[36] For example, Woolf (2007) suggests that his appearance in the sagas "looks very much like a story created in later days to legitimise Norwegian claims to sovereignty in the region" and suggests an early 11th-century creation of the earldom of Orkney, prior to which local warlords competed for influence with one another and local populations of farmers. Eventually, it was not only the Picts and the Scotts that were Scottish, but the Vikings, too. [Note 3] As Ó Corráin himself admits "when and how the Vikings conquered and occupied the Isles is unknown, perhaps unknowable". [179] Amongst the best known figures are Gormflaith ingen Murchada, Gunnhild Gormsdóttir, Aud the Deep-Minded[180] and Ingibjörg, the daughter of Earl Hakon Paulsson and wife of King Olaf Godredsson. 1 These findings are startling, as other estimates (using different methods) had been significant but much lower at 2-6 percent. [118], The ounceland system seems to have become widespread down the west coast including much of Argyll and this is just as true of most of the south west apart from land adjacent to the inner Solway Firth. Meanwhile, the natives of these islands – while certainly brave and hardy people – could rarely have possessed the military organization to resist Vikings that landed in any significant number. The Northern Isles, known to the Norse as the Norðreyjar, are the closest parts of Scotland to Norway and these islands experienced the first and most long-lasting Norse influence of any part of Scotland. This all was – as we have seen in Ireland – the natural habitat in which Vikings become apex predators. Unsurprisingly, Sigurd agreed and the islands became Christian at a stroke,[164] receiving their own bishop, Henry of Lund (also known as "the Fat"), who was appointed sometime prior to 1035. For the natives of Scotland, it was not just the active influences of this Norse presence, but also their reactions towards it, that forged many disparate tribes into one people. Pictish, Middle Irish and Old Norse would certainly have been spoken and Woolf (2007) suggests that a significant degree of linguistic balkanisation took place. He has published several books, including Sons of Vikings: A Legendary History of the Viking Age (Viking books) and Usurper: A Novel of the Fall of Rome. “A famous example from a 13th-century Icelandic saga, describing the Viking Age, is Egil Skallagrimsson, who was the son of a man named Skalla-Grim. Perhaps to counter growing Irish influence in the Western Isles Magnus Barelegs re-established direct Norwegian overlordship there by 1098. 2014 http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/constantine_ii/9. Erik Bloodaxe, also known as ErikHaraldsson, was a 10th-century Norse king. [55][Note 5] According to the Landnámabók Kettil became ruler of a region already settled by Scandinavians. [52][53] According to the Orkneyinga Saga, about 872 Harald Fairhair became King of a united Norway and many of his opponents fled to the islands of Scotland. [43], The Frankish Annales Bertiniani may record the conquest of the Inner Hebrides by Vikings in 847. 96–98, Graham-Campbell and Batey (1998) pp. [160] The Odin Stone has been used as evidence of Odinic beliefs and practices but the derivation may well be from "oathing stone". [115], By the mid 10th century Amlaíb Cuarán controlled The Rhinns[116] and the region gets the modern name of Galloway from the mixture of Viking and Gaelic Irish settlement that produced the Gall-Gaidel. This assumes a period of Norse expansion into the Northern Isles and the creation of an aristocratic dynasty that lasted well into the Medieval period, which exerted considerable influence in western Scotland and Mann into the 11th century. For example, the most successful Scottish ruler of the Dark Ages, Constantine mac Áed (Constantine II) crushed a Viking offensive led by Dublin’s Ivar the Younger in 902, only to surround himself with Viking allies against King Aethelstan of England some decades later. The Romans even had to pull back from their Antonine Wall and build the better Hadrian’s Wall further south. References:1. [54] Hunter (2000) states that Ketill was "in charge of an extensive island realm and, as a result, sufficiently prestigious to contemplate the making of agreements and alliances with other princelings". For example, it is likely that the Norse language became as dominant throughout the Inner Hebrides as it did on Lewis during the 10th and 11th centuries. [134], Godred Crovan became the ruler of Dublin and Mann from 1079[135][136] and from the early years of the 12th century the Crovan dynasty asserted themselves and ruled as "Kings of Mann and the Isles" for the next half century. The Vikings in Scotland Though the Vikings established supremacy in the western islands, and ended the Scottish kingdom of Dal Riata, the emergence of a more unified Alba changed their designs. [95][96] It is however known that Hebrides were taxed using the Ounceland system and evidence from Bornais suggests that settlers there may have been more prosperous than families of a similar status in the Northern Isles, possibly due to a more relaxed political regime. [124] The imposition of direct Norwegian rule at the end of this century brought this to a close in the north and unusually, from c. 1100 onwards the Norse jarls of the Northern Isles owed allegiance both to Norway for Orkney and to the Scottish crown through their holdings as Earls of Caithness. https://sonsofvikings.com/blogs/history/vikings-in-scotland Potentially the most famous Viking of all time, Erik the Red was a murderer through and through. Shetland is some 300 kilometres (190 mi) due west of Norway[2][3] and in favourable conditions could be reached in 24 hours from Hordaland in a Viking longship. [198], Relations with Pictland, Strathclyde and Alba, Murray (1973) notes that "Western Isles" has tended to mean "Outer Hebrides" since the creation of the, This contrasts with evidence from the Faroes, for which it has been calculated that 87% or more of the males settlers were of Scandinavian descent but that 83% of females were from the. "All the islands of Britain" were devastated in 794[36] with Iona being sacked in 802 and 806. There is a significant corpus of material from the Gaelic oral tradition that relates to this period, but its value is questionable. The most famous Vikings in history. Ross, David (19 October 2011). [28][Note 2], The pagan reaction hypothesis proposed by Bjørn Myhre suggests a long tradition of mobility amongst the various populations of the North Atlantic seaboard and that the expansion of Christian missions resulted in ethnic tensions that led to or exacerbated Viking expansion. Contemporary documentation of the Viking period of Scottish history is very weak. South of Sutherland there is considerable place name evidence of Norse settlement along the entire western coast, although unlike on the islands the settlement in the south seems to have been less prolonged and undertaken in tandem with pre-existing settlement rather than replacing it entirely. If you refuse, I'll have you killed on the spot and I swear I will ravage every island with fire and steel." Ó Corráin writes of an incident of Viking activity in Ireland "This was a perfectly normal military campaign in Irish circumstances and the plundering of churches was an integral part of warfare and not a new vice learned with alacrity from the Vikings.". On returning to Scotland, Sir Gilbert was killed alongside King James IV and many other Scots at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. Famous Vikings from History. October 20, 2011. https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/vikings-and-scotland-10-lesser-known-facts-1-19197504. By 848, Kenneth MacAlpin was being called the king of the Picts and the Scotts. Some 16 kilometres (10 mi) due south of Orkney is the Scottish mainland. Sailing out from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden towards the rich monasteries, fertile fields, and abundant resources of Ireland and Britain, the archipelago of islands that form the west of Scotland would make perfect base camps for armies to amass and trading posts to flourish. In particular, Shetland's connection with Norway has proven to be enduring. Gammeltoft, Peder (2010) "Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – A Dynamic Group". While various political changes throughout the next few centuries led to the country being called Scotland, it is still called Alba in the native Scottish-Gaelic language today. Ailpín’s son, Cináed (remembered to history as Kenneth MacAlpin) took his father’s place as king of the Dal Riata Scotts. [5] The two most northerly provinces of mainland Scotland, Caithness and Sutherland, fell under Norse control at an early date. Vikings – along the north coast where place names are clues. An 11th-century cross slab decorated with Irish and Ringerike Viking art on Islay was found in 1838. Until the mid to late 11th century the Earls of Orkney and Kings of the Western Isles were probably independent rulers. Mitchell, N. (2011). [44][45][46] Amlaíb Conung, who died in 874, is described as the "son of the king of Lochlainn" in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland also suggesting an early date for an organised kingdom of Viking Scotland. The first phase of Norse expansion was that of war bands seeking plunder and the creation of new settlements. [82] Raghnall mac Gofraidh was granted Caithness after assisting the Scots king in a conflict with Harald Maddadson, an earl of Orkney in the early 13th century. 1320 marks the Declaration of Arbroath, a cornerstone … To discover Scotland’s famous Viking heritage, head the Shetland Islands. Ó CORRÁIN, D. (1998). It had a wooden dragon’s head carved at the front of the ship, on top of a boat stem like this one. "Britain's first intact Viking boat burial site unearthed". "Peaceful wars and scientific invaders: Irishmen, Vikings and palynological evidence for the earliest settlement of the Faroe Islands" in Sheehan and Ó Corráin (2010) p. 68, Graham-Campbell and Batey (1998) pp. Crawford, Barbara E. "Orkney in the Middle Ages" in Omand (2003) p. 64. Etchingham, Colman (2001) "North Wales, Ireland and the Isles: the Insular Viking Zone". https://www.ucc.ie/research/chronicon/ocor2fra.htm10. [12][143] Three years earlier Vikings had seized Northumbria, forming the Kingdom of York[144] and subsequently conquered much of England except for a reduced Kingdom of Wessex,[144] leaving the new combined Pictish and Gaelic kingdom almost encircled. Graham-Campbell and Batey (1998) pp. [100][101][102] Only three rune stones are known from the west coast of Scotland, on Christian memorials found on Barra, Inchmarnock and Iona. He began killing at an… [11] However, the place name, written and archaeological evidence of extensive Norse (as opposed to Norse-Gael) settlement in the area is not convincing. The fjords and hills of these windswept havens even looked a little like the homelands the Norse had left behind. Over 700 Viking items to choose from! http://www.scottish-history.com/origins3.shtml2. [60] Sigurd's line barely survived him and it was Torf-Einarr, Rognvald's son by a slave, who founded a dynasty that controlled the Northern Isles for centuries after his death. Crux Publishing, Ltd. United Kingdom. Crawford, Barbara E. "Orkney in the Middle Ages" in Omand (2003) pp. Meaning: Chaste, pure. The Picts and the Scotts were constantly at war with each other, as well as some of the tribes of Britons in the region, and of course the Saxons of neighboring Northumbria. Religion was one of the few areas where most parties agreed, and so monasteries (such as the famous abbey in Iona) thrived despite the discord throughout the rest of the land. (2011). In the 15th century, Sir Gilbert Hay fought alongside Joan of Arc in France. Mark, J. J. [24], The second of these theories is the genocide hypothesis, which asserts that the aboriginal populations of the Northern and Western Isles were eradicated and replaced wholesale with settlers of Scandinavian stock. The Norse legacy of art and architecture is limited. Home » History Blog » Famous Vikings from History. in Ballin Smith, Beverley, Taylor, Simon and Williams, Gareth (eds) (2007), Barrett, James H. "The Norse in Scotland" in Brink, Stefan (ed) (2008). (2009), Jensen, Judith "The Norse gods in Scotland" in Woolf, Alex (ed.) But from 849 on, when Columba's relics were removed in the face of Viking incursions, written evidence from local sources all but vanishes for three hundred years. The Viking era is situated between the 8th and 11th centuries, coinciding with the impressive expansion that the warriors of northern Europe carried out and because of the importance that the chronicles of time give to their constant attacks. Kelly, J. Thorfinn's death and presumed burial at the broch of Hoxa, on South Ronaldsay, then led to a long period of dynastic strife. Origin: Viking. [125] In 1231 the line of Norse earls, unbroken since Rognvald Eysteinsson, ended with Jon Haraldsson's murder in Thurso. Famous Vikings. Conquering the land no longer seemed possible, and so as they had in Ireland, the Norse began to become more enmeshed in the ethnic, cultural, and political landscape. [58][59], Nonetheless, the Norse tradition states that Rognvald Eysteinsson received Orkney and Shetland from Harald as an earldom as reparation for the death of his son in battle in Scotland, and then passed the earldom on to his brother Sigurd the Mighty. 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