Harald Sigtryggsson

Harald Sigtryggsson (

The main historical sources for this period are the Norse sagas and the Irish annals. Some of the annals, such as the Annals of Ulster, are believed to be contemporary accounts, whereas the sagas were written down at dates much later than the events they describe and are considered far less reliable. A few of the annals such as the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland and the Annals of the Four Masters were also complied at later dates, in part from more contemporary material and in part from fragments of sagas.^[2] According to Downham: "apart from these additions [of saga fragments], Irish chronicles are considered by scholars to be largely accurate records, albeit partisan in their presentation of events".^[3]

Biography

In the mid-930s

Harald was killed in 940 by the Caenraighi of Aidhne. According to Lenihan this group was "a sept seated in the Barony of Kiltartan, county of Galway".^[5] The Annals of the Four Masters say the following:

Aralt ua Ímar, i.e. the son of Sitric, lord of the foreigners of Luimneach, was killed in Connacht by the Caenraighi of Aidhne.^{[nb 2][7]}

Comparable accounts are given in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, the Annals of Inisfallen, and the Chronicon Scotorum.^[8] His immediate successor as king of Limerick is not known, but the Annals of Inisfallen record that by 969 Limerick was ruled by Ivar.^[9]

Family

Harald has been identified by scholars as a son of

Two individuals, Maccus mac Arailt and Gofraid mac Arailt, who were active throughout the Irish Sea region in the 970s and 980s and ruled as kings of the Isles may have been sons of Harald.^[16] An alternative theory, put forward by Hudson, suggests that Harald was not the father of Maccus and Gofraid, rather that their father was instead a man known as Harold of Bayeux.^[17] The identification of Harald Sigtryggsson as the father of Maccus and Gofraid has been widely accepted since the seventeenth century and according to Downham "the paternity of Maccus and Guðrøðr [Gofraid] cannot be proved. However the weight of evidence points to their connection with Ireland".^[18] In his review, Woolf adds that Hudson's new theory 'lacks plausibility'.^[19]

Family tree

Notes

References

Citations

Primary sources

• "Annals of the Four Masters". Corpus of Electronic Texts (16 December 2013 ed.). University College Cork. 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
• "The Annals of Inisfallen". Corpus of Electronic Texts (16 February 2010 ed.). University College Cork. 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
• Murphy, D, ed. (1896). The Annals of Clonmacnoise. Dublin: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Accessed via Internet Archive.
• Thorpe, B, ed. (1861). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores. Vol. 1. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. Accessed via Internet Archive.

Secondary sources

• Downham, Clare (2007). Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014. Edinburgh:
  ISBN 978-1-903765-89-0
  .
• Foot, Sarah (2011). Æthelstan: The First King of England. Yale University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1
  .
• Forte, A;
  ISBN 978-0-521-82992-2
  .
• Hudson, Benjamin T. (2005). Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-19-516237-0
  .
• Lenihan, Maurice (1866). Limerick: its history and antiquities. Dublin, Hodges, Smith and co. p. 8.
• Radner, Joan. "Writing history: Early Irish historiography and the significance of form" (PDF). Celtica. 23: 312–325. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015.
• Thacker, Alan (2001). "Dynastic Monasteries and Family Cults". In N. J. Higham; D. H. Hill (eds.). Edward the Elder 899–924. Routledge.
  ISBN 0-415-21497-1
  .
• Woolf, Alex (2006). "Review: Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic. By Benjamin Hudson". Early Medieval Europe. 14: 515–517.
  doi:10.1111/j.1468-0254.2006.193_8.x
  .

• CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork. The Corpus of Electronic Texts includes the Annals of Ulster and the Four Masters, the Chronicon Scotorum and the Book of Leinster as well as Genealogies, and various Saints' Lives. Most are translated into English, or translations are in progress.