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BOOK III.
CHAP. II.
St. Andrew's
Thengmotha
stands (perhaps)
on the
site of a
lor>
THE SCANDINAVIANS, AND
On the other hand if it be suggested that such
temples stood on the east side of the Thingmount,
we are reminded that All Hallows and St. Mary del
Hogges were built between the years 1146 and 1 166, 1
and although many of the Northmen retained pagan
customs until nearly that time, yet it is scarcely
possible that their temples remained objects of so
much veneration in the middle of the twelfth century
as to induce the Christian clergy to erect churches
near them.
Rejecting these suppositions there is yet another
which may be offered ; it is, that if there were temples
to Thor and Freyja on the Stein as at Steinness, the
Christian missionaries as they built only one church
at Steinness, only built one church at Dublin, and
that church may have been the church of St. Andrew
Thengmotha. We do not find any notice of this
church before the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, but
it is mentioned in a Charter of John, while lord of
Ireland, and the name of Thengmotha attached to
it, apparently justifies the conjecture
that it was
built prior to that period, and may have been then
dedicated to some other saint, as we have the names
of several churches in the east suburbs of Dublin of
which we cannot now find any other trace. It may
also strengthen the conjecture, to observe that at this
1
In the Annals of Leinster there
is mention made of this Prior}';
how it was founded by Dermot
M'Murrough, king thereof ; and
that he came to Dublin in the
year 1166, when he fell sick, and,
calling all his priests
about'Lim on
the eve of the Feast of All Saints,
made a vow, if he recovered, to
build a religious house where he
lay sick; so it is probable that
Dermot lay there when the Priory
was first founded. Robert Ware's
Collections, Pococke MSS., No.
4,813, Brit. Museum. St. Mary It-
Hogges was founded by one of
the kings of Leinster, a predc-cessor
of Dermot M'Murrough. Ibicf.