Early Scandinavian Dublin was a major Viking settlement and pivotal center of Hiberno-Norse power in Ireland from its establishment in the mid-9th century until the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1170. The First Viking Age in Ireland began in 795, when Vikings began carrying out hit-and-run raids on Gaelic Irish coastal settlements. 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.
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. 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. 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").
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. In 853 a Viking warlord called Amlaíb (, possibly Olaf the White) arrived and made himself king of Dublin. He ruled along with his brothers Ímar (Ívarr, possibly Ivar the Boneless) and Auisle (Ásl). For the next fifteen years or so, they used Dublin as their base for a series of campaigns against Irish kingdoms. During these conflicts they briefly allied themselves with several Irish kings.
The Dublin Vikings also carried out a number of raids in Great Britain at this time. The deaths of Ivar (c.873) and Olaf (c.874) were followed by internecine conflict among the Vikings. 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. 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. 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.
Evidence of early Viking burials has been discovered at sites including Cork Street, Bride Street, Kildare Street, Dollymount, and Donnybrook. Larger burial grounds have been excavated at Kilmainham, Islandbridge, Phoenix Park, Parnell Square, and College Green; however, these are believed to belong to the Second Viking Age, dating after 902.
Early Viking raids
In the year 795 Vikings (probably of Norwegian origin) raided islands off the coast of Ireland for the first time.AU 795.3: "The burning of Rechru by the heathens...." AFM 790.6 [=795]. Rechru has been variously identified with Lambay Island, off the coast of Dublin, and Rathlin Island, off the northeast coast of Ireland. See See also Brut y Tywysogion 795, which supports the identification with Lambay. The dates given in the extant versions of the Annals of Ulster for the period from the late 5th century to 1013 are antedated by one year, events in this period being dated one year before they actually took place (O'Rahilly (1946), p. 241). These dates have been silently corrected in the present article (and in the online version of the Annals of Ulster at CELT). Dates in the other annalistic sources cited in this article are often at variance with the corrected dates in the Annals of Ulster; these have not been corrected (though the correct date is given in parentheses), as they are not always due to copyists' errors but are often the dates given by the original authors. This was the beginning of a new phase of Irish history, which saw many native communities – particularly ecclesiastical ones – relocate themselves on the continent, or further afield in places like Iceland and the Faroe Islands, to escape the pagan marauders. For about two decades the invaders confined their activities to coastal settlements; raiding parties were generally small and there is no evidence that any of them wintered in Ireland during this early phase of "hit-and-run" activity. Typically the Vikings would arrive at a settlement without warning, plunder what goods and people they could – the people were usually sold as slaves, though notable personages were often held for ransom – before retreating to their Scandinavian or British bases.
The first reference to the Vikings comes from the Annals of Ulster and the first entry for 841 AD reads: "Pagans still on Lough Neagh". It is from this date onward that historians get references to ship fortresses or longphorts being established in Ireland. The Vikings may have first over-wintered in 840–841 AD. The actual location of the longphort of Dublin is still a hotly debated issue. Norse rulers of Dublin were often co-kings, and occasionally also Kings of Jórvík in what is now Yorkshire. Under their rule, Dublin became the biggest slave port in Western Europe. The hinterland of Dublin in the Norse period was named in .
This period lasted from 795 until 813, after which there occurred a hiatus of eight years.The Annals of Ulster record no Viking raids for the years 814 through 820.
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).Ó Corráin (1998): "... we know from good archaeological evidence that early Viking raids on Ireland originated [in Rogaland]." 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.Ó Corráin (1998), though this opinion is not undisputed. Lochlainn, a corruption of the supposedly Norse term Lothland, was used in later centuries to refer to Norway.
In 821 the raids on Ireland were resumed with an attack on Howth, in which a large number of women were abducted.AU 821.3. 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.Such an encampment was known in Irish as a longphort and in Old Norse as a wintersetl. In a second wave the Vikings returned later as permanent settlers. It is likely that this second wave of attacks originated in Laithlind – in northern Britain and the Scottish Isles – rather than in Norway. The leaders of these raids, however, were probably still freebooters and adventurers, acting largely on their own behalf. 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.Ó Corráin (1998). In 833, during one such attack, a raiding party sailed up the Liffey and plundered the monastic settlement at Clondalkin.AU 833.5; CS 833; AClon 830 [=833].
Turgesius
For 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. 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.The Old Norse form was Þurgestr. Variant forms that are sometimes found include Þorgest (Thorgest), Þorgils, Þorgisl and Þorgerr. The Old Norse forms of personal names, attested in the 12th or 13th century, are often quite different from the original Proto-Norse forms; the names recorded in contemporary British and Irish sources have the virtue of being contemporaneous with the original Scandinavian forms. According to the medieval Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, Thorgils was a son of the first King of Norway Haraldr hárfagri (Harald Fairhair). However, that this son of Harald should be Turgesius is chronologically impossible, as Harald was born around 851. Turgesius's identity remains uncertain to this day. Some commentators have identified him with the semi-legendary Danish warlord Ragnar Lodbrok.John O'Donovan (1860), pp. liii ff. and p. 124; Charles Haliday (1884), pp. 30 ff; Todd (1867), p. liii; . According to Saxo Grammaticus,Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum Book 9 Ragnar raided Ireland, killing a king called Melbricus. This has been identified with a raid on Conaille Muirthemne in 831 in which the king Máel Brigte was abducted by Vikings.AU 831.6. Conaille Muirthemne was a dynastic sept that ruled a minor kingdom in County Louth in the overkingdom of Ulaid or Ulster. Turgesius has also been identified with a son of GuÞfriÞ or Gudfred, the Danish king who fought against Charlemagne between 804 and 810.Montgomery (2006). But no son of GuÞfriÞ with this name has been recordet anywhere. Ó Corráin state that it is thought unlikely, however, that he or any other Viking rulers in Ireland can be linked to native Norwegian or Danish dynasties.Ó Corráin (1998): "The kings and sons of kings mentioned in the Irish annals cannot, therefore, be linked to any Scandinavian dynasty."
From perhaps as early as 832 until 845 Turgesius terrorised the country and plundered dozens of Christian sites. In the process he supposedly oversaw the establishment of several Norse settlements – including one at Dublin in 841 – and became master of the northern half of the island, known in the Irish annals as Leth Cuinn, or “Conn's Half”. In the Saga of Harald Hårfagre, Snorri tells us that Þorgils ruled his newly conquered domains from Dublin, and that he was "a long time king over Dublin". In the Annals of Ulster, however, Turgéis is only mentioned in connection with an encampment on Lough Ree in 845.AU 845.3. It is likely that his role in history was greatly exaggerated by later chroniclers and that he played no direct part in the foundation of Viking Dublin.
The first Norse settlements in Dublin
In 837 a fleet of sixty longships sailed up the River Liffey and raided "churches, forts and dwellings", including presumably those at Dublin.AU 837.3; CS 837; CGG 12; AClon 834 [=837]. According to the latter there were sixty-five ships in this fleet. Later in the same year, a certain Saxolb (Söxulfr), "chief of the foreigners", was killed in Brega by the Uí Colgain, a branch of the Cíanachta Breg.AU 837.9; CS 837; CGG 21; AClon 834 [=837]. The Chronicon Scotorum and the Annals of Clonmacnoise ascribe "the first taking and possession of the Danes in Dublin" to this year. But this was only a foretaste of things to come. In 841 the Vikings returned to Dublin, this time not as raiders but as conquerors. They seized the ecclesiastical settlement at Duiblinn and established a longphort, or naval encampment, nearby; where precisely is still a matter of debate, but the present site of Dublin Castle is a likely candidate, as it overlooked the Black Pool (Duiblinn, from which the city of Dublin takes its name), which would have served as a natural harbour.AU 841.4 and 842.2; CS 841 and 842; AClon 838 [=841] and 839 [=842].