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'Cerball mac Dúnlainge' (died 888), called 'Kjarvalr Írakonungr' in the Icelanders' sagas, was king of Osraige in Ireland. The kingdom of Osraige occupied roughly the area of modern County Kilkenny and lay between the larger kingdoms of Munster and Leinster.
Cerball came to prominence after the death of Feidlimid mac Cremthanin, King of Munster, in 847. Osraige was traditionally subject to the Eóganachta kings of Munster, but Feidlimid was succeeded by a series of weak kings who had to contend with Viking incursions on the coast of Munster. As a result, Cerball was in a strong position and is said to have been the second most powerful king in Ireland in his later years.^[1]
As well as the Irish annals, such as the Annals of Ulster, Cerball's life is recorded in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, a blend of annal and history compiled in the time of Donnchad mac Gilla Patraic, king of Osraige and king of Leinster in the 1030s. The Fragmentary Annals were compiled for propaganda purposes, to magnify the achievements of Donnchad's ancestors and to justify his family's claims to the kingship of Leinster.^[2] The Fragmentary Annals appear to have played a significant part in the formulation of later Icelandic sagas and many Icelandic genealogies include Kjarvalr Írakonungr as an ancestor.^[3]

Contents

Chronology

Kjarvalr Írakonungr

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Chronology

Cerball succeeded his father Dúnlaing mac Fergaile as king of Osraige. He appears in the record in 847, and in 853 it is reported by the Annals of Ulster that:

Echtigern son of Guaire, king of Laigin Desgabair, was deceitfully killed by Bruatur son of Áed and by Cerball son of Dúngal; and Bruatur son of Áed was deceitfully killed by his own associates on the eighth day after the killing of Echtigern.^[4]

This is the first time, but by no means the last, that Cerball is known to have been active in Leinster. In 854 the Fragmentary Annals say that Cerball was sent into Munster by his brother-in-law Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid to collect tribute and hostages.^[5]
In 855 he is said to have slaughtered a Viking force under a certain Rodolb. In the aftermath of the battle Cerball was captured by other Vikings, but succeeded in escaping. Shortly afterwards Cerball was found assisting a force of Danes led by a chief named Horm's in their war with the Norwegians. The Danes may well have settled at what is now Waterford. Soon afterward the Munstermen sent to ask Cerball's help against the Norse, and Cerball with the men of Osraige, Horm's Danes and some of the men of Munster inflicted a heavy defeat on the Norse. Soon afterwards his ally Horm was killed raiding in Wales by Rhodri the Great.^[6]
Cerball next appears to have allied himself with two Norse or Norse-Gael "kings", Amlaíb Conung, "son of the king of Lochlann", and Ímar, called "king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain" at his death in 873.^[7] Ímar is sometimes assumed to be the same person as Ivar the Boneless and Amlaíb to be Olaf the White, respectively son and grandson of the legendary Swedish king Ragnar Lodbrok, although this is far from certain.^[8] These allies were not sufficiently strong to prevent Máel Sechnaill from taking hostages and tribute from Cerball in 858,^[9] but Cerball and Ímar campaigned in Leinster that year, and also against the Norse-Gaels in Munster.^[10] The following year, together with Amlaíb Conung, they raided Máel Sechnaill's lands in Mide, but soon afterwards Cerball was compelled to submit again to Máel Sechnaill.^[11]
In 860 Cerball defeated a force of Norse who were raiding in Osraige, and later in the year he joined Máel Sechnaill on campaign against Áed Finnliath in the north of Ireland.^[12] Máel Sechnaill died in 862 to be succeeded by Áed Finnliath, who married his widow, Cerball's sister. Also in 862, Cerball is reported to have defeated a Norwegian fleet under one Rodolb, although it is not clear that this is the same Rodolb who was defeated in 855.^[13] In 864 the Fragmentary Annals report that the men of Leinster and their Norse allies raided Osraige in revenge for Cerball's raid, and that Eóganachta of Munster took advantage of this to attack him, so that Cerball raided both his neighbours and caused much destruction. The same year he is said to have attacked the neighbouring Déisi.^[14]
In 870 Áed Finnliath brought a large army to Leinster and Cerball accompanied him. The army of the Osraige was camped apart from Áed's main force, and was attacked by the Leinstermen. Although Cerball drove them off with heavy loss, Cennétig son of Gáethíne, a kinsman of Cerball, was killed in the battle.^[15] With a final notice of an expedition to Connacht and Munster in 871, the Fragmentary Annals are interrupted.^[16] In the Annals of Ulster, nothing more is said of Cerball until his death in 888.^[17] The next king of Osraige was his brother Riacán, but the kingdom lapsed into relative obscurity for many years afterwards, until Cerball's great-great-grandson Donnchad mac Gilla Patraic became king in 1003.

Kjarvalr Írakonungr

While it is unsurprising that Cerball's great-great-grandson should have commissioned a work in which his most illustrious ancestor was portrayed in a heroic light, it is less obvious why Cerball in particular should have such a prominent place in the Icelandic sagas and in the genealogies of the founding families of Iceland as recorded by the Landnámabók. The Landnámabók mentions "Kormlöð", "Rafarta, the daughter of Kjarval", "Dufnial, who was the son of Kjarval" and "Friðgerðr, the daughter of Kjarval". Rafarta or Raforta is also mentioned in Njál's saga and the Laxdaela saga, and Friðgerðr in the Vinland sagas. The marriage of "Eithne, daughter of King Kjarval of Ireland" and Hlodvir Thorfinnsson, Earl of Orkney is reported in the Orkneyinga saga and Earl Sigurd Hlodvirsson, who was killed at the battle of Clontarf is called their son.^[18]
Some of these names are Irish: Kormlöð is the common name Gormflaith, Eithne too is clearly Irish as is Dufnial. It is doubtful whether Rafarta or Fridgerd are Irish, and there are clearly difficulties with the supposed number of generations. Insofar as any conclusions have been reached by historians of Ireland, it appears that the supposed descendants of Cerball left for Iceland in the generation before Donnchad mac Gilla Patraic, towards the end of the tenth century. Given the likely date at which the Landnámabók was compiled, this is rather too far in the past for the genealogies to be considered very reliable. Adding to the uncertainty, the genealogies of the Osraige themselves were subject to comprehensive rewriting in Cerball's time and immediately aftewards, attaching them to the Laigin of Leinster.
It has been suggested that the importance of Cerball in Icelandic writings stems from the popularity of the Fragmentary Annals among the Norse-Gaels of eleventh century Ireland, who passed these accounts on to the Icelanders, who then attached this famous and warlike king to their ancestry. Whether Cerball was in fact an ancestor of many prominent settler families is, however, of rather less importance than the fact that the Icelanders considered it worth reporting their descent from Cerball mac Dúnlainge, whether real or contrived. As with the adoption of Norse names, sagas and other features, and the creation of the Norse-Gael culture, Cerball's adoption in Iceland is an example of the contacts between Norse and Gaelic society in the Viking Age.

Notes

1. Byrne, p. 266.
2. For the origins of the annals, see Radner, pp. 321–325.
3. Byrne, p. 162; Ó Corrain, "Viking Ireland - Afterthoughts", pp. 17ff. (page numbering from etext).
4. Annals of Ulster [AU], 853.3.
5. Fragmentary Annals [FA], 246.
6. FA 249, 251, 254; AU 856.6.
7. FA 259; AU 853.2, 873.3.
8. Their origins are discussed by Ó Corrain, "The Vikings".
9. FA 260.
10. FA 262, 263.
11. FA 265; AU 859.3; Byrne, p. 265.
12. FA 277, 279; AU 860.1.
13. FA 308.
14. FA 314, 318.
15. FA 377, 387; AU 870.2.
16. FA 398, 399.
17. AU 888.6.
18. Cerball's appearances in Icelandic materials are discussed by Ó Corrain, "Viking Ireland - Afterthoughts", at length. This and the following paragraphs summarise Ó Corrain's points.

References

★ Byrne, Francis J., ''Irish Kings and High-Kings.'' B.T. Batsford, London, 1973. ISBN 0-7134-5882-8

★ Ó Corrain, Donnchad, "The Vikings in Scotland and Ireland in the Ninth Century", ''Peritia'', vol 12, pp296–339. (etext (pdf)

★ Ó Corrain, Donnchad, "Viking Ireland - Afterthoughts" in Clarke, Ní Mhaonaigh and Ó Floinn (eds), ''Ireland and Scandinavia in the early Viking age.'' Four Courts, Dublin, 1998. ISBN 1-85182-235-6 (etext (pdf))

★ Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, ''Early Medieval Ireland: 400–1200.'' Longman, London, 1995. ISBN 0-582-01565-0

★ Radner, Joan N., "Writing history: Early Irish historiography and the significance of form", ''Celtica'', volume 23, pp. 312–325. (etext (pdf)

Further reading

★ Downham, Clare, "The Career of Cearbhall of Osraighe" in ''Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to AD 1014.'' Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh, 2007. ISBN 1-903765-89-0

External links

★ 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

★ The Landnámabók (translated at Northvegr)