Fin Gall (The Norsemen)

by James L. Nelson

  No more. Brega was ruled by a just man now.

  Morrigan thought about Brigit. Flann’s men, Patrick and Donnel, were carrying on with Brigit’s chambermaids, and through them Morrigan heard all about the princess’s morning sickness. The foolish girls attributed it to the suffering Brigit had endured, but Morrigan knew better. She looked out over the rí túaithe, wondering which of them was the father.

  Then another thought struck her. Harald? It did not seem possible. Then again, Harald was a strong and handsome young man. He had stolen her away. Even if she had not given herself willingly he might have taken her by force.

  Could it be? Morrigan looked over at Brigit with renewed interest.

  In the end, of course, it did not matter. In nine months there could be an heir to the throne of Tara, if Brigit gave birth to a boy. Nine months for Flann to establish himself in his protectorate, so that his rule would go on while the heir was still a child.

  And then, when Flann’s rule over Brega was established, firmly established, then out would come the Crown of the Three Kingdoms. Then, Flann mac Conaing, king of Brega, would be king of Leinster, and of Mide as well.

  Then Flann would be too powerful even for the grandson of Máel Sechnaill mac Ruanaid to challenge him, and things in Ireland would be different. Then they would make war on the right people.

  Flann mac Conaing would not be stopped, not if Morrigan had any say in the matter. And she did.

  Historical Note

  Only your kin

  will proudly carve

  a memorial at the main gate.

  Hávamál

  That part of the Irish coast where the city of Dublin now sits has seen human occupation for thousands of years. Prehistoric communities kept dogs, sheep and pigs, built great middens and crafted pottery and jewelry. But there was never anything that might be called a town until the Vikings came.

  The first Norse settlement appeared in the summer of 837, when a fleet of sixty-five ships, manned by Norwegian warriors by way of Scotland and Orkney arrived at the mouth of the Liffey. They found there two small settlements, which possibly contained churches and monasteries, Ireland being by then solidly Christian. One settlement was called Ath Cliath. The other, named after the pond formed where the Poodle River met the Liffey, was called Black Pool, or, in Gaelic, Dubh-Linn.

  The sixty-year history of the original Norse longphort, or ship fort, was as violent and contentious as any in Viking or Irish history.

  Soon after the Norwegians settled Dubh-linn, they were driven out by a force of Danish Vikings, who recognized the importance of the longphort. Then, in 852 another Norwegian fleet under Olaf the White arrived to reclaim the town for Norway. That original settlement remained in Norwegian hands. Interestingly, of all the victims of Viking depredations, the Irish are the only ones who differentiated between Norwegians, whom they called fin gall, or “white strangers” and the Danes, whom they called dubh gall, or “black strangers.”

  Considerable archeological evidence of Viking settlement has been unearthed in the center of modern Dublin, but all of it dates to the beginning of the tenth century, leading historians to surmise that there were in fact two different Viking settlements in the area. The original longphort appears to have been located farther up the Liffey from where the heart of Dublin is now located. In 902, the Norsemen in that settlement were driven out of Dublin by an Irish army, only to return seventeen years later. This second settlement, which lasted around two hundred years, is apparently the one upon which modern Dublin is built.

  The Vikings came first to the coast of Ireland to raid, and they were devastating in that endeavor. But one aspect of Viking culture that would differentiate them from later sea raiders is that after raiding, the Norse came to stay.

  There were a number of factors that led to the Vikings’ territorial aspirations, including a dearth of farmland in Scandinavia and political upheavals there. Whatever the reason, the Irish (as well as the English, who were also suffering Viking incursion) were horrified at the thought of the Norse moving in. As the Native Americans would do with the European colonists 800 years later, the Irish endured the first Norsemen on their shores, and only when it was too late did they realize those settlements were just the beginning.

  Along with insinuating themselves into the Irish landscape, the Vikings inserted themselves into the volatile Irish political scene. Many modern Irishmen claim to be descendants of kings, and that claim is not too unlikely when one considers how many kings Ireland enjoyed. With a complicated structure of over-kings and subordinate kings, the country had generally around 150 kings at any given time between the fifth and twelfth centuries.

  Of these, most were no more than minor lords, while others ruled larger kingdoms such as the historic kingdom of Brega and Leinster. But during the period of Viking invasion, there was no one single ruler of Ireland, and no unified government capable of organizing a real resistance to the Norse incursion.With Irish kings constantly at war with one another, the Vikings represented powerful military allies. One Irish king after another, deciding that the Vikings were not so abhorrent as whomever of their countrymen they were fighting, made treaties of mutual aide with the Norsemen.

  As the Vikings joined in the fighting in Ireland, expanded their settlements and increased their population, they became more and more entrenched. Vikings married Irish women and set up legitimate trade with the Irish, importing many of their skills from Scandinavia. It would be more than two hundred years after the founding of Dubh-Linn before the Irish king Brian Bóru united the country sufficiently to drive the Vikings out for good. But by that time the Norse influence, from crafts to language to blood, was so well established that it would never be eradicated from the Island, and, indeed, still exists today.

  Most of the place names that appear in this book will be familiar to anyone who is acquainted with modern-day Ireland, as the names have not changed. One name which might not be familier is Brega. In medieval Ireland, the territory of Brega (which means “the heights”) constituted the modern county Meath along with some portions of Louth and north Dublin.

  The Crown of the Three Kingdoms is fictitious. But if such a thing had existed, there certainly would have been as much intrigue and violence surrounding it as is portrayed in the book. It is how things were done in medieval Ireland.

  Glossary

  Asgard - the dwelling place of the Norse gods and goddesses, essentially the Norse heaven.

  berserkir - a Viking warrior able to work himself up into a frenzy of blood-lust before a battle. The berserkirs, near psychopathic killers in battle, were the fiercest of the Viking soldiers. The word berserkir comes from the Norse for “bear shirt” and is the origin of the modern English “berserk”.

  Bifrost bridge - In Norse mythology, the bridge that spanned the skies to the entrance of Asgard.

  boss - the round, iron centerpiece of a wooden shield. The boss formed an iron cup protruding from the front of the shield, providing a hollow in the back across which ran the handgrip.

  brace - line used for hauling a yard side to side on a horizontal plane. Used to adjust the angle of the sail to the wind.

  bride-price - money paid by the family of the groom to the family of the bride.

  byrdingr - A smaller ocean-going cargo vessel used by the Norsemen for trade and transportation. Generally about 40 feet in length, the byrdingr was a smaller version of the better-known knarr.

  curragh - a boat, unique to Ireland, made of a wood frame covered in hide. They ranged in size, the largest propelled by sail and capable of carrying several tons. The most common sea-going craft of medieval Ireland.

  Danegeld - money paid by English royalty to Viking raiders in exchange for the Vikings’ leaving an area unmolested. Danegeld means literally “Danish money” and comes from the English habit of calling all Vikings “Danes” regardless of where they came from.

  dragon ship - the largest of the Viking warships, upwards of 160 feet long and able t
o carry as many as 300 men. Dragon ships were the flagships of the fleet, the ships of kings.

  dubh gall - Gaelic term for Vikings of Danish descent. It means Black Strangers, a reference to the mail armor they wore, made dark by the oil used to preserve it. See fin gall.

  earldorman - one of the highest ranks of nobleman in pre-Conquest England.

  fin gall - Gaelic term for Vikings of Norwegian descent. It means White Strangers. See dubh gall.

  Freya - Norse goddess of beauty and love, she was also associated with warriors, as many of the Norse gods were. Freya often led the Valkyrie to the battlefield.

  fyrd - In pre-Conquest England, the military host of the whole country, the army of one of the four kingdoms that made up England.

  halyard - a line by which a sail or a yard is raised.

  Hel - the underworld in Norse mythology, the Norse hell.

  hird - an elite corps of Viking warriors hired and maintained by a king or powerful jarl. Unlike most Viking warrior groups, which would assemble and disperse at will, the hird was retained as a semi-permanent force which formed the core of a Viking army.

  hirdsman - a warrior who is a member of the hird.

  housecarl - member of the elite bodyguard of a Danish or English king or nobleman, not unlike the Norse hird. The term dates from the latter part of the Old English period.

  jarl - title given to a man of high rank. A jarl might be an independent ruler or subordinate to a king. Jarl is the origin of the English word earl.

  knarr - a Norse merchant vessel. Smaller, wider and more sturdy than the longship, knarrs were the workhorse of Norse trade, carrying cargo and settlers wherever the Norsemen traveled.

  levies - conscripted soldiers of 9th century warfare.

  Loki - Norse god of fire and free spirits. Loki was mischievous and his tricks caused great trouble for the gods, for which he was punished.

  longphort - literally, a ship fortress. A small, fortified port to protect shipping and serve as a center of commerce and a launching off point for raiding.

  Northumbria - the northernmost of the four kingdoms that comprised England in the mid-ninth century. To the south and east of Northumbria was East Anglia, to the west, Mercia, and south of the Thames River was the kingdom of Wessex.

  Odin - foremost of the Norse gods. Odin was the god of wisdom and war, protector of both chieftains and poets.

  perch - a unit of measure equal to 16½ feet. The same as a rod.

  port reeve - see reeve

  Ragnarok - the mythical final battle when most humans and gods would be killed by the forces of evil and the earth destroyed, only to rise again, purified.

  ringfort - common Irish homestead, consisting of houses protected by circular earthwork and palisade walls.

  reeve - tax collector and general manager of a district, answerable to the nobleman, bishop or king in overall authority. The port reeve was responsible for duties on merchant ships arriving in port. The shire reeve of the tenth-century became the modern English sheriff.

  shieldwall - a defensive wall formed by soldiers standing in line with shields overlapping.

  skald - a Viking-era poet, generally one attached to a royal court. The skalds wrote a very stylized type of verse particular to the medieval Scandinavians. Poetry was an important part of Viking culture and the ability to write it a highly regarded skill.

  sling - the center portion of the yard.

  swine array - a viking battle formation consisting of a wedge-shaped arrangement of men used to attack a shield wall or other defensive position.

  thing - a communal assembly

  Thor - Norse god of storms and wind, but also the protector of humans and the other gods. Thor’s chosen weapon was a hammer. Hammer amulets were popular with Norsemen in the same way that crosses are popular with Christians.

  thrall - Norse term for a slave. Origin of the English word “enthrall”.

  thwart - a rower’s seat in a boat. From the old Norse term meaning “across”.

  Valhalla - a great hall in Asgard where slain warriors would go to feast, drink and fight until the coming of Ragnarok.

  Valkyries - female spirits of Norse mythology who gathered the spirits of the dead from the battlefield and escorted them to Valhalla. They were the Choosers of the Slain, and though later romantically portrayed as Odin’s warrior handmaidens, they were originally viewed more demonically, as spirits who devoured the corpses of the dead.

  Vik - An area of Norway south of modern-day Oslo. The name is possibly the origin of the term Viking.

  wattle and daub - common medieval technique for building walls. Small sticks were woven through larger uprights to form the wattle, and the structure was plastered with mud or plaster, the daub.

  wicing - old Anglo-Saxon term for a sea raider, later used exclusively to refer to Scandinavian raiders. Another possible origin for the word Viking.

  yard - a long, tapered timber from which a sail was suspended. When a Viking ship was not under sail, the yard was turned lengthwise and lowered to near the deck with the sail lashed to it.