Into the Ocean: Vikings, Irish, and Environmental Change in Iceland and the North

Description

That Gaelic monasticism flourished in the early medieval period is well established. The "Irish School" penetrated large areas of Europe and contemporary authors describe North Atlantic travels and settlements. Across Scotland and beyond, Celtic-speaking communities spread into the wild and windswept north, marking hundreds of Atlantic settlements with carved and rock-cut sculpture. They were followed in the Viking Age by Scandinavians who dominated the Atlantic waters and settled the Atlantic rim. With 'Into the Ocean', Kristjan Ahronson makes two dramatic claims: that there were people in Iceland almost a century before Viking settlers first arrived c. AD 870, and that there was a tangible relationship between the early Christian 'Irish' communities of the Atlantic zone and the Scandinavians who followed them. Ahronson uses archaeological, paleoecological, and literary evidence to support his claims, analysing evidence ranging from pap place names in the Scottish islands to volcanic airfall in Iceland. An interdisciplinary analysis of a subject that has intrigued scholars for generations, 'Into the Ocean' will challenge the assumptions of anyone interested in the Atlantic branch of the Celtic world. Acknowledgments ix List of Illustrations, Tables, and Abbreviations xiii Introduction 3 1. Nineteenth-Century Legacies: Literature, Language, and the Imagining of the St Lawrence Irish 8 2. A Fruitful Conversation between Disciplines 38 3. Pabbays and Paibles: 'Pap'-Names and Gaelic and Old Norse Speakers in Scotland’s Hebridean Islands 58 4. Seljaland, Vestur-Eyjafjallahreppur, Iceland 75 5. Dating the Cave 101 6. Three Dimensions of Environmental Change 131 7. The Crosses of a Desert Place? 147 Conclusion 200 Notes 205 References 223