96-565: Ímar ( Old Norse : Ívarr [ˈiːˌwɑrː] ; died c. 873), synonymous with Ivar the Boneless , was a powerful Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century. He was the progenitor of the Uí Ímair dynasty, who would go on to dominate the Irish Sea region for several centuries. He was the son of the king of Lochlann , identified in the non-contemporary Fragmentary Annals of Ireland as Gofraid . The Fragmentary Annals name Auisle and Amlaíb Conung as his brothers. Another Viking leader, Halfdan Ragnarsson ,
192-701: A change known as Holtzmann's law . An epenthetic vowel became popular by 1200 in Old Danish, 1250 in Old Swedish and Old Norwegian, and 1300 in Old Icelandic. An unstressed vowel was used which varied by dialect. Old Norwegian exhibited all three: /u/ was used in West Norwegian south of Bergen , as in aftur , aftor (older aptr ); North of Bergen, /i/ appeared in aftir , after ; and East Norwegian used /a/ , after , aftær . Old Norse
288-557: A commander of the Great Heathen Army . According to O Croinin "Ímar has been identified with Ívarr Beinlausi (the boneless), son of Ragnar Lodbrok, but the matter is controversial". The reappearance of Ímar in Irish annals in 870 is marked by a raid undertaken by him and Amlaíb. They laid siege to Dumbarton Rock , the chief fortress of the Kingdom of Strathclyde , and captured it following
384-668: A contentious term used to refer to the newly arrived Vikings, as opposed to the "fair foreigners", i.e. , the Viking population which was resident prior to this influx. A kingdom in Viking Scotland was established by the mid ninth-century, and it exerted control over some of the Vikings in Ireland. By 853 a separate kingdom of Dublin had been set up which claimed control over all the Vikings in Ireland. The main historical sources for this period are
480-598: A familial connection. Some scholars identify Halfdan Ragnarsson as another brother. This identification is contingent upon Ímar being identical to Ivar the Boneless: Halfdan and Ivar are named as brothers in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . According to the Annals of Ulster Amlaíb's son Oistin was slain in battle by "Albann" in 875. This figure is generally agreed to be Halfdan. If that is correct, then it may explain
576-417: A female raven or a male crow. All neuter words have identical nominative and accusative forms, and all feminine words have identical nominative and accusative plurals. The gender of some words' plurals does not agree with that of their singulars, such as lim and mund . Some words, such as hungr , have multiple genders, evidenced by their determiners being declined in different genders within
672-493: A force of Norse-Irish at Araid Tíre (east of Lough Derg and the Shannon in modern-day County Tipperary ). Ossory was a small kingdom wedged between the larger realms of Munster and Leinster . At the beginning of his reign in the 840s, Cerball's allegiance was pledged to the over-king of Munster, but as that kingdom grew weaker Ossory's strategic location allowed opportunities for his advancement. Cerball had previously fought against
768-585: A four-month siege. The pair returned to Dublin in 871 with 200 ships and they "brought with them in captivity a great prey of Angles, Britons and Picts". According to the Fragmentary Annals Amlaíb returned to Lochlann that year to aid their father in a war, leaving Ímar to rule alone (Auisle had died in 867). The Pictish Chronicle claims Amlaíb died around 874 during a protracted campaign against Constantine I in Scotland. The Fragmentary Annals record
864-412: A front vowel to be split into a semivowel-vowel sequence before a back vowel in the following syllable. While West Norse only broke /e/ , East Norse also broke /i/ . The change was blocked by a /w/ , /l/ , or /ʀ/ preceding the potentially-broken vowel. Some /ja/ or /jɔ/ and /jaː/ or /jɔː/ result from breaking of /e/ and /eː/ respectively. When a noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb has
960-409: A given sentence. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns were declined in four grammatical cases – nominative , accusative , genitive , and dative – in singular and plural numbers. Adjectives and pronouns were additionally declined in three grammatical genders. Some pronouns (first and second person) could have dual number in addition to singular and plural. The genitive
1056-536: A group of Vikings sometimes known as the Norse-Irish. Máel Sechnaill was the most powerful king in Ireland at the time and his lands lay close to the Viking settlement of Dublin. The fighting began in the previous year: "Great warfare between the heathens and Mael Sechnaill, supported by Norse-Irish" is reported by the Annals of Ulster. The fighting was focused on Munster ; Máel Sechnaill sought to increase his influence over
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#17330847990491152-584: A long vowel or diphthong in the accented syllable and its stem ends in a single l , n , or s , the r (or the elder r - or z -variant ʀ ) in an ending is assimilated. When the accented vowel is short, the ending is dropped. The nominative of the strong masculine declension and some i-stem feminine nouns uses one such -r (ʀ). Óðin-r ( Óðin-ʀ ) becomes Óðinn instead of * Óðinr ( * Óðinʀ ). The verb blása ('to blow'), has third person present tense blæss ('[he] blows') rather than * blæsr ( * blæsʀ ). Similarly,
1248-401: A mere possibility". Downham concludes "while medieval writers seem to have been as interested as modern historians about Ívarr’s origins, it is perhaps wiser to accept that we do not know what these really were". In the Irish annals the terms Dubgaill (dark foreigners), and Finngaill (fair foreigners), are used to refer to rival groups of Vikings. The exact meaning of these terms
1344-520: A night attack, killing some of the southern men, but his forces took many casualties and were forced to retreat. In retaliation for this invasion Amlaíb and Áed led raids into Meath in 861 and 862, but they were driven off both times. According to the Fragmentary Annals this alliance had been cemented by a political marriage: Áed son of Niall and his son-in-law Amlaíb (Áed's daughter was Amlaíb's wife) went with great armies of Irish and Norwegians to
1440-474: A noun must mirror the gender of that noun , so that one says, " heill maðr! " but, " heilt barn! ". As in other languages, the grammatical gender of an impersonal noun is generally unrelated to an expected natural gender of that noun. While indeed karl , "man" is masculine, kona , "woman", is feminine, and hús , "house", is neuter, so also are hrafn and kráka , for "raven" and "crow", masculine and feminine respectively, even in reference to
1536-419: A patronymic in the annals, so it is not possible to identify which of the three known sons of Ímar - if any - was their father. One possible reason for the lack of a patronym might be that they were children of a son of Ímar who never ruled Dublin, or who spent most of his time outside Ireland, thus making their legitimacy to rule dependent on the identity of their grandfather, not their father. Another possibility
1632-416: A proclamation of many tributes and taxes from his father, and he departed suddenly. Then his younger brother Ímar came after him to levy the same tribute. Ímar and Amlaíb were joined in Ireland by another brother, Auisle, sometime before 863. From this date onwards the three brothers are described as "kings of the foreigners" by the annals, but in modern texts they are usually labelled as kings of Dublin, after
1728-472: A similar development influenced by Middle Low German . Various languages unrelated to Old Norse and others not closely related have been heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman language ; to a lesser extent, Finnish and Estonian . Russian, Ukrainian , Belarusian , Lithuanian and Latvian also have a few Norse loanwords. The words Rus and Russia , according to one theory, may be named after
1824-464: A step further, suggesting that Dubgaill was applied "to followers the king of Laithlind (who had become a recurrent phenomenon for the chroniclers) as a convenient way of distinguishing them from the vikings who were already in Ireland". Smyth has suggested that Amlaíb can be identified with Olaf Geirstad-Alf , King of Vestfold , who was the son of Gudrød the Hunter and half-brother of Halfdan
1920-601: A voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in all cases, and others have that realisation only in the middle of words and between vowels (with it otherwise being realised [ɡ] ). The Old East Norse /ʀ/ was an apical consonant , with its precise position unknown; it is reconstructed as a palatal sibilant . It descended from Proto-Germanic /z/ and eventually developed into /r/ , as had already occurred in Old West Norse. The consonant digraphs ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ occurred word-initially. It
2016-460: A vowel or semivowel of a different vowel backness . In the case of i-umlaut and ʀ-umlaut , this entails a fronting of back vowels, with retention of lip rounding. In the case of u-umlaut , this entails labialization of unrounded vowels. Umlaut is phonemic and in many situations grammatically significant as a side effect of losing the Proto-Germanic morphological suffixes whose vowels created
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#17330847990492112-448: A word. Strong verbs ablaut the lemma 's nucleus to derive the past forms of the verb. This parallels English conjugation, where, e.g., the nucleus of sing becomes sang in the past tense and sung in the past participle. Some verbs are derived by ablaut, as the present-in-past verbs do by consequence of being derived from the past tense forms of strong verbs. Umlaut or mutation is an assimilatory process acting on vowels preceding
2208-632: Is a "construct without historical value" likely with political reasoning. Highly likely to be identical to Ivar the Boneless, his father therefore would have been Ragnar Lothbrok. Nonetheless, he accepts the possibility of Ímar's father being Gofraid (also Goffridh or Gothfraid), stating "it is likely that the father of ... Ímar (Ívarr) is Gofraid (Guðrøðr) and that he is a historical person and dynastic ancestor". Amlaíb Conung came to Ireland first in 853, with Ímar following in or before 857, and Auisle following in or before 863. The three are identified as "kings of
2304-500: Is believed that at that time their combined territory encompassed Dublin , the Isle of Man , the Western Isles , Orkney , and large parts of the northern and western Scottish coast including Argyll , Caithness and Sutherland . Norse contact with Scotland predates the first written records in the 8th century, although the nature and frequency of these contacts is unknown. Excavations on
2400-537: Is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden . In what is present-day Denmark and Sweden, most speakers spoke Old East Norse. Though Old Gutnish is sometimes included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations, it developed its own unique features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th-century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes , Norwegians , Icelanders , and Danes spoke
2496-418: Is considered by some scholars to be another brother. The Irish Annals title Amlaíb, Ímar and Auisle "kings of the foreigners". Modern scholars use the title " Kings of Dublin " after the Viking settlement which formed the base of their power. Some scholars consider Ímar to be identical to Ivar the Boneless , a Viking commander of the Great Heathen Army named in contemporary English sources who also appears in
2592-461: Is expected to exist, such as in the male names Ragnarr , Steinarr (supposedly * Ragnarʀ , * Steinarʀ ), the result is apparently always /rː/ rather than */rʀ/ or */ʀː/ . This is observable in the Runic corpus. In Old Norse, i/j adjacent to i , e , their u-umlauts, and æ was not possible, nor u/v adjacent to u , o , their i-umlauts, and ǫ . At
2688-408: Is first mentioned in contemporary Irish annals in 857, four years after his brother Amlaíb Conung is recorded as arriving in Ireland. The later Fragmentary Annals of Ireland suggest Ímar may have come to Ireland shortly after his brother: Also in this year, i.e. , the sixth year of the reign of Máel Sechlainn , Amlaíb Conung, son of the king of Lochlann, came to Ireland, and he brought with him
2784-403: Is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects : Old West Norse (Old West Nordic, often referred to as Old Norse ), Old East Norse (Old East Nordic), and Old Gutnish . Old West Norse and Old East Norse formed a dialect continuum , with no clear geographical boundary between them. Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway , although Old Norwegian
2880-574: Is more common in Old West Norse in both phonemic and allophonic positions, while it only occurs sparsely in post-runic Old East Norse and even in runic Old East Norse. This is still a major difference between Swedish and Faroese and Icelandic today. Plurals of neuters do not have u-umlaut at all in Swedish, but in Faroese and Icelandic they do, for example the Faroese and Icelandic plurals of the word land , lond and lönd respectively, in contrast to
2976-486: Is not mentioned in any English source after 870, when Ímar reappears in the Irish annals. Ó Corrain also offers argument against the identification of Ímar and Ingvar/Ivar: "To take but one example, if Ivarr of Dublin is identical with Inguar, how are we to give any credence to Smyth's reconstruction of Brompton (p. 229) which shows Ivarr in East Anglia in 871 when we know from contemporary Irish sources that Ivarr of Dublin
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3072-463: Is subject to debate, but historically the most popular interpretation has been that Dubgaill refers to Danes and Finngaill refers to Norwegians . From 917 onwards the descendants of Ímar are described as leaders of the Dubgaill . Ímar himself is not identified explicitly by the annals with the Dubgaill , but Albann, a figure considered by some to be Ímar's brother, is called "lord of
3168-456: Is that the nonphonemic difference between the voiced and the voiceless dental fricative is marked. The oldest texts and runic inscriptions use þ exclusively. Long vowels are denoted with acutes . Most other letters are written with the same glyph as the IPA phoneme, except as shown in the table below. Ablaut patterns are groups of vowels which are swapped, or ablauted, in the nucleus of
3264-529: Is that they were grandsons of Ímar through a daughter, again with their right to rule dependent on their grandfather. Another grandson, Uathmarán, is directly identifiable as the son of Bárid. Ímar and his descendants are collectively titled the Uí Ímair - translated as "descendants of Ímar". Later members of this dynasty include multiple kings of Dublin, Northumbria and the Isles. Downham states "[Ímar's] descendants dominated
3360-557: Is unclear whether they were sequences of two consonants (with the first element realised as /h/ or perhaps /x/ ) or as single voiceless sonorants /l̥/ , /r̥/ and /n̥/ respectively. In Old Norwegian, Old Danish and later Old Swedish, the groups ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ were reduced to plain ⟨l⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , which suggests that they had most likely already been pronounced as voiceless sonorants by Old Norse times. The pronunciation of ⟨hv⟩
3456-603: Is unclear, but it may have been /xʷ/ (the Proto-Germanic pronunciation), /hʷ/ or the similar phoneme /ʍ/ . Unlike the three other digraphs, it was retained much longer in all dialects. Without ever developing into a voiceless sonorant in Icelandic, it instead underwent fortition to a plosive /kv/ , which suggests that instead of being a voiceless sonorant, it retained a stronger frication. Primary stress in Old Norse falls on
3552-614: The Hebrides , the Isle of Man , the Northern Isles and parts of mainland Scotland . Whatever the original sense, by the twelfth century, when Magnus Barefoot undertook his expedition to the West, it had come to mean Norway. The first mention of Ímar in Irish annals in 857 concerns a war fought between Ímar and Amlaíb Conung against Máel Sechnaill , overking of the Southern Uí Néill , and
3648-556: The Icelandic sagas as the eldest son of the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok by third wife Aslaug . During the late 850s and early 860s, Ímar was involved in a protracted conflict with Máel Sechnaill , overking of the Southern Uí Néill and the most powerful ruler in Ireland. The cause of the conflict is uncertain, but it may have been sparked by competition for control of Munster and its resources. Ímar allied successively with Cerball , King of Osraige and Áed Findliath , overking of
3744-525: The Latin alphabet , there was no standardized orthography in use in the Middle Ages. A modified version of the letter wynn called vend was used briefly for the sounds /u/ , /v/ , and /w/ . Long vowels were sometimes marked with acutes but also sometimes left unmarked or geminated. The standardized Old Norse spelling was created in the 19th century and is, for the most part, phonemic. The most notable deviation
3840-467: The Northern Uí Néill against Máel Sechnaill. Máel Sechnaill died in 862 and his lands were split, effectively ending the conflict. Following this Ímar and his kin warred with several Irish leaders in an attempt to expand their kingdom's influence. Ímar disappears from the historical record in Ireland between the years 864 and 870; this is consistent with Ímar being identical to Ivar the Boneless - Ivar
3936-657: The Rus' people , a Norse tribe, probably from present-day east-central Sweden. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi , respectively. A number of loanwords have been introduced into Irish , many associated with fishing and sailing. A similar influence is found in Scottish Gaelic , with over one hundred loanwords estimated to be in the language, many of which are related to fishing and sailing. Old Norse vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The standardized orthography marks
Ímar - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-645: The Uí Dúnchada , was killed by Vikings in 863, probably by Ímar and his kin trying to expand into Leinster. Beginning around 864 the three brothers halted their campaigns of conquest in Ireland, and instead campaigned in Britain . Ímar disappears from the Irish Annals in 864, and does not reappear until 870. Downham concludes he is identical to Ivar the Boneless , a Viking leader who was active in England during this period as
4128-471: The Uí Ímair . Many camps along river banks and lakes did not last long, however, some only as little as one or two seasons, but others such as Dublin developed into large urban centers, as did the other significant Norse settlements at Cork , Waterford, Woodstown (in Waterford), Wexford and Limerick which remain the largest urban centers in Ireland today. The term longphort, or longphuit in Irish as seen in
4224-548: The Viking Age , the Christianization of Scandinavia , and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse
4320-654: The word stem , so that hyrjar would be pronounced /ˈhyr.jar/ . In compound words, secondary stress falls on the second stem (e.g. lærisveinn , /ˈlɛːɾ.iˌswɛinː/ ). Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark , runic Old Norse was originally written with the Younger Futhark , which had only 16 letters. Because of the limited number of runes, several runes were used for different sounds, and long and short vowels were not distinguished in writing. Medieval runes came into use some time later. As for
4416-442: The 'Dark Foreigners'". However, the interpretation of "dark" Danes and "fair" Norwegians has recently been challenged. Dumville has suggested that Dubgaill and Finngaill do not refer to any cultural difference but instead distinguish between "old" and "new" Vikings, with the group arriving with Ímar being the "new" or "dark" Vikings, and the preexisting group being the "old" or "fair" Vikings. Downham agrees and goes
4512-551: The 11th century in most of Old East Norse. However, the distinction still holds in Dalecarlian dialects . The dots in the following vowel table separate the oral from nasal phonemes. Note: The open or open-mid vowels may be transcribed differently: Sometime around the 13th century, /ɔ/ (spelled ⟨ǫ⟩ ) merged with /ø/ or /o/ in most dialects except Old Danish , and Icelandic where /ɔ/ ( ǫ ) merged with /ø/ . This can be determined by their distinction within
4608-957: The 12th-century First Grammatical Treatise but not within the early 13th-century Prose Edda . The nasal vowels, also noted in the First Grammatical Treatise, are assumed to have been lost in most dialects by this time (but notably they are retained in Elfdalian and other dialects of Ovansiljan ). See Old Icelandic for the mergers of /øː/ (spelled ⟨œ⟩ ) with /ɛː/ (spelled ⟨æ⟩ ) and /ɛ/ (spelled ⟨ę⟩ ) with /e/ (spelled ⟨e⟩ ). Old Norse had three diphthong phonemes: /ɛi/ , /ɔu/ , /øy ~ ɛy/ (spelled ⟨ei⟩ , ⟨au⟩ , ⟨ey⟩ respectively). In East Norse these would monophthongize and merge with /eː/ and /øː/ , whereas in West Norse and its descendants
4704-642: The 13th century there. The age of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland is strongly contested, but Swedish settlement had spread the language into the region by the time of the Second Swedish Crusade in the 13th century at the latest. The modern descendants of the Old West Norse dialect are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , and the extinct Norn language of Orkney and Shetland , although Norwegian
4800-677: The Black , though speculation of this nature has not received much support. Ó Corrain states that there is "no good historical or linguistic evidence to link Lothlend/Laithlind with Norway, and none to link the dynasty of Dublin to the shadowy history of the Ynglings of Vestfold". Ímar's father is identified as Gofraid by the Fragmentary Annals ; an entry dated c. 871–872 gives a partial genealogy for Ímar, naming him "Ímar son of Gofraid son of Ragnall son of Gofraid Conung son of Gofraid". Ó Corrain states that this reference to Ímar's genealogical ascent
4896-560: The Faroe Islands, Faroese has also been influenced by Danish. Both Middle English (especially northern English dialects within the area of the Danelaw ) and Early Scots (including Lowland Scots ) were strongly influenced by Norse and contained many Old Norse loanwords . Consequently, Modern English (including Scottish English ), inherited a significant proportion of its vocabulary directly from Norse. The development of Norman French
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#17330847990494992-544: The Isles, and progenitor of Clan Donald and Clan MacDougall , descended from Ímar and the Crovan dynasty, though perhaps only through the female line. Old Norse language Old Norse , also referred to as Old Nordic , or Old Scandinavian , was a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with
5088-942: The Norse sagas and the Irish annals . Some of the annals, such as the Annals of Ulster , are believed to be contemporary accounts, whereas the sagas were written down at dates much later than the events they describe and are considered far less reliable. A few of the annals, such as the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland and the Annals of the Four Masters , were also compiled at later dates, in part from more contemporary material and in part from fragments of sagas. According to Downham , "apart from these additions [of saga fragments], Irish chronicles are considered by scholars to be largely accurate records, albeit partisan in their presentation of events". Ímar
5184-468: The Swedish plural land and numerous other examples. That also applies to almost all feminine nouns, for example the largest feminine noun group, the o-stem nouns (except the Swedish noun jord mentioned above), and even i-stem nouns and root nouns , such as Old West Norse mǫrk ( mörk in Icelandic) in comparison with Modern and Old Swedish mark . Vowel breaking, or fracture, caused
5280-527: The Viking settlement which was the base of their power. Lochlann , originally Laithlinn or Lothlend, the land where Ímar's father was king, is often identified with Norway , but it is not universally accepted that it had such a meaning in early times. Several historians have proposed instead that in early times, and certainly as late as the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, Lochlann refers to the Norse and Norse-Gael lands in
5376-597: The Vikings were able to begin a period of extremely profitable trade. Overall, the longphort settlements were essential in establishing the presence of the Vikings in Ireland during the ninth and tenth centuries. The word was first used in the 840s in the Irish account of The Annals of Ulster and in the Frankish account in the Annals of St. Bertin with the establishment of Viking encampments at Linn Duachaill and Dublin . It also describes new Viking settlements established at Waterford in 914 and Limerick in 922 possibly by
5472-500: The Vikings, but he allied with them to challenge the supremacy of Máel Sechnaill and his Norse-Irish allies. The following year Amlaíb, Ímar and Cerball conducted a raid on Máel Sechnaill's heartlands in Meath , and in consequence a royal conference was held at Rathugh (modern-day County Westmeath ). Following this meeting Cerball shed his allegiance to the Vikings and formally submitted to Máel Sechnaill in order to "make peace and amity between
5568-475: The annals are identifiable as sons of Ímar. These are Bárid (d. 881), Sichfrith (d. 888), and Sitriuc (d. 896), all three of whom reigned as King of Dublin. Five individuals are titled "ua Ímair" in the annals, a term usually understood to mean "grandson of Ímar". These are Sitric Cáech , Ímar , Ragnall , Amlaíb, and Gofraid . All except for Amlaíb ruled as either King of Dublin or King of Viking Northumbria at one time or another. These five are never given
5664-480: The annals, literally translates to “ship camp”. This compound word was likely coined by Irish monks from the Latin word "longus" (long) reflecting the Old Norse "lang" (long), thus implying "langskip" (long ship); plus the Latin "portus", meaning port, harbour. There are several towns and townlands in Ireland whose names bear some element of Longphort in them. This may suggest that at some point in history there may have been
5760-541: The beginning of words, this manifested as a dropping of the initial /j/ (which was general, independent of the following vowel) or /v/ . Compare ON orð , úlfr , ár with English word, wolf, year . In inflections, this manifested as the dropping of the inflectional vowels. Thus, klæði + dat -i remains klæði , and sjáum in Icelandic progressed to sjǫ́um > sjǫ́m > sjám . The * jj and * ww of Proto-Germanic became ggj and ggv respectively in Old Norse,
5856-595: The cause of the war. Early battles seem to have gone the way of the Vikings: Ímar and Amlaíb "inflicted a rout on Caitill the Fair and his Norse-Irish in the lands of Munster". Although there is no certain evidence to suggest that this Caitill is the same person as the Ketill Flatnose of later sagas, Anderson and Crawford have suggested that they are the same person. In 858 Ímar, allied with Cerball , King of Ossory , routed
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#17330847990495952-411: The cluster */Crʀ/ cannot be realized as /Crː/ , nor as */Crʀ/ , nor as */Cʀː/ . The same shortening as in vetr also occurs in lax = laks ('salmon') (as opposed to * lakss , * laksʀ ), botn ('bottom') (as opposed to * botnn , * botnʀ ), and jarl (as opposed to * jarll , * jarlʀ ). Furthermore, wherever the cluster */rʀ/
6048-407: The coastline of Ross and Cromarty and Inverness . In 865 the Great Heathen Army landed in England and one of its leaders is identified by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "Ingvar". Later Norse tradition records Ingvar under the name of Ivar the Boneless , and calls him a son of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok . It is generally accepted that Ivar the Boneless and Ingvar are one and the same, though
6144-503: The death of Ímar's father, Gofraid , in 873. The final mention of Ímar in contemporary annals is also in 873 when his death is reported. In these reports he is titled "king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain". According to Ó Corrain the evidence suggests that by his death Ímar's kingdom (including the territory formerly ruled by his father) included Man , the Western Isles , Argyll , Caithness , Sutherland , Orkney , and parts of
6240-449: The diphthongs remained. Old Norse has six plosive phonemes, /p/ being rare word-initially and /d/ and /b/ pronounced as voiced fricative allophones between vowels except in compound words (e.g. veðrabati ), already in the Proto-Germanic language (e.g. * b *[β] > [v] between vowels). The /ɡ/ phoneme was pronounced as [ɡ] after an /n/ or another /ɡ/ and as [k] before /s/ and /t/ . Some accounts have it
6336-500: The epithet "the Boneless" is not recorded until the twelfth century and its origins are obscure. Moreover, some suppose Ivar the Boneless to be identical to Ímar, though there is no scholarly consensus one way or another. Woolf supports the connection between these two "Ivars" and writes of the Great Heathen Army that invaded East Anglia in 865 that "it is now generally agreed that they arrived in Britain directly from Ireland where Ívarr,
6432-419: The first time in 840–841. In 841 a longphort was constructed at Áth Cliath (Irish for hurdled ford ), a site which would later develop into the city of Dublin. Longphorts were also established at other sites around Ireland, some of which developed into larger Viking settlements over time. The Viking population in Ireland was boosted in 851 with the arrival of a large group known as "dark foreigners" –
6528-464: The foreigners" by the Annals of Ulster in 863, and as brothers by the Fragmentary Annals : The king had three sons: Amlaíb, Ímar, and Óisle. Óisle was the least of them in age, but he was the greatest in valor, for he outshone the Irish in casting javelins and in strength with spears. He outshone the Norwegians in strength with swords and in shooting arrows. His brothers loathed him greatly, and Amlaíb
6624-605: The island of Unst in Shetland indicate that Scandinavian settlers had reached there perhaps as early as the mid-7th century and from 793 onwards repeated raids by Vikings on the British Isles are recorded. "All the islands of Britain" were devastated in 794 with Iona being sacked in 802 and 806. The Frankish Annales Bertiniani may record the conquest of the Inner Hebrides by Vikings in 847. Scholarly interpretations of
6720-419: The kings there. He took hostages from the province in 854, 856 and 858, and the power of the over-kings had been weakened in 856 by a Viking raid on the royal centre at Lough Cend, when Gormán son of Lonán, a relative of Munster's over-king, was killed alongside a great many others. This weakness likely drew the gaze of both Máel Sechnaill and the Vikings, and their competition for Munster's resources may have been
6816-399: The long vowels with an acute accent. In medieval manuscripts, it is often unmarked but sometimes marked with an accent or through gemination . Old Norse had nasalized versions of all ten vowel places. These occurred as allophones of the vowels before nasal consonants and in places where a nasal had followed it in an older form of the word, before it was absorbed into a neighboring sound. If
6912-531: The major seaports of Ireland and challenged the power of kings in Britain during the later ninth and tenth centuries". Viking power in Ireland was severely weakened by the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, and although Ímar's descendants maintained influence in and around the Irish sea region they did not have the strength they had had previously. The Crovan dynasty , rulers of Mann and the Isles, likely descended from Ímar through his great-grandson Amlaíb Cuarán . Woolf , among others, has suggested that Somerled , King of
7008-531: The men of Ireland". With their ally turned against them, Ímar and Amlaíb sought a new alliance with Áed Findliath , overking of the Northern Uí Néill , and rival of Máel Sechnaill. In 860 Máel Sechnaill and Cerball led a large army of men from Munster, Leinster, Connacht and the Southern Uí Néill into the lands of Áed Findliath near Armagh . While the southern forces were encamped there, Áed launched
7104-615: The most conservative language, such that in present-day Iceland, schoolchildren are able to read the 12th-century Icelandic sagas in the original language (in editions with normalised spelling). Old Icelandic was very close to Old Norwegian , and together they formed Old West Norse , which was also spoken in Norse settlements in Greenland , the Faroes , Ireland , Scotland , the Isle of Man , northwest England, and in Normandy . Old East Norse
7200-428: The most; the causes of the hatred are not told because of their length. The Annals of Ulster say that Auisle was killed in 867 by "kinsmen in parricide". The Fragmentary Annals state explicitly that Amlaíb and Ímar planned their brother's death, though no motive is given. Although the three are not identified as brothers in any contemporary annals, the recurrence of their names among their descendants strongly suggests
7296-503: The nasal was absorbed by a stressed vowel, it would also lengthen the vowel. This nasalization also occurred in the other Germanic languages, but were not retained long. They were noted in the First Grammatical Treatise , and otherwise might have remained unknown. The First Grammarian marked these with a dot above the letter. This notation did not catch on, and would soon be obsolete. Nasal and oral vowels probably merged around
7392-641: The other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, and Gaelic ( Scottish and/or Irish ). Although Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have diverged the most, they still retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, particularly if speaking slowly. The languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders. This could be because these languages have been mutually affected by each other, as well as having
7488-476: The period "have led to widely divergent reconstructions of Viking Age Scotland", especially in the early period, and Barrett has identified several competing theories, none of which he regards as proven. Donnchadh Ó Corráin notes: "when and how the Vikings conquered and occupied the Isles is unknown, perhaps unknowable". The earliest recorded Viking raids in Ireland occurred in 795. Over time, these raids increased in intensity, and they overwintered in Ireland for
7584-656: The plain of Mide, and they plundered it and killed many freemen. In later years, alliance between the Northern Uí Néill and the Vikings of Dublin became a regular occurrence: the Northern and Southern Uí Néill were frequent competitors for supremacy in Ireland, and the uneasy neighbourhood between Dublin and the Southern Uí Néill made the Vikings natural allies for the Northerners. Máel Sechnaill died in 862, and his territory in Meath
7680-448: The reason for the conflict: it was a dynastic squabble for control of the kingdom. One potential problem is that according to Norse tradition Ivar and Halfdan were the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok , whereas Ímar and Amlaíb are named as sons of Gofraid in the Fragmentary Annals . However, the historicity of Ragnar is uncertain and the identification of Ragnar as the father of Ivar and Halfdan is not to be relied upon. Three figures later named by
7776-536: The root vowel, ǫ , is short. The clusters */Clʀ, Csʀ, Cnʀ, Crʀ/ cannot yield */Clː, Csː, Cnː, Crː/ respectively, instead /Cl, Cs, Cn, Cr/ . The effect of this shortening can result in the lack of distinction between some forms of the noun. In the case of vetr ('winter'), the nominative and accusative singular and plural forms are identical. The nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural would otherwise have been OWN * vetrr , OEN * wintrʀ . These forms are impossible because
7872-441: The same language, dǫnsk tunga ("Danish tongue"; speakers of Old East Norse would have said dansk tunga ). Another term was norrœnt mál ("northern speech"). Today Old Norse has developed into the modern North Germanic languages Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , Danish , Swedish , and other North Germanic varieties of which Norwegian, Danish and Swedish retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Icelandic remains
7968-584: The sea. These camps would be of great importance to the Vikings during their raids of Ireland, which included attacks on many churches and monasteries located on the coast. It can be assumed that the purpose of these sites was to ease travel and trade within the region. Longphorts were essential to the economic prosperity of the Vikings. For example, it is clear that the earliest settlements became major trading centers throughout Ireland. Archeological evidence shows that imports and exports included textiles, animal skins, amber, and glass from England. During this time,
8064-454: The senior partner by 865, had been active for at least a decade". Ó Corrain argues that the "evidence in favour of the identification of Ímar and Inguar consists of three points: the identity of the names, the absence of any mention of Ímar in the Irish annals between 864 and the Irish account of the siege of Dumbarton in 870, and the subsequent close connections between the dynasties of Dublin and York". Forte, Oram, and Pedersen note that Ivar
8160-482: The term had additional meanings and these sites had multiple purposes. The reason it cannot be assumed that longphorts were solely for military purposes as that would assume that there were always large numbers of Vikings at these settlements, which is not true. These camps were fortified areas along rivers, usually at a tributary where both sides were protected such that the Vikings could port ships. The sites were easily defended, sheltered, and gave immediate access to
8256-497: The umlaut allophones . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , /ɛ/ , /ɛː/ , /øy/ , and all /ɛi/ were obtained by i-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /o/ , /oː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , /au/ , and /ai/ respectively. Others were formed via ʀ-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , and /au/ . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , and all /ɔ/ , /ɔː/ were obtained by u-umlaut from /i/ , /iː/ , /e/ , /eː/ , and /a/ , /aː/ respectively. See Old Icelandic for information on /ɔː/ . /œ/
8352-482: The verb skína ('to shine') had present tense third person skínn (rather than * skínr , * skínʀ ); while kala ('to cool down') had present tense third person kell (rather than * kelr , * kelʀ ). The rule is not absolute, with certain counter-examples such as vinr ('friend'), which has the synonym vin , yet retains the unabsorbed version, and jǫtunn (' giant '), where assimilation takes place even though
8448-404: Was a moderately inflected language with high levels of nominal and verbal inflection. Most of the fused morphemes are retained in modern Icelandic, especially in regard to noun case declensions, whereas modern Norwegian in comparison has moved towards more analytical word structures. Old Norse had three grammatical genders – masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives or pronouns referring to
8544-474: Was active in England between these two dates and he is not mentioned by English sources after 870. In 870 the annals record that Dumbarton Rock , the chief fortress of the kingdom of Strathclyde , was successfully captured by Ímar and Amlaíb following a four-month-long siege. Ímar died in 873 and is given the title "King of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain" in contemporary annals. The Fragmentary Annals record that Ímar's father also died that year, and it
8640-400: Was also influenced by Norse. Through Norman, to a smaller extent, so was modern French. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system. Contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the vowel phonemes, has changed at least as much in Icelandic as in
8736-424: Was besieging Dumbarton for four months in 870 and returned to Ireland in early 871 with the takings?... Taken all together, the genuine material on Inguar in contemporary English sources is slight". He also states "there is nothing new in the suggestion that Ímar of Dublin and Igwar/Ingwar/Iuuar of English history are identical. It has frequently been put forward....and has equally frequently been rejected or treated as
8832-571: Was heavily influenced by the East dialect, and is today more similar to East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) than to Icelandic and Faroese. The descendants of the Old East Norse dialect are the East Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish . Among these, the grammar of Icelandic and Faroese have changed the least from Old Norse in the last thousand years, though their pronunciations both have changed considerably from Old Norse. With Danish rule of
8928-535: Was obtained through a simultaneous u- and i-umlaut of /a/ . It appears in words like gøra ( gjǫra , geyra ), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną , and commonly in verbs with a velar consonant before the suffix like søkkva < *sankwijaną . OEN often preserves the original value of the vowel directly preceding runic ʀ while OWN receives ʀ-umlaut. Compare runic OEN glaʀ, haʀi, hrauʀ with OWN gler, heri (later héri ), hrøyrr/hreyrr ("glass", "hare", "pile of rocks"). U-umlaut
9024-421: Was split between two rulers, Lorcán mac Cathail and Conchobar mac Donnchada. Ímar and Amlaíb, now joined in Ireland by their younger brother Auisle, sought to make use of this change to extend their influence in the lands of the Southern Uí Néill. In 863 the three brothers raided Brega in alliance with Lorcán, and the following year Amlaíb drowned Conchobar at Clonard Abbey . Muirecán mac Diarmata , overking of
9120-687: Was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, Kievan Rus' , eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language , ranging from Vinland in the West to the Volga River in the East. In Kievan Rus' , it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod , probably lasting into
9216-521: Was used partitively and in compounds and kennings (e.g., Urðarbrunnr , the well of Urðr; Lokasenna , the gibing of Loki). There were several classes of nouns within each gender. The following is an example of the "strong" inflectional paradigms : Longphort A longphort (Ir. plur. longphuirt ) is a term used in Ireland for a Viking ship enclosure or shore fortress. Although these longphorts were used as bases for Viking raids,
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