Welcome to Litsy!

Brian Boru, eventual high king, was a brilliant statesman and strategist who studied “ancient” warfare and tried to unify an “un-unifiable” country—Ireland. He succeeded somewhat, for a while, until his death in the battle in 1014 and his surviving son was not capable of holding the warring Gaelic and Norse tribes together. Touted as written like a novel, it‘s certainly not. But it is interesting and was an excellent read before my trip to ⬇️

Brian Boru‘s harp, the oldest harp in Ireland, housed in the Trinity College Library

Brian Boru

The tagged book very much favors Ireland high king Brian Boru, the National Museum of Ireland was neutral, and the Dublinia Museum (photo above) very much favored Sitric Silkbeard. So here we are 1,010 years later and sides are still being taken in this battle!

“The shrine of the 'Stowe Missal', c.1030
“This shrine held an 8th-century mass-book for the monastery of Lorrha. An inscription on the base requests prayers for the 'king of Ireland', Donnchad, son of Brian and Gormlaith. Donnchad reigned for many years after Clontarf but was never generally recognised as king of Ireland.
“Lorrha, Co. Tipperary”

From the National Museum of Dublin

I visited two museums today both of which described a historic battle between Ireland‘s high king Brian Boru and Dublin‘s king Sitric, the subject of the book I‘m reading. Of course, now I have spoilers since I‘m only halfway through the book. My bad. 😳 But this diagram is excellent to help me keep track of the major players in the battle.

Map no. 2 #Ireland and the Viking World in 1014

Map no. 1 #Ireland in 1014

Bookmail! Just arrived for me to take on my trip to England and Ireland this week. 😊

Jenny , Thankyou ! Great choices , so thoughtful of you. My husband is eyeing the tagged book ... 🧐. I suppose I could share ... maybe 🙃
Thanks so much & take care & chat again soon XXX Cathy.

This is a great history book about Brian Boru, high king of Ireland, and the Battle of Clontarf. It's done with a novelist's prose, but a historian's insight. Lots of good resources at the end for further reading.

#irish #history