Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland

Church-Raiding, Politics and Kingship
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-83765-235-8
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 48, 688 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 957 g

Reihe: Studies in Celtic History

Illuminates the dynamics of church raiding by Vikings in Ireland, relating this phenomenon to their wider objectives and political ambitions.

This book offers the first comprehensive investigation of Viking raids on Irish churches from the late eighth to the early eleventh century, drawing on a wide range of sources, including Irish legal and literary material, archaeological and historical evidence and English and Frankish chronicles. Through a rigorous quantitative analysis of annalistic evidence, it sheds light on all aspects of this phenomenon: its chronological development, geographical distribution, immediate purpose and the broader context of Viking engagement with Gaelic Irish royal polities. Challenging the view that such raiding was merely a precursor to settlement and trade, it demonstrates that these attacks remained intrinsic to Viking activities throughout this period; it argues in particular that human captives-rather than metalwork or bullion-constituted the primary objective of church raids, with many held for ransom or sold into slavery. By tracing the evolution of random raids to strategically motivated attacks, it establishes church raiding as a deliberate instrument of political strategy, until the Battle of Clontarf (1014) marked a turning point in Viking-Irish relations.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Etchingham, Colmán

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Mittelalterliche, neuzeitliche Archäologie (Europa)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I: Annals and the Chronology, Distribution and Purpose of Viking Raids on Irish Churches
1. Introductory: Agenda, Methodology, Interpretation and Sources
2. The Chronology of Viking Church Raids
3. The Regional Distribution of Viking Church Raids
4. The Immediate Purpose of Viking Church Raids
5. Viking Raiding of Churches and Politics: Quantitative Analysis
Appendix 1: Catalogue of Viking Raids on Irish Churches in the Annals, 795-1015
Appendix 2: Catalogue of Viking Raids on Irish Churches Unique to Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib, 795-1015

Part II: Viking Kings and the Broader Context of Raids on Churches
6. Early Viking Church Raiders and the Emergence of Political Purpose
7. The Mid-Ninth-Century Crisis: Laithlinn, 'Fair Foreigners' and 'Black Foreigners'
8. Church Raiding and Politics in the Era of Amlaíb and Ímar
9. Church Raiding and Politics in the Later Ninth Century
10. Exile, Return and the Dublin-York Axis: The Context of Church Raiding, 914- 941
11. York Lost and Dublin Re-Orientated: Amlaíb Cúarán, 941-980
12. Church Raiding and Subjugated Vikings, 980-1014
13. Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Etchingham, Colmán
The late COLMÁN ETCHINGHAM was a Lecturer in History at Maynooth University.