Lesson 24a – Vikings in Ireland, Part 1: “Tribal, Rural, Hierarchal, and Familiar.”
IRELAND WAS A RATHER UNIQUE PART of the medieval world. Interestingly enough, however, the Irish world was much more like the ‘Viking’ world than many others were at this time, particularly in their political situation and the power of kinship in medieval Irish society. Thus, this lesson will delve into the background of Irish society prior to the arrival of the Vikings. Such an endeavor will make upcoming discussions about their interactions much more clear and profitable.
CONTENTS: I. Medieval Irish Geography and Society II. The Irish Church: A Golden Age
I. MEDIEVAL IRISH GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIETY:
LIKE MEDIEVAL SCANDINAVIA, Ireland was a politically fractured region. It was split into four provinces (Ulster, Leinster, Connacht, and Munster), each ruled by various clans connected through a complex kinship-based network. The complexity of the map below should give a glimpse into the political landscape that existed in Ireland at this time.(1)
Even though there were four ‘official’ provinces, there was, in reality, far more division that that. Interestingly enough, these provinces as a whole were referred to as Cóiceda, or ‘pentarchy’.(2) In other words, these four provinces were each called Cóiced, or a ‘fifth’.(3) This is because, in Irish mythology, there was a fifth province, or kingdom, called Mide, or ‘middle’.(4) Interestingly enough, however, there was no actual Mide, despite the concept being so prevalent.
Irish society has been popularly, and accurately, described as “tribal, rural, hierarchical, and familiar.”(5) In other words, Ireland was divided into kin-based groups (tribal and rural), there were many different levels of ‘king’ (hierarchical), and, because kinship was so prevalent, the system was not like that of England, for example (familiar in the sense of native).
Therefore, as stated previously, these provinces were not unified under centralized leadership. The political landscape was dominated by various clans, called túatha.(6) These túatha were formed by fine, or kin,(7) and were then ruled over by a certain king. Yet, kinship itself varied greatly. There were four different types of ‘kings’, all varying in their degree of overlordship:
rí túaithe (a petty king, ruling over only one túath)
ruirí (a king over his own túath, but also over others)
rí ruirech (a provincial king, ruling over all túatha in a given cóiced)
ardrí (‘High king’, king of all kings)(8)
Since this is not a lesson on Irish history, it is important to note why such information is pertinent to a discussion about the Vikings coming to Ireland. The Norse world was also heavily based on kinship. It was also a very fractured political landscape, in which families fought for control over regions and resources. Thus, when the Vikings came to the Irish, the Irish were met with a familiar situation. Unlike the other victims of Viking raids, the Irish were better suited to handle their incursions, being aquatinted with the fractured politics that the Vikings themselves had come from. This will clear up more as we move forward, since looking back from a later point will provide us a clearer lens to look through.
II. THE IRISH CHURCH: A GOLDEN AGE:
MANY SCHOLARS ONCE CLAIMED that the Viking raids on Ireland devastated a golden era for Ireland.(9) This is perhaps true, but definitely not inclusive of the overall impact the Norsemen actually had on Ireland as a whole. Yet, saving debates for later, the Irish Church was indeed an impressive entity prior to the coming of the Vikings. Below is an example of the beautiful products of this age, the Book of Kells:
The Irish Church was insular, but international recognized. It was wealthy, involved with the political energy in the air, and tied up within powerful families and their dynasties – just like medieval Iceland, mind you (except Iceland was definitely not wealthy). Yet, there is a key point here. The Church was actively, no passively, tied up in political affairs. That being said, the lines between the Church and secular affairs were very faint.
“Monks and laymen were not cut off from each other. Monastic education was not reserved exclusively for those who were to enter religion but was also given to the sons of church tenants and to some laymen who in adult life would farm and raise families.”(10)
With a Church so mixed with secular affairs, it is to little surprise, then, that the Church would be involved in the tumultuous battles for dominance between túatha. In fact, many of the people who originally formed churches in Ireland were men of the nobility – those who fought for control over resources.(11) Again, this is important for a discussion about the Vikings because this Church of Ireland was already accustomed to violence.
Feidlimid mac Crimthainn, for example, was an Irish king who caused terror similar to that of the Vikings. The Annals of Ulster record his actions in the year of 833 CE, saying this in the seventh entry for that year:
“Feidlimid, king of Caisel, put to death members of the community of Cluain Moccu Nóis (Clonmacnoise) and burned their church-lands to the very door of their church. The community of Dairmag were treated likewise—to the very door of their church”(12)
Not only was he king, but also a bishop and abbot. Feidlimid was promoting a new reformist movement in the Irish church, “the Célí Dé, [which was] an ascetic group which emphasized prayer, physical works, strict observance of Sundays and feast days, and distrust of women.”(13) This event in the annals was of his punishment towards the community of Clonmacnoise for their refusal to adopt the reformist ways that he was advocating. This fascinating Irishmen is best described by F.
J. Byrn:
“In Feidlimid mac Crimthainn we meet one of the most enigmatic figures in Irish history. King and ecclesiastic, overlord of Leth Moga
and aspirant to the high-kingship of Ireland, a pious ruler who solemnly proclaimed the Law of Patrick in Munster and who is
gratefully remembered in the Vita Tripartita, a friend of the Celi De
ascetics, even a member of their order and regarded later as a saint,
a renowned warrior. At a most critical era in Irish history, when devastating Viking raids were succeeded by permanent base-camps and settlements, Feidlimid never once devoted his arms to attacking
these heathen foreigners but distinguished his martial career by
burning and plundering some of the greatest of Irish monasteries.”(14)
CONCLUSION:
IT IS ACTUALLY VERY IMPORTANT to understand the native settings before being able to study the impact of the Vikings and their raids on a particular ‘nation’. Ireland was a unique place, yet in many of the same ways that made medieval Scandinavia a unique place. Even though Ireland was a Christianized land with a brilliant Church, it was deeply intertwined with secular affairs. Irish kings could often be both secular and ecclesiastic. The Church that was attacked by the Vikings was the same Church that was at the center of secular conflict; it was not estranged to violence. Ireland was certainly an interesting place for the Vikings to land.
Next Week: Lesson 24b – Vikings in Ireland, Part 2: Arrival and Initial Impact.
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ENDNOTES: 1. The map actually shows some towns that were settled by Vikings, such as Dublin (which was actually known as Áth Clíath). It is not the most accurate map, but it does well in showing the diversity of Ireland from around the year 900 CE. Fig 1. Erakis, Map of Ireland, circa 900, with Overkingdoms and Principal (Viking) Towns Indicated, 2010. Retrieved from Wikipedia Commons. 2.eDIL, an internet-based Dictionary of the Irish Language. 3. Ibid., singular form of Cóiceda. They are actually still referred to as fifths even today (modern Irish cúige). 4.eDIL. In early Irish mythology, this kingdom was inhabited by the Túatha Dé Danand (the People of the Goddess Danu). These were the Irish gods of old, who once invaded Ireland and settled it. Yet, they were eventually chased into another world, called Síde, by the Sons of Míl (humans from Spain, who then become the ‘Irish’). These tales come from the Lebor Gabála. See Jeffery Gantz, Early Irish Myths and Sagas. (London: Penguin Books, 1981), 7. 5. D.A. Binchy, “Secular Institutions,” in Early Irish Society, edited my M. Dillon. (Dublin, 1954), 54. 6.eDIL, meaning ‘peoples’. Singular = túath, meaning ‘a people’. 7.eDIL, meaning "a group of persons of the same family or kindred". 8. Although Irish mythology often includes an ardrí, there was not a real one until Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig, who was deemed by the Irish Church as Imperātōr Scōtōrum (latin for ‘emperor of the gaels’) in 1005. 9. To name one such scholar is to name Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones and his book The Golden Age of the Church (1906). Although not particularly about the Irish Church, he has this to say of the Vikings and their impact on the Church as a whole: “The second half of the ninth and tenth century was the saddest of all the Christian centuries…Desolation, mourning, and woe existed in all the fair provinces of the West. The Vikings, the northern sea-pirates, pillaged, burnt, and destroyed in the North and West. …What was saddest of all, God was forgotten, and even in the greatest and most solemn monasteries, disorder reigned unchecked.” (Spence-Jones, 142-43). We have come a long way from that image, have we not? Fig 2.Book of Kells, Folio 34r, Chi Rho Monogram. Retrieved from Wikipedia Commons. 10. Kathleen Hughes, “The Golden Age of Early Christian Ireland: 7th and 8th centuries,” in The Course of Irish History, 5th ed., edited by T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keogh, with Patrick Kiely. (Lanham, MD: Roberts Rhinehart Publishers, 2012), 68. 11. Jennifer Dukes-Knight, “Ireland Before the Vikings,” Lecture, Celtic History, University of South Florida, Fall 2015. 12.Annals of Ulster, 291 (Year U833). Accessed on CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts. 13. Michael Staunton, "Saints and Scholars,” in The Voice of the Irish: The Story of Christian Ireland. (Mahwah, NJ: HiddenSpring, 2003), 66. 14. Haggart, Craig. “Feidlimid Mac Crimthainn and the ‘Óentu Maíle Ruain’” Studia Hibernica, no. 33 (2004): 29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20495158.
