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178
Craigie: The Norse-Irish Question.
in 1012. Connmhach’s grandfather Thorer may very well
have been a Northman, but we know nothing further of the
family history. For all we can teil, Thorer’s son may have
been brought up from childhood among purely Irish
surroun-dings. Connmhach himself has a Gaelic name: how can we
teil that he knew a word of Norse? That Northmen
stu-died at Clonmacnois is a pure inference from the occurrence
of two place-names there, of which the Norse word garðr
seems to form part. I do not say that Dr. Bugge’s
reaso-ning is utterly unfounded here, but the fact remains that
we have no clear proof for his Statement, which must
there-fore be received with all caution. As to Cell Belaig, Dr.
Bugge has here followed Prof. Zimmer in accepting as
hi-storical the story of Rumund mac Colmain, which speaks of
’seven streets of Galls’ in Cell Belaig. While admitting
that the ’seven streets’ may be an exaggeration, Dr. Bugge
thinks it safe to assume "that about the year 1000
Northmen were found in Cell Belaig." To show how very
slip-pery the ground is here, I need oniy cite the words of Prof.
Kuno Meyer (in Otia Mersiana II. 78) about this story of
Rumund: "It is curious to find both Petrie and Zimmer
be-lieving in the authenticity of this late, confused, and on the
face of it spurious account, and trying to reconcile its
Statements with historical facts." Until Irish scholars are agreed
a& to the character of the tale, it is obviously unsafe to
base any argument upon it. Yet it is entirely on this
sus-picious text that Dr. Bugge’s next statement is founded:
"Irish bards appeared at the court of the King of Dublin,
and repeated their Irish poems, which were understood by
the danish- and norse-speaking vikings." Apart altogether
from the trustworthiness of this story of Rumund, such a
statement is extremely bold, in view of the difficulties of
old Irish poetry, and would require the strongest of evidence
to prove it. I am not aware of any proof that the North-
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