Page 116 - Demo

116
Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
Hear my tale, ye Viking sworders! Winter smites us, wild winds crying Set the salty billows flying
Wind and Winter, fierce marauders.”
Soon, however, having realised how slight was the resistance offered to them, the Norse- men began to arrive in large fleets of forty to fifty ships, commanded by more ruthless and powerful leaders. Little by little they began to occupy the islands and outlying headlands al- ready visited by their predecessors where they quickly established small settlements, the nu- clei of some important towns in times to come, and in a short period they began penetrating further inland and carrying off booty from places which had hitherto been safe from their attacks. Now, as already mentioned, the Irish were quite unfitted to cope with such attacks. The long years of peace and prosperity had left them wholly unprepared for military action on such a scale-because all their energies had been devoted to culture, learning, and hus- bandry, rather than to the art and science of warfare. Consequently, they had no battleships, no standing army, inferior weaponry, little or no armour, and moreover, the warriors of the scattered tribes did not possess an effective military training. As a result, largely unmolested, except that is for the men of what is today, county Mayo, who defeated them in 812, the invaders plundered, slaughtered, desecrated and ravaged, almost at will, for nearly half a century: and all the time their settlements grew substantially in size and more numerous.
To put the ruthless efficiency of these Norsemen into context, in 823 they attacked and burned the celebrated monastery and school of Bangor, in county Down, where it is told they slaughtered 500 monks and scholars, and made off with many sacred objects of great value.
Is acher in gaíth innocht
fu-fuasna fairggae findfholt
ni ágor réimm mora minn
dond láechraid lainn ua Lothlind
The wind is fierce to-night
It tosses the sea’s white hair
So I need not fear the wild Vikings Sailing the Irish ocean fair.
(Poem in margin of St Gall Priscian, in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus, free translation S.Dunford)
fffffffffff