people. In the nominally Saxon conquest of Britain, the majority of those who achieved it were Danes;-the Angles and Jutes having been tribes of that people from Jutland, and the present Duchy of Sleswick.* But, among the ties that so closely connected and almost identified the nations of the north with each other, the very strongest, perhaps, was their common religion; and the same fidelity to their ancient gods, which the brave Saxons preserved unbroken through a long struggle of thirty years against the armies of Charlemange, was equally felt and responded to along all the shores of the Baltic. Already one King of Denmark had taken up arms in aid of their national cause; at the court of another, their hero, Wittikind, had, in the intervals of his glorious bursts against their oppressor, found shelter and counsel; and when every effort proved unavailing, and the doom of Saxony was finally sealed, to the Danes fell the tremendous task of taking vengeance for her sufferings, not merely on France itself, but on almost every Christian kingdom of Europe. The dominant feeling in all their ravages, was evidently hatred to the creed of their country's despoilers; and the blood of priests,† and the plunder of churches, were in all places their most powerful incentives and rewards. In the songs describing their murderous forays, it was said, with bitter mockery, "We chaunted the Mass of lances with the uprising sun;" and the proudest boast of some of their chieftains was, that they had stabled their horses in the chapels of kings.{

There have been found writers so much under the influence, some of the religious, some of the heroic, qualities of Charlemange, as to have attempted not merely to palliate, but even to vindicate the atrocious measures resorted to by him for the forcible subjection of the Saxons to his own creed and yoke. But Religion herself abhors such modes of advancing her temporal triumphs; and how little the result can be pleaded in favour of this method of propagating truth, appears convincingly from the fact, that, of all the Gothic nations, the Scandinavians were the very last to embrace the Christian creed.

Of the Norwegian chief, Turgesius, who, at the beginning of the ninth century, commenced his oppressive and desolating dominion in Ireland, not a vestige is to be found under this name in any of the northern chroniclers. An effort has been made, indeed, as if in rivalry of the gross anachronisms of the Sagas, to identify him with a prince named Thorgils, who is said by Snorro to have reigned in Dublin, but whose father, Harold Harfager, according to the same authority, was not born till many years after Turgesius died. The name, whatever may have been its Scandinavian reading, continued to be long after in use among the Danes of Ireland; as we find, in the eleventh century, an Ostman Bishop, who assisted at the synod convened at Kells by cardinal Paparo, bearing the name of Torgesius.

In the year 818, the monarch Aodh, after a reign of fifteen years' duration, was succeeded by Concobar, or Connor, son of Donchad. A circumstance recorded among the minor events of the former reign, shows with what reverence, even in the midst of scenes so stormy and calamitous, all that related to the power and immunities of the church was

* "On sait que les Angles et les Jutes, qui partagèrent avec les Saxons l'honneur de cette conquête, étoient des peuples Danois sortis de la Jutlande et du Sleswick."-Mallet, Introduct.

"Clerici et monachi crudelius damnabantur."-Script. Rer. Norman.

Lodbrokar Quida.

"Hic (Ragner) per xi. annos urbes Franciæ vastavit, et Parisiis veniens in ecclesia S. Germani et Aquisgrani in palatio Imperatoris stabulum equorum fecit."-Chronic. Erici.

For professedly historical details, respecting Ragnar, see Hist. of Anglo-Saxons, book 3. c. 4. In spite of the efforts of Mr. Turner to invest this phantom with a substance, the personal identity of Ragnar Lodbrog must still continue to evade the grasp of history.

I may take this opportunity of observing that, having followed Mr. Turner through most of his northern authorities, for the purpose of gleaning such scattered notices as might be found in them respecting Ireland, I am in so far qualified to bear humble testimony to the diligence and accuracy with which his valuable historical materials have been collected.

One of Ledwich's crude and self-sufficient conjectures. In a long note upon the "Vita S. Elphegi, a Danish Martyr," Langebek has entered into an elaborate inquiry on the subject of Thorkill, or Torkill; but, among the various chiefs of that name whom he enumerates, does not once glance at the possibility of any one of them being the same with the Turgesius of Ireland. That the original name, however, of this tyrant might have been Thorgills, or Thorkill, in his own country, the same learned authority thus intimates:"Turgesius ant. 815. 835. 845., Norwegus forte, cujus nomen in patria Thurgils sive Thorkillus."--Note on the Genealog. Stirp. Reg. Dan. 8vo. Anschariano.

T Both in England, and, it is said, also in Ireland, some strange traditions were for a long time preserved, respecting a personage named Gurmundus, the son of an African prince, of whose achievements, in both countries, many wonders are related. See Giraldus Cambrensis (Topograph. Hib. Dist. iii. c. 38, 39, 40..) who has been guilty of the absurd anachronism of making this Gurmundus a contemporary of the British king, Careticus, who flourished about A. D. 586, and yet, at the same time, supposing him to have acted under Turgesius, and to have been sent by that chief as his lieutenant to Ireland. The reader will find all that needs to be known on this subject in Usher (Eccles. Primord. p. 568.,) who attempts to trace to the traditions respecting Gurmundus, the names of some of the streets of Dublin, as well as those of Grange-Gorman, Gormanstown, &c. &c. The name Gormo, applied by Usher to this chief ("Gormonis sive Gurmundi,") rather strengthens the conjecture respecting him which I find in a northern authority, though still leaving the chronology as irreconcileable as ever." Anno Domini 738, Gormo I., Haraldi filius, Biornonis nepos, regnat annos 33. Hic à Sylvestri Giraldo Cambrensi Gurmundus et ipsius legatus rerum bellicarum Torchillus Tur. chesius appellari videtur."-Hamsfortii Chronologia.

regarded. In the year 806*, say the annalists, a violent interruption of the Taltine Sports took place, owing to the seizure and retention, by the monks of Tallagh, of the monarch's chariot horses: this step having been taken by them in consequence of the violation of their free territory by the O'Niells. It is added, that ample reparation was made to the monastery of Tallagh, as well as gifts in addition bestowed upon it by the king. The first year of the monarch Concobar's reign was distinguished by an event so marvellously peaceful in its character, so widely departing from the natural course of affairs in Ireland, as to be attributed by the Four Masters to "a miracle of God." 818. In consequence of some factious feud, the immediate cause of which is not specified, an army of the O'Niells of the north, commanded by Murtach, son of Maildun, marched in battle array to meet, on the plain near the Hill of the Horse, an army of southern O'Niells, led by the new monarch Concobar. But, no sooner had these two hostile forces come face to face, than each army, at the same moment, turned away from the other, and, without a drop of blood spilt, or even a blow exchanged, separated.t

A. D.

The history of the proceedings of the Danes in Ireland, during the long and afflicting tyranny of Turgesius, presents but one dark and monotonous picture of plunder, massacre, and devastation; and though for thirty years the whole island may be said to have groaned under their yoke, it is plain that the footing they had acquired was not without much difficulty maintained. In the very amount and long continuance of their cruelties, we find a proof of the constant resistance they experienced; since not even fiends could so long have persisted in the persecution of a quelled and submissive people. Their frequent plunder of the same shrines, and destruction of the same monasteries, shows at once the religious zeal of the natives, who were constantly repairing and rebuilding these holy places, and the persecuting industry of their oppressors, who were as constantly employed in destroying them. The monastery of Banchor, which could boast at one period of no less than 3000 monks observing its rule, and from whose schools those two remarkable men, St. Columba, and the heresiarch, Pelagius, were sent forth,-this celebrated monastery, which had been once before the object of their fury, was now again despoiled and plundered by these ravagers; who, having broken open the rich shrine of its founder, St. Comgall, wantonly scattered about the relics that were there enclosed. On this latter occasion the venerable abbot, and, it is said, 900 monks, were all murdered in one day

The seat of the primacy, Armagh, appears to have been, more frequently than any other place, the object of their attacks; owing, most probably, to the wealth collected in that city from the annual tribute sent thither under the Law of St. Patrick. Nor would the richly decorated tomb and pictured walls of Kildare have attracted so frequently the visits of these plunderers, did it not likewise present some temptations of the same substantial kind. Wherever pilgrims in great numbers resorted, thither the love at once of slaughter and of plunder led these barbarians to pursue them. The monastery of the English at Mayo; the holy isle of Iniscathy, in the mouth of the Shannon; the cells of St. Kevin, in the valley of Glendalough; the church of Slane, the memorable spot where St. Patrick first lighted the Paschal fire;|| the monastery of the Seelig Isles, on the coast of Kerry, a site of the ancient well-worship; all these, and a number of other such seats of holiness, are mentioned as constantly being made the scenes of the most ruthless devastation.

It would not have been wonderful if, by such an uninterrupted course of oppression and cruelty, the spirit of the people had been as much broken and subdued as was that of the English, by the same scourge, at a later period. But, throughout the whole of this long course of persecution the Irish had never, it is plain, ceased to resist; and, on more than one occasion during this reign, we find them resisting with success. In repelling A. D. an invasion of their province by the Danes, the brave Ultonians, commanded by Lethlobar, King of Dalaradia, gained a decisive victory; and, at the same period, Carbry, King of Hy-Kinsellagh, was, in an encounter with these foreigners, equally successful. Could the contentions of the Irish princes among themselves have been, even for a short time, suspended, the galling yoke under which all equally suffered might have been broken. But the curse of discord was then, as it has been ever, upon

826.

827.

*Annal. IV. Mag. The Annals of Ulster place this event in the year 810.

† IV. Mag. ad ann. 818.

Annal. IV. Mag and Annal. Ult. ad an. 823.

Its first time of devastation was in 830.

See chap. x, p. 115, of this Work.

Annal. IV. Mag. and Annal. Ult. ad an. 826, 827.

this land; and, in selfish struggles between rival factions, the cause of the common country of all was sacrificed. It is, indeed, lamentable to have to record, that the prince who shines at this period most prominently in our annals, is one whose renown had been all acquired by victories over his own countrymen; and of whom not a single hostile movement against the common foe is recorded.t

This selfishly ambitious ruler was the renowned Feidlim, King of Cashel; and a brief sketch of his bold unprincipled career will show that, in addition to what Ireland had to suffer from her tormenting invaders, she was also cursed with rival tormentors within her own bosom.

The extent of power attained by the provincial throne of Munster comprising in its range almost the whole of the southern moiety of Ireland, has already been fully shown; as well as the manner in which the succession to this throne was shared alternately by the Eugenian and Dalcassian princes. It was shortly after the landing of Turgesius, that Feidlim Mac-Crimthan, by right of his Eugenian descent, came into possession of the crown of Cashel; and his course from thenceforth was marked with the worst excesses of rude and lawless power. While, in one part of the country, the Northmen were, as we have seen, visiting with all the horrors of fire and sword such devoted monasteries and religious houses as offered temptations to the spoiler, this Irish prince was to be found in another, pursuing zealously the same sacrilegious course. In many instances, too, the same holy communities which had served as victims to the rage of the foreign barbarians, were those selected for fresh ravage by their no less barbarous countrymen. Thus the monastery of Clonmacnois, which was one of those laid desolate by the Danes, had to experience a similar fate at the hands of the ruthless King Feidlim; who, besides burning all the lands of the abbey, "up to the church door," put numbers of its holy inmates to death. In like manner,-except that, in this case, the native depredators had the first fruits of the spoil,-a party of the Danes attacked and devastated Kildare but a short time after it had been forcibly entered by King Feidlim, and the clergy carried off from thence in captivity along with his own slaves.

In this year (832-3) died the monarch Conquovar, after a reign of about fourteen years, and was succeeded on the throne by Niell Calne, son of Aodh Ornidhe.

It has been shown how immensely the power of the kings of Leath-Mogh had, in the course of time, gained upon that of the monarchy; and a stirring ambitious prince like Feidlim could not fail to advance still farther the usurpation. So daring were his inroads into the monarch's territory, that, on more than one occasion, the whole country from Birr to Tara, was laid waste by his arms. Having revived also the ancient and bitter feud between the provinces of Munster and Connaught, respecting their claims to the territory now called Clare, he gained, in the course of this contest, a sanguinary victory over an army of Conacians, led by the O'Niells; and it is recorded of him, as a double triumph, that, on the very same day when he received hostages from the princes A. D. of Connaught, he swept with his army over the rich plains of Meath, and seated 839. himself proudly in the ancient precincts of Temora. A council was held immediately after, at Clonmacnois, where Niell the monarch delivered to him hostages; and on that day, says the Munster annalist, Feidlim was supreme king of all Ireland. But his turbulent career was soon brought to a miserable end. A few years after these brilliant events, which a poet of his own times commemorated, he received, while devastating the lands of the abbey of St. Ciaran, a wound from the staff of the abbot, and, at the same time, a curse from the holy man's lips, of the effects of which he never after

A writer, whom none can justly accuse of ill-will or unfairness towards his own countrymen, thus speaks of this lamentable stain on their historical character:-" Pendant qu'une partie de ce peuple se consacroit entièrement à Dieu par un rénoncement parfait au monde, et servoit en cela de modèle aux nations voisines, l'esprit de discorde fut toujours nourri chez eux........ ils étoient toujours armés les uns contre les autres, sans que l'évangile qu'ils venoient de recevoir avec tant de respect eût pu corriger cet esprit de discorde, qui fut cause de tant de désordres."-Abbé MacGeoghegan, Hist. d'Irlande, part 2. c. 4.

† One historian (O'Halloran, book x. c. 1,) attributes to this prince a successful attack upon the Danes, but without any authority for the assertion. The Polychronicon, indeed, states that, at the time when Turgesius landed, Feidhlim was king of Munster;-" tempore Feldmidii Norwegenses, duce Turgesio, terram hanc occuparunt," but of any conflict between this prince and the Danes, neither the Polychronicon nor any other records make mention.

Cum ducibus solitis Marte et Vulcano.-Bromton.

The words of the annalist, "Go dorus a cille."-Annal. IV. Mag. ad an. 832.

Umhlacht do ionnas gur ab lan Righ Eirionn an la sni e."—Annal. Inisfall. ad ann. 840. In this boast of the Munster annalist, originated, no doubt, the impression which led Giraldus to rank Feidlim among the monarchs of Ireland. "De gente igitur ista ab adventu Patricii usque ad Felmidii regis tempora 33 reges per 400 annos in Hibernia regnaverunt." See Archdall (Monast. Hibern., at Clonmacnoise,) where, likewise on the authority of the Munster Annals, the same dignity is attributed to Feidlim.

Annal. IV. Mag. ad an. 839, (849.) The annals of Inisfallen add that, in the course of this inroad he carried off Gormflatha, daughter of the King of Meath, together with all her handmaids.

recovered. Devoting the close of his days to penitence and the Church, he died in the following year; and, in the very face of all the enormities which their own pages A. D. have recorded of him, is described by his ecclesiastical historians as "the most religious and learned anchoret that Erin could boast in his day."

846.

In the year 837, a considerable addition had been made to the Danish force in Ireland;-two fleets from the Baltic, consisting altogether, it is said, of 120 sail, having arrived, one in the river Boyne, and the other in the Liffey; from whence, pouring forth their swarms over the plains through which these rivers flow, they inflicted on the already sacked and exhausted country new varieties of desolation and ruin. It was their custom to avail themselves of the facilities which the fine inland waters of Ireland afforded; being enabled, by means of light barks which they launched on the rivers and lakes, to penetrate far into the country, and, by sudden landings, take the unguarded and panic-struck natives by surprise.

To attempt to follow, through all its frightful details, the course of outrage and massacre which continued to be pursued by the bands of Turgesius throughout the remainder of that tyrant's turbulent life, would be a task as wearisome as revolting. Let it suffice, therefore, to state that there is not a single spot of renown in the ecclesiastical history of our country, not one of those numerous religious foundations, the seats and monuments of the early piety of her sons, that was not frequently, during this period, made the scene of the most fearful and brutal excesses. The repeated destruction by fire, year after year, of the same monasteries and churches, may naturally be accounted for by the material of these structures having been wood. But, as few things of any value could have survived such conflagrations, the mere wantonness of barbarity alone, could have tempted them so often to repeat the outrage. The devoted courage, however, of those crowds of martyrs who still returned undismayed to the same spot, choosing rather to encounter sufferings and death than leave the holy place untenanted, presents one of those affecting pictures of quiet heroism with which the history of the Christian church abounds.

Though, in their assaults upon religious houses, the Danes in general put most of the inmates to death, they in some cases carried off the chief ecclesiastics, either as hostages, or for the sake of ransom. Thus Farannan, the primate of Armagh, was, together with all the religious and students of the house, as well as the precious church relics, taken away to the Danish ships at Limerick ;‡ and, at a somewhat later period, Maelcob, the Bishop of Armagh, and Mocteus, the Reader, were in like manner made prisoners by the invaders.

That the Northmen, in their first plundering incursions, may have found a quantity of gold and silver in Ireland, appears by no means improbable. Though coined money was not yet introduced among the natives, and the word "pecunia," which is often supposed to have implied coin, was employed in those days to express cattle and all other sorts of property, the use of the precious metals, in ingots, had long been generally known; and the ornaments of the shrines in which saintly relics were enclosed, appear to have been, in many instances valuable. The tomb of St. Brigid, at Kildare, was overhung, we are told, with crowns of gold and silver; and the relics of St. Columba, which the abbot of Iona removed for safety, in the year 830, to Ireland, are stated to have been enclosed in a shrine of gold.** The luxury of ornament, indeed, which we have reason to believe was bestowed on the illumination and covering of manuscripts at that period,ft would lead us to give credit to much of what is related of the richness of the utensils found in monasteries by the Danes.

The power which these foreigners had now so long exercised, owed clearly its consolidation and continuance to one single directing mind; and the standard raised by Turgesius, however uneasily and amidst constant conflict upheld, presented a rallying point, not merely to the multitude of Northmen already in the country, but to all such swarms of new adventurers as were from time to time attracted to its shores. To these

Annal, IV. Mag. ad an. 845. (Era Com. 846.) Rer. Hib. tom i., in Catel. Regum.

† Annal. IV. Mag. The Chronicon Scotorum calls him" the last king of the Scots." M'Curtin quotes, for his flattering character of Feidhlim, the Leabhar Irse, or Book of Records.

The Four Masters place this event in 843. Usher, Ind. Chron. 848.

Simon (Essay on Irish Coins) is of a different opinion; but having no authority in favour of his notion except the Sagas, his reasons are of but little weight.

Shrines of gold and silver are mentioned in the Annals of Ulster, under the dates A. D. 799 and 800. Coronis aureis et argenteis desuper predentibus. Cogitosus, de Vita & Brigid, a work which Vossius (de Hist. Lat. 1. 3.) pronounces to be of great antiquity; but whether of so early a date as is assigned to it, namely, the sixth century, appears doubtful. See Ware, Writers.

**Rer. Hib. Scrip. tom. iv. p. 205, note.

For an account of the early manuscripts thus embellished, see Dr. O'Connor, Ep. Nunc.

fierce and hardy assailants, combined under one head, and having one common object, was opposed a brave but divided people, whose numerous leaders followed each his own personal interest or ambition; and who, from long habits of indiscriminate warfare, had almost lost the power of distinguishing between enemies and friends. Yet, notwithstanding all this, such was the unconquerable spirit of the Irish people, that while, about this very period, one of the fairest portions of France became the fief of the Northmen, and while England twice, in the course of a few centuries, passed tamely under their yoke, it was only during the short interval of the Turgesian persecution that their dominion can fairly be asserted to have prevailed over Ireland.

A. D.

844.

That upon the life of their able leader the power of the Danes in this country chiefly depended, is proved by the rapid dissolution of their union, and, consequently, strength, which succeeded immediately upon his death. The obscurity which involves the details of this latter event has been turned to account by those ready and fluent historians who, when most stinted in facts, are then always most prodigal in details; and a story, briefly related by Cambrensis, respecting the circumstances which led to the Norse chief's death, has become amplified in this manner by successive historians, each adding some new grace or incident to the original tale. The following is the substance of the anecdote, as told by Giraldus:*-The beauty of the daughter of O'Melachlin, King of Meath, having awakened a passion in the breast of Turgesius, that tyrant, accustomed to the ready accomplishment of all his desires, made known to her father the unlawful views which he entertained. Concealing his horror at such a proposal, the king, in appearance, consented to surrender to him his daughter; and a small island upon Loch-var, in the county of Meath, was the place appointed for the desired interview. Thither it was fixed that the princess, attended by fifteen maidens, should come at an appointed hour; and there Turgesius, with as many young Danish noblemen, was waiting impatient to receive her. The supposed handmaids, however, of the princess were, in reality, fifteen brave and beardless youths, selected for the purpose, who, hiding each a skian or dagger under his robe, took advantage of the first opportunity that offered, and, falling upon the tyrant and his followers, despatched the whole party. It is added, that the fame of this gallant achievement having spread rapidly through the country, the Danes were in every quarter attacked, and either got rid of by the knife or sword, or else compelled to return to Norway and the different isles from whence they came.

This romantic account of the death of Turgesius, resembling, in some of its particulars, a stratagem recorded by Plutarch in his Life of Pelopidas, is not to be found in any of the Irish books of annals; wherein it is simply stated, that the tyrant fell into the hands of O'Melachlin, and was by him drowned in Loch-var. But, whatever may have been the real circumstances attending the death of this pirate-king, of the great importance of its results there is not any reason to doubt; and although, to the wholesale assertion of Giraldus, that Ireland was from thenceforth entirely free from the yoke of the Danes, her subsequent history affords but too downright a contradiction, it is certain that their power was from thenceforth considerably reduced; and that, however harassing at all times, and even occasionally formidable, they never afterwards regained their former strength

or sway.

"Fabulam olent (says Dr. O'Connor) quæ de morte Turgesii a 15 puellis interfecto refert Giraldus." † Annal. iv. Mag. 843. (844.) In the Chronic. de Gest. Northman. published by André du Chesne, this victory of the Irish over the Danes (which the chronicler places in the year 848,) is thus triumphantly recorded:-"Scoti super Northmannos irruentes, auxilio Dei victores, eos à suis finibus expellunt."-Hist. Franc. et Norman. Script. Antiq.

Fama igitur pernicibus alis totam statim insulam pervolante, et rei eventum, ut assolet, divulgante Norwagienses ubique truncantur, et in brevi omnes omnino seu vi, seu dolo, vel morti traduntur; vel iterum Norwagiam et insulas unde venerant, navigio adire compeiluntur.-Girald. Cambrens. Topog. Hibern. Dist. iii. c. 41.

Annal. Ult. ad an. 844. This lake is, by Seward (Topograph. Hibern.,) placed near Mullingar. According to the Annals of Inisfallen, however, the scene of the tyrant's death was Lake Annin in Meath. Much doubt has arisen as to the exact year in which this event happened; some placing it in 844, when Malachy was still but King of Meath, while others (Usher, Ind. Chron) advance it to 848, when he had been raised to the throne of Ireland. I have followed, as the reader will see, the ordinary date of our own annals; though the record cited above from the Norse Chronicles, fixing the reduction and expulsion of the Danes from Ireland at ▲. D. 848, would incline me to think that the date of the death of Turgesius should be referred to the same year.