Half Celtic, Half Viking: The Norse-Gaels, the Kingdom of the Isles and the Gallowglass
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 20/08/2023

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Half Celtic, Half Viking: The Norse-Gaels, the Kingdom of the Isles and the Gallowglass

Chapters:
0:00 Norse-Gaels 
1:20 The Kingdom of the Isles 
3:48 Gallowglass 
5:11 Support

Creative Commons Imagery:

© Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons /CC-BY-SA-3.0 (or Free Art License) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdom_of_Mann_and_the_Isles-en.svg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en 

Brianann MacAmhlaidh https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdom_of_the_Isles,_circa_1200_(png_version).png Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en 

Who were the Norse-Gaels and what impact did they have on history? One of the interesting parts of the history of these islands in the North Atlantic Ocean is the interaction between different peoples over the centuries, fuelled by invasions and migrations. 

The Norse Vikings are probably the most famous invading force, and their interactions with the local Gaels produced a people known as the Norse-Gaels or foreigner-Gaels, a people who had mixed Gaelic and Norse ancestry and culture. They emerged in the Viking Age, when Vikings who settled in Ireland and Scotland intermarried with the Gaels. This intermarriage meant that many Norse adopted the Gaelic language as well as many Gaelic customs. Many also left their Norse gods behind and converted to Christianity. 

From around the 9th to the 13th century, the Norse-Gaels controlled large parts of the area around the Hebrides and the Irish Sea. The most powerful Norse–Gael dynasty was the House of Ivar. The Norse-Gaels founded numerous kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Dublin, the Lordship of Galloway and briefly in the 10th century they ruled the Kingdom of York. One notable kingdom of the Norse-Gaels was known as the Kingdom of the Isles, which included the territory of the Hebrides, the Isle of Man and the islands of the Clyde (notably Arran and Bute). These collection of islands were known to the Norsemen as the "Southern Isles," distinct from Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. 

Some sources argue that the Kingdom of the Isles was a successor kingdom in a sense to Dal Raida, a Gaelic Kingdom that merged with the Picts in 843 to form the Kingdom of Alba. The exact extent of the kingdom in the early period is not fully clear, although it probably was centred on some of the Hebridean Islands and expanded out from there. We know for instance  that Godred Crovan, a Norse-Gael ruler who would go on to rule Dublin as well as the Isles, conquered the Isle of Man with a force of Hebrideans around 1079 AD. 

There were often fractures in the kingdom and competing claims over the rightful ruler of the isles. When the Norse-Gael lord Somerled died in 1164, the kingdom spilt into two parts. At various points, Norway took direct control of the isles. In 1266, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man became part of the Kingdom Scotland after the Treaty of Perth was signed, ending hostilities between  Magnus VI of Norway and Alexander III of Scotland. 

Sources:

Kingdom of the Isles https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100012518;jsessionid=E847F9293F7461899019707EF3054F4F 

Ted-Ed: The rise and fall of the Kingdom of Man - Andrew McDonald https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFhns9MOUt8&t=50s 

Norse–Gaels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse%E2%80%93Gaels

Treaty of Perth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Perth 

Kingdom of the Isles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Isles 

Godred Crovan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godred_Crovan 

#scotland #vikings #history