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Norse-speaking circles (see, for example, er var me lfi kvarn Dyflinni in
Landnmabók)92 but the Old-Norse form Skór, Skórinn can be readily reconstructed
from the Irish and therefore was used by speakers of Old Norse. It passed from them to
the author of Cath Ruis na Rg, who turned it to literary purposes, and the name recurs
in the twelfth-century Acallam na senórach: Aiffi ingen Ailb (vl. Alaib) meic Scoa,
87. Marstrander (Bidrag, 111) points out that Northmannia is a literary form. He might have
said the same about the others.
88. Marstrander, Bidrag, 52, 62.
89. Marstrander derives this name from Svarthófi (Bidrag, 13) but later seems to prefer
Sorth%Ełfu (ibid. 64). The meaning is much the same.
90. OG s.v. (citing Reeves and Skene); R. I. Best (ed), Betha Adamnin , Osborn J. Bergin et.
al. (ed), Anecdota from Irish manuscripts ii (Halle a.S. 1908) 15 8=Mire Herbert & Pdraig
Riain (ed. & tr.), Betha Adamnin, ITS 54 (Cork 1988) 54 12, 78 (who, without explanation,
treat trcht romra as a common noun and translate shore of a tidal estuary ).
91. Skene, Chronicles, 135 37: 136; Marjorie O. Anderson, Kings and kingship in early Scot-
land (Edinburgh 1973) 242; tr. A. O. Anderson, Early sources, i p. cxv cxix.
92. Benediktsson, Landnmabók, 71 31.
Vikings in Ireland & Scotland 21
ingen rig Lochlann atuaid.93 The historical Amlab Cuarn was king of York for a
brief period c.943 before his reign as king of Dublin (945 80), and has no direct con-
nection with Norway. All the associations of the derived literary persona constructed
from the historical figure are with Viking Scotland, and r Lochlainne in Cath Ruis na
Rg must mean, for its author, king of Viking Scotland.94 One notes, too, that when
Conall Cernach musters the troops of this alliance, he does so at Lewis in the
Hebrides.95 Furthermore, as Sophus Bugge suggests, on the basis of the Old-Norse
forms of names of people and places in the mustering of the Viking fleet, it is very
likely that the author of Cath Ruis na Rg is drawing on a pre-existing historical tale in
Old Norse, inspired by Irish-Viking history and the battle of Clontarf, and circulating
in Dublin and in Viking Scotland in the twelfth century.96 And it is likely that this Old-
Norse tale existed in written form.
The form Lachlaind occurs in a poem in nine quatrains, Sn dollotar Ulaid , on the
successful expeditions of the Ulstermen. It is of uncertain date, perhaps the early tenth
century, and there is little in the nature of context:
5 Sen dollotar Ulaid
i Lachlaind co leri
co tucsat no catha
on comainm coa celi.97
This triumphant expedition to Lachlaind occurs between one to Scotland (2) and one
to England (4), and is followed by local expeditions including one to Tory Island
(6), apparently not recorded in the annals, in the course of which they took it by
storm against a force of Fir Flga, which in this context means Norwegian Vikings
from Man or the Hebrides.98 It is very likely that here Lachlaind means Viking Scot-
land.
93. Standish O Grady (ed. & tr.), Silva gadelica (London 1892), i 189 (text), ii 214 (transla-
tion); Whitley Stokes (ed), Acallamh na senórach, Whitley Stokes & E. Windisch (ed), Irische
Texte ser 4 i (Leipzig 1900) lines 4661 62, 4667, 4671.
94. My interpretation is much indebted to the pioneering and undervalued work of Sophus
Bugge, Norsk sagafortlling og sagaskrivning i Irland (Kristiania [Oslo] 1901 08) 2 19.
95. Hogan, Cath Ruis na Rg, 15 8.
96. Norsk sagafortlling, 2 19.
97. E. J. Gwynn (ed. & tr.), Sn dollotar Ulaid , riu 10 (1926 28) 92 94: 93. Gwynn trans-
lates: Luckily came the Ulaid to Norway, expeditiously, and fought nine battles, from year s end
to year s end .
98. Fir Flga normally means men of Man , but the term is glossed .i. Inse Gall indiu
nowadays the Hebrides in BL iii 755.22494. For a different interpretation cf. Dibh Cróinn,
Early medieval Ireland, 400 1200 (London 1995) 239.
22 Corrin
The earliest precisely datable historical example of Lochlainn meaning Norway
occurs in a chronological poem of 58 quatrains by Gilla Cóemin mac Gilla Sam-
thainde, Annlad anall uile .99 This poem was written in 1072: the author gives the
date of writing in quatrains 6 7, 56-57 and he gives the ferial for the year twice.
55 D bliadain n brc i ngliaid
ó c Donnchada meic Briain
cath Saxan seól co nglaine
i torchair r Lochlainne.
Two years it is no falsehood in battle
from the death of Donnchad son of Brian
to the battle of the Saxons pure course
in which fell the king of Lochlainn.
Donnchad mac Briain, king of Munster and claimant to the kingship of Ireland, went
on pilgrimage to Rome in 1064 and died there in that year.100 The battle of the Saxons
& in which fell the king of Lochlainn refers, of course, to the victory of Harold II
Godewinesson at Stamford Bridge, on 25 September 1066 and the death in that battle
of Harald harri, king of Norway, whom Marianus Scottus called rex
Normanndorum .
The next example is provided by the Annals of Ulster for 1102:
Maghnus ri Lochlainni co longais moir do thuidhecht i Manainn 7 sith m-
bliadhna do denum doibh 7 do feraib Erenn Magnus king of Lochlainn came
with a great fleet to Man and a year s peace was made by them and the men of
Ireland .
A third example occurs in Magnus s death notice in the same annals for 1103:
Maghnus ri Lochlainni do marbad for creich i nUlltaib Magnus, king of
Lochlainn, was killed on a raid in Ulster101
99. Whitley Stokes (ed. & tr.), Gilla Cóemin s chronological poem , Whitley Stokes (ed. &
tr.), The tripartite Life of Patrick (2 vols, London 1887), ii 530 42; Book of Leinster iii (Dublin
1957) 496 503 (diplomatic edition); Peter J. Smith (ed. & tr.), Three poems ascribed to Gilla
Cóemin: a critical edition, DPhil diss. (Oxford 1996) 376 523. I am grateful to Dr Smith for a
copy of his unpublished work and for discussing this poem with me.
100. G. Waitz (ed), Mariani Scotti Chronicon, MGH SS 5 (Hanover 1844) 559: 1064 (1065):
Donnchad filius Briain rex de Hibernia atque Echmarcach rex inna Renn, viri inter suos non
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