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The far-famed Irish baron , Brian Boru , is wide credit with defeating the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf more than 1,000 years ago . But not everyone heaps kudos on the king . For the past 300 long time , historians have range dubiety on whether Boru ’s main enemies were the Vikings , or his own countrymen .
Perhaps , say these so - called revisionist , the Battle of Clontarf was in reality a domestic feud — that is , a civil warfare — between different percentage of Ireland .
The “Battle of Clontarf,” an 1825 oil-on-canvass painting, depicts the momentus battle fought in 1014.
To ensconce the matter , researcher study a medieval text used by both traditionalist and revisionists to bolster their arguments . The results are a blessing for Boru : The hostilities revealed in the text edition mostly indicate that the Irish fought in an international war against the Vikings , although Irish - on - Irish difference is also described in the manuscripts , harmonize to the new study , published online today ( Jan. 24 ) in thejournal Royal Society Open Science . [ Fierce Fighters : 7 Secrets of Viking Culture ]
Tumultuous history
The medieval Irish text , known as Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh ( " The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill " ) , account how an army conduct by Boru challenged the Viking encroacher , culminating in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 .
The Vikings were n’t new to Ireland . Viking maraud against the Emerald Isle began in A.D. 795 . In the X that followed , the Vikings took over Dublin and build camps that evolved into the settlements of Cork , Limerick , Waterford and Wexford , say study lead writer Ralph Kenna , a professor of theoretical purgative at Coventry University , in the United Kingdom .
But Boru want aunified Ireland , and the Vikings and various regional kingdom stood in his way . Boru achieved his goal of unification in 1011 , but merely a class afterwards , the province of Leinster and Viking - insure Dublin rose against him , leading to the Battle of Clontarf . ( Boru ’s army defeated Leinster and the Vikings , but victory total at price for Boru , as he was killed at Clontarf . )
An image (A) of a 19th-century facsimile of the first page of the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh and the main kingdoms (B) of Ireland around A.D. 900 with large Viking towns.
Leinster ’s function in the conflict head revisionist to describe the dispute as a polite war , Kenna say . The 18th - century revisionist Charles O’Connor wrote that " in the series of events that led to Clontarf , it was not … the Norse [ the Vikings ] but the Leinstermen , who played the predominant part , " Kenna told Live Science , bring that the historian " put forward the view that the struggle isnot a ' clear - cut ' onebetween Irish and Viking . "
" In recent year , this revisionist panorama has gained a lot of traction and a ' new orthodoxy ' is being constructed , " Kenna said . " For model , in 2014 , which was the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf , an Irish TV station run away a docudrama about the conflict with footage of a rugby football couple , " Kenna said , refer to the use of rugby footage to embellish the conflict . " The rugby football match was between the Irish provinces of Munster and Leinster . This was as if to suggest that the struggle was principally betweentwo provinces in Ireland — not Irish versus Vikings . "
Network analysis
To investigate , the researchers dove into a 217 - page , 1867 version of Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh by James Henthorn Todd .
The research squad used social internet theory , which measured to what extent the Irish and Viking characters in the schoolbook were linked to each other . [ Emerald Isle : A Photo Tour of Ireland ]
" The analysis had to determine whether hostility between characters was mostly Irish versus Viking , or Irish versus Irish ( or , indeed , Viking versus Viking ) , " Kenna enounce . " A simple tally of hostile interaction between type will not do , as this would not account for different issue of Irish and Vikings . "
The network of the Cogadh’s 315 characters and their 1,190 interactions with one another. Green points represent Irish characters and blue points represent Vikings. Other characters are shown in gray. If an Irish character interacts with another Irish one, the link between them is colored green. If a Viking interacts with another Viking, the link between them is blue. Brown links represent interactions between Irish and Vikings.
They establish that the text does n’t indicate a " clear - cut " Irish - versus - Viking engagement , Kenna articulate . The hostilities in the medieval school text are mostly between the Irish and the Vikings , but Irish - versus - Irish conflicts were also present in the papers , the researchers wrote .
" Because [ the determination ] is temperate in magnitude , it indicates that there was a lot ofIrish - versus - Irishconflict , too , " Kenna said .
Original article onLive skill .
