23.3 Europe: a.d. 801 to 900  (Page 6/10)

The Viking raids became a terrifying experience to the people of Scotland, as in other parts of Britain. They called those from Denmark the "Black Gentiles" and those from Norway the "White Gentiles". Between 795 and 806 lona was wasted three times and the loot taken was extensive. But the Norse made settlements, too. Norwegian jarls ruled the Shetlands, Orkneys and the Caithness. Ketil, sent by Norwegian King Harold Fairhair to the Hebrides, established himself as king. In the hills of Galloway, on the north coast of the Solway Firth, the Norse intermarried with the earlier settlers, creating a fiery and quarrelsome people called the Gallgaels. By the end of the century Kenneth Mac Alpin and his successors, a brother, two sons and two grandchildren had died and were apparently buried on Iona. (Ref. 170 )

Ireland

The Vikings raided Ireland and established some temporary Norse kingdoms, including Cork and Dublin, the latter established in 841 by Olaf, a Norwegian prince. This kingdom lasted some three hundred years and served as a base for further Norse raids. In addition to Cork and Dublin - Wicklow, Arklow and Wexford were all Viking towns. Irish monasteries were especially hard hit and destroyed, probably because these were of ten the only real communities and center of food storage. Actually the Irish themselves at- tacked more monasteries than the Vikings ever did. Conmacnoise, on the upper Shannon, was hit by native Irish at least twenty-seven times to the Vikings' eight. Three times it was sacked by Feidlimid mac Crimthainn, abbot-king of Munster, who plundered many of Ireland's greatest monasteries. Knowth, on the east side of the present Irish Republic, on the River Boyne, had become in recent centuries a site of importance, apparently as the royal residence of the Gaelic kings of Northern Brege. (Ref. 8 , 194 , 88 ) Additional Notes

Wales

In Wales, pirate attacks occurred from Normandy until Rhodri the Great drove them off and gave the country a vigorous dynasty.

Scandinavia

How did these Viking people suddenly leap onto the stage of European history to dominate it for some three centuries, when previous to about 800, they had been a rather obscure, somewhat barbaric group? The reasons for their domination at this time are probably several but, at least included, is the fact that these people had developed a mastery of ship-building and had nautical skills. In addition, a population explosion had occurred in their Scandinavian homelands as a result of warmer temperatures than usual (Little Climatic Optimum) with a resulting abundant food supply. Some have speculated that the raids, in part, were in retaliation for Charlemagne's and other Christians' persecution (Ref. 79 ) At home in Scandinavia there were no striking changes, barring the population increase, to herald the Viking era. The social structure conformed to a norm characteristic of Europe. At the bottom of the scale was the slave (proel