According to the medieval Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, Thorgils was a son of the first King of Norway Haraldr hárfagri (Harald Fairhair). ![]() If later accounts are to be believed, this campaign was initially masterminded by a warlord referred to in Irish annals as Turgesius, Turgéis or Turges. Turgesius įor more than a dozen years in the middle of the 9th century, most of the Viking raids in Ireland appear to have been part of a co-ordinated effort to conquer the country on behalf of the King of Laithlind. In 833, during one such attack, a raiding party sailed up the Liffey and plundered the monastic settlement at Clondalkin. An actual Kingdom of Laithlind was probably not firmly established until the 830s, after which the attacks on Ireland became more protracted and better co-ordinated. The leaders of these raids, however, were probably still freebooters and adventurers, acting largely on their own behalf. It is likely that this second wave of attacks originated in Laithlind – in northern Britain and the Scottish Isles – rather than in Norway. ![]() In a second wave the Vikings returned later as permanent settlers. But the pattern of attacks had begun to change: raiding parties became larger and better organised inland settlements were targeted as well as the more vulnerable maritime ones and naval encampments were established to allow the marauders to remain in Ireland throughout the winter. In 821 the raids on Ireland were resumed with an attack on Howth, in which a large number of women were abducted. Laithlind was once thought to be in Norway but it is now identified with Viking settlements in the British Isles, especially those in Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is now thought that these early raids were launched directly from southwest Norway, and that during the period of calm (814–820) the Norwegian Vikings were occupied in northern Britain, laying the foundations of a new kingdom referred to in Irish sources as Laithlind (later Lochlainn). However, in 914 the Vikings now known as the Uí Ímair (House of Ivar) would return to Ireland, marking the beginning of the Second Viking Age. In 902, Cerball mac Muirecáin, king of Leinster, and Máel Findia mac Flannacáin, king of Brega, launched a two-pronged attack on Dublin and drove the Vikings from the city. Although intermittent warfare between the Vikings and the Irish continued, these inner conflicts weakened the Viking colonies and made it easier for the Irish to unite against them. The deaths of Ivar (c.873) and Olaf (c.874) were followed by internecine conflict among the Vikings. The Dublin Vikings also carried out a number of raids in Great Britain at this time. During these conflicts they briefly allied themselves with several Irish kings. For the next fifteen years or so, they used Dublin as their base for a series of campaigns against Irish kingdoms. He ruled along with his brothers Ímar ( Ívarr, possibly Ivar the Boneless) and Auisle ( Ásl). In 853 a Viking warlord called Amlaíb ( Old Norse: Óláfr, possibly Olaf the White) arrived and made himself king of Dublin. The wavering fortunes of these three groups and their shifting alliances, together with the shortcomings of contemporary records and the inaccuracy of later accounts, make this period one of the most complicated and least understood in the fledgling city's history. Shortly after, a new group of Vikings known as the Dubgaill ("dark foreigners") came to Ireland and clashed with the earlier Viking settlers, now called the Finngaill ("fair foreigners"). He was killed by the High King, Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid, which was followed by several Irish victories against the Vikings and the seizure of Dublin in 849. In the mid 9th century, Viking leader Turgeis or Thorgest founded a stronghold at Dublin, plundered Leinster and Meath, and raided other parts of Ireland. Over the following decades the raiding parties became bigger and better organized inland settlements were targeted as well as coastal ones and the raiders built naval encampments known as longphorts to allow them to remain in Ireland throughout the winter. The First Viking Age in Ireland began in 795, when Vikings began carrying out hit-and-run raids on Gaelic Irish coastal settlements.
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