2RHPZ
07-17-2004, 10:09 AM
The link to the site was posted by Mark Sman at Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:53 am (Post subject: 23 April Military History) but I guess it is very good reading and worth posting again in full text.
PART I
The Irish High King wanted to unite his people, but his enemies - including the Viking Brodir of Man - stopped him at Clontarf in 1014.
As the dreaded Viking longboats cut sleekly toward the shore dimly outlined in the evening dusk, the lights of the Irish army’s distant campfires could be seen a mile or so inland. The ruse had worked for Brodir of Man. The Vikings had fooled Irish High King Brian Boru into thinking they had deserted their allies at the fortress of Dublin.
In reality, the Vikings had simply sailed out of sight, to return in the darkness in hopes of catching the Irish unprepared for the enemy’s reappearance the next morning. The Vikings also knew that the pious Brian would be loath to do battle on such a holy day as April 23, 1014, Good Friday.
More important to the Viking Brodir than such sacrosanct niceties were the treasures he would possess after he had destroyed the Irish armies. Not only the wealth of the kingdom but also the high kingship itself might be his. Of course, others coveted the same things - including his ally Sigtrygg, the Danish king of Dublin, and Sigurd, the Viking earl of the Orkney Isles. But they could be dealt with after the Irish - including Brian Boru - had been destroyed. First things first.
Ireland, to this day not noted for unity, consisted of 100 to 200 different tribal kingdoms in the early 11th century, as well as various Norse and Danish settlements scattered among the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, Munster and Meath. Sparsely populated and with few large villages, Ireland had become popular with the colonising Vikings in the 9th century. It was not long before the invaders began to arrange marriage alliances with Irish noble families and assimilate into the culture of the island. Many Irish boys were adopted by Norse settlers and became vicious fighters known to the Irish as the Gall-Gael, or “Sons of Death.”
Living in close proximity, the Irish warriors and Vikings fought constantly, with tribal factions joining one side or the other as circumstances dictated. From such violent relations, blood feuds developed over the generations.
Although no standing army as such existed in Ireland, landowners owed military service to their tribe and had an obligation to defend tribal lands when they appeared threatened. Each tribal chief provided a number of warriors from his own personal war band, as well as the warriors of his sub-chiefs, to his immediate superior - the number of warriors averaging 700 fighters per tribal unit. The kings, troubled by the fickleness of their subjects, employed bands of mercenaries as bodyguards, although they had a habit of deserting to a higher bidder at inopportune times. By the mid-9th century, most such mercenaries were Viking settlers from the Western Isles and Argyll, and “Scots” (Irish settlers) ... from “Alba” (what is now called Scotland).
The Irish warriors, educated by older, experienced soldiers, were brought up in a climate of almost continuous warfare. It was the custom, say the ancient histories, for young men to prove their mettle by going to Connaught and killing a man. Though the Irish appear to have been ferocious warriors, their actual military service obligations lasted a grand total of three fortnights every three years. Undoubtedly, local leaders spent much of their wealth hiring mercenaries or paying for nonaggression treaties with their Viking neighbours.
Most of the old chroniclers depict the weaponry of the Irish as identical to that of the Vikings. The chiefs wore chain-mail and helmets and wielded heavy two-handed axes. The vast majority of warriors, however, fought unarmoured with spear, axe, shield and sword.
The Irish chiefs also employed large numbers of “kerns”, lightly armed skirmishers who used javelins - apparently longer-ranged missile weapons were considered a less-than-honourable method of inflicting casualties, even though weapons such as slings had been used from the earliest times.
A common Irish battle custom was to cut off the heads of slain enemies; another was to place a sword or spear-point between an enemy’s teeth while accepting the unfortunate warrior’s surrender. Such ceremonies undoubtedly encouraged the antagonists to summon up their utmost skill and bravery to avoid being publicly humiliated.
In this violent, war-torn land the Vikings behaved toward the Irish just as viciously. The Viking raiders, commanded by their earls and kings, numbered up to 1,000 men per leader; the leader paid and supplied the adventurers. The Viking huscarl (housecarl) became synonymous with this hardy warrior race, well-armoured and loyal to the death to their earl.
Not all Vikings, however, were well-armed and armoured. Though the bulk of the raiders became well-off as pirates, those new to the profession or conscripted out of need were more akin to the more lightly equipped Irish in dress and weaponry.
The standard Viking tactic was to form their divisions into shield walls, five or more men deep and close enough together to lock shields, allowing 1˝ feet per man; that prevented missiles from doing much harm. Vikings used the old-style German “boar’s head”, or swine array, attack formation, with their most heavily armoured and best-armed men in the front ranks and those more lightly armoured filling in behind. This formation concentrated plenty of impact on a small frontage - a necessary tactic if the enemy’s shield wall were to be broken. While their methods may sound simplistic today, the combination of honour-bound loyalty to the leader, superior armament and the incentives of loot and glory made the 11th-century Viking warrior a formidable opponent on land or at sea.
The Irish, loyal to their individual tribes, were poorly equipped in comparison to their Viking adversaries. Still, fighting not for pillage but to protect their homes and families in most cases, the Irish managed to give a good account of themselves when battling the invaders. The Irish prepared fortified encampments at night and entertained themselves with jugglers, poets and musicians to keep their spirits up during the grueling campaigns. When in battle, the Irish would often make an impromptu mad dash at the enemy lines, hoping to smash into the enemy formation with enough momentum to cause their foe to break ranks and lose cohesiveness.
Unlike the Vikings, who felt that any form of deceit, subterfuge or underhandedness simply proved the wisdom of a leader, the Irish disdained the use of stealth and guile, though ambushes were considered a normal form of warfare. The Irish often extended courtesies to their enemies, a practice that perplexed the Vikings. In the year 1002, for instance, Brian Boru marched to Tara (the Irish capital) to demand that the High King Malachi either submit or do battle. Malachi asked for a month’s delay - time to muster his army, and Brian upholding the Irish tradition of honourable fairness in war, granted his request. The Irish sense of honour brought the grantor of such graces even greater glory in the end - provided that he was the victor!
Even though the Irish and Viking warriors were culturally similar, they retained their ethnic pride and prejudices. During the centuries before the battle of Clontarf, historical momentum was building toward a final cataclysmic battle that would decide whether Ireland would remain Celtic or become another Viking colony. To finally bring the issue to a bloody climax it only required an Irish leader who was sufficiently charismatic and physically powerful to unite the clans.
Brian mac Cenneidigh, born in the province of Munster around 941 AD, was the youngest of 12 brothers, all but two of whom would be killed in battle. Members of the Dal Caissan clan, the brothers fought continuous wars against the Danes and Irish rivals from Leinster. When his brother, Mahon, became King of Munster and eventually undertook a treaty with the Vikings of Ivar, who was the Norse king of Limerick, Brian Boru then waged guerrilla war against the Vikings from his base in the Thomond mountains. When the Vikings broke their treaty, Brian lead an army that defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Sulchoid in 968. (He then followed the Vikings back to Limerick. Where he was so angry to find large numbers of enslaved Irish children that he executed three thousand Vikings in revenge.)
Mahon assumed the mantle of provincial king in 968, but he was assassinated eight years afterward. Brian succeeded him. He caught and killed the assassins who had murdered Mahon and then proceeded to bring the southern half of Ireland under his rule. According to the ancient chronicle known as the Cogadh, “He was not a stone in place of an egg, nor a wisp of hay in place of a club; but he was a hero in place of a hero.”
Civil war, an endemic element of Irish history, did not abate during the latter part of the 10th century. Malachi claimed the high kingship of Ireland in 980, after defeating the Danish Vikings at the Battle of Tara the year before. Brian and Malachi then proceeded to fight a 20-year war before being forced to join forces just before the turn of the century to defeat an invading Danish Viking army at Glenmama. They killed 7,000 of the enemy, sacked Dublin and ravaged Leinster in the process. Malachi, acknowledging Brian’s military prowess and growing popularity, offered him the kingship of more than half the land, but Brian would be satisfied with nothing less than high king. By 1002, Brian’s military strength proved overwhelming, and Malachi abdicated the throne. Brian wasted no time in occupying it.
Though contemporaries described Brian Boru as an idealised, fearless king who fostered Irish nationalism, the reality was that Brian, intelligent enough to know the value of “good press,” generated political support with lavish liturgical patronage and used plenty of Viking-style cunning in his political dealings. In effect, he appeared to contemporaries as the mystical type of leader that King Arthur represented for the Britons.
Around the turn of the century, Brian broke a peace treaty with the king of Meath, attacking and defeating him. By 1005, he had used Viking-Irish renegades to mount raiding expeditions against the western shores of Britain, at the same time guaranteeing Danish Viking settlers in Ireland their territories in return for their military support. Still, the ethnic hatred smouldered. The Cogadh text notes that around 1013 Vikings had been billeted in many Irish homes for some time. The moment came when Brian instructed his countrymen in each household to kill their “guests” on a given night as they slept and light a torch to signal that the deed was done. Such was the reality of warfare in the age of heroes.
By the time he was 60, Brian had defeated Vikings and Irish contenders alike, setting the stage for a strong dynasty to rule over the fragmented island. Factionalism was the only thing standing in the way of Irish unity.
The king of Leinster, Mael Morda, rose in revolt in 1012, refusing to acknowledge Brian’s rule. Casting about for allies, he joined up with the always-troublesome Dublin Vikings in open defiance of the high king. Brian tried diplomatically to dissolve this alliance by giving his daughter to Sigtrygg Silkbeard, the Danish king of Dublin, while he himself married the legendary Gormlaith, mother of Sigtrygg, sister to King Mael Morda of Leinster and former spouse of none other than Malachi! This political alliance had too many powerful personages involved to be a success.
While transporting his “tree tribute” (a tax in the form of masts for ships), King Mael Morda broke a button off a tunic given to him by Brian. He asked his sister Gormlaith to mend it, but she started to scold and shame him for accepting anything from her husband, Brian, and being subject to his rule. Stung by his sister’s insults to his honour and manhood, Mael Morda murdered one of Brian’s heralds and rode off to his old allies, the Dublin Vikings. Sigtrygg, ever anxious for a fight, wasted no time in welcoming his uncle, and immediately attacked an Irish ally of Brian’s, raising the banner of insurrection. Various disaffected and rebellious Irish clans quickly threw in their lot with the Dublin Vikings.
Brian, incensed by Gormlaith’s meddling and intrigues, had her imprisoned while he marched for three months through the rebellious lands, raising havoc of his own before dispatching his son Murchad to raid the lands around Dublin.
Gormlaith, though imprisoned, did not sit idly by and accept her fate. At 50 years of age, she had retained her beauty; she had little trouble persuading Sigurd, the Viking earl of the Orkney Isles (who was half-Irish), to come to her rescue. Sigurd not only desired Gormlaith, but he also wanted to sit in Brian’s seat as high king, like his countrymen Svein and Cnut had done in England. Sigtrygg also had sent an appeal for help to Sigurd, promising Gormlaith’s hand in marriage and support for Sigurd’s aspirations to the throne. It seemed that the ever-so-reasonable Sigtrygg only wanted Sigurd to guarantee his continued rule over Dublin. But Sigtrygg had other plans. Attempting to garner as much military help as possible, the wily Dubliner promised Gormlaith to another renowned Viking warrior of the age - to Brodir of the Isle of Man.
Brodir, described by the Irish as a Christian “magician” with hair so long he had to tuck it in his belt and with mailed armour that reportedly could not be pierced by steel, make the same “deal” with Sigtrygg that Sigurd had made - Brodir was promised the Irish throne as well as a bride in return for military assistance. Sigtrygg went so far as to tempt his own brother, but his brother, disgusted with the treacherous double-dealings of his sibling, joined the army of Brian Boru instead. Still, the Vikings of Sigurd and Brodir, more than 2,000 of them, were a force to be feared. (1,000 of whom were covered in chain-mail from head to foot.)
As the forces formed during the winter of 1013-1014, Brian, informed of the mustering of Vikings and rebellious Irish clans in Dublin, called in his own allies - his old enemy Malachi and the clans of Meath, the clans of Connacht, Munster and his own Dal Caissans, as well as a thousand foreign (Viking) mercenaries. Once the muster had been completed, Brian sent his second oldest son, Donnchad, on a raiding expedition into the rebellious Irish territories, while Brian himself took the main army and marched through Leinster toward Viking Dublin. Brian’s strategy was sound. By attacking and continuing to harass the rebel bases, he saw to it that many of the rebellious clans would refuse to leave their threatened homes and march to Dublin. The rebel army never reached the size it potentially could have because Brian cleverly managed to neutralise a sizeable portion of it.
As Sigurd and other Viking adventurers who had joined him sailed in the tributaries outside Dublin, they were met by Sigtrygg, Mael Morda’s Irish Leinstermen, the Dublin Vikings, and the Irish rebels from various clans. Shortly thereafter, Brodir of Man and his Viking warriors arrived. The allied-Viking army resisting Brian Boru reportedly also contained English, Gall-Gael, Welsh, Flemish and French warriors, as well as a handful of Normans. This amalgamation of troops allegedly fought for promised land and pillage as well as for glory and honour. Yet, to read of their determined hand-to-hand combat, revenge for age-old wrongs seems as much a determinant as anything else.
As he approached the town, Brian Boru’s own Irish army suffered a serious blow. Perhaps because of old quarrels, the Irishmen of Meath, commanded by ex-high king Malachi, drew off from the rest of the army and refused to take part in the battle plans. Although upset by the reluctance of his ally, Brian then was heartened by “news” that the Viking forces had boarded their longships and headed out to sea, apparently deserting Sigtrygg. Unknown to the Irish leaders, of course, Sigtrygg, Brodir and Earl Sigurd had planned this ruse to lull the Irish into a sense of false security. The Vikings sailed out of sight and immediately turned around, arriving back on the darkened beaches near Clontarf after sunset and thus ensuring that a battle would be fought on Good Friday.
Brian’s army, depleted by Malachi’s refusal to fight, still managed to muster 7,000 or so warriors. Not only were Brian’s Irish troops present, but there were also warriors from “Alba” (Scotland) and Norway and a contingent of newly Christianised Manx Vikings - all of whom prepared to fight the more heavily armoured allied-Viking force.
The night before the battle, the Vikings were informed that Sigurd had brought a sacred raven banner, woven by his mother, which had the magical properties of ensuring victory for the army if carried before it - but also promising death to its bearers. He tried to downplay that part of the prophecy; even so, he would have a difficult time finding volunteers to bear his mother’s banner the next morning.
As dawn broke, the Vikings assembled on the shores near Clontarf before their beached boats, a mile and a half from the walls of Dublin. (At that time all of Dublin town was south of the Liffey. Only DubhGall’s Bridge – “Doyle’s Bridge” – connected it to the north side where the Vikings were coming ashore.) If Brian Boru and his followers were totally aghast at such a surprise, it was not immediately apparent. Indeed, adversarial warriors in the fortress were graciously allowed by the Irish to leave their walled fortress unmolested and join the Vikings forming up near the oak forrest on the north shore.
PART I
The Irish High King wanted to unite his people, but his enemies - including the Viking Brodir of Man - stopped him at Clontarf in 1014.
As the dreaded Viking longboats cut sleekly toward the shore dimly outlined in the evening dusk, the lights of the Irish army’s distant campfires could be seen a mile or so inland. The ruse had worked for Brodir of Man. The Vikings had fooled Irish High King Brian Boru into thinking they had deserted their allies at the fortress of Dublin.
In reality, the Vikings had simply sailed out of sight, to return in the darkness in hopes of catching the Irish unprepared for the enemy’s reappearance the next morning. The Vikings also knew that the pious Brian would be loath to do battle on such a holy day as April 23, 1014, Good Friday.
More important to the Viking Brodir than such sacrosanct niceties were the treasures he would possess after he had destroyed the Irish armies. Not only the wealth of the kingdom but also the high kingship itself might be his. Of course, others coveted the same things - including his ally Sigtrygg, the Danish king of Dublin, and Sigurd, the Viking earl of the Orkney Isles. But they could be dealt with after the Irish - including Brian Boru - had been destroyed. First things first.
Ireland, to this day not noted for unity, consisted of 100 to 200 different tribal kingdoms in the early 11th century, as well as various Norse and Danish settlements scattered among the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, Munster and Meath. Sparsely populated and with few large villages, Ireland had become popular with the colonising Vikings in the 9th century. It was not long before the invaders began to arrange marriage alliances with Irish noble families and assimilate into the culture of the island. Many Irish boys were adopted by Norse settlers and became vicious fighters known to the Irish as the Gall-Gael, or “Sons of Death.”
Living in close proximity, the Irish warriors and Vikings fought constantly, with tribal factions joining one side or the other as circumstances dictated. From such violent relations, blood feuds developed over the generations.
Although no standing army as such existed in Ireland, landowners owed military service to their tribe and had an obligation to defend tribal lands when they appeared threatened. Each tribal chief provided a number of warriors from his own personal war band, as well as the warriors of his sub-chiefs, to his immediate superior - the number of warriors averaging 700 fighters per tribal unit. The kings, troubled by the fickleness of their subjects, employed bands of mercenaries as bodyguards, although they had a habit of deserting to a higher bidder at inopportune times. By the mid-9th century, most such mercenaries were Viking settlers from the Western Isles and Argyll, and “Scots” (Irish settlers) ... from “Alba” (what is now called Scotland).
The Irish warriors, educated by older, experienced soldiers, were brought up in a climate of almost continuous warfare. It was the custom, say the ancient histories, for young men to prove their mettle by going to Connaught and killing a man. Though the Irish appear to have been ferocious warriors, their actual military service obligations lasted a grand total of three fortnights every three years. Undoubtedly, local leaders spent much of their wealth hiring mercenaries or paying for nonaggression treaties with their Viking neighbours.
Most of the old chroniclers depict the weaponry of the Irish as identical to that of the Vikings. The chiefs wore chain-mail and helmets and wielded heavy two-handed axes. The vast majority of warriors, however, fought unarmoured with spear, axe, shield and sword.
The Irish chiefs also employed large numbers of “kerns”, lightly armed skirmishers who used javelins - apparently longer-ranged missile weapons were considered a less-than-honourable method of inflicting casualties, even though weapons such as slings had been used from the earliest times.
A common Irish battle custom was to cut off the heads of slain enemies; another was to place a sword or spear-point between an enemy’s teeth while accepting the unfortunate warrior’s surrender. Such ceremonies undoubtedly encouraged the antagonists to summon up their utmost skill and bravery to avoid being publicly humiliated.
In this violent, war-torn land the Vikings behaved toward the Irish just as viciously. The Viking raiders, commanded by their earls and kings, numbered up to 1,000 men per leader; the leader paid and supplied the adventurers. The Viking huscarl (housecarl) became synonymous with this hardy warrior race, well-armoured and loyal to the death to their earl.
Not all Vikings, however, were well-armed and armoured. Though the bulk of the raiders became well-off as pirates, those new to the profession or conscripted out of need were more akin to the more lightly equipped Irish in dress and weaponry.
The standard Viking tactic was to form their divisions into shield walls, five or more men deep and close enough together to lock shields, allowing 1˝ feet per man; that prevented missiles from doing much harm. Vikings used the old-style German “boar’s head”, or swine array, attack formation, with their most heavily armoured and best-armed men in the front ranks and those more lightly armoured filling in behind. This formation concentrated plenty of impact on a small frontage - a necessary tactic if the enemy’s shield wall were to be broken. While their methods may sound simplistic today, the combination of honour-bound loyalty to the leader, superior armament and the incentives of loot and glory made the 11th-century Viking warrior a formidable opponent on land or at sea.
The Irish, loyal to their individual tribes, were poorly equipped in comparison to their Viking adversaries. Still, fighting not for pillage but to protect their homes and families in most cases, the Irish managed to give a good account of themselves when battling the invaders. The Irish prepared fortified encampments at night and entertained themselves with jugglers, poets and musicians to keep their spirits up during the grueling campaigns. When in battle, the Irish would often make an impromptu mad dash at the enemy lines, hoping to smash into the enemy formation with enough momentum to cause their foe to break ranks and lose cohesiveness.
Unlike the Vikings, who felt that any form of deceit, subterfuge or underhandedness simply proved the wisdom of a leader, the Irish disdained the use of stealth and guile, though ambushes were considered a normal form of warfare. The Irish often extended courtesies to their enemies, a practice that perplexed the Vikings. In the year 1002, for instance, Brian Boru marched to Tara (the Irish capital) to demand that the High King Malachi either submit or do battle. Malachi asked for a month’s delay - time to muster his army, and Brian upholding the Irish tradition of honourable fairness in war, granted his request. The Irish sense of honour brought the grantor of such graces even greater glory in the end - provided that he was the victor!
Even though the Irish and Viking warriors were culturally similar, they retained their ethnic pride and prejudices. During the centuries before the battle of Clontarf, historical momentum was building toward a final cataclysmic battle that would decide whether Ireland would remain Celtic or become another Viking colony. To finally bring the issue to a bloody climax it only required an Irish leader who was sufficiently charismatic and physically powerful to unite the clans.
Brian mac Cenneidigh, born in the province of Munster around 941 AD, was the youngest of 12 brothers, all but two of whom would be killed in battle. Members of the Dal Caissan clan, the brothers fought continuous wars against the Danes and Irish rivals from Leinster. When his brother, Mahon, became King of Munster and eventually undertook a treaty with the Vikings of Ivar, who was the Norse king of Limerick, Brian Boru then waged guerrilla war against the Vikings from his base in the Thomond mountains. When the Vikings broke their treaty, Brian lead an army that defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Sulchoid in 968. (He then followed the Vikings back to Limerick. Where he was so angry to find large numbers of enslaved Irish children that he executed three thousand Vikings in revenge.)
Mahon assumed the mantle of provincial king in 968, but he was assassinated eight years afterward. Brian succeeded him. He caught and killed the assassins who had murdered Mahon and then proceeded to bring the southern half of Ireland under his rule. According to the ancient chronicle known as the Cogadh, “He was not a stone in place of an egg, nor a wisp of hay in place of a club; but he was a hero in place of a hero.”
Civil war, an endemic element of Irish history, did not abate during the latter part of the 10th century. Malachi claimed the high kingship of Ireland in 980, after defeating the Danish Vikings at the Battle of Tara the year before. Brian and Malachi then proceeded to fight a 20-year war before being forced to join forces just before the turn of the century to defeat an invading Danish Viking army at Glenmama. They killed 7,000 of the enemy, sacked Dublin and ravaged Leinster in the process. Malachi, acknowledging Brian’s military prowess and growing popularity, offered him the kingship of more than half the land, but Brian would be satisfied with nothing less than high king. By 1002, Brian’s military strength proved overwhelming, and Malachi abdicated the throne. Brian wasted no time in occupying it.
Though contemporaries described Brian Boru as an idealised, fearless king who fostered Irish nationalism, the reality was that Brian, intelligent enough to know the value of “good press,” generated political support with lavish liturgical patronage and used plenty of Viking-style cunning in his political dealings. In effect, he appeared to contemporaries as the mystical type of leader that King Arthur represented for the Britons.
Around the turn of the century, Brian broke a peace treaty with the king of Meath, attacking and defeating him. By 1005, he had used Viking-Irish renegades to mount raiding expeditions against the western shores of Britain, at the same time guaranteeing Danish Viking settlers in Ireland their territories in return for their military support. Still, the ethnic hatred smouldered. The Cogadh text notes that around 1013 Vikings had been billeted in many Irish homes for some time. The moment came when Brian instructed his countrymen in each household to kill their “guests” on a given night as they slept and light a torch to signal that the deed was done. Such was the reality of warfare in the age of heroes.
By the time he was 60, Brian had defeated Vikings and Irish contenders alike, setting the stage for a strong dynasty to rule over the fragmented island. Factionalism was the only thing standing in the way of Irish unity.
The king of Leinster, Mael Morda, rose in revolt in 1012, refusing to acknowledge Brian’s rule. Casting about for allies, he joined up with the always-troublesome Dublin Vikings in open defiance of the high king. Brian tried diplomatically to dissolve this alliance by giving his daughter to Sigtrygg Silkbeard, the Danish king of Dublin, while he himself married the legendary Gormlaith, mother of Sigtrygg, sister to King Mael Morda of Leinster and former spouse of none other than Malachi! This political alliance had too many powerful personages involved to be a success.
While transporting his “tree tribute” (a tax in the form of masts for ships), King Mael Morda broke a button off a tunic given to him by Brian. He asked his sister Gormlaith to mend it, but she started to scold and shame him for accepting anything from her husband, Brian, and being subject to his rule. Stung by his sister’s insults to his honour and manhood, Mael Morda murdered one of Brian’s heralds and rode off to his old allies, the Dublin Vikings. Sigtrygg, ever anxious for a fight, wasted no time in welcoming his uncle, and immediately attacked an Irish ally of Brian’s, raising the banner of insurrection. Various disaffected and rebellious Irish clans quickly threw in their lot with the Dublin Vikings.
Brian, incensed by Gormlaith’s meddling and intrigues, had her imprisoned while he marched for three months through the rebellious lands, raising havoc of his own before dispatching his son Murchad to raid the lands around Dublin.
Gormlaith, though imprisoned, did not sit idly by and accept her fate. At 50 years of age, she had retained her beauty; she had little trouble persuading Sigurd, the Viking earl of the Orkney Isles (who was half-Irish), to come to her rescue. Sigurd not only desired Gormlaith, but he also wanted to sit in Brian’s seat as high king, like his countrymen Svein and Cnut had done in England. Sigtrygg also had sent an appeal for help to Sigurd, promising Gormlaith’s hand in marriage and support for Sigurd’s aspirations to the throne. It seemed that the ever-so-reasonable Sigtrygg only wanted Sigurd to guarantee his continued rule over Dublin. But Sigtrygg had other plans. Attempting to garner as much military help as possible, the wily Dubliner promised Gormlaith to another renowned Viking warrior of the age - to Brodir of the Isle of Man.
Brodir, described by the Irish as a Christian “magician” with hair so long he had to tuck it in his belt and with mailed armour that reportedly could not be pierced by steel, make the same “deal” with Sigtrygg that Sigurd had made - Brodir was promised the Irish throne as well as a bride in return for military assistance. Sigtrygg went so far as to tempt his own brother, but his brother, disgusted with the treacherous double-dealings of his sibling, joined the army of Brian Boru instead. Still, the Vikings of Sigurd and Brodir, more than 2,000 of them, were a force to be feared. (1,000 of whom were covered in chain-mail from head to foot.)
As the forces formed during the winter of 1013-1014, Brian, informed of the mustering of Vikings and rebellious Irish clans in Dublin, called in his own allies - his old enemy Malachi and the clans of Meath, the clans of Connacht, Munster and his own Dal Caissans, as well as a thousand foreign (Viking) mercenaries. Once the muster had been completed, Brian sent his second oldest son, Donnchad, on a raiding expedition into the rebellious Irish territories, while Brian himself took the main army and marched through Leinster toward Viking Dublin. Brian’s strategy was sound. By attacking and continuing to harass the rebel bases, he saw to it that many of the rebellious clans would refuse to leave their threatened homes and march to Dublin. The rebel army never reached the size it potentially could have because Brian cleverly managed to neutralise a sizeable portion of it.
As Sigurd and other Viking adventurers who had joined him sailed in the tributaries outside Dublin, they were met by Sigtrygg, Mael Morda’s Irish Leinstermen, the Dublin Vikings, and the Irish rebels from various clans. Shortly thereafter, Brodir of Man and his Viking warriors arrived. The allied-Viking army resisting Brian Boru reportedly also contained English, Gall-Gael, Welsh, Flemish and French warriors, as well as a handful of Normans. This amalgamation of troops allegedly fought for promised land and pillage as well as for glory and honour. Yet, to read of their determined hand-to-hand combat, revenge for age-old wrongs seems as much a determinant as anything else.
As he approached the town, Brian Boru’s own Irish army suffered a serious blow. Perhaps because of old quarrels, the Irishmen of Meath, commanded by ex-high king Malachi, drew off from the rest of the army and refused to take part in the battle plans. Although upset by the reluctance of his ally, Brian then was heartened by “news” that the Viking forces had boarded their longships and headed out to sea, apparently deserting Sigtrygg. Unknown to the Irish leaders, of course, Sigtrygg, Brodir and Earl Sigurd had planned this ruse to lull the Irish into a sense of false security. The Vikings sailed out of sight and immediately turned around, arriving back on the darkened beaches near Clontarf after sunset and thus ensuring that a battle would be fought on Good Friday.
Brian’s army, depleted by Malachi’s refusal to fight, still managed to muster 7,000 or so warriors. Not only were Brian’s Irish troops present, but there were also warriors from “Alba” (Scotland) and Norway and a contingent of newly Christianised Manx Vikings - all of whom prepared to fight the more heavily armoured allied-Viking force.
The night before the battle, the Vikings were informed that Sigurd had brought a sacred raven banner, woven by his mother, which had the magical properties of ensuring victory for the army if carried before it - but also promising death to its bearers. He tried to downplay that part of the prophecy; even so, he would have a difficult time finding volunteers to bear his mother’s banner the next morning.
As dawn broke, the Vikings assembled on the shores near Clontarf before their beached boats, a mile and a half from the walls of Dublin. (At that time all of Dublin town was south of the Liffey. Only DubhGall’s Bridge – “Doyle’s Bridge” – connected it to the north side where the Vikings were coming ashore.) If Brian Boru and his followers were totally aghast at such a surprise, it was not immediately apparent. Indeed, adversarial warriors in the fortress were graciously allowed by the Irish to leave their walled fortress unmolested and join the Vikings forming up near the oak forrest on the north shore.