Norway
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Vikings in Black and White
At the end of my last post I noted that in the mid-800s, as well as fighting the Irish, we now had Vikings attacking Vikings and that the narrative was in danger of becoming even more confusing. Fortunately the annalists seem to have come up with a way of distinguishing the established vikings from the Continue reading
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Turges – a Norse leader in Ireland
A name which appears in the Irish Annals between 839 and 845 is Turges (or Turgeis, Tuirgheis or Turgesius), a Norse chieftain fighting in Ireland. This post will look at this character – and what he represented – but first it might be helpful to remind ourselves of what was happening in Ireland at that Continue reading
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Arrival of the Norwegians: Early Kings and The Family of Ketil Flatnose
In this post I want to turn once again towards Scandinavia. In the early 9th century the land now called Norway was not united. Instead there existed a number of kingdoms such as Vestfold, Rogaland, Romsdal and Sogn. Just as we have seen Kenneth MacAlpin being linked with the uniting of different realms into a Continue reading
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Kenneth MacAlpin Part III – a modern interpretation
In the last two blog posts (The Last Pictish Kings: Part 2 – Kenneth, Brude, Drust… and Kenneth and Kenneth MacAlpin Part II ) I looked at the story of Kenneth MacAlpin, the man who is often described as the first king of the Scots. The earlier sources call him king of the Picts, but Continue reading
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Who were the Picts? – Views from abroad
As there are no original Pictish literary sources surviving[1] – or at least, none which have yet been discovered – the portrayal of the Pictish people which has been passed down the centuries comes from others. This inevitably means that any such portrait will have an element of bias. Stories of the Picts were sometimes Continue reading
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Vikings v Picts, Scots, Irish and Anglo-Saxons
In the year 839 the Annals of Ulster tell us about an important battle in which the Vikings defeated the Picts: “Bellum re genntib for firu Fortrenn in quo ceciderunt Euganan m. Oengusa ⁊ Bran m. Oengussa ⁊ Ęd m. Boanta ⁊ alii pene innumerabiles ceciderunt.”[1] (The heathens won a battle against the men of Continue reading
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The Roaring ’20s (the 820s)
This post will look at the 3rd decade of the 9th century – the 820s – and will attempt to summarise what was happening in Northern Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia during those years while introducing some of the characters who will play a leading role in events to come. In my post Constantin, son of Continue reading
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Arrival of the Northmen
The portentous weather and astronomical events we looked at in Bad Weather, Bad Omens continued into the last decade of the 8th century with what is perhaps the most infamous of all happening in the year 793. Recounted in a number of sources[1] the gist is that there were flashes of fire in the skies Continue reading
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A Very Short Interlude Across the North Sea
In the early 8th century the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark and Sweden did not exist as they do now. The area we refer to as Scandinavia consisted of various groups of people, with perhaps the bulk of then falling into a category which has been labelled as Norse and Danish. The languages they spoke would Continue reading
The Northern Tapestry 