Ketill Flatnose

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"Flatnose" redirects here. For other uses, see Flatnose (disambiguation).

Ketill Björnsson, nicknamed Flatnose (

King of the Isles of the 9th century.[1]

Primary sources

The story of Ketill and his daughter Auðr (or Aud) was probably first recorded by the Icelander

Ari Þorgilsson (1067 – 1148).[2] Ari was born not long after the death of his great-grandmother Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir – a prominent character in the Laxdæla saga whose husband, Thorkell Eyjolfsson, was descended from Auðr. Ari was thus a direct descendant of Ketill and so, when he wrote his story of Ketill, he was drawing in part on oral traditions amongst his own relatives.[2]

Ketill was also depicted in such works as the Laxdæla saga, Eyrbyggja saga and the Saga of Erik the Red, while his genealogy was described in detail in the Landnámabók.

However, like many other medieval histories, all of these Old Norse works were written long after the events they described. No contemporaneous records of Ketill's life are known to exist, with the arguable exception of a single entry in the Annals of Ulster.

Saga biography

Ketill Björnsson was the son of Björn Grímsson. In the Laxdaela saga he is recorded as being from Romsdal (Raumsdal), a valley in the county of Møre og Romsdal, between Nordmøre and Sunnmøre[3] and from Sogn in the Landnámabók.[4]

Norwick, Unst, one of the closest landfalls in Shetland to Norway. There is evidence that Scandinavian settlers may have reached here as early as the mid 7th century.[5]

After

King of the Sudreys"[12]
although there is little evidence that he himself claimed that title.

According to the Landnámabók, Ketill became ruler of a region already settled by Scandinavians.[13] He left no successors there, and there is little record of Norse activity in the west of Scotland in the first four decades of the 10th century.[12]

Most of Ketill's family eventually emigrated to

Laxdael region of Iceland.[14][15]

Interpretations

Hunter (2000) states that Ketill was "in charge of an extensive island realm and, as a result, sufficiently prestigious to contemplate the making of agreements and alliances with other princelings".[16] However, Woolf (2007) suggests that the story of his failing to pay tax to Harald "looks very much like a story created in later days to legitimise Norwegian claims to sovereignty in the region"[11] and some scholars believe that this entire story of Harald's expedition is apocryphal and based on the later voyages of Magnus Barefoot.[17] Although Norse military activity in Ireland in the 9th century is well documented in Irish sources, they contain no record at all of Harald Fairhair's voyage to the west.[18]

Furthermore, Harald is assumed to have annexed the Northern Isles (comprising Orkney and Shetland) in 875 or later. If Ketill's suzerainty post-dates this time, it is hard to see how Thorstein the Red, an adult grandson of his, could have been active in the 870s and 880s. It is therefore likely that Ketill's floruit in the Hebrides was at a period that pre-dates Harald's victory at Hafrsfjord.[19]

Caittil Find

Ketill Flatnose is also sometimes equated with

Gallgáedil recorded in the Annals of Ulster as fighting in Ireland in 857.[20] This source states simply that "Ímar and Amlaíb inflicted a rout on Caittil the Fair and his Norse-Irish in the lands of Munster."[21] (Ímar and Amlaíb
are well-attested Norse leaders active in Ireland and the Isles in the 9th century.)

The Ketill/Caittil relationship was first proposed by E. W. Robertson in 1862,

W. F. Skene and A. P. Smyth,[2] while others, including A. O. Anderson[24] and Donnchadh Ó Corráin[25]
are more skeptical.

In more recent scholarly debate, Claire Downham has endorsed Ó Corráin's view.[26] The connection is described by Woolf (2007) as "extremely tenuous",[11] but Jennings and Kruse (2009) have supported the identification.

Osraige was a buffer state between Munster in the south west and Leinster
to the south east.

Woolf argues that:

Jennings and Kruse recognise the deficiencies of the saga materials but suggest that "they should not be summarily written off as void of any historical value".[2] They note that:

Dál Riata

Viking-age headstone, St Blane's Chapel, near Kingarth

Dál Riata was a Gaelic kingdom in the Argyll and Bute region of Scotland. Jennings and Kruse argue that Ketill Bjornsson could have taken "control of Dál Riata with its islands".[31] They note the correspondence between the Gaelic name Dál Riata and the fact that when Auðr, settled in the Breiðafjörður region of western Iceland it was in a region called Dalir or Dalaland (modern Dalasýsla).[31] Furthermore, "in the Breiðafjörður area there is an indisputably nostalgic Celtic precedent for quite a few names."[32] Examples include islands called Pjattland (Pictland) and Írland (Ireland) and the nearby Patreksfjörður and Trostansfjörður named in honour of two Celtic saints.[32]

They also quote the Irish

Cenél Comgaill capital prior to the Norse incursions.[32][34]

Catol

The

Chronicum Scotorum refers to a battle that took place in 904 in which two grandsons of Ímar and their ally "Catol" were victorious against "Aed" who was evidently a leader in either Ireland or Pictland. It has been suggested that Catol was Ketill Flatnose (although once again the chronology is problematic), or alternatively that he was Cadell ap Rhodri, a King of Gwynedd.[35]

Portrayal

Ketill Flatnose is portrayed by

Vikings.[36]

Notes

  1. ^ Ketil Flatnev (Store norske leksikon)
  2. ^ a b c d e Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 127
  3. ^ "Of Ketill Flatnose and his Descendants" (Laxdæla saga: Chapter 1). Icelandic Saga Database. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  4. ^ a b Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 129
  5. ^ Ballin Smith (2007) p. 289, 294
  6. ^ Thomson (2008) p. 24
  7. ^ Orkneyinga Saga: Chapter 4.
  8. ^ Thomson (2008) p. 25 quoting Eyrbyggja saga: Chapter 1
  9. ^ Thomson (2008) p. 25 quoting Laxdæla saga: Chapter 2
  10. ^ Thomson (2008) p. 25 quoting Landnámabók: Chapter 13
  11. ^ a b c d e Woolf (2007) p. 296
  12. ^ a b Gregory (1881) p. 4
  13. ^ Woolf (2007) p. 297
  14. ^ "Of Ketill Flatnose and his Descendants" (The Laxdaela Saga: Chapter 1). The Medieval and Classical Literature Library. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  15. ^ Thomson (2008) p. 29
  16. ^ Hunter (2000) p. 78
  17. ^ Thompson (2008) p. 27
  18. ^ Thompson (2008) p. 26
  19. ^ Thompson (2008) p. 25
  20. ^ Woolf (2007) pp. 295-96
  21. ^ "Annals of Ulster 857.1 (English translation)". CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts (www.celt.ucc.ie). Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  22. ^ Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 126
  23. ^ Ó Corráin (1978), p. 300
  24. ^ Anderson (1922) p.315
  25. ^ Ó Corráin (1978) p.301f
  26. ^ Downham (2007) p. 18 n44
  27. ^ Ó Corráin (1998) p. 2
  28. ^ Crawford (1987) p. 192
  29. ^ a b c d Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 128
  30. ^ Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 131
  31. ^ a b Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 132
  32. ^ a b c Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 133
  33. ^ Jennings and Kruse (2009) p. 134
  34. ^ Fraser (2009) p. 157
  35. ^ Downham (2007) pp. 146-47
  36. ^ Staszewski, Joseph (13 November 2018). "WWE legend Edge on missing the ring and becoming a TV star". New York Post. Retrieved 24 January 2018.

References

Regnal titles
Preceded by
unknown
King of the Isles
 		Succeeded by
unknown
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