Open [36.0 MB]

34 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND
BOOK I. same month by them ; and Turgeis himself asm-pod the abbacy of
Ard Macha; and Farannan, abbot of Ard Macli .
and chief com-
:
harba of Patrick, was driven out, and went to Mumhain (M\i
and Patrick's shrine with bim ; and he was four in
years M umhain,
while Turgeis was in Ard Macha, and in the sovereignty of the
north of Erinn."
Torgeii enters CHAPTER XI. "There came now Turgeis of Ard Madia, and
brought & flee^ upon Loch Rai, and from thence plundered Mid IK;
monaateries of and Connacht ; and Cluan Mic Nois "
on the left
(Clonmacnois,
Connaucht bank of the Shannon, five miles south of Athlone), "and Cluau
A.D. 83S-845. Ferta of Brennan "
(Clonfert, in the county of Gahvay), "and
"
Lothra and Tir-da-glass (Lorrha and Tenyglas, on the banks of
Lough Derg, a swell of the Shannon, in the county of Tipperary),
" "
and Inis Celtra, and all the churches of Derg-dheirc
churches in the islands of
"
Lough Derg), in like manner.
(the
And
Invasion under
the place where Ota, the wife of Turgeis, used to give her audience
was upon the altar of Cluan Mic Nois." (pp. ix.-xiii).
Dr. Todd, after fixing the dates and series of the earliest ravages
of the Scandinavians, says :
"
Finally, in A.D. 815, according to the Chronology of O'Flaherty
(or more probably, as we shall see, about 830), Turgesius, a Norwegian,
established himself as sovereign of the foreigners, and made
Armagh the capital of his kingdom." (p. xxxvi) "After this
our author says "
(continues Dr. Todd), " came ' a great royal fleet
into the north of Ireland,' commanded by Turgeis or Turgesius,
' who assumed the sovereignty of the foreigners of Ireland,' and
occupied the whole of Leth Chuinn, or the northern half of Ireland.
In addition to the party -mder the immediate command of Tur-
gesius, three 'fleets,' probably in connexion with him, appeared
simultaneously. One of these took possession of Lough Neagh,
another of Louth, anchoring in what is now the bay of Dundalk,
and the third, having, as it would seem, approached Ireland from
the west, occupied Lough Ree. The chronology of this invasion
is fixed by means of the particulars recorded. Armagh was plun-
dered three times in the same month. This, the annalists all say,
was the first plundering of Armagh by the Gentiles, and is assigned
to the year 832." Dr. Todd then shows that, in A.D. 845, Turgesius
was made captive by Malachy, " and drowned in Loch Uair, now
Lough Owel, near Mullingar, county of Westmeath." (Ibid., pp.
xlii., xliii.)
This and another event " enables us (Dr. Todd says) to ascertain