Turgesius
Turgesius (died 845) (also called Turgeis, Tuirgeis, Turges, and Thorgest) was a
Life
The sole reliable record of Turgesius is a report of his death in the
Conquests
No history is recorded for Turgesius in his native Scandinavia, and knowledge of him is based on the history of his conquests as recorded in
Among the sites he captured was the rich monastery of Clonmacnoise on the eastern bank of the River Shannon and south of Lough Ree. He established several inland centres of operation. One of his cardinal forts was on Lough Ree, north of Athlone. Another fort was at a point called Lyndwachill on Lough Neagh, while others were on the high ground southwest of Lough Lene and on the major island of this lake, which still bears his name and was where he dominated the Leinster midland from. In 843, King Niall Caille met Turgesius in battle when defending his ancestral province of Ulster. Niall fought against both the Vikings of Lough Neagh and a further party who sailed into Lough Swilly. On the plain of Moynith, the forces of King Niall and Turgesius met and, according to the annals, "a countless number fell". The result of the battle was that King Niall had vanquished Turgesius.[11]
Death
In the year 843 or 844 Turgesius was killed by
The seventeenth century historian Geoffrey Keating wrote in Foras Feasa ar Éirinn[13]
"Now at this time Maoilseachlainn with a body of soldiers was with his daughter, and he directed a number of those youths who were with her disguised as women, the moment Turgesius should lay hands on his daughter for the purpose of detaining her with him, to seize him by force and take him captive, and another party to take possession of the arms that were in the house, and to spring upon the chiefs who were within; and he said that he himself with his body of soldiers would be near the house, and that he would rush into the house at the first cry to help them slay the Lochlannaigh. Thereupon the maiden with her ladies went in by a back door of the house and reached the room of Turgesius; and when they had come into his presence, he glanced at the maiden and her ladies and none of them pleased him but herself, and then he laid hands on her to detain her with him. When the youths who were with her saw this, a party of them seized Turgesius by force and made him captive; the remaining party seized the arms and held them in their possession, and then Maoilseachlainn with his party of soldiers came in, and they sprang on the party of Lochlonnaigh that were in the fortress, and slew them all, both chiefs and underlings except Turgesius alone; and when they had stripped the fortress bare they led Turgesius to the duinlios of Maoilseachlainn where they kept him for a time in captivity."
Myth
By the twelfth century, when
According to The War of the Irish with the Foreigners, Turgesius was married to Ottar or Ota (commonly thought to be
See also
- Early Scandinavian Dublin
- History of Ireland (800–1169)
- Norse activity in the British Isles
References and notes
- ^ The Vikings In Scotland And Ireland In The Ninth Century (Donnchadh Ó Corráin. 1998)
- ^ a b W.E.D. Allen, The Poet and the Spae-Wife: An Attempt to Reconstruct Al-Ghazal's Embassy to the Vikings Dublin: Figgis, Viking Society for Northern Research, 1960, OCLC 557547145, p. 46.
- ISBN 0-7165-0052-3; see Allen, pp. 58-60 and notes 203, 204, p. 93 (calling him Halliday). The theory was first published by John O'Donovan in 1860, prior to the posthumous publication of Haliday's papers.
- ISBN 0-7185-1197-2, p. 49, describes this as "the only historical fact that can be relied upon".
- ^ Annals of the Four Masters, AFM 843.13.
- ISBN 978-1-349-48757-8
- ^ Ann Christy. "Vikings in the South". Council For European Studies. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
- ^ Giraldus Cambrensis (1905). "History of the Conquest of Ireland, translated by Thomas Forester". London: George Bell & sons. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
- ^ A Popular History of Ireland: from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics By Thomas D'Arcy McGee- book-2 Chapter 2 from Nalanda Digital Library at NIT Calicut Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age (History Ireland. Volume 7, Issue 2, Summer 1999)
- ^ W. O'Halloran (1916). "Early Irish History and Antiquities and the History of West Cork Chapter XII". PayLoadz, Inc. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
- ISBN 9780713413045
- ^ Geoffrey Keating, electronic edition compiled by Beatrix Färber. "Foras Feasa ar Éirinn". CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
- ^ Allen, p. 17.
- ^ For the origins of the Cogad, see Ó Corráin, "Ireland, Wales, Man and the Hebrides", pp. 105–106.
- ISBN 0-582-01566-9, p. 262, follows Liam De Paor in describing the Cogad as "about as good a source of information on the Vikings as 'Star Trek' is for the American space programme". Geoffrey Keating's accounts are derived from Gerald; Ó Cróinín, p. 247.
- ^ a b Allen, p. 46.
- ^ Allen, p. 47.
External links
- The Viking Age in Ireland Archived 25 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine
Related reading
- ISBN 978-0853239598