Page 119 - Demo

Chapter Four 119
about this time great numbers of them led to their homeland from county Sligo. But these warriors were not easily discouraged, and this state of afairs did not continue long. About 850 fresh hosts of a new type of Norsemen began to arrive and we ind the two diferent strands of Norsemen we spoke of earlier battling against each other on the coast of Ireland for the privilege of holding Dublin and the other important Irish ports.
As mentioned previously, the conlicting tribes were the Finngalls or Fair Foreigners from Norway and Sweden, and the Dubhgalls or Dark Foreigners from Denmark. The opposing forces met in a great and bloody battle in the Bay of Carlingford, in county Louth, in which the Finngalls were routed and their king and ive thousand warriors slain. Unfortunately, the Irish, who should have been united for the purpose of driving out both foreign forces were not, and they in many cases fought for one side or the other. As time went on, however, the distinction between the two tribes became less clear and eventually these invaders became known collectively as the Danes and accordingly their power and position grew. It was about this time that the Norsemen appeared to rule all of northern Europe. As we know, they were in possession of most of Ireland, but they also possessed all the islands around Britain and had even placed a Danish King on the throne of England, and in France, they annexed the province, since known as Normandy.
Under various leaders they made settlements in places as far apart as Spain and the banks of the Volga in Russia, placed Iceland under tribute and even crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
These new Norsemen put the Irish under indescribable oppression and everywhere they went they ravaged, plundered, and taxed, so much so that by the third quarter of the ninth century the Norsemen had laid most of Ireland under tribute to them. The Annals of the Four Masters describe the methods used by the Norsemen in Ireland at the time:
“.they ordained kings and chiefs, stewards and bailifs, in every territory, and after that in every chieftaincy, they levied the rent. And such was the oppressiveness of the tribute, that there was a king from among the foreigners over every territory-a chief over every chieftaincy-an abbot over every church-a steward over every village-and a soldier in every house. So that none of the men of Erin had power to give even the milk of his cow, nor so much as the clutch of eggs of one hen, in succor to the aged or to a friend, but was forced to preserve them for the foreigner.”