Chapter 9
Chapter 9 of History of the Norwegian People, Volume 1 by Knut Gershet. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 9. The Vikings in Ireland and in the Islands The success which the Vikings met with encouraged them to renewed attempts. Year by year their fleets grew larger, and their attacks soon changed from mere piratic forays
to well-organized expeditions aiming at conquest and colonization. The year after the sack of Iona they landed on the west coast of Ireland and destroyed the monastery of Inishmure. From 812 till 814, they appeared far inland in Munster, Ulster, and Connacht, defeating the bands of the Irish kings, and plundering churches and monasteries. Their fleets soon swarmed around all
the coasts of Ireland. In 826, they met the first permanent settlement in the county of Meath, and during the next decade they extended their marauding expeditions almost to the heart of the country. In 836, two fleets, numbering in all about 60 ships, sailed up the rivers Liffey and Boyne. Torgils, or Turgis, the great sea king, was the leader. He became king of all the Norsemen in Ireland, and began a systematic conquest of the country. He built fortified strongholds, both
inland and along the coasts, and founded the city of Dublin, which soon became the center and seat of government of the Norwegian colonies in the island. Limerick, a second Norwegian city, was founded on the Shannon River in the north of Ireland, where Viking colonies were springing up. Turgies evidently aimed at destroying Christianity in Ireland, monasteries were destroyed, and churches were plundered and turned into heathen temples.
For a while it looked as if the Asa faith would triumph over the cross, but in 845 the Viking king fell by chance into the hands of Mylsechlein, High King of Arran, who put him to death. He was long remembered as the founder of the Viking dominion in Ireland. On these westward expeditions the Vikings had discovered the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys,
and the Shetland Islands prior to the year 800. These barren and inhospitable island groups had at the time a few Celtic inhabitants, but the Norsemen took full possession of them and planted settlements there, and the population soon became wholly Norwegian. The Hebrides, too, were settled.
From 820 to 830 the Vikings came in such numbers that the islands were called by Irish analysts Innsgall, i.e. the Islands of the Strangers. The new settlers accepted the Christian faith and culture of the native Celtic population in the Hebrides, but Norwegian customs and mode of life prevailed. The original inhabitants gradually adopted the ways of the conquerors,
and Norwegian social organization became general throughout the islands. End of chapter 9
