![]() ![]() His descendants dominated the major seaports of Ireland and challenged the power of kings in Britain during the later ninth and tenth centuries.Ĭover photo: By permission © Ted Spiegel/Corbis A particularly successful viking leader named Ívarr campaigned on both sides of the Irish Sea in the 860s. Over time, their raids became more intense and by the mid-ninth century vikings had established a number of settlements in Ireland and Britain and had become heavily involved with local politics. Vikings plagued the coasts of Ireland and Britain in the 790s. Photo of the author by Stephen Airey Downham reproduced by kind permission It will appeal to a wide range of people who are curious to know more about the history of vikings in Britain and Ireland. In line with these developments Clare Downham provides a reconsideration of events based on contemporary written accounts. Archaeological finds and excavations have also offered potentially radical insights into viking settlement and society. Recent theoretical approaches to the subject have raised many interesting questions regarding identity, material culture and structures of authority. Such an account is necessary in light of the flurry of new work that has been done in other areas of Viking Studies. This book provides a political analysis of the deeds of Ívarr’s family from their first appearance in Insular records down to the year 1014. The descendants of Ívarr continued to play a significant role in the history of Dublin and the Hebrides until the twelfth century, but they did not threaten to overwhelm the major kingships of Britain or Ireland in this later period as they had done before. In 1014, the battle of Clontarf marked a famous stage in the decline of viking power in Ireland whilst the conquest of England in 1013 by the Danish king Sveinn Forkbeard marked a watershed in the history of vikings in Britain. Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland The Dynasty of Ívarr to a.d. Alongside her duties as a lecturer, Clare Downham is Co-ordinator of the MLitt in Medieval Studies and the MLitt in Celtic Studies at Aberdeen, and will welcome any enquiries from potential students for these programmes. Before arriving in Aberdeen she spent two happy years as a research scholar at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. She was a student of Mediaeval History at St Andrews and Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge. Clare Downham lectures in Celtic and History at the University of Aberdeen. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |