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continued connexion of the Isle of Man with Limerick.
The name Magnus originates in Charlemagne ; we
find also a Carlus, son of Olaf the White, killed in
battle 867, and his sword was one of the treasures of
Dublin carried off by King Maelseachlann in 995 :
a Carlus mac Con was slain by Northmen in 960 ;
his name curiously recalls the mysterious Karl Hundason
of the next century, certainly not intended (as Skene
thought) for a term of reproach (see Rhys’ Celtic
Britain, p. 267). A Magnus Bjarnarson of Limerick
died in 968, and the name must have come into use
in hero-worship of the great enemy of the Vikings.
With Magnus Haraldsson we find the first fairly
ascertained dynasty of Man and the Isles : he died
about 977, and was succeeded by his brother Godred
(Godfrid), who fought a battle in Man (987) with Danes
from Dublin, who had been plundering in Dalriada,
and at Christmas had slain the abbot of lona and
fifteen of his monks. This is about the time, though
the circumstances are not those, of the story told in
Njal’s saga of Kári Sölmundarson and Njál’s sons
Grím and Helgi, who landed in Man and forced
Godred to pay the tribute claimed by the king of
Norway. At a later date they attacked him again,
and slew Dungall his son, and then betook them to
Colonsay, where they stayed with jarl Gilli, who accompanied
them to Orkney and married a daughter
of jarl Sigurd. Godred’s kingdom evidently did not
extend over the whole of the Islands; he died in
989, succeeded by his sons Ragnvald and Kenneth,
and his grandson Svein (Suibhne), son of Kenneth.
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