THE VIKING CONNECTIONS

VIKING CONNECTIONS

II: THE O'BEOLAN-VIKING CONNECTION

J. Douglas Ross, FSA Scot

letter from Kristjan Helgi Sveinsson: The O'Beolan line is said to have origin in County Mayo & Sligo, Ireland, with connection to the Royal House of Tara. All Icelanders today are descended the same way as I am from O'Beolan.

The first Earl, Malcolm (Macbeth), who lived in the early twelfth century, allied his family to O’Beolan of the great Irish royal house of Tara, by the marriage of his daughter.

Some names which seem to be Gaelic may possibly be really Norwegian. Such a one is Dunvegan. It appears at first sight to be Gaelic, dun bheagan, "the little dun," but it may really be "Bekan's Dun." There is a place in Iceland called Bekansstad, and it is possible that this Bekan may have been one of the sturdy pagans who left the Hebrides and went to Iceland, because they were disgusted at finding themselves surrounded by people who had embraced Christianity."

The Danes built and fortified towns along the coast, and into these citadels they gathered the spoil of the whole land. Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Wexford, and Dublin all owe their origin in the first instance to the vikings. The history of the next three hundred years is one of war and all the horrors of war.

There was a Norwegian called Ingólfr, of whom it is said truthfully that he was the first to travel from there to Iceland—when Haraldrinn hárfagri was sixteen years old, and on another occasion a few years later. He lived to the south in Reykjavík. Where Ingólfr first made landfall, to the east of Minþakseyri, is called Ingólfshöfði, but where he established his own property, to the west of Ölfossá, is called Ingólfsfell.

At that time, Iceland had woods growing between the mountains and the shore. Christians were here then, whom Scandinavians [Norðmenn] call Papar, but then they left, because they did not want to be here alongside heathen people. They left Irish books, bells and croziers, from which one can tell that they were Irishmen.

Ivar "the Boneless" Ragnarsson, who became King of Dublin in 856, conquered York 866/7, slayed St. Edmund of East Anglia 869 and died in 873. The World Book Millenium 2000 Deluxe Edition, © 1999 World Book Inc., © IBM Corp. tells us: "Vikings established Dublin in the mid-800's, though a small settlement had previously been on the site. The Viking town was named Dublin, from the Irish words dubh, meaning black; and linn, meaning pool. The name may refer to a pool of dark water in a branch of the River Liffey. The branch is now filled in by land."

Halfdan "White Shirt" Ragnarsson, who became King of Dublin in 875 and died in 877.

References: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/ire800.htm Vikings in Ireland
and http://www.robertsewell.ca:80/saga.html

The Vikings eventually settled down in the lands they had conquered. By 950, the Vikings had stopped raiding in Ireland and developed instead as traders and settled in the lands around their towns. The Vikings in England [3] largely became farmers and fishermen. In France, the Vikings formed the Kingdom of Normandy on the north coast - which would play a major role in history a century later when William of Normandy would defeat England in 1066. The Vikings left many placenames in Ireland including: Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Strangford, Leixlip, Carlingford, Youghal, Howth, Dalkey and Fingall [an area of modern-day Dublin]. A few of their words were also adopted into the Irish language.

Reference: http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/vikings.html

Certainly their initial arrival was at times bloody and fierce, but within a short time they had started to forge alliances with the Irish, to settle, form communities and establish trading centres. Intermarriage with the Irish soon followed, often a stategic measure which gave those related to important Irish familes a distinct trading advantage. There is even evidence that some began to adopt Christian habits, even if not deserting Paganism. For example Viking graveyards have been found, although the use of funeral pyres rather than burial would have been their normal custom.

The Viking Legacy - Viking Coins
As seafarers and noted merchants and traders the Vikings had much to teach the Irish. It was in this period that coinage was first introduced to Ireland - the Irish word for penny, 'pingin', is a Viking word, and that a distinct class of merchant traders emerged. The cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford and the town of Wexford among others were established as major centres of trade by the Vikings. Dublin in particular owes much of its subsequent development to its Viking founders. Sitric, a Viking ruler in Dublin, built the cities famous Christ Church Cathedral and the basic layout of the centre of the city was established at this time.

Reference: http://www.dochara.com/stuff/vikings.php

We must remember that the Norse Viking influence on the west coast of Scotland was likely even greater. A recent article from Iceland claimed that through DNA studies 60% of the women in Iceland came from Scotland. The exact same results are often found in multiple countries due to migrations over time, which makes determining a country of origin solely from DNA testing very difficult at best. However, haplogroups (automatically predicted in all Y-DNA tests) help identify mutations that are characteristic of population groups and their migration patterns. This can give hints whether a person living in Scotland today, for example, could be descended from Vikings that invaded the area several centuries ago.
We must not forget that, during the course of Normanization by the Scottish kings, the paired districts of Moray and Ross were separated, a new Earldom of Ross was created and Royal Castles were built to secure the north.