Scandinavian-Britain

THE EARLIEST RAIDS 73and slaves. From Edar, which they calledHowth, they carried off " a great prey of women,"and in 823 plundered Inis-dowill (Inch, co. Wexford)and Cork ; then, sailing along the coast, climbedthe almost inaccessible crags of Skellig Mhichel onthe Kerry coast (whereperiodwonderful structures of thisstill remain in the island cashel and beehivecells), and kidnapped the hermit Eitgall," et citomortuus est fame et siti," perhaps set ashore asa useless captive, for on board the ships he neednot have starved to death. Next year the famousmonastery of Bangor (co. Down) was sacked ;" theoratory was broken, and the relics of Comhgall wereshaken from the shrine, as Comhgall himself hadforetold."A year later they made the third attack on lona,where the monastery, which in SiS had been rebuiltin stone on a new site, was once more plundered.The occasion is marked by the death of Blathmacmac Flainn, and by the account of it written byWalafrid Strabo, abbot of Augiadives (Reichenau onthe Lake of Constance), who himself died only twentyoneyears afterwards. Blathmac seems to have expectedthe chance of his death sooner or later at the handsof Vikings ; though the rebuilding of the monasterysuggests that the Columban brotherhood thought thestorm was over, after five years had passed withoutsign of piracy from the south, and obviously withoutsign of Norse attacks from the north. When at lastthe sails of the approaching fleet were seen from thelook-out on Dunii, the jewelled golden shrine that