The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1963, Blaðsíða 19

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
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Linn, the black pond), which rose by
the ford that commanded the Liffy. It
was founded in 841 by sons of a Norse
king. It was lost and recaptured, and
finally became the capital of a king-
dom, over which reigned Ivar and Olaf.
King Olaf the White ruled there from
853 to 871. Other settlements followed:
Limerick in 860; Wexford, Cork,
Carlingford, Wicklow, and Water-
ford which was a firmly established
settlement in 914.
It was not long until the two races
were drawn together in marriage, and
children of -the mixed blood were born.
What hastened this process was the
fact that when the Irish were fighting
each other, which was quite frequent,
they would anxiously solicit, and secure
the assistance of the Norsemen who
were reputed to be good fighters. Thus
we find temporary alliances of Norse-
Irish fighting the other group of Irish-
Norse.
The newly founded towns in Ireland
had trading communications with Eng-
land as well as with the continent, and
the Norsemen, though not actually in
possession of the interior of Ireland,
were apparently in control of its
destinies.
At the time the Western Islands:
the Shetlands, Orkneys, Llebrides and
the Isle of Man, were overrun by
Norsemen, they were occupied by Irish
and Scots people. The races soon be-
came mixed. In 856 and 857, the Gall-
Ghaedill, or Norse-Irish made their
appearance in various parts of Ire-
land; in Meath, Ulster and Munster.
These were said to be the people of
the generation following the occup-
ation of the islands by the Norsemen.
Some spoke broken Irish, and others
broken Norse.
In Scotland the Norsemen took pos-
session of all the Dalriatic territory
of Argyle; also Cunningham, Ayre-
shire, Galloway and the North Sol-
way Firth. Lorsteinn the Red (Oistin)
the son of Olaf the White, king of
Dublin, in fellowship with Earl Sig-
urSur of the Orkneys, conquered
Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Mo-
ray. However, I’orsteinn was soon
killed in battle and all this (territory,
except Caithness and Sutherland, was
recovered by the natives. These two
provinces were closely connected with
the Orkneys for a long period.
Before 880, (the Western Isles
changed rulers periodically, at which
time Norse earls secured a permanent
hold on them. The Norsemen ap-
parently mixed freely with the Celts
in the West. G. Turville-Petre says in
his book Origin of Icelandic Literature
“Not all the settlers in Iceland came
from Norway itself. A considerable
proportion came from the Norse col-
onies in the British Isles, and especial-
ly from those in Ireland and the
Hebrides. These men were descend-
ants of Norsemen who had left their
homes a generation or two earlier and
had gone to live in the Celtic lands.
The Norse colonists bad frequently
married Celtic -women, or taken con-
cubines, and their children were mix-
ed in culture as they were mixed in
blood.”
The Second Wave of Emigration
The second wave of emigration from
Norway commenced in 874, some two
years after king Harold Fair-haired, one
of the kings of Norway, had conquer-
ed all Norway and united it under his
own rule. He gradually took possession
of the 6Sals, the estates of the noble-
men, in Norway, including those of the
earls, hersirs (local chiefs), and other
landowners and men of lesser rank.
King Harold made them swear allegi-
ance and pay required taxes. The