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.
there’s nothing purer or better than how much kids enjoy being picked up and then hurled at soft surfaces
anyone who’s ever been around kids for ay meaningful amount of time should know exactly how much kids long to be hefted up and then just fuckin tossed! it’s so good! they’re so excited to get fucking tossed around like a sack of potatoes it’s so pure
Why do kids love it so much? Like I remember when I was a kid at diving practice during the summer, the best part was when one if the coaches would toss you into the deep end. And in gymnastics coaches would toss us into the foam pit. Do kids just have a evolutionary urge to die?
“Vestibular sense provides information about where the body is in relation to its surroundings. This is the sense that helps you understand balance, and it connects with all the other senses.
When the vestibular system does not develop properly all other senses will struggle to function properly. Without a strong vestibular sense, kids will have no choice but to fidget, get frustrated, experience more falls and aggression, get too close to people when talking, and struggle with focusing and listening. Because they literally cannot help it.”
“Here are a few ways to support your child’s vestibular sense:
Spinning in circles.
Using a Merry-Go-Round.
Rolling down a hill.
Spinning on a swing.
Going upside down.
Climbing trees.
Rocking.
Jumping rope.
Summersaults or cartwheels.
Using monkey bars.
Skating.
Going backwards.
Swimming.
Dancing.
Wheel-barrel walks.”
Yeeting kids, spinning them, flipping them upside down, tossing them in the air, and otherwise disrupting their balance temporarily, is Important For Their Development, specifically for their vestibular sense.
Kids love this because they NEED it.
In other words: Don’t forget to calibrate your child’s GPS!
YEET THE CHILD FOR THEIR HEALTH
Hi! Paediatric Occupational Therapist here who yeets children into pillows for a living. It’s actually more than the vestibular system! It’s also giving them proprioception, which is the feeling of your joints and muscles / where your body is in space!
We all seek proprioceptive input, leaning against walls, pushing against the steering wheel when driving, giving your body a squeeze to wake yourself up, the list goes on! When we ‘crash’ kids into soft things like pillows or beds, we’re waking their bodies up AND calming their bodies down! In other words, getting them into this super nice zone of “just right” regulation.
When I see a child who is bouncing off the walls and can’t seem to stand still for more than a few seconds? I start wrestling with them, crashing them into pillows, giving their body the right amount of input they need to feel good and organised. And suddenly, this kid is able to sit and play attentively or do their handwriting practice. It’s amazing! If you want to know more about why the vestibular and proprioceptive systems are awesome at making your body feel good, google those two words (and sensory processing) and read through some occupational therapy websites!
Side note: As adults, does your body ever feel jittering/jiggly/wiggly/like it needs to move or calm down but you just can’t figure out why? That’s your sensory system saying Hey! I need to feel differently in order to function better! Here’s what you can do:
Jump up and down (vestibular and proprioception)
Give yourself big squeezes (proprioception)
Place your hands on a wall and do push ups (proprioception)
Do cartwheels (vestibular and proprioception)
Get someone to give you the biggest bear hug for at least 10 seconds (proprioception and social connection, also proven to help regulate your sensory system into just right zone!)
Get a drink of water and drink it through a straw OR blow bubbles into the water (way more fun!) (oral motor input and respiration)
Have a shower or a bath (tactile)
Stretch and do exercise (vestibular and proprioception)
Eat something crunchy or chewy (like chips or gum) (oral motor input)
Listen to some music that suits your mood (auditory)
etc etc etc! I’m sure you already have a strategy that your body has figured out works for you. I personally like to chew gum when I feel like i need to eat something but I’m not actually hungry and just need that chewing sensation in my jaw.
Long story short, everyone has a sensory system and we all use regulation strategies like the ones listed above to help make our body feel better. So if you ever see someone (especially kids!) fidgeting and having a hard time focusing, maybe suggest something from the list above!
Doug Jones. The name doesn’t ring a bell, does it? Probably not. But I’m here to tell you that this bitch is fabulous.
He started out as a mime and a professional contortionist. He got into acting and has acted in over 25 movies and numerous television shows. Still doesn’t ring any bells? Probably because Doug’s gig is characters and crazy ass costumes and shit.
Here’s a picture of him:
Still not look too familiar? Well, maybe you saw Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer?
Doug Jones.
Or, are you a Buffy fan? Remember the episode “Hush”?
Look familiar now? He’s the one in the front.
Did you like the movie Pan’s Labyrinth?
Doug Jones.
Doug Jones.
Did you like the Hellboy movies?
Doug Jones.
Doug Jones.
Doug Mother Fucking Jones.
Or, hey! Were you born in the 90’s? Remember the movie Hocus Pocus that would play on Disney Channel every halloween? Remember this guy?:
Yup. Doug Jones.
Still not convinced of how badass this guy is? Here’s some awesome for you.
It took him 5 hours to get into the Pale Man costume in Pan’sLabyrinth, and, once in it, he could only just slightly see out of the nose holes, but he was mostly blind.
And the costume for Fauno himself? Well, he could only just barely see out of the nose holes in that one, too. The actual head part was filled with mechanics that made the eyebrows and ears move. And those mechanics were so loud that he couldn’t hear while inside of it, so he had to memorize Ofelia’s lines as well as his own so that he could say them in his head to know when to talk. Oh, and he doesn’t actually speak any Spanish at all, so he was memorizing both his, and someone else’s lines in a language he couldn’t speak.
Doug Mother Fucking Jones.
Werk.
This is once more relevant since Doug Jones is at it again– he’s gonna be the hot fish man in Del Toro’s The Shape of Water.
Because you can never blog Dougie enough.
His ‘breakout’ was the MacTonight commercials (most of you are probably to young to remember those) as Moonhead
And c’mon kiddies, don’t you know who is playing the Thin Clown in ‘Batman Returns?’ Great speech, Oswald…
In Del Toro’s Crimson Peak, he played both of the other ghosts.
And like the previously mentioned films, he shot this sequence with limited sight due to the prosthetics. Look at that.
Face it, you’ve seen him everywhere and probably didn’t realize it. Let’s give it up for The Dougie.
I think the worst part is Doug Jones like almost never get’s credited with other actors, he’s almost always credited further down as a stunt man or something. In ‘The Shape of Water’ trailers his name isn’t with the other actors even though he’s literally a main character 😐 He’s not just a dude in a rubber suit! He’s a legit talented actor capable of doing things a lot of other actors can’t do.
This is humanity put to good use. Screw all the stuff that’s happening these days, this is basically the only reason I like us stupid ape people. Little things like this, designed to keep us all happy and busy
I think it would work better as a cyborg story, honestly. Extremely near-future, nothing terribly sinister about it—at least, not more sinister than the world really is. Apple or Google release a cool device that syncs up with your neural biometrics or something and acts like a mood ring – awesome! Color-changing cybernetic contact lenses! They’re the hot new thing now, but in a few years, they’ll be as ubiquitous as smartphones, just a new facet of human expression.
And maybe they do a lot of good. It removes a lot of the guesswork in dating, when you can just tell that someone is into you from the color change in their eyes. You know when you’ve said something inappropriate or offensive from the ripple of uncomfortable chartreuse across the room. You can gauge the tastefulness of a joke or tell when people are bored of your story. Ambiguity in sexual encounters is reduced with increased ease of unspoken communication. Without generations of cultural tradition and rules dictating how and when and which feelings are expressed, this new type of social cue opens all kinds of doors. Colors are easier to consciously read than facial expressions and body language, and mood ring eyes add an extra level of meaning to any given gesture.
And then… the downside. [CONTENT WARNING: hey whoops this got dark really fast because I find this whole concept deeply horrifying?]
“Smile!” strangers used to remind you on the subway. Now they want to know why you’re not also peepin’ pink.
“Wow, didn’t your aunt die less than a week ago? Pretty fucked up that you’re able to be cyan already, it’s like you don’t even care…”
“But Your Honor, her eyes were purple, she wanted it, just check the records—”
“Your work here has been exemplary and you always remain cordial even when customers are antagonistic, but we don’t want people to come here and feel neutral. They want to feel like they’re valued and you’re excited to help them, and if you can’t keep your colors in the pink and blue ranges, well, I might have to cut your hours…”
“Why won’t you wear lenses? Everyone wears lenses now. You must have something to hide… are you cheating on me?”
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Hey, look at that—that’s a guilty orange if I’ve ever seen one. Closing your eyes is the most suspicious thing you can do in this situation. Ooh, is that ‘fuck you puce’? I think that counts as contempt of cop.”
“You are grounded until you can look at me with the respect I deserve as your parent.”
“Ew, did you see that? I think that guy just looked purple at me… doesn’t he know this is God’s country?”
“If you really cared about me you’d be emerald. I know you hate me. You’re orange. You wish I’d just die and you’re only turning red now because you’re angry that I found out. You’d be gray if you were sad about it. Don’t lie, I already know you hate me.”
“Why did you flash lime during that scene in the movie? You’re not supposed to know what those kinds of jokes mean yet. I know, it’s that Bailey girl, she’s corrupting you. I don’t want you speaking to her ever again. I’ll know if disobey because I’ll ask you every day after school if you talked to her, and you’ll turn orange with guilt if you have.”
Deception is such a useful social technology that it wouldn’t take long for this to be no more informative than regular body language, don’t worry.
Sure, but presuming it’s hooked up somehow to your brainwaves and not under muscular, mechanical control, what would deception take? Would it require a form of like… neural self-delusion? Would you have to convince yourself on some conscious mental level that you actually felt the emotion you were trying to display? What would that do to your psyche over time, or is that close enough to what we really do when we’re deceiving others that it wouldn’t make a difference?
ok, child drawings in the attic and unmarked gravestone berried grave shed thats locked for no reason, and can’t be opened (i’ve tried) uhhh footsteps when i’m home alone stuff falling down from the fireplace innards turning up on doorsteps cellar flooding for no dam reason lights flickering i’ll think i hear a parent callin my name when they don’t cat just starin at shi t my old cat just disappeared one day. cemitary over the road, and a old kennel surrounded by woods but some got cut down recently don’t know why a safe turned up in our driveway? like a month ago, the day after the trees got cut down as in a big metal one oh, also screams at night, 90% sure they are foxes tho 95% house is where a angalo saxon monastery use to be like 600 or so years ago at 2? houses ago, so not the house i use to live in, but the house before that there was a ruined house in the woods and one night, all the windows were smashed we don’t know why there was a house there In my last house, i always felt like something was watching me in the anex, it creeped me the fuck out, i always had to run after i turned of the lights and i went upstairs twice to find a bat in my room just chillin
ok everyone share their creepy house stories, go
Before I became a witch and told things to be polite or gtfo:
I’d see shadowy people in the bathroom mirror as I turned away, and siting by my sewing machine as I left the room.
I’d hear people walking around above me at night (I sleep on the top floor)
I’d hear my door slam while I was looking straight at it
My (very sweet) black dog would just randomly bark, something he never does elsewhere unless he has a reason
He also sometimes would sit and stare out the window, growling at nothing
My sister had a guitar teacher when she was little who would always arrive just as we were starting dinner , even though the tunes we started ranged from 5:30ish-8:00ish and we never told him when we were eating
There was a period of time when cats would just randomly show up in our yard and sit and stare at us
My mom has a metal fairy silhouette thing in the garden, it’s always getting bent or scratched
We have these little stone animals (a rabbit, a frog, and a family of owls) that are always falling, losing limbs, or getting buried for a series of days beforse being completely fine again
Not nearly as spooky or weird as the other persons, but I figured id share
Back at my parents house everyone always felt uneasy and like theyre being watched
There was a man/figure that i kept seeing (never saw him or anything else anywhere else), he used to watch me sleep so I would always hide in my mom’s room until i was ~12
When i stopped sleeping in her room i started waking up with burns and scratches (some scars). They seemed to say something cause there was repeating patterns that looked like letters but i never figured out what they said
My hair would keep moving, one day i heard someone yell in my ear and my hair (which was super long at the time) FLIPPED over my head to the other side
We moved to a new place and when we got there our dogs wouldnt stop barking at this one wall, and when they didnt bark they cried, so we got them out of there as soon as we could
You know everybody who sees the D100 gets the wrong idea, oh it’ll roll forever, but no, it only rolls slightly longer than a D20, both the modling line and the fucking sand inside keep it from doing that.
is that no teacher ever called him James by accident, or that Ron never was called “Bill-, eh Charl-, no Per-, argh!”
As a younger sister who knows this struggle all too well: THIS IS REAL. Pretty sure 70% of my past teachers still think I’m called what my sister is called in fact.
Imagine Fred being called Percy by McGonagall accidentally and then he gets so offended that he refers to her by “Professor [insert any other name but McGonagall” for the rest of the year, costing Gryffindor a considerable amount of points one at a time.
From then on, she vows to just call them all Mr Weasley.
Until Ginny comes along and she calls her Mr Weasley by accident and Ginny “accidentally’ calls her Sir and it starts again.
It’s lightly off-topic but also slightly relevant but I have long cherished this mental image of Professor Snape saying something snappish to Harry in just the wrong tone of voice and Harry absentmindedly, wearily, and completely accidentally responding with, “Yes, Aunt Petunia.”
which would have all kinds of additional ramifications when you remember snape is the only one who knew petunia personally
He asks Harry to stay after class and straight up asks him “Am I truly that unpleasant?”
Okay, okay, okay, this is probably deeply off-track, but all I can think of is Harry––who upon learning that Snape, of all people, his pain in the neck potions professor knows his aunt––has now received what can only be called a psychic punch to balls.
How, how, how, is a teenage boy supposed to rectify this, mentally? Connect these strange unjoined worlds to somehow explain that Snape––Snape!––knows his Aunt Petunia?
“It doesn’t make any sense, mate,” Harry tells Ron, blearily, desperately wishing at age thirteen years that his butter beer was a real beer. “It just––it can’t be. Why would he know Aunt Petunia?”
Ron grimaces. “Why would he want to? I mean, I know he’s Snape, and all that, but––”
Harry writes his only letter back to #4 Privet Drive, dotted with tears, and it has one line: How do you know Severus Snape?
Petunia writes back: DO NOT MENTION THAT MAN EVER AGAIN.
And this. This. Sparks a light in Harry’s head. This is the same way Petunia talks about celebrities who have deeply, personally offended her. Usually when she fancied them and then they got married. It’s so completely clear to him, now: Snape is deeply, irrevocably, utterly in love with Aunt Petunia.
