Open [36.0 MB]

40 THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND
BOOK i. of Aulaf and Ivar, for A. D. 870 or 871 terminated the
career of Aula He was slain in battle, and Ivar,
AuUf and ivar who succeeded him as King of Dublin, did not long
872.
871 ' ld
survive, the record of his death in the Annals of
Ulster being that " Imhar, King of the Norsemen of
Ireland and Britain, died,"
A.D. 872. 1
Proofs that That Ivar, King of the Scandinavians of Dublin,
u bria and and Ivar, King of the Danes of Northumbria, was the
were the same, same individual is here clearly stated ; but fortunately
our evidence of the fact is not confined to Irish
annals. Irish annals are here confirmed by one of
the oldest and most important of the English chron-
icles ;
for it must be admitted that the chronological
difference of one or two years between the chronology
of different English historians is so general that it
may pass unnoticed when the facts agree, 2 and here
Ethelward, after stating that King Edmund was de-
feated and slain by the Danes in A.D. 870, 3 adds that,
although "the barbarians gained the victory they
soon afterwards lost their king, for King Ivar died
the same year," not in battle, but from old age or dis-
ease, as stated in the Icelandic saga and Irish history. 4
1 Laudnam. says, he was slain in Osten or Eystein, Aulafs son, as
battle in Ireland. On the contrary, the Norsemen never called the son
Pinkerton Enquiry, vol. i., p. 495, by the father's name. Ann. Ult.,
and Innes Apx. iii. Chron. Pict. 872. Ann. 4 Mast., 871. Ann.
say "Tertio iterum anno Amlieb Innisf., 873.
trahens cetum (exercitum) a Con- 2 " During long periods of years
stantino occisus est." This would the northern (English chronicles)
place his death in Scotland in 868, differ from those of the south and
and consequently inconsistent with west two whole years." Codex
the statement of his return to Dublin Dip. Sax., Ixxxv.
in 870, but would be consistent 8 Ethelwerd's Chronicle, Mon.
with the statement of the Annals Britt., p. 513.
of Inniifallen, that it was Aulaf,
*
Langebek, vol. ii., p. 281, Ivar
junior, who returned with Ivar, "in Anglia scnex obiit." Three
Aulaf being doubtless a mistake for Fragments, p. 199, "The King of