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THE VIKING PERIOD
but the latter town never recovered its former prestige as
the capital of Ireland. 1
That Dublin owes its importance, if not its origin, to the
Norsemen may be inferred from the almost total silence of
the historians and annalists regarding it in the years preced-
ing the Scandinavian inroads. It is probable that there
was a fort to guard the hurdle-ford where the great road
from Tara to Wicklow, Arklow and Wexford crossed the
kiffey, but it seems to have played no great part in history
before the Norsemen fortified it in 840. Between Church
I^ane and Suffolk Street they had their Thing* or meeting-
place, which was still to be seen in the seventeenth century ;
while all along College Green, called I,e Hogges
3
and later
Hoggen Green by the English, lay
’
their barrows (O.N.
haugar}.’ During the ninth and tenth centuries the Kingdom
of Dubb’n^ known to the Scandinavians as Dyflinarski
became one of the most powerful in the west. Its sway
extended north to its colonies* at the Strangford and
1
Armagh is the only place in Ireland which is marked on a tenth
century map of the world preserved in the British Museum. See
R. A. S. Macalister : Muiredach : Abbot of Monasterboice,
P- 13-
2
It is called Tengmonth and Teggemuta in medieval documents
(Chartularies of St. Mary’s Abbey, I., 15, 461, 463, 465) and from
it the surrounding parish of St. Andrew "
Parochia Sancti Andreae
de Thengmote
"
took its name. In 1647 it is referred to as
’
the
fortified hill near the College," but about thirty years later it was
levelled to the ground and the earth was used for building Nassau
Street (J. T. Gilbert History of Dublin, II , p. 258).
8 The name survived until the i8th century in Hog Hill, but it
was afterwards changed to St. Andrew’s Street.
4
Annals of Ulster, A.D. 839, 840, 925, 928, 934.
These colonies were governed by earls, not kings, and their
dependency on the kingdom of Dublin is clearly shown by certain
entries in the Annals. In 926 a Viking fleet at Ijnn Duachaill (on
the coast of Louth) was commanded by Albdarn (O.N. Halfdanr),
son of Guthfrith (King of Dublin, 920-933). Later, when part of
Albdann’s aimy was besieged at Ath Cruithne (near Newry),
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