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a man and the chronicle as valor's celebration.

Lined up on both sides as shock troops, gold helmets gleaming, standards waving, poisoned spears and swords the weapons, at least three thousand Norse were in the end to meet their death. "There was a field and a ditch between us and them," reports one witness, "and the sharp wind of spring coming over them toward us; and it was no longer than the time that a cow could be milked, or two cows, that we continued there, when not one person of the two hosts could recognize another— we were so covered as well our heads as our faces and our clothes with the drops of gory blood carried by the force of the sharp cold wind which passed over them to us."

The battle began at high tide. Lasting until high tide, the laboring Norsemen in armor were pursued across the Liffey and slain "in hundreds and in battalions." A heap of their weapons was dug up some years ago in Rutland Square.

Then it was that Brian's daughter spoke:

"It appears to me," said she, "that the Foreigners have gained their inheritance."

"What is that, O girl?" said Amhlaibh's son [a Norwegian]. "The_Foreigners are only going into the sea as is hereditary to them. I know not whether it is the heat that is on them, but nevertheless they tarry not to be milked."

The son of Amhlaibh became angered with her, and he gave her a blow which knocked a tooth out of her head.

...

Brian, too old to fight, stayed with his horse-boy behind the battle. There he prayed for victory, asking between times "how the battalions were circumstanced.” "I see them," the horse-boy reports, "and closely confounded are they . . . and not more loud to me would be the blow in Tomar's wood if seven battalions were cutting it down than are the resounding blows on the heads and bones and skulls of them." Now the banner of Murchadh is standing, now it droops. . . . The old king hears that the Foreigners are defeated, and all but one group fled. He refuses to leave the field. He foretells his death, giving orders for his burial at Armagh. Then the Northman Brodir reaches him and slays him, to meet his terrible fate in a few minutes at the hands of Brian's followers.

A touch of chivalry:

Then flight broke out throughout all the host.

Thorstein stood still while all the others fled and tied his shoestring. Then Kerthialfad asked him why he ran not as the others. "No, thank you,” said Thorstein, “I can't get home to-night; I live in Iceland."

Kerthialfad gave him peace.

As described in the Icelandic record, Brian was victor:

I have been where warriors wrestled,
High in Erin sang the sword,
Boss to boss met many bucklers,
Steel rung sharp on rattling helm;

I can tell of all their struggle;
Sigurd fell in flight of spear;
Brian fell, but kept his kingdom
Ere he lost one drop of blood.

This battle did not drive the Scandinavians from Dublin, but it saved the Irish nation. In 1016 Cnut conquered England, but Ireland could not be reckoned in the Scandinavian empire of the North,

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CHAPTER III

B

CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN INVASION

1

RIAN BORU had a strong policy for Ireland.

"The peace of Erin was proclaimed by him, both of churches and people, so that peace throughout all Erin was made in his time." He dealt severely with criminals, stopped trespass and robbery, repaired fortresses and forts, made bridges and causeways and highroads. He rebuilt the monasteries that the Northmen had shattered, constructed churches and at least one round tower, and reëstablished the schools. He sent men abroad "to buy books beyond the sea and the great ocean." The word boru, which means tribute, was not, however, attached to his name for nothing. We learn from mac Liag how the flocks and herds came pouring to his palace at Kincora, in Clare. Many a fat hog, and many a fat cow, and a hundred and fifty butts of wine from the Danes of Dublin and a tun of

wine for every day in the year from the Danes of Limerick.

But, like so many strong rulers who seize power irregularly, Brian Boru conquered a sphere of responsibility which he left no one to fill. It is true that he broke the Northmen. He freed the territory where a cow "durst not be milked for an infant of one night, nor for a sick person, but must be kept for the steward or bailiff or soldier of the foreigners." But to do this effectively he had to override the succession to the highkingship, and the men who came after him copied only his irregularity. Till well after the coming of the Normans the O'Conors of Connacht, the O'Neills of Tyrone, the MacMurroughs of Leinster, and the O'Briens of Thomond kept the kingship in contest and reigned, if at all, "with opposition." When the reigning chiefs made common cause and restored the monarchy in 1258 it was only for a few years.

This situation seems anarchical, from the point of view of modern city-dwellers, who cannot survive for six months without a strong central government. But in the age of Brian Boru, we must recollect, the modern military state had not developed. Commerce was young. Tuns of wine, we have seen, came overseas to

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