Perception and Reality: Irelandc.980–1229

Abstract

These parallels were discussed by Denis Casey in a lecture he presented on 'Carmain' at a conference arising out of 'The Óenach Project' in Cork, March 2012. I am grateful to Dr Casey for sending me a draft version of his work on the poem. 12 See, for example, AU (Mac Airt), s.a. 1016.6, on which occasion Donnchad killed the Leinster ruler with whom Máel Sechnaill had formed an alliance (and Chron. Scot ., s.a.

Remembering the Vikings: Violence, institutional memory and the instruments of history

“…13, 28). In Ireland, though, the alterity in depictions of the vikings reached its zenith when the Scandinavian settlers were at their most integrated and posed less of a military threat: 11th‐ and 12th‐century pseudo‐historical texts portray vikings as more distinct from the Irish than earlier annals do and as more unremittingly ferocious (Ní Mhaonaigh 2018, p. 149; Ó Corráin 1975, p. 34). In the late medieval Low Countries, vikings were deployed as ‘a quintessential Other’ by monasteries and dynasties constructing their histories (Cooijmans, 2019, p. 26).…”

“…As in 9th‐century England, in 12th‐century Ireland ruling dynasties were praised through their defeats of vikings, but at a greater degree of chronological removal from the actual events. The legitimation of these dynasties, as Máire Ní Mhaonaigh notes, involved connecting them to their ‘glorious ancestors who overthrew an almost invincible foe’, thus contributing to the construction of the Viking ‘Other’ (Ní Mhaonaigh, 2018, 149–50). The prime example is Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib (‘The War of the Irish against the Foreigners’), which is essentially propaganda for the Uí Briain dynasty of Munster, culminating in an account of Brian Bórama's pyrrhic victory over the vikings at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 6 .…”

“…The prime example is Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib (‘The War of the Irish against the Foreigners’), which is essentially propaganda for the Uí Briain dynasty of Munster, culminating in an account of Brian Bórama's pyrrhic victory over the vikings at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 6 . This text portrays a ‘monochromatic, relentlessly evil viking type’ (Ní Mhaonaigh, 2018, p. 149). Such portrayals also led to the downplaying of cooperation between the Irish and vikings.…”