor, which is now used in the title of the Bishops of Sodor and Man.

[4] MacFirbis, Three Fragments of Annals, ed. J. O’Donovan (1860), pp. 127, 129, 139. These Gall-Gael are not to be confused with the mixed Norse-Gaelic population of the same name in Galloway, though they sometimes fought in alliance with them; see Annals of the Four Masters, 1154.

[5] Book of Rights, ed. J. O’Donovan (1847), p. xxxvi.

[6] He may have been Ivar Beinlaus, son of Ragnar Lodbrok.

[7] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 937.

[8] Cormac’s Chapel was built in 1127 by King Cormac MacCarthy.

[9] MacFirbis, op. cit., p. 215. The Psalter of Cashel was continued by King Brian, who brought it up to date. The Book of Rights is believed to be a portion of this book.

[10] MacFirbis, op. cit., pp. 209, 213. O’Donovan tells us that the stone on which King Cormac’s head was cut off is still shown on the site of the battle two and a half miles north of Carlow.

[11] Giraldus Cambrensis, Conquest of Ireland, ch. iii.

[12] Vigfusson and F. York Powell, Corpus Poeticum Boreale (1883), ii, 343. Marstein was the Melbric of Saxo.

[13] Alexander Bugge, Caithreim Callachan Caisil, p. 70.

[14] Wars of the Gael with the Gall, ed. J. H. Todd, p. 39.

[15] Caithreim Callachan Caisil, pp. 61, 65.

[16] Ibid., p. 64.

[17] Book of Rights, ed. J. O’Donovan (1847), pp. 51, 207.

[18] The courtesies of Murtogh to his captives remind us of the later chivalries of the Black Prince. For the poem of Cormacan, Murtogh’s bard (ed. J. O’Donovan), see Tracts relating to Ireland, (Irish Archæological Society 1841), vol. 1.

[19] This may have been the Sitric taken prisoner by Murtogh. He is otherwise unknown.

[20] Keating, History, iii, 175-177; Wars of the Gael with the Gall, pp. 49-51.

[21] It is curious to find a Danish prince calling himself the gilla, or servant, of Patrick.

[22] Wars of the Gael with the Gall, pp. 77-83.

[23] O’Curry, Manuscript Materials, pp. 76-79, 529-531; the original of this inscription is given, ibid., pp. 653-654 (1861). The Book of Armagh is now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

[24] His title had nothing to do with the special tribute out of Leinster known by the same name. For the fort of Boromha and Brian’s name see Wars of the Gael with the Gall, p. 141; Ériu, vol. iv, Part I, pp. 68-73. The name Brian in this form is Breton, and only became common in Ireland after this date.

[25] The same legend is told of the reign of King Edwin of Northumbria, in Bede, Eccle. Hist., Bk. II, ch. xvi; and see Annals of the Four Masters, 1167.