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Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066

Depth study: The Vikings in Ireland — Motives for raiding, trading and settlement

  • 1 thing to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on motives for raiding, trading and settlement, phases of involvement and links to Viking activity elsewhere.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What happened to Dublin in 902 and in 917?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why were the Vikings drawn to Ireland?

    Model answer

    Its rich and undefended monasteries offered silver and captives for a slave trade that became one of the chief profits of the whole enterprise, its coasts and rivers were easily reached by ship, its many small warring kingdoms could not combine against raiders, and it lay on the sea route linking Scandinavia, Scotland, the Isle of Man and the Irish Sea.

  2. 2

    Describe the first phase of Viking involvement in Ireland.

    Model answer

    From 795 small fleets made short, seasonal hit-and-run attacks on coastal and island monasteries, returning home each year without attempting to hold territory.

  3. 3

    What changed in the second phase from the 830s?

    Model answer

    Larger fleets penetrated inland along the Shannon, Boyne and Erne, raided repeatedly and over-wintered in Ireland, and from 841 built fortified ship-camps, including the one at Dublin.

  4. 4

    Define a longphort.

    Model answer

    It was a defended riverside or coastal base where a fleet could be beached and protected over the winter, which allowed year-round raiding and became the nucleus of permanent settlement.

  5. 5

    What is the so-called forty years' rest and why is it doubted?

    Model answer

    It is a supposed lull in Viking activity in the later ninth century, but historians now suspect it reflects gaps and interests in the surviving annals and the diversion of Viking forces to England and Scotland, rather than genuine peace.

  6. 6

    What happened to Dublin in 902 and in 917?

    Model answer

    An Irish alliance expelled its rulers in 902, but a new fleet under Ivar's descendants returned and re-established the town in 917, after which it became far more powerful than before.

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