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SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 183
which he was to govern England, introduces our
notice of the meeting of his father, Henry II.,
with the Irish chiefs on the Stein of Dublin, A..D.
1172, an event bearing on previous statements that
this was the place where the Scandinavian kings
were elected and the laws which governed their
BOOKI -
CHAP. II.
territories promulgated.
When, therefore, as Hoveden tell us, Henry The Christmas
"ordered to be built, near the Church of St. xTld o
Andrew, without the City of Dublin, a royal palace,
constructed with wonderful skill, of peeled osiers,
and that
according to the custom of the country," 1
there, that is, at Thengmotha, he held the festivities
of Christmas, feasting the Irish chieftains, entertain-
ing them with military spectacles, and dismissing
them with presents, we are not to suppose that his
only object was pleasure, or that the Irish chieftains
came to do homage to Henry, and considered it
a badge of servitude to partake of his festivities or
to accept his
gifts.
It has been already noticed
the Irish had widely intermarried with the North-
men, hence they were accustomed to attend the
Yuletide feasts, to accept the Yuletide presents, and
to join in the warlike exercises of their Scandinavian
kinsmen, who, in pagan
as well as in Christian
times, celebrated Yuletide with feastings, games,
and gifts ; and, at this Thingmount, annually
1 " Ibique fecit sibi construi, ipse, cum regibus et principibus
juxta ecclesiam Sancti Andrese Hibernicib festum solenne tenuit
apostoli, extra civitatem Divelinse, die Natali Domini."
" Rerum
palatium regium iniro artificio de Anjjlicanarum Scriptorcs post
virgis levigatis ad moduin illius Bedam," p. 302, Folio, London,
patriae constructum. In quo 1595.