Uí Ímair
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The Uí Ímair or Uí Ímhair were a Norse-Gaelic dynasty who ruled the Irish sea region and western coast of Scotland from the late 9th century into the 10th century. The name is Old Irish, and means "grandchildren" or "descendants of Ivar", perhaps referring to Ivar the Boneless, the man whose obituary is recorded in the Irish annals under the year 873, reading Imhar, rex Nordmannorum totius Hibernie & Brittanie, uitam finiuit., or "Ivar, king of all the Norse of Ireland and Britain, ended his life".[1]
The Uí Ímair took their inheritance and ruled the same area - namely the Irish longphuirt (i.e. "ship-ports" like Dublin and Waterford), Mann, the Hebrides, Argyll, and the coasts of Galloway, Ayrshire, and Cumberland-Westmorland, as well as much of Northumbria - into the next century. However, as Alex Woolf points out, it would be a mistake to view the lordship as a "unitary empire",[2] but instead a collection of lordships ruled by the same kindred, with only varying degrees of unity depending on the political circumstances of the moment and the charisma of individual leaders.
Rulers associated with the Uí Ímair include Sitriuc Caech, Ragnall ua Ímair, Gofraid ua Ímair and Ímar ua Ímair, probably grandsons of the eponymous Ímar. Possible great-grandsons include Amlaíb mac Gofrith, Amlaíb Cuarán, Gofraid mac Sitriuc, Blácaire mac Gofrith, Ragnall mac Gofrith and Aralt mac Sitriuc. Recorded sons of Ímar may include Sitriuc (died 896), Sichfrith (died 888) and Bárid (died 881).[3]
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[edit] See also
- Dál Riata
- Kings of Dublin
- Kings of Jorvik
- King of Mann
- Lord of Mann
- Lords of Galloway
- Lord of the Isles
- Norse-Gaels
[edit] Notes
- ^ e.g. Annals of Ulster, sub anno 873.3, text here, translation here.
- ^ Alex Woolf, "Age of Sea-Kings: 900-1300", in Donald Omand (ed.), The Argyll Book, (Edinburgh, 2004), pp. 95-6.
- ^ Clare Downham, Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014, (Edinburgh, 2007), pp. 28, fig. 5, 29, fig. 6, & 237–276.
[edit] References
- Forte, Angelo, Oram, Richard, & Pedersen, Frederik, Viking Empires, (Cambridge, 2005)
- Woolf, Alex, "Age of Sea-Kings: 900-1300", in Donald Omand (ed.), The Argyll Book, (Edinburgh, 2004), pp. 94-109
[edit] External links
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