transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:04] It's spring, 841 AD. A fleet of long ships cuts through the water. It is a vast armada, vessels stretching as far as the eye can see, maybe 200 or more. On a northerly wind, sails full, the boats zip along, pulling up to 20 knots. On board are literally thousands of Viking warriors. Racing against the swell, the men check their weapons, adjust gear, utter oaths to the gods. Turning westward now into a wide bay, there is enough momentum to carry the first wave of long ships right up into the shallow curve of sand. It is an amphibious landing at full throttle. Beyond the dunes, the defenders, local clansmen, lie in wait. They rattle clubs against rough wooden shields, what they lack in weaponry they make up for with intimidation. But they will prove no contest to the Norsemen. The warriors incoming now wading through the surf. At their head is a man named Thorgest, a fearsome Viking chieftain, and with the battle scars to prove it. He is no armchair general, but a man to lead from the front. On his signal, the men form into squads, mustering behind shield walls as they advance up the beach. A rain of arrows falls ineffectibly upon them. The defenders put up a valiant fight, make no mistake. It is true what they say. These men are nothing if not brave, vicious too. They don't take prisoners, just their heads. But they are poorly equipped, badly organized. With the fighting over, Thorgest surveys the land. Into the bay empties a wide river. It winds through lush green fields and rolling hills. There is a settlement on the estuary, a few wooden huts and coracles, a fishing village. This country, Thorgest knows, doesn't have anything approximating towns, let alone cities, not like England or Francia. But there is something else this land has, something beyond compare. As the western center of the new religion, it is home to some of the finest treasures in Christendom. Its monasteries and religious centers are repositories for gold and silver, home to exquisite metalwork and precious stones. The fishing village is swiftly razed. The inhabitants flee or are put to the sword. The locals call the area, with its dark, swirling tidal waters, the Black Pool. In the Gaelic language, Dublin. I'm Iain Glen from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is Real Vikings, part seven. In this series, we've seen Vikings go from raiding to trading to settling. We have witnessed them sweep into England and Northern France. We watched them descend the waterways of Russia. Scandinavians have reached Spain, North Africa, Italy, Constantinople, Baghdad. They have set foot in Persia. In Eastern Europe, they have founded a Norse Slavic state, the Kievan Rus. Meanwhile, dissenters, non-conformists, have abandoned the old homelands and sailed into the North Atlantic. They have founded a Nordic utopia, Iceland. Vikings were never a flash in the pan. By the late 9th century, they have been on the scene for over 100 years. Closer to home, in Anglo-Saxon England, a great heathen army is about to pile on the misery, marauding up and down the country. It will result in partition, with half of England set aside for Scandinavian rule, a state within a state, known as the Danelaw. But this is only part of the story of what is happening across the British, or if you prefer, the Anglo-Celtic Isles. We haven't spoken much yet about Ireland. At the start of the Viking Age, the tactics employed against it come straight out of the Standard Playbook. Raiding parties menace coastal communities. They go for the usual soft targets, remote monasteries. In 795, two years after the historic raid on Lindisfarne, Vikings sack a number of holy sites. Though here, the perpetrators are Norwegian rather than Danish. Professor Davide Zori.

Speaker 2:
[05:55] And if you look at a map, you might wonder why that's the case. Do you think, well, Ireland's further away from Scandinavia than England. Maybe they have to go through England first. But if you think of the map and turn it around from a Viking perspective, coming across the Atlantic and onto the islands of Shetland and the Hebrides, to get to the eastern coast of England or to get to the Irish Sea is about the same distance. They can choose when they get to Scotland to go to the left and to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms or to go to the right and go into the Irish Sea.

Speaker 1:
[06:37] After ravaging Iona in Scotland's inner Hebrides, Viking sack Rathlin Island in today's County Antrim. There are further hit-and-runs on Western Ireland outposts, in Ishmury, in Isbophin, then in 798, of the east coast, St. Patrick's Isle. Viking raiders are noticing the difference between the peoples here and those across the water. Unlike the Germanic Anglo-Saxons, the inhabitants of Ireland remain Celtic. They are akin to the native Britons, shoved to the margins of Wales and Cornwall, or the Picts way to the north, in the land the Romans called Caledonia. And that's another thing. The Romans never got as far as Ireland. They traded with it, but it was never part of the empire. As a result, its society has evolved differently, without the legacy of Roman infrastructure, no road network, no real urban centers. And politically, it is a minefield, a patchwork of over 150 petty fiefdoms. Yes, there are around a dozen over-kingdoms. There is a nominal high king, the Ardry, at the royal seat of Tara. But it is an ever-shifting landscape, one of alliances and internecine fighting. A decisive victory over an English kingdom will win you that whole territory. With Ireland, you are merely breaking it off in tiny chunks. Fealty is to a clan rather than to land, not that the clans don't wield considerable clout. The Enail, or O'Neill dynasty, has become so dominant it is split into two branches. The Northern Enail of Ulster and the Southern Enail of Mead, or Middle Kingdom, today's county Meath. Meanwhile, Munster, Connacht and Leinster are coalescing into powerful dominions. And confusingly, not everything is confined to the physical island of Ireland. The kingdom of Dalriada spills beyond Ireland's shores up Scotland's west coast, present-day Argyll, the coast of the Gales. The Irish settlers here were referred to by the Romans as Scotty, Scotty being the Latin word for Irish gales generally. It is from those settlers that Scotland will eventually and ironically derive its name.

Speaker 2:
[09:22] The politics of Ireland is going to offer another possibility for the Vikings, some other opportunities. This is also a culture and a society ruled by chieftains that are warring each other and raiding each other for cattle and wealth. There aren't any big cities around, there are no towns around, so the wealth is distributed differently.

Speaker 1:
[09:45] And much of this wealth belongs to the church. Remote, out on the fringes, Ireland has been immune to the violent invasions and population shifts of the Dark Ages. In splendid isolation, it has developed as a sanctuary for Christian learning. This period, the 6th to 9th centuries, is known as the Irish Golden Age. As the seat of Western Christianity, it wears proudly its nickname, the Land of Saints and Scholars, mothership of the missions that will go over to Christianize Europe. It is home to some of the West's finest monasteries, replete with written works and reliquaries, simply teeming with treasure. Enter into the picture the man we met in our opening scene, Thorgest, Thorgest the Sea King, as he likes to style himself. Or as the Irish will prefer, Thorgest the Devil. A rough and ready Viking straight out of Central Casting, Thorgest appears in Ireland in 837. Exploiting the never-ending Clan Wars, he arrives on the North Coast and sails his longboats up the River Ban, right into the huge inland body of water, Loch Né. Thorgest is a devotee of the maxim that all publicity is good publicity. He revels in the terror of his reputation. Said to be married to a witch, he cranks up the paganism. He sacks the great stone church of Armagh, founded by St. Patrick himself. Then he performs a tribute to Odin, complete with human sacrifice on the most sacred altar in the land. Provocatively, he declares himself the new abbot. Viking military prowess, as we know, is born of speed and mobility. In Ireland, with its lack of decent roads, the local footsloggers can't keep up. Thorgest's raiders are able to zip up and down the waterways with impunity. The Romans had called this place Hibernia, the land of winter. But in the medieval warm period, Ireland seems more a land of spring. Lush, green, bounteous, and it has gold stashed in every crevice. Thorgest decides to stay put. But manning a stockade on Loch Né can only be done for so long, as landlovers, Vikings, are exposed and vulnerable. Lars Brownworth.

Speaker 3:
[12:38] The Vikings weren't great out in the open. In fact, there's several examples of when, in Ireland, for example, when they're caught in the open country, they are not easily killed, but they are usually, it doesn't end well for them.

Speaker 1:
[12:50] If Thorgest is to make a permanent, defensible settlement, he needs a proper port and an invasion force of overwhelming strength to secure it. And so, in 841, at the head of a huge fleet, he returns to what he considers the perfect spot, midway down Ireland's east coast. As we have seen from our opening scene, he seizes it without difficulty. He builds a palisade around this new trading, raiding post, and the city of Dublin is born. There will be others to follow.

Speaker 2:
[13:33] One indication of this is some of the earliest towns that we know of in Ireland, Waterford, Wexford, are actually Scandinavian in name. Wethera Fjord is Waterfjord, Weggs Fjord is Wexford, Ben Raffield.

Speaker 4:
[13:51] The nature of that physical long-term presence of Scandinavians in Ireland is a little different. Doesn't appear to be this large-scale land takings we see in England. In Ireland, the Scandinavian and Viking presence seems to be a bit more confined to what appears to be a number of fortified hard points, as it were, on the coast.

Speaker 1:
[14:16] Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Limerick, Cork too, become what are known as the Long Ports, Viking enclaves in a hostile land. Aside from the gold, silver, copper and precious stones that can now be shipped out, they will become trading hubs for another commodity that Ireland also has in abundant supply, its people.

Speaker 2:
[14:42] Connecting Ireland with the rest of Western Europe, there's a lot of slave trading that takes place.

Speaker 1:
[14:50] Celtic slaves, including ones brought in from Britain, will be shipped to the far corners of the Viking universe. From Spain to the Middle East, a huge number will help settle Iceland. Thorgest, meanwhile, continues to antagonize the locals. In 844, his wife, the alleged witch, is said to have performed some kind of satanic act upon the Altar of Limerick. For the Irish High King, Mael Sheknal, enough is enough. With planned differences put aside, he is able to forge a coalition. The better to exercise this pagan devil once and for all. The Vikings cannot be dislodged from Dublin, but they are eventually beaten back and penned in. Thorgest is willing to accept peace terms. But what does he care? He's going nowhere. It's a winter's night in 845. We're in the long house of Thorgest, sighted on the mound that will one day host Dublin Castle. Ale flows, torches burn, and the Vikings of Dublin are at their most drunkenly raucous in anticipation of the evening's special guests. At the head of the table, chewing on a hunk of beef, his beard smeared with grease, Thorgest is more eager than most. For as part of his truce with Mael, he's agreed not just to become a Christian, but to take Mael's daughter as his bride. That is in addition to his current witchy one. Professor Elizabeth Rowe.

Speaker 5:
[16:42] Marriage was a contract or an agreement between two families, and whether the bride and the groom both wanted to be married was irrelevant to the political, say, or social or economic relationship.

Speaker 1:
[16:57] But Thorgest, a quintessential Viking, is thinking merely with his britches. Mael's daughter, it is said, is of uncommon beauty, quite an offering. A whisper goes round the longhouse. One of Thorgest's lieutenants calls for hush. And here, stepping into the heart of the Viking stronghold, comes a group of young Irish women, their wool cloaks pulled coily around them, their faces covered save for their eyes. They part to allow their mistress through, the princess herself. She stands before Thorgest and the torchlight. From her eyes alone, this is one beguiling creature. He is smitten. When the princess gestures as to whether she should remove her cloak, Thorgest nods in excitement. To his delight, she is a fine figure of a woman, dressed in pure white linen, and with tumbling auburn ringlets falling about her shoulders. It is only when he studies her jawline and spies her Adam's apple that the penny drops. This is not a damsel, not in the Viking understanding of the concept. And whoever they are, they are wielding a big knife. Male especially selected a group of pre-bearded adolescent males to be his assassination squad. And they set about their task with relish, springing forward to slash Thorgest's throat and falling upon his drunken kinsman in a murderous frenzy. Whether Mael's commando survive or not, no one knows, but it's a case of job done, mission accomplished. In an alternative version of the story, Mael captures Thorgest in battle, ties him up in a sack with a load of rocks and chucks him in the River Liffey. Either way, it is the end for Thorgest. Thorgest the Sea King, Thorgest the Devil. Male promises to oust the Vikings from Ireland, but it never comes to pass. Instead, into the power vacuum stepped yet more Northmen. They include now Danes from Frankia, with the plunderers running low. Vikings being Vikings, they are soon scrapping amongst themselves. It will lead to an internal struggle, a civil war between two Norse factions. The Irish delineate them according to the color of their hair. There are the white foreigners, the Norwegians, and the dark foreigners, the Danes. In 857, the opposing warlords will bury the Hatchett. They agree to rule Dublin jointly. Power will be split between Olaf the White and someone whose name you may recognize. A man named Ivar, assumed to be Ivar the Boneless, another of the sons of the great Ragnar Lothbrok. To Ivar, Dublin is the perfect base from which to launch campaigns against the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms over the water, hitting them this time from the west. For he and his brothers are already mustering a mighty invasion force, the aforementioned Great Heathen Army, which will attack England's east coast from across the North Sea. Later, on acquiring York as his English capital, Ivar will see both it and Dublin as the twin pillars of Viking rule across the Isles.

Speaker 4:
[20:52] I think what we sometimes miss is that this is an incredibly complex and interconnected world, not least because you have Viking groups moving back and forth between these regions quite regularly.

Speaker 1:
[21:07] Both Olaf and Ivar will die while campaigning in England, both shuffling off to Valhalla in the year 870. Olaf's widow, meanwhile, will take refuge in Scotland before striking out with her entourage for the new El Dorado of Iceland. We have met her already in this series, or the deep-minded, the Norse world's first great matriarch. And Ivar? He could, as we have also heard in a previous episode, be the Viking king whose skeleton was unearthed in the Grand Burial site at Repton, Derbyshire. Mayo Shetland will be dead by then, too. There was the 9th century wears on, the Viking threat wanes. Norsemen begin drifting off to seek a new life in England's Danelaw. Dublin will ultimately fall to Irish rule. But not until 902. It will bring to an end Ireland's first Viking Age. In one of our earlier episodes, Ivar's father, Ragnar, had launched his audacious attack on Paris. This was in the year 845, around the same time Thorgest appeared in Ireland. The Paris attack had come about as Vikings sought to exploit the chaos of the Carolingian Civil Wars. Chaos, of course, had been the Vikings' perfect mood music. Aside from trading and looting, there was easy money to be made by hiring themselves out as mercenaries. Or better still, just staying put and waiting to be paid off. It is a ransom we have already come across, known as Dane Gelt, basically one big protection racket. Literally money for nothing. For just sitting on his backside, Ragnar had trousered a whopping six tons of silver. If the Franks thought the Vikings would simply go away, then just like the Anglo-Saxons, more fool them. Levi Roach is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Exeter.

Speaker 6:
[23:25] So what we sort of see across the course of the ninth century is a gradual crescendo, if you will, of Viking activity in France. Partly this seems to be kind of a natural development, if you will, of initial Viking raids, which are kind of smash and grab ones. And then the realization that you can get more booty and then be more successful if you overwinter. Rather than going over for the summer and then coming back, why not stay there for a few years?

Speaker 1:
[23:53] Loitering with intent is the new go-to profession, one with no salary cap. Yet more Vikings flood into northern France. With the Frankish realm divided and authority collapsing, West Frankia is not just going rogue, it is on a fast track to anarchy. By the late 800s, the North's great cities are being attacked and sacked at will. Rouen, Beurre, Chartres. Enter into the picture a man who is about to have a profound influence, not just on Frankia, but on the entire course of medieval history. He is known in Old Norse as Horolfe. The Franks, unable to pronounce it, given the name by which we know him today, Rollo. We don't know a lot about the early life of Rollo. We assume he was born sometime in the mid-800s. But as ever, the chroniclers are writing with some remove. According to the monk and historian Dudo of Saint-Quentin, Rollo hailed from Denmark. A later version of the Rollo story, penned by Snorri Sturluson, as part of the Icelandic sagas, cast Rollo as a Norwegian from the remote snowbound north. Success, as they say, has many fathers. Rollo has a nickname, Rollo the Walker. It is said because of his wonderlust, though Snorri puts a spin on that too. So physically huge is Rollo, he claims, a veritable jack-reacher of a Viking, that there is no horse capable of bearing his weight. For him, it is a case of shank's pony. By all accounts, Rollo is a big, big man. And in the finest tradition of Viking heroes, he is kicked out of his homeland, whichever one that might be, supposedly for falling out with a local chieftain.

Speaker 6:
[26:06] Clearly Rollo must, yes, have been a highly impressive individual, highly successful Viking leader, simply because of his longevity. You know, in Scandinavia itself, we don't yet have large, well-established kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, things like that yet. So these leaders are very much kind of warlords and their position can be quite precarious. So the very fact that Rollo is active for so many years is highly suggestive of his abilities.

Speaker 1:
[26:35] Before hitting France, Rollo seems to have pitched up in England as part of the Great Heathen Army. He is said to be pals with Guthram, Viking king of East Anglia, the one who reconciles with Alfred the Great. With peace sealed and the Danelaw established, it's all a bit sedate for a died-in-the-wool warrior like Rollo. Soon he is in Frankia, making Chartres his operational base. From there, Rollo sets Viking sites once more upon the jewel in the Frankish crown, and then to Paris. In November 885, 40 years after Ragnar's expedition, Rollo assembles a massive fleet and around 10,000 warriors, and sails once more up the River Seine. Tactics have advanced since Ragnar's day. We are now into the age of siege engines and catapults. It will be a nasty, slow, protracted affair.

Speaker 6:
[27:51] This is this famous siege in 885, where, as you know, Rollo was there. This is the so-called Great Viking Army that's actually been creating huge problems in England for Alfred the Great. And then eventually, Alfred's now been successful. So there's no more easy pickings in England. So some of them settle there, and the rest of them who want to keep going raiding, go somewhere else. That's what you do when you've got boats. That's your strategic advantage. And so they move over to France, which is struggling much more so. And there's this great showdown where they besiege the city for multiple months.

Speaker 1:
[28:23] In the summer of 886, hoping to break the deadlock, Charles the Fat, the West Frankish king, musters an army and manages to encircle Rollo's forces.

Speaker 6:
[28:34] If anything, although the siege ends in a defeat of the Vikings, it doesn't redound positively to Charles the Fat, the emperor who eventually rocks up, it's felt that he's kind of showed up a bit too late actually and dragged his feet.

Speaker 1:
[28:47] Rather than move in for the kill and learning nothing from what's gone before, Charles bungs Rollo's 7 million silver coins to withdraw. At which point, Rollo goes off to Planderouen and Bayeux and take for himself a common-law wife in the shape of a noblewoman named Poppa, with whom he has the son who will be his heir. For the Franks, the Viking problem is not going away. Ten years on, two Frankish kings down the line and the latest monarch, Charles the Simple, tears a leaf out of Alfred the Great's book. Knowing that however much you buy them off, the Norseman will be back. Charles instead strikes up a deal.

Speaker 2:
[29:39] Charles the Simple decides to make a fateful deal with Rollo in return for his protection in defense of the Mouth of the Sin, which leads, of course, to Paris. Charles will give him, as fief, part of the land.

Speaker 1:
[29:54] This land of the Northmen will in time become known in a Frenchified version of the word as Normandy, it's citizens Normans, Normans.

Speaker 6:
[30:07] So in essence what ends up happening is that Charles the Simple is giving the Normans lands that mostly they control already, but it is important for them as well, it's formalizing this arrangement and it's providing them a basis and a kind of a longer term prospect. So that's when we then start seeing them really take root and we start seeing the Northmen of the Sen slowly start to become Normans.

Speaker 1:
[30:31] In return, Rollo must convert to Christianity, bringing him into their European brotherhood, plus he must pledge to fight for Charles should the king call upon his services.

Speaker 2:
[30:43] When Charles the Simple gives away Normandy to Rollo, many historians would say he made a fatal mistake. Why give this piece of land to the Vikings? The decision he made at the time I think is quite reasonable. He needed to defend his lands, he needed to defend his capital, Paris, against further Viking attacks. He thought by making an allegiance with this Viking and making a futile subject of him, he would be able to use the strength of Rollo and his men to defend his realm. To a large extent, it worked.

Speaker 1:
[31:22] For Rollo, it's a good deal, too. He has looked on as over in England, his pal Guthram has converted to Christianity, adopted the name Athelstan, and is now running the Dane lore as a kingdom within a kingdom. Someday, a Viking has to grow up. To seal it, Rollo will marry Charles' daughter, Gisela, quite possibly still an infant at the time, in a purely political union. Rollo's men are ambivalent to the latest arrangement. They are unused to the notion of hierarchy.

Speaker 3:
[32:00] There's a famous story of a Viking siege of Paris, and the French send out an ambassador. He asks to talk to their king, and their response is, we have no king. All of us are kings. It was very, very decentralized.

Speaker 1:
[32:13] In 911, the Viking formerly known as Rollo will become Robert, Count of Rouen, first ruler of Normandy. But Rollo will not forget his roots, and neither in time will his descendants. Amid great pageantry, today is the day that the Franks and the Vikings formally pledge their allegiance. Rollo and Charles are meeting at Saint-Claire-sur-Hepte, on the road from Paris to Rouen, the village that will give its name to their treaty. There is one small ceremony left to complete, something buried in the small print. Rollo, Robert, must kiss the foot of the Carolingian king, an act that will demonstrate his submission. All well and good, but Rollo, as a pagan Viking, had publicly uttered an oath. I will never bow at the knee before any man. No man's foot will I kiss. Still, nothing that can't be fudged. At the appointed moment, in his stead, Rollo sends forward one of his henchmen. He will act as his proxy.

Speaker 2:
[33:40] This is something that reads sort of like a Viking legend. But at the official ceremony, Rollo refuses to kiss the foot of Charles the Simple, instead asking one of his men to do it for him. At which point, his man takes the foot of Charles the Simple, without bowing down, instead lifting Charles' foot to his mouth, kissing it and then dropping him on the ground. Classic Viking negotiation.

Speaker 1:
[34:10] The hapless monarch tumbles flat on his back, much to the mirth of Rollo's entourage. With stability now in Frankia, some of the Vikings turn their eyes to Ireland again. Three years after Rollo's inauguration, in 914, they mount a fresh assault on old Hipernian. And they succeed in retaking their former strongholds, the Longports. Citric one-eyed, great-grandson of Ivar, notably reclaims Dublin. But learning from previous experience, the Norsemen will never make a serious attempt at a full-on occupation of the island. The Longports will always face seawards, secured and reconciled to trade. By 950, the Viking military incursions will peter out. But something has been happening for the passage of time in those trading hubs and their expanding surrounds. The result of over a century of intermingling, intermarriage, and let's not be coy here, intercourse. A whole new strain of people has emerged. People who are what you would call mixed race, part Celtic, part Scandinavian. It's an increasing trend among settler Vikings. The Norsemen have been more than happy to adopt the local ways. And forgo their mother tongue too, to adopt the native language, in this case, Gaelic. Some haven't forfeited to abandon their pagan ways for Christ.

Speaker 2:
[35:56] Well, we see the Vikings assert themselves in the political order in Ireland and become a merchant sort of elite that is stationed along the rivers and coasts.

Speaker 5:
[36:09] And so in Ireland, the Norse became integrated into the political landscape.

Speaker 1:
[36:16] This new strain in Irish society will be known as Norse Gales, or a Hiberno-Norse.

Speaker 2:
[36:23] So this is a fusion, a hybridization of cultural elements taken from the Irish and from the Scandinavians.

Speaker 1:
[36:32] Norse Gales will find themselves at the core of a new dynasty, the Scions of Ivar or Ivarids, whose realm extends along the Gaelic shores.

Speaker 5:
[36:43] Because the Vikings had ships, they were quite useful allies to have in Irish connections across the Irish Sea, so to the Isle of Man, to Wales, and to the Gaelic-speaking lands in what we would now think of as Scotland and the Isles. So the Irish Annals are one source that gives us a bit more information about the Scandinavians as settlers, not peaceful settlers, but as people who do become part of the world of Irish politics.

Speaker 1:
[37:19] The same process of integration will soon be happening in Normandy. As Heathen Rollo becomes Christian Count Robert, so the Northmen or Normans enjoy the fruits of what you might call settled status, adopting the local language, becoming culturally French.

Speaker 3:
[37:39] Apparently, Norse dies out within a generation, and the same thing is true down south in Italy, the same thing, they just adopt Italian or Arabic, whatever the local cultures are. And this makes them harder to see because they kind of just disappear, and they are very pragmatic, they take what works, and they found these incredibly stable states in what had been a very chaotic Europe.

Speaker 6:
[38:02] There's no doubt that there is a will to assimilate, because ultimately if we're going to rule these people successfully, we actually need their language, but also if we're going to integrate into that aristocratic class where we see great benefits accruing from, if we're going to become a part of that, we need to adopt those cultural trappings.

Speaker 1:
[38:19] In England, the Norse and Anglo-Saxon languages and customs are similar enough for there to be a more organic cultural merger. Whereas in Ireland and in Normandy, the only way to get by is to go all in, to go native. Rollo is good to his word. Ruling like the most Frankish of autocrats, he transforms Normandy into a thriving economic proposition, a trading powerhouse and a bastion of agriculture. Charles the Simple is vindicated, Viking raids up the Seine cease altogether. So seriously does Rollo take law and order, that he decrees farmers to be able to leave their tools in the fields at night. Anyone caught stealing is to be hanged in public. And they are. As for the military alliance that was part of the deal, Rollo honors that too. In 923 he joins Charles in a war against Burgundy. Old habits die hard. As with other Christian converts, the question remains as to whether Rollo's is a genuine spiritual rebirth or just a flag of convenience. On his deathbed, Rollo is said to have hedged his bets. Not wishing to be kept out of Valhalla, he orders a hundred Christian captives to be sacrificed, beheaded. On the other hand, to atone for this barbarous act, he decrees that gold be distributed to the poor. The Lord appears to have been merciful. Rollo, Count Robert, is laid to rest in Rourne Cathedral in 933, having lived well into his eighties. By the 11th century, the great abbeys of Normandy will become the most important in western Christendom, just as the Irish ones had been before. Rollo's effect has been profound.

Speaker 6:
[40:28] So our best source is from a writer known as Dudo of Saint-Quentin, who is writing at the Norman ducal court, starting in about the 990s. If we're looking at that, he is the mythical founder. He is the kind of the great individual who creates Normandy. It's not very historical, but what it does reflect is how Rollo is remembered in later Normandy, and he is remembered as this person who was the start of everything.

Speaker 1:
[40:59] In Ireland, by the mid-10th century, the long ports have grown into mini kingdoms, Viking micro states. Fine when the Norsemen are behaving themselves, but not when they have ambition, and not when they are unable to keep their hands off Ireland's family silver. One such man is the King of Dublin, Olaf Citrixen. He's a Norse gale. At one point, too, he's King of Northumbria over in England. The Irish call him Amlaev Curran, or Olaf Sandal. He will become, in his own way, the last of the Everids. In the 970s, his periodic raiding into the Irish Midlands is going to bring him into conflict with High King Mael Sheknal Macdormal, great-great-grandson of the original Mael. To cut a long story short, a rather complicated one, Mael II will defeat Olaf in battle. Olaf will flee to the Hebridean island of Iona to become a monk. But a strident Mael is not a welcome prospect to his Irish rivals, including a chieftain from the Southwest. His name is Brian Boru. Brian Boru is an erudite soul, a man schooled in Latin and Greek and who can bash out a mean chieftain on a harp. But he is no shrinking violet. In the finest tradition, he is also a fearsome warrior. Hailing from the powerful Dalcassian clan, he will rise to become King of Munster. As the 12th of 12 sons, it had seemed an unlikely proposition. But it is the Vikings who bear responsibility here, killing not just his brothers, but his father too. Needless to say, Brian is not predisposed to Norsemen, Norse Gaels or, to be honest, Norse anything. It is his avowed intention to avenge his family and kick the Vikings out of Ireland once and for all. Over the long years of fighting, Borrow has been a student of Viking fighting methods, especially their use of sea power. To beat the Norsemen, he will play them at their own game. He is the first Irish ruler to develop a navy, modeling his tactics on those used by his foe. In 977, he defeats a Viking fleet at the mouth of the River Shannon. A year later, he seizes Limerick. But Brian's expansionism brings him into conflict with his neighbors, and of course, the High King, Mail II. It will be a long bloody struggle. But by 996, Brian Borrow will be in control of the whole of the south of Ireland. Mail II, still with the title of High King, will be in control of the North. But bear with us, there's another mail, Mail Mordor. He's the King of Leinster, and he's not happy with this divvying up of Ireland. Mordor strikes up an alliance with the latest Viking King of Dublin, Sigtrigg Silkbeard. If it seems complicated, don't worry. In 999, Brian takes Dublin, but he decides to leave Viking rule intact there. It is slow and painful going, conquering the remaining kingdoms. But in 1008, with the backing of the Irish church, Brian defeats the holdout province of Ulster. In 1011, at Armagh, he signs himself not just High King, but Emperor Scotorum, King of the Gaols. Peace, as ever, is a pipe dream. Silkbeard has been busy fermenting descent. Within months, Ulster and Leinster will rise up. Mordor's Leinster will again rally to the Viking cause, along with Norse gale mercenaries shipped in from the Scottish Highlands and Highlands. In 1014, Brian Borough will lead his men into the landmark showdown, the Battle of Clontarf, fought on the coast just north of Dublin. In what is nowadays one of the modern capital's affluent suburbs, Sigtraeg Silkbeard, King of Dublin, makes a symbolic stand. He will fight in perhaps the last time ever for a Viking under the raven banner of Odin. Clontarf is, by any account, a savage battle. A critical moment in the story of Ireland. The 7,000 men of Brian are pitched against the 5,000 men of Silkbeard and his allies. In fighting that rages from dawn till dusk, 10,000 men will die. It will go down in history as the moment at which Brian, finally, quashes the Norsemen. Uniting Ireland in the process. His beloved harp taken as the new national symbol. As with the legend of Alfred the Great, there is, of course, a degree of historical license deployed. That of the scholar, the warrior king, the quasi-saint who delivers his people from evil. In fact, Brian Borough goes one further than Alfred, achieving something else to secure his legend. A martyr's death, perishing on the battlefield, though not quite in the manner you might imagine. It's April the 23rd, 1014, Good Friday. It's been a momentous day, a bloody one. At the shore, bodies bob on the tide. On land, the fields of Clontarf are strewn with corpses, savage, dismembered, eviscerated. Though beaten, there are still Viking units afoot, and one led by a warlord named Brodier will not accept defeat. If he is to exit this drama stage left, then he will do so with the biggest sculp of all. In their victory, it seems, Brian's men have let their guard down. And so, amid the chaos and in the twilight, Brodier leads his hitmen through Brian's lines. At the rear, on a piece of high ground, they see it. Brian borrows tent, edging round the boulders they creep up, ambushing the guards and slitting their throats. But inside, this is not how Brodier imagined it. All he finds is an old man, at least 70 years old. He is alone, frail, has a long white beard and is kneeling half blind beside his bed, hands clasped in prayer. Brodier assumes him at first to be a priest, but then he realizes this is Brian Borrow. Vikings are not given to sentiment. Brodier slays Brian anyway. Some say he swings his axe to decapitate him. It's a cruel conclusion to the life of Brian, an ignoble act against an old man on the part of his killer. So sickened is a rival Viking, it is said, a man named Ulf, that he will later slice Brodier's stomach open. He will force him to walk in circles round a tree, holding his own spilled guts until he dies. The winner in the story is male Shacknell II. Hedging his bets, he withdrew his troops from Klontarf at the last minute, sitting and watching while the two armies slaughtered each other. Now he will again be High King. But the truth is, with the rise of the Norse Gaels, what does kicking the Vikings out of Ireland actually mean? It is hard to tell anymore just where the Irish end and the Norse begin. After a presence on the island for some 200 years, Norse Gaels sit as Viking kings. There are Norse mercenaries on both sides. Even Silkbeard's Odin banner seems a touch theatrical. A waving of a football scarf for an old team. A Viking by tradition, Silkbeard is in fact a 5th generation Norse Gael. To muddy the waters even further, he is also married to Brian Borough's daughter, Slarnia. Soon after the battle, he goes on a pilgrimage to Rome and returns to found Dublin's Christchurch, Ireland's first cathedral. For better, for worse, the blood of the Vikings, their Scandinavian DNA, is deeply imbedded in the Irish story. Today, there are many surnames that suggest Viking heritage. Cotter, Jennings, Hulpen, MacManus, Hendrick, Broderick, O'Rourke, amongst others. Macaulay, that means son of Olaf. Loughlin, Higgins, they mean quite literally Viking. And Dark Foreigner, in Gaelic, it's O'Duall, contracted along the way to Doyle. It's a similar story over in Normandy. If you are a French person by the name of Angouf, Omfois, Osmond, Gaumont or Yvar, meaning Yvar. And many more besides, you most likely have Nordic roots. Normandy will become a powerful medieval kingdom. It will usher in an age of feudalism, imposing castles, knights in armor, and the trappings of what we traditionally associate with the Middle Ages. But its Viking maritime heritage will remain to the fore. Norman fleets, like the Northmen of old, will sweep into the Mediterranean. In 1130, they will establish a colony in Sicily. It will evolve into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a significant Italian state. Normans too will be at the vanguard of the Crusades to the Holy Land. The old Vikings will become defenders of the new faith. Dublin, meanwhile, will rise as one of the most important commercial hubs of the age, its merchant class dominated by Norse gales.

Speaker 3:
[52:53] They essentially form modern Ireland. I know if we have any Irish listeners, they might get upset at that, but all I mean by that is they found Dublin and a lot of the major cities as well and give it this organization.

Speaker 2:
[53:09] The Viking bases in Ireland that become the first towns that link Ireland into the Northern Arc of Trade that leads all the way over to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, the Caliphate of Baghdad and the Empire of Byzantium, those towns grew up during the Viking Age. The genesis of those towns was the interactions between the Native Irish and Scandinavian traders.

Speaker 1:
[53:43] The Norse Gaels have a signature piece of jewelry, the ring pin brooch. It will become a fashion item right across the Viking world, a perennial archeological artifact found as far afield as North America. But there is always that sinister side to the commercial reach. At its peak, Dublin is slave central, an international exchange for human cargo, something that would have been antithetical to its patron saint, Patrick, who was himself dragged to Ireland in bondage. Let's go back to Rollo. When Rollo dies in 933, the rule of Normandy passes to his son, William Longsword. In 1066, his great-grandson, the new Duke of Normandy, also called William, will cast his gaze across the English Channel. For there, in Anglo-Saxon England, a succession crisis is brewing, and William, by Dint of his Norman, his Viking lineage, believes he has a justifiable claim to the English throne. In the next episode, banished from Iceland, a criminal named Eric the Red puts to sea. He will discover new land and found a spinoff colony, Greenland. But it's his son, Leif, who will push Viking exploration to the limit. He will arrive on the shores of North America. That's next time.