The twelfth-century chronicler John of Worcester tells that in 914: Óttar’s story can tell us just a little about the nature and timing of all this. It was an event of permanent historical importance. Wainwright, perhaps the greatest historian of the Scandinavian arrival in north-west England, wrote:Īs a mere episode the Norse immigration must be considered outstanding. Over the coming decades these Scandinavians eventually spread out, stopped raiding, and settled down to farm and fish.Īs F. It was during this period that the first viking bases appeared on the coasts of Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. But the same applies to the history of north-west England at the same time. When Walther Vogel, the great historian of the Northmen in France, wrote this in 1906 he was talking about events in the Frankish kingdoms in the first decade or so of the tenth century.
The dearth of records can be viewed purely as a gap in the tradition, brought about through a nadir in the writing of history, rather than due to an absence of events. This can tell us something of Norse Ireland and the fate of Northumbria, whilst also shedding some light on the very earliest Scandinavian settlements in the north-west of what is now England, i.e. In so doing I think we can join together a few historical dots. Here I will try to piece together Óttar’s story from the meagre sources we have. Having had to accept the overlordship of Ívarr’s grandson Rögnvaldr, Óttar died fighting at Rögnvald’s side against the Scots and English Northumbrians on the banks of the River Tyne in 918. He spent time raiding in Brittany and then, rather less successfully, in England and Wales, before returning to Ireland where he established the town of Waterford. He and his family contested with the descendants of King Í varr ‘the Boneless’ – the co-founder of the most important and long-lasting Irish-Norse dynasty – for the leadership of the Northmen of the diaspora after they had been temporarily expelled from Dublin by the Irish in 902. In the early tenth century there was a powerful Irish-Norse viking warlord called Óttar. Seeking Revenge – The English Varangian Guard at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081.Why can’t we still speak like that? – The Old English Poem 'The Battle of Brunanburh'.Why is the French language so irritating if you’re English?.Gytha of Wessex – An Anglo-Saxon Russian Princess.The British Rape and Destruction of San Sebastian.North Meols and the Scandinavian settlement of Lancashire.Heinrich Heine's "Battlefield at Hastings".Why is the French language so irritating if you’re English?.Seeking Revenge – The English Varangian Guard at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081.
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