SCIENCESrespect during the course of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries.
While the beneficial effects of Norse-driven com-
mercial activity have long been recognized, assessment
of their influence in other areas has been more divided.
In general, however, their overall impact is now viewed
as far less catastrophic than was once maintained. In
the first place, the intense period of hit-and-run type
raiding that marked the first part of the ninth century
soon gave way to a series of attacks mounted from fixed
bases against which the Irish had considerable success.
Moreover, their sustained presence in the country from
the 840s onwards meant that the Scandinavians were
gradually incorporated into the political landscape,
forming significant alliances with a wide range of rul-
ers. In the 850s, for example, they were aligned for a
time with Áed Finnlíath, king of the Northern Uí Néill,
whose daughter may well have been married to the
Norse king of Dublin. Nor was this mixed marriage
unusual, as indicated by the increasing number of
Irishmen bearing Scandinavian names and vice versa.
Among the latter were the children of a tenth-century
king of Dublin, Amlaíb Cúarán, who in addition to
acquiring an Irish nickname (
cúarán
, “sandal”) com-
missioned poetry from one of the leading poets of the
day, Cináed úa hArtacáin.
Elsewhere in the literature, Vikings also appear in a
range of guises reflecting the complex, ever-changing
relationship between them and their Irish neighbors.
A ninth-century ecclesiastic may extol the stormy sea
preventing the arrival
dond láechraid lainn úa Lothlind
(of the fierce warriors from Scandinavia), yet little
more than a century later a Welsh poet presumed to
count on the support of both
gynhon Dulyn
(the for-
eigners of Dublin) and
Gwydyl Iwerdon
(the Irish of
Ireland) in battle against the Saxons. Similarly, while
the pagan Viking invader assumed a literary life of his
own in a variety of texts whose authors conveniently
ascribed to him a plethora of ills, his more sober, real-
life descendant was long since enmeshed in the cul-
tural milieu of his adopted homeland. In artwork too
his presence is felt, as demonstrated by the only hog-
back tomb known in Ireland at Castledermot, Co.
Kildare, as well as by an eleventh-century book shrine
made by one whose Hiberno-Norse origin is revealed
in his name, Sitric mac Meic Áeda. Nor was influ-
ence solely one-way: the Irish silver thistle brooch
became popular in Norway in the tenth century. In
addition, a number of Irish kings feature as ancestor
figures in the account of the settlement of Iceland
recorded in
Landnámabók
(The Book of Land-taking).
Whether their intellectual interdependency stimu-
lated the Norse to first produce sagas, however, as has
sometimes been claimed, is questionable. Nonetheless,
intensive interaction on many levels over a long period
has certainly left its mark in Scandinavia, but partic-
ularly in Ireland.
M
ÁIRE
N
Í
M
HAONAIGHReferences and Further Reading
Kenny, Michael. “The Geographical Distribution of Irish
Viking-age Coin Hoards.”
Proceedings of the Royal Irish
Academy,
87 C (1987): 507–525.
Ní Mhaonaigh, Máire. “Friend and Foe: Vikings in Ninth- and
Tenth-century Irish Literature.” In
Ireland and Scandinavia
in the Early Viking Age. Edited by Howard B. Clarke, Máire
Ní Mhaonaigh, and Raghnall Ó Floinn, Dublin: Four Courts
Press, (1998): 381–402.
Ó Cuív, Brian. “Personal Names as an Indicator of Relations
between Native Irish and Settlers in the Viking Period.” In
Settlement and Society in Medieval Ireland: Studies Pre-
sented to F.X. Martin o.s.a.
Edited by John Bradley, 79–88.
Kilkenny: Boethius Press, 1988.
Ó Floinn, Raghnall. “Irish and Scandinavian Art in the Early
Medieval Period.” In
The Vikings in Ireland
. Edited by Anne-
Christine Larsen, 87–97. Roskilde: The Viking Ship
Museum, 2001.
Oftedal, Magne. “Scandinavian Place-names in Ireland.” In
Pro-
ceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress, Dublin, 15–21
August 1973
. Edited by Bø Almqvist and David Greene,
125–133. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1976.
Sheehan, John. “Early Viking Age Silver Hoards from Ireland
and their Scandinavian Elements.” In
Ireland and Scandinavia
in the Early Viking Age
. Edited by Howard B. Clarke, Máire
Ní Mhaonaigh, and Raghnall Ó Floinn, 166–202. Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 1998.
See also
Amlaíb Cúarán; Battle of Clontarf;
Brian Boru; Cináed úa hArtacáin; Coinage;
Dícuil; Hoards; Metalwork; Personal Names;
Sculpture; Viking Incursions; Weapons
and Weaponry
SCIENCESNatural Science
The earliest dateable text, composed in southern Ireland
in 655, is
De mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae
, by an
author using the pseudonym of Augustinus. It gives
exceptionally rationalistic explanations of natural phe-
nomena, though within the pre-scientific spirit of the
Middle Ages. These physical explanations for the
miracles in the Bible and strange natural phenomena–
(e.g., why the Sun stood still at Joshua’s command,
how Lot’s wife could turn into a pillar of salt, why
certain animals are not found in Ireland) are, although
naïve, strikingly original in conception by the stan-
dards of the age. His analysis of tidal flow is one the
best in medieval literature.