Abstract
Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh (‘The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill’) is a medieval Irish text, telling how an army under the leadership of Brian Boru challenged Viking invaders and their allies in Ireland, culminating with the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Brian’s victory is widely remembered for breaking Viking power in Ireland, although much modern scholarship disputes traditional perceptions. Instead of an international conflict between Irish and Viking, interpretations based on revisionist scholarship consider it a domestic feud or civil war. Counter-revisionists challenge this view and a long-standing and lively debate continues. Here, we introduce quantitative measures to the discussions. We present statistical analyses of network data embedded in the text to position its sets of interactions on a spectrum from the domestic to the international. This delivers a picture that lies between antipodal traditional and revisionist extremes; hostilities recorded in the text are mostly between Irish and Viking—but internal conflict forms a significant proportion of the negative interactions too.
Highlights
Modern academic disciplines do not exist in isolation and are increasingly interdependent and interconnected
Statistical physics-inspired methodologies have long been applied to other academic disciplines, motivated not least by curiosity as to how complex systems emerge from interactions between constituent parts in non-trivial manners
Because Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh is a relatively esoteric text, we present a review of existing literature on the topic which it addresses
Summary
Modern academic disciplines do not exist in isolation and are increasingly interdependent and interconnected. Because Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh is a relatively esoteric text (compared with the Greek and Roman classics, for example), we present a review of existing literature on the topic which it addresses. We discuss the authenticity and deficiencies of Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh as it is used on both sides of the debate. Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh comes down to us in three manuscripts. Irish reaction to the Vikings is to be understood in terms of these cultural traits.’. Irish reaction to the Vikings is to be understood in terms of these cultural traits.’ For further discussions of Hiberno-Scandinavian relations, see, e.g. [34,47]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call