At the end of the classical Celtic period, the Irish tribes were harried by Viking invaders. Several battles of historic import occurred from between 719 AD, the first recorded Norse raid to the battle of 1014 AD in which Brian Boru repelled the Vikings in a very costly encounter. It is said that out of 6600 warriors, only 600 survived the day. Thanks to the War and Game wargaming site, we have some details about this three hundred year period of Viing occupation.

In 795 the first recorded Norse raid took place on Ireland’s north coast. This Irish raid came soon after the first attacks in England. Iona was also attacked in 795 and again in 802. In 806 sixty-eight persons were killed at Iona by raiders. In 807 a new monastic community was begun at Kells, Co. Meath, and was completed by 814, by which time much of the administration had been moved from Iona to Kells. It was during this period or immediately before it that the magnificent illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, was completed.

There are two great periods of Norse activity in Ireland. The first centers on the first four decades of the ninth century. During this period the incursion consisted primarily of hit-and-run raids conducted by fast-moving, seagoing Vikings. In the second half of the ninth century the Norse began establishing permanent settlements that eventually became important commercial and trade centers. These include modern port cities such as Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. Permanent Norse settlements were more prominent in the southern half of Ireland, in part because of the success of the northern Uí Néill at resisting their incursions.

These Norse cities came to represent small kingdoms within Ireland that traded with, fought against, and in turn allied themselves with Irish kingdoms. By the early decades of the tenth century Irish kingdoms were often as not successful in their struggles against the Norse kingdoms. The Norse kingdoms tended to remain independent of each other and never presented a unified force against the Irish. The Norse in Ireland never controlled large areas the way they did in England, where vast territories came under the Danelaw. In France the entire province of Normandy memorializes the Norse kingdom that was established there and which eventually came to exert power over much of western Europe, including Ireland.

Brian Boru and the Uí Néill High Kings

The origins of the Dál Cais, a dynasty of early medieval Ireland, are found in east Limerick, but around the start of the eighth century they were forced to expand into County Clare. They forged alliances with Cormac Cas, who was descended from the Eóganacht, a loose grouping of people who provided many early kings of Munster, and thus attempted to claim a major interest in the kingship of Cashel. From the tenth to the twelfth centuries, just as the fortunes of the Eóganacht declined, the Dál Cais dominated the province of Munster, initially under the leadership of Cenétig mac Lorcáin, and then under his sons Mathgamhain and Brian Boru.

Brian Boru, arguably the most famous king of this dynasty, succeeded to the kingship on the violent death of his brother Mathgamhain in 976. He spent the first part of his reign attempting to consolidate his power over Munster, but when he tried to expand the area of his control into Leinster, he came up against Maél Sechnaill II, then the high king of Ireland. They made a truce in 997, and as a result were able to join together and defeat the Dublin Hiberno-Norse at the battle of Glenn Máma in 999. Brian was the first ruler not from the Uí Néill who made a claim for the high kingship of Ireland, and he was finally acknowledged as such by Máel Sechnaill II in 1002. From the security of his base in the southern part of the country Brian Boru fought several campaigns against the leading dynasties of the northern half of the island. He was slain at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, but not before his army had routed the forces of Leinster and their Norse allies. It was his strategic skills, especially the construction of defensive fortifications and his employment of naval power, that made him such an effective military leader. His astute political sense and the appointment of many of his relations to major offices within the church of Munster ensured the close control of the church. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that, following Clontarf, he was buried in Armagh, the primatial capital, and he was also given the title Imperator Scotorum (emperor of the Irish) in the Book of Armagh, a ninth-century gospel book.

The Uí Néill were descended from the protohistoric Niall Noígiallach, who may have been a real person; however, the way the genealogists and saga writers depict his ancestors and the relationships among his descendents is schematic and unhistorical. Diarmait mac Cerbaill, his grandson (d. 565), was an ancestor of the Southern Uí Néill, who were based in Meath and the east midlands. These divided into two hostile branches, Síl nAeda Sláine and Clann Cholmáin. The real establishment of Uí Néill power in the midlands may have been the work of Áed Sláne (d. 604) and his immediate successors, who provided some eight overkings of Uí Néill. Their rivals to the west, Clann Cholmáin (descendents of Áed Sláne’s brother, Colmán Már, in the genealogies) became overkings of Uí Néill only in 743, and thereafter, with one exception, that of Congalach Cnogba (944–956), completely excluded their cousins from that office. Other branches of the Uí Néill of the midlands, if they ever held the overkingship, were soon excluded and survived as the political subordinates of their kinsmen.

From the 840s the overkingship of Uí Néill, usually called the kingship of Tara, alternated regularly between Clann Cholmáin in the south and Cenél Eogain in the north. The overking of Uí Néill was usually the most powerful king in Ireland, and claimed to be king of Ireland—a claim realized for a period by Mael Sechnaill mac Mael Ruanaid (846–862). The meteoric rise of Brian Boru, king of Munster (978–1014) and king of Ireland (1002–1014), broke the Uí Néill supremacy and began an intense and violent struggle between powerful provincial kings for the kingship of Ireland, a struggle in which the northern Uí Néill remained key players.

The Battle of Clontarf

The Battle of Clontarf (Irish: Cath Chluana Tarbh) took place on Good Friday in 1014 (April 23) between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: composed mainly of his own men, Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the Orkney Islands led by his cousin Sigtrygg, as well as the one rebellious king from the province of Ulster.

It ended in a rout of the Máel Mórda’s forces, along with the death of Brian, who was killed by a few Norsemen who were fleeing the battle and stumbled upon his tent. After the battle Ireland returned to a fractious status quo between the many small, separate kingdoms that had existed for some time. [wiki]

The Battle of Clontarf has come down in legend indeed, as one of the most picturesque battles of the medieval period. Later legends include among the defeated “Foreigners of the World” Vikings from all over western Europe, sons of the King of Denmark, numerous Normans, Welsh, and even two sons of the French king. The reputation of the battle among the western nobility in the Middle Ages was so great that it was considered “infra dig” not to have had an ancestor killed on the plains of Clontarf.

The uneasy peace finally fell apart in 1013 when Maelmordha rose in revolt with his Viking allies. Legend tells us that Brian’s oldest Son Murrough, who captured a cowering Maelmordha at the battle of Glenmama, insulted the King of Leinster while he was visiting the Royal Court to pay his annual tribute. Goaded by his sister Ghormlaith, who Brian set aside, Maelmordha returns home and raises the banner of rebellion while his ally Sitrygg Silkybeard appeals to the “Vikings and Foreigners of the World” to meet them at Dublin in the Spring of 1014 for an epic confrontation with the aging High King. He promises the High Kingship of Ireland and unbelievably the hand his mother in marriage to more than one Viking in return for their support.

Earl Sigurd the Stout of the Orkneys and the cruel pagan pirate, Brodir of Man, accept the offer and both bring over 2000 mail clad warriors to Dublin where they are joined, according to the legends, by nobles and warriors from all over the western world. To oppose this vast army Brian musters all of the strength of his home province of Munster and neighboring southern Connaught while a large contingent of Scots under Domnall of Mar and Ostmen under Ospak of Man and Wolf the Quarrelsome. Malachi Mor, the deposed High King, also rallies to Brian and brings a large host from his native province of Meath.

According to the Njal’s Saga, on the morning of the Battle of Clontarf a Caithness man named Dörruðr (Daurrud) watched the “choosers of the slain” - the Valkyries - as they worked on a grisly loom on which they controlled the fates of the armies in far off Ireland.

He saw folk riding twelve together to a bower, and there they were all lost to his sight.

Men’s heads were the weights, but men’s entrails were the warp and weft, a sword was the shuttle, and the reels were arrows.

Wargaming the Brian Boru period

Many of the armies of Dark Age Europe were built around the personal followings of a warlord, what the Roman historian Tacitus called the commitatis. These groups may have numbered a few hundred at the most. In many cases they were far less numerous. The way the societies were structured allowed only a small proportion, the nobility, to bear arms. Larger forces would be made up by banding together the personal forces of lesser warlords under the leadership of a higher lord, prince, or king – though each warrior exercised personal loyalty to his lord, not necessarily to the king, and there was no concept of “country” or patriotism. Right or wrong, warriors fought for their lord and his battles were theirs.

For gaming this kind of fighting, skirmish type rules work the best – especially rules that allow you to give special characteristics to individual figures who represent the warlord or some of his notable warriors. Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB), Pig Wars, and BattleLust all provide this feel. All three rule sets use “units” to organize the forces. Pig Wars and BattleLust can be played with one unit per side allowing a relatively small numbers of figures (20 or less per side). WAB uses armies of certain points sizes that are made up of several units and so may require a hundred or more figures per side.

There are quite a few rule-sets to cover the period (see more), but my personal favourite are the Warhammer Ancient Battles rules as they concentrate more on Skirmish than mass-scale battles. Skirmishes allow more heroic action to sway the battle which is more in keeping with mythological themes. To complement the rules, I find the Foundry miniatures at 28mm the most pleasing.

Wargaming is very much an art for me - the elements of science are relegated to the background. First you have to paint hundreds of warriors (the stage I have been in for over a year now!) and then recreate the landscape and environment on which they are going to fight (acquiring, building and setting up scenery) and after that you take place in the spectacle. It is as much an exercise in Creative Visualisation as it is in Strategy and Tactics. Ho hum - where is the paintbrush?

References:

War and Game

Orkneyjar

Clan Doyle

Battle of Clontarf (DBA)

Wikipedia

Wargaming the Dark Ages

Warhammer Ancient Battles

Foundry Miniatures

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