page_title: Tomrair
section_title: The "ring of Tomar"
hierarchical_section_title: Tomrair / The "ring of Tomar"
caption_attribution_description: English: The obverse of an Anglo-Scandinavian coin.
context_page_description: Tomrair was a ninth-century Viking active in Ireland. He is one of the first Vikings recorded by Irish sources. Tomrair is reported to have been killed at the Battle of Sciath Nechtain, a conflict in which twelve hundred Vikings were slain, battling the combined forces of Ólchobar mac Cináeda, King of Munster and Lorcán mac Cellaig, King of Leinster, in 848.
  Surviving accounts of Tomrair's demise accord him the Gaelic title erell, making him the first earl noted by Irish sources. In fact, erell is the first Nordic loanword on record. Tomrair is also described as the tánaise ríg of Laithlind, which could mean that he was either an heir or deputy to the King of Laithlind. The accounts of Tomrair's final fall are the earliest annalistic references to the office of tánaise ríg. The precise identity of the King of Laithlind, or even location of Laithlind itself, is uncertain.
  The context of Tomrair's fall is likewise uncertain. The year after his death, the King of Laithlind is reported to have sent a force of Vikings to contend with Vikings already settled in Ireland.
context_section_description: In time, the Uí Ímair possessed royal power in the Irish Sea region for centuries. There is reason to suspect that this dynasty reinforced its right to rule by way of royal insignia specifically recorded by the Irish annals. For example, when Dublin was invaded by Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, King of Mide (died 1022) in 994, the seventeenth-century Annals of Clonmacnoise, the Annals of the Four Masters, the fourteenth-century Annals of Tigernach, and Chronicon Scotorum, report that the Irish seized from the Dubliners the "sword of Carlus" and the "ring of Tomar". In 1029, when Mathgamain ua Riacáin is reported to have taken hostage Amlaíb, son of Sitriuc mac Amlaíb, King of Dublin, Mathgamain exacted a remarkable ransom that included the "sword of Carlus". The sword is last noted in 1058, when it was reported in the possession of Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó (died 1072), a man otherwise known to have brought both Dublin and the Isle of Man under his authority by 1060.
  The various accounts of the sword and ring reveal that the objects were powerful ceremonial symbols, and important parts of Dublin's royal regalia. Swords and hammers are depicted upon some Anglo-Scandinavian coins. One possibility is that these symbols are identical to the "ring of Tomar" and "sword of Carlus", and are thus symbols of the Uí Ímair. The identities of Carlus and Tomar are nevertheless uncertain. The Gaelic Tomar may be a form of the Old Norse Þór, the name of a divine figure in Nordic mythology. The former is also a variant of the personal name Tomrair, which is in turn a Gaelicised form of the Old Norse personal name Þórir, a name itself derived from Þór.
  On one hand, the Tomar of the ring may be the god Þór. It is possible that the eponym of the ring is identical to that of Caill Tomair ("The Wood of Tomar"), a forest seemingly situated north of Dublin, attested in the late tenth century by the Annals of Inisfallen, the Annals of Tigernach, the twelfth-century Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib, and Chronicon Scotorum. The wood has been specifically associated with Þór, and regarded to have been a place of pagan significance in Viking Age Ireland. If the ring was indeed a reference to a heathen cult object, the fact that only the sword is attested in the tenth century could indicate that an association between the dynasty and a pagan item was undesirable.
  If the ring does not specifically refer to a pagan god, it could well refer to Tomrair himself. Although Irish sources reveal that at least three later Vikings bore the same name, Tomrair was clearly the most eminent of these individuals. Certain notices by the Annals of the Four Masters and the twelfth-century Lebor na Cert—specifically fragments of poetry coeval with the records of the sword and ring—respectively describe the Dubliners as the "race of Tomar" and "Tomar's nobles". If these specific instances do not refer to the pagan deity, it is possible that they refer to Tomrair himself, and reveal that his memory was held in high esteem by the ruling dynasty of Dublin.
  The eponym behind the "sword of Carlus" is likewise uncertain. One possibility is that the name refers to the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. Another possibility is that Carlus is identical to Carlus mac Cuinn meic Donnchada (died 960). Not only does this man appear to have been the grandson of a High King of Ireland, but he was also slain in Dublin. However, there may be a more likely candidate. Ímar's associate, Amlaíb, is known to have had two sons: one was Carlus, a man slain in 868; another was Oistin, a man slain by the Dubgaill commander Albdann, in 875. The latter Carlus could well be the eponym behind the "sword of Carlus". As such, Tomrair's certain connection with this man's father could be evidence that Tomrair is indeed the eponym behind the "ring of Tomar".
caption: The obverse of an Anglo-Scandinavian coin bearing the image of a sword.[102]
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