The Vikings in Ireland and Beyond

Before and After the Battle of Clontarf

Howard B. Clarke, Ruth Johnson

• Publisher: Four Courts Press
• Year: 2020
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781846829246
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

This book contains contributions by many leading scholars in Viking studies from Ireland, Britain, and Scandinavia, on diverse subjects including archaeological excavation, art historical analysis, linguistics, literature, politics, historical sources, numismatics, environmental remains, human remains, and artifact studies from c.795 to 1170. Aimed at both the non-specialist and the specialist reader, the book will prove to be a landmark publication in Viking studies for years to come. ***Chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2016 by Choice Magazine!! *** "This book takes a textual and archaeological look at the Viking presence in Ireland from its early ninth-century beginnings to 12th-century cultural memories. The Battle of Clontarf in 1014 is a chronological anchor but not a focal point of the collection. The publication boasts color photographs, an index of proper names (only), and a solid introductory essay. A valuable, updated resource for Viking scholars and students." -- Choice, Vol. 53, No. 7, March 2016 [Subject: History, Medieval Studies, Archaeology, Viking Studies, Irish Studies]

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• List of illustrations
• List of abbreviations
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• 1. Ireland and the Viking Age
• 2. Written sources for pre-Christian sanctuaries in northern Europe
• 3. The first generation in Ireland, 795-812: Viking raids and Viking bases?
• 4. The longphort in Viking-Age Ireland: the archaeological evidence
• 5. Viking camps and the means of exchange in Britain and Ireland in the ninth century
• 6. Vikings at Annagassan: the evidence of the annals and the wider context
• 7. A Viking warrior grave from Dublin
• 8. The Ballinderry bow: an under-appreciated Viking weapon?
• 9. Fighting with silver: the Woodstown assemblage
• 10. The Viking glass beads from Dunmore Cave, Co.Kilkenny
• 11. Viking Limerick and its hinterland
• 12. The break-up of Dál Riata and the rise of Gallgoídil
• 13. Mind the gap: the supposed hiatus in Irish art of the tenth century
• Plates
• 14. A man of two faces: Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill in Middle Irish sources
• 15. King Sitriuc Silkenbeard: a great survivor
• 16. Through a glass darkly: some sidelights on Viking influence on personal names and place-names in Ireland
• 17. Costumes and contact: evidence for Scandinavian women in the Irish Sea region
• 18. The environment of Viking-Age: recent evidence from Ireland to Russia
• 19. Where are the longhouses? Reviewing Ireland’s Viking-Age buildings
• 20. Viking-Age domestic settlement at 26-29 Castle Street, Dublin: a preliminary view based on archaeological excavations
• 21. Prelude to the Hiberno-Scandinavian coinage: the Castle Street and Werburgh Street hoards
• 22. Copies or creations? Some shared elements in Hiberno-Norse and Scandinavian artwork
• 23. Practice makes perfect? Motif-pieces as tools of communication and the exchange of tacit artistic knowledge in Viking-Age Dublin
• 24. The art of politics: the Cross of Cong and the Hiberno-Urnes style
• 25. Rathdown slabs revisited
• 26. Celtic berserkers and feeble steersmen: Hiberno-Scandinavian military culture in Middle Irish literature
• 27. Irish Sea identities and interconnections during the Viking Age
• 28. Vikings in Ireland: the catastrophe
• Index