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It was six centuries since Niall of the Nine Hostages had founded the mighty dynasty of O'Neill, and in all that time, despite the ebb and flows of power among the island's Celtic chiefs. no one had ever dislodged the O'Neills from the High Kingship, until now.

Brian: his father's given name was Kennedy, so he was properly called Brian, son of Kennedy. But like Niall of the Nine Hostages many centuries earlier, Brian was so well known for the tribute he collected that he was called "Boruma", the cattle counter, or Brian Boru. he had astounded all Ireland by his rise.

His people, the Dal Cais, had only been a small and unimportant Munster tribe in his grandfather's day. They had lived on the banks of the Shannon just upstream from where it opens out into its long western estuary. But when the Vikings founded their settlement nearby at Limerick, Brian's grandfather had refused to come to terms with them.

For three generations the family had conducted a guerrilla war against the Viking's river traffic. The Dal Cais had become famous. Brian's grandfather had called himself a King; Brian's mother had been a princess from Connacht; his sister had even been chosen as a wife by the king at Tara - though this hadn't done the family much good after she was executed for sleeping with her husband's son.

The Dal Cais were ambitious. They had a hardened fighting force. Brian's brothers had already tested their strength against several of the other rulers in the region. But no one could have imagined what they did next. All Ireland gasped when the news of it came.

"They've taken Cashel."

Cashel - the ancient stronghold of the Munster kings. True, the Munster kings were not what they were. But the cheek of it! And when the King of Munster got the Vikings of Limerick to join him to punish these insolent upstarts, the Dal Cais beat them all, and plundered Limerick, too. A few years later Brian Boru took over as King of Munster.

A minor chieftain's family had taken one of the four great kingships of Ireland - where the Celtic royal dynasties went back into the mists of time....

Brian was in his prime. The tides of fortune were with him. He was King of Munster. Where else could ambition take him? Only gradually did it become clear that he had decided to aim at nothing less than the High Kingship itself.

He was bold, methodical and patient. One year he moved against the nearby territory of Ossory; another, he took a great fleet into Connacht; a dozen years after becoming King of Munster, he even moved into the island's central heartland and camped by the sacred site of Uisnech.

He had taken his time, but the message to the O'Neill was clear; either they must crush Brian Boru or give him the recognition he asked for.

It was fortunate for Brian, and probably all of Ireland, that the O'Neill High King at this time was of a noble and statesmanlike mind. The choice was clear, but not easy; either he must challenge the Munster man to a war, which could only involve a huge loss of life, or he must swallow his pride and come to terms with him, if the thing could be done with honor.

He chose the latter course. And reviving the ancient division of the island into two halves, the upper Leth Cuinn, and the lower Leth Moga, he declared, "Let us rule jointly: you in the south, and I in the north."

"I should rule Leinster as well as Munster then, while you keep Connacht and Ulster," Brian solemnly agreed. "Which means," he pointed out to his followers afterwards, "that I shall control all the cheif ports, including Dyflin" [Dublin]. Without having to strike another blow, he had just gained all the richest prizes in Ireland.

Or thought he had.

The High King might have meant well, but when he gave the overlordship of their kingdom to Brian, the proud men of Leinster were unimpressed. Nobody had asked them. The king and the chiefs in particular were incensed. The new overlord, to be sure, would be wanting tribute and taking their sons as hostages for their good behaviour, in the usual way.

Whatever the Leinster men might have felt about the Vikings of Dyflin [Dublin] when they first arrived, the two communities had been living together for generations now....

True, many of the Vikings were still pagan, but even religion had to take second place where matters of honor were at stake. As for the Vikings themselves, they had been stubbornly resisting the control of the High King for a long time. They were hardly likely to submit to Brian Boru just because the O'Neill High King, who was too weak to fight, had told them that they should.

So it was that autumn that the King of Leinster and the King of Dyflin had decide to refuse to recognise the Munster man.... And now the Munster man was coming, and they had gone out to meet him

The trouble had begun in England. More than a dozen years ago, at the very time that Brian Boru had crushed the Dyflin [Dublin] men at Glen Mama, the foolish Saxon king of southern England, known to his people as Ethelred the Unready, had unwisely attacked the Vikings of northern England at their mighty port of York.

He had soon paid for his foolishness. A fleet of Viking longships had crossed the sea from Denmark and returned the compliment. For the next decade, the southern English had been forcd to pay Danegeld - protection money - if they wanted to live in peace.

And now, this year, the King of Denmark and his son Canute had been assembling a great Vikng fleet to smash poor Ethelred and take his English kingdom from him. The northern seas were echoing with the news.

Every week, ships had come into the port of Dyflin with further reports of this adventure; small wonder then, if some of the Dyflin men were growing restless....

Because of the excitement caused by the English business, every Viking troublemaker and pirate in the northern sea was on the lookout for an adventure.

And now the men of Dyflin were going to get their chance. If the Celtic King of Leinster wanted to revolt, his Viking kinsman the ruler of Dyflin was ready to join him

Naah, just me talking to myself about history again is all.

Along those lines the aforementioned Hugh O'Neill himself was technically an Earl (of Thormond?), although thoroughly Irish, and had been raised in England and in the Pale specifically to try and Anglicise him. Didn't work apparently.

You're confusing the Dal Cassians with the O'Neills again. Brian Boru was probably the King of Thomond, (one half of Munster) The other half of Munster was called Desmond, and a MacCarthy was the Earl/Baron there.

Blessed Red Hugh O'Neill was the Earl of Tyrone, his buddy Hugh O'Donnell was the Earl of Tyrconnell.

It wasn't until Samuel Johnson travelled to Scotland in the 1700's and his journey was chronicled by James Boswell in his work, The Life of Samuel Johnson, Including The Tour To The Hebrides, that Johnson, followed by the English readers of Boswell's influential book, began to see the Scots as an interesting people, even though they were from a very different and somewhat ancient culture.

Earl Sigurd bade to his feast at Yule Earl Gilli, his brother- in-law, out of the Southern isles; he had to wife Swanlauga, Earl Sigurd's sister; and then, too, came to see Earl Sigurd that king from Ireland whose name was Sigtrygg. He was a son of Olaf Rattle, but his mother's name was Kormlada [Gormflaith]; she was the fairest of all women, and best gifted in everything that was not in her own power, but it was the talk of men that she did all things ill over which she had any power.

Brian was the name of the king who first had her to wife, but they were then parted. He was the best-natured of all kings. He had his seat in Connaught, in Ireland; his brother's name was Wolf the Quarrelsome, the greatest champion and warrior; Brian's foster-child's name was Kerthialfad..... and loved him more than his own sons. He was then full grown when these things happened, and was the boldest of all men.

Duncan was the name of the first of King Brian's sons; the second was Margad; the third, Takt, whom we call Tann, he was the youngest of them; but the elder sons of King Brian were full grown, and the briskest of men.

Kormlada was not the mother of King Brian's children, and so grim was she against King Brian after their parting, that she would gladly have him dead.

King Brian thrice forgave all his outlaws the same fault, but if they misbehaved themselves oftener, then he let them be judged by the law; and from this one may mark what a king he must have been.

Kormlada egged on her son Sigtrygg very much to kill King Brian, and she now sent him to Earl Sigurd to beg for help.

King Sigtrygg came before Yule to the Orkneys, and there, too, came Earl Gilli, as was written before.

The men were so placed that King Sigtrygg sat in a high seat in the middle, but on either side of the king sat one of the earls. The men of King Sigtrygg and Earl Gilli sate on the inner side away from him, but on the outer side away from Earl Sigurd, sate Flosi and Thorstein, son of Hall of the Side, and the whole hall was full....

Then King Sigtrygg stirred in his business with Earl Sigurd, and bade him go to the war with him against King Brian.

The earl was long steadfast, but the end of it was that he let the king have his way, but said he must have his mother's hand for his help, and be king in Ireland, if they slew Brian. But all his men besought Earl Sigurd not to go into the war, but it was all no good.

So they parted on the understanding that Earl Sigurd gave his word to go; but King Sigtrygg promised him his mother and the kingdom.

It was so settled that Earl Sigurd was to come with all his host to Dublin by Palm Sunday.

Then King Sigtrygg fared south to Ireland, and told his mother Kormlada that the earl had undertaken to come, and also what he had pledged himself to grant him.

She showed herself well pleased at that, but said they must gather greater force still.

Sigtrygg asked whence this was to be looked for?

She said there were two vikings lying off the west of Man; and that they had thirty ships, and, she went on, "They are men of such hardihood that nothing can withstand them. The one's name is Ospak, and the other's Brodir. Thou shalt fare to find them, and spare nothing to get them into thy quarrel, whatever price they ask."

Now King Sigtrygg fares and seeks the vikings, and found them lying outside off Man; King Sigtrygg brings forward his errand at once, but Brodir shrank from helping him until he, King Sigtrygg, promised him the kingdom and his mother, and they were to keep this such a secret that Earl Sigurd should know nothing about it; Brodir too was to come to Dublin on Palm Sunday.

So King Sigtrygg fared home to his mother, and told her how things stood.

After that those brothers, Ospak and Brodir, talked together, and then Brodir told Ospak all that he and Sigtrygg had spoken of, and bade him fare to battle with him against King Brian, and said he set much store on his going.

But Ospak said he would not fight against so good a king....

Then they were both wroth, and sundered their band at once. Ospak had ten ships and Brodir twenty.

Ospak was a heathen, and the wisest of all men. He laid his ships inside in a sound, but Brodir lay outside him.

Brodir had been a Christian man and a mass-deacon by consecration, but he had thrown off his faith and become God's dastard, and now worshipped heathen fiends, and he was of all men most skilled in sorcery. He had that coat of mail on which no steel would bite. He was both tall and strong, and had such long locks that he tucked them under his belt. His hair was black.....

Then Brodir was so wroth that he could answer never a word, but he went at once to his men, and made them lay his ships in a line across the sound, and moor them by bearing their cables on shore at either end of the line, and meant to slay them all next morning.

Ospak saw all their plan, and then he vowed to take the true faith, and to go to King Brian, and follow him till his death- day.

Then he took that counsel to lay his ships in a line, and punt them along the shore with poles, and cut the cables of Brodir's ships. Then the ships of Brodir's men began to fall aboard of one another when they were all fast asleep; and so Ospak and his men got out of the firth, and so west to Ireland, and came to Connaught.

Then Ospak told King Brian all that he had learnt, and took baptism, and gave himself over into the king's hand.

After that King Brian made them gather force over all his realm, and the whole host was to come to Dublin in the week before Palm Sunday.

"It was February when the news began to arrive at the port...

The Vikings were coming. From the Isle of Man, just over the horizon, its Viking ruler was bringing a war fleet. From the faraway Orkney Islands in the north, another great sailing was coming. Warrior cheifs, merchants, adventurers, Nordic pirates - they were all making ready.

It would be another great Viking adventure. Who knew, if they defeated old Brian Boru, there might even be a chance to take over the whole island, just as Canute and his Danes were doing in England. At the least, there would be valuable pickings.

They passed over a high mountain gap.... The day was pleasant, the April sky remaining unusually clear. It was past mid-afternoon when they emerged on the northern slopes and saw below them to the east the wide magnificence of the Liffey estuary and the huge sweep of the bay laid out before them.

Then Osgar saw the Viking sails.

It was the whole Viking fleet, strung out from the northern curve of the bay, past the Ben of Howth, and away into the open sea where, finally, they became indistinct in the sea mist.

Square sails: He could see that those nearest were brightly coloured. How many? He counted three dozen; no doubt there were more. How many fighting men? A thousand? More?

He had never seen such a sight before. He stared in horror, and felt a terrible, cold fear.

There were no palm trees in Dyflin, so on Palm Sunday Christians went to church with all kinds of greenery in their hands. Caoilinn carried a sheaf of long, sweet grasses.

It was a strange sight that morning to see the streams of worshippers, Leinster and Dyflin people, Celtic Gaedhil and Nordic Gaill, carrying their greenery through the wooden streets, watched by the men from the longships.

Some of the warriors from the northern lands were good Christians, she noted with approval, for they joined the procession. But most seemed to be either heathen or indifferent, and they stood by the fences or in the gateways, leaning on their axes, watching, talking amongst themselves or drinking ale.

It had been a remarkable sight when the longships had started coming up the Liffey the evening before. The two fleets had arrived together. The Earl of Orkney had brought with him Vikings from all over the north, from the Orkneys and the Isle of Skye, from the coast of Argyll and the Mull of Kintyre.

From the Isle of Man, however, the scar-faced warlord Brodar had brought a fearsome collection, drawn, it seemed, from the ports of many lands. Fair-haired Norsemen, burly Danes, some were light coloured, some dark and swarthy. Many, she judged, were nothing more than pirates. Yet these were the allies that her Leinster king had called upon to strike at Brian Boru.

She could have wished he had found other sorts of men.

Brodir tried by sorcery how the fight would go, but the answer ran thus, that if the fight were on Good-Friday King Brian would fall but win the day; but if they fought before, they would all fall who were against him.

Then Brodir said that they must not fight before the Friday.

Now it must be told of King Brian that he would not fight on the fast-day, and so a shieldburg was thrown round him, and his host was drawn up in array in front of it.

Good Friday, 23 April 1014. One of the most holy days of the year. They marched out of Dyflin at dawn....

...it was a fearsome sight. And most terrifying of all, the Leinster people agreed, were the Vikings from across the sea.

It was their armor. The Celtic people of the Island no longer stripped for battle as their ancestors had done. The Leinstermen who marched out of battle wore long, brightly colored vests or leather padded tunics over their shirts; some had helmets, most carried the traditional painted shield, strengthened with bosses of iron.

But splendid as this battle gear was, it did not compare with that of the Vikings. For the Vikings wore chain mail. Thousands of tiny links of iron or brass, tightly woven and riveted, worn over a leather undershirt, that stretched to below the waist or even the knee, the chain mail was heavy and slowed the warrior down, but it was very hard to pierce...
...to the people of the western island it made them look strangely grey, dark and evil. This was the armor worn by most of the men from the longships.

It was a huge force that marched out of Dyflin and went across the wooden bridge. Though their armor was different, the weapons carried by the Irish Gaedhil and Viking Giall were not so unlike, for as well as the customary spear and sword, more than a few of the Celtic warriors carried Viking axes.

There were some archers with poisoned arrows, and there were several chariots to carry the great men. But the battle would be fought not by manouver but by massed lines of hand to hand fighting.

He had killed five men so far and wounded a dozen others. he had chosen a steel sword to fight with today. In close fighting he found it better to stab than try to swing an axe.

Though good blades were forged in Dyflin, the Viking armaments were still better than anything made on the Celtic island, and the blue-bladed, double edged sword he had acquired in Denmark was a deadly weapon.