The Arrival of the Norse West-Over-Sea
--- Grettissaga
The great men referred to in the passage from Grettissaga were lords opposed to King Harald Harfagri, who conquered most of Norway and gained a decisive win at the battle of Hafrsfjord in 872. Some modern historians question this as a reason why these particular Norse settled in the Orkneys, Hebrides and western Scotland, though it seems a perfectly viable one. The fact is that the exiled lords did leave Norway and established themselves in these areas.
However, it is likely that settlement had already started from a much earlier period, namely, that of the Picts. During the wars with the Romans for example, Saxon pirates were in active alliance with the Picts against the invader. Donald A. Mackenzie suggests that the exiled Norse lords similary settled in the Pictish islands of Orkney as allies, and used them as a base from which to raid the Norwegian coast.
Northern Britain was not yet known as Scotland in ancient times. It was composed of different kingdoms, chief of which was Pictland, stretching from Fife north to the Orkneys and Shetland. On the extreme west was Dalriada, a realm of the Scottish Gael. Two other kingdoms, that of Strathclyde and Lothian, were ruled by the Britons or Welsh. A fourth element, the Angles, spread their power into East Lothian and Berwickshire, making these two areas part of the larger kingdom of Northumbria.
The Picts had a strong navy. Martin Carver suggests that a ship represented on the Cossins Stone from Angus resembles the clinker-built vessels of the Norse. The later birlinn or galley of the Norse Gael most definitely does, although it seems to have been made leaner and more streamlined, sitting lower in the water than the average langskip for speed. Pictish ship design may have been the influence behind this development.
King Brude III (the Brave) and his mormaers or sea lords severely chastised the pirates of the Orkneys. The islands always seem to have been the ideal base for piratical action even when fully occupied by the Picts. Like the vikings themselves, Pictish warriors were often indulging in raids by sea when not on the farm. The Picts had spent generations attacking Roman forts and settlements by land and sea and taking tribute, and under Brude had annihilated the Northumbrian King Ecgfrith and his army at the Battle of Nectansmere in 638. They had established one of the strongest kingdoms in Britain through hundreds of years of armed conflict. They had trounced the Gael of Dalriada and appear to have maintained some control over the Northumbrian Angles to the south. In the Irish annals one of Brude's successors, Alpin, is called king of both Picts and Saxons. So when the earliest Norse settlers arrived, they would probably have had little to teach the locals when it came to the business of arms. Nor is it likely that the Norse settlement among them would have been possible without Pictish approval, especially as the forces of a Pictish king had brought the piratical population firmly into line on a previous occasion.
There has been much disagreement among scholars as to this issue with regard to Orkney and Shetland. Some hold the view that the islands may well have been sparsely populated or even empty at the time of first Norse settlement. This is unlikely however, unless the Pictish royal forces had wiped out all the able-bodied fighting men and driven most if not all of the folk from their homes, and kept all other would-be pirates from any further settlement. Others are of the opinion that the Norse settlement was an invasion and that in true viking style they would have put all Pictish opposition to the sword and enslaved the rest. But no real evidence for this has come to light. Others claim that the relationship between Norse and Pict was of a more peaceful bent. This is an important consideration if Norse numbers were initially small, and there certainly does seem to have been intermarriage between Norse and Pict.
The Bressay Stone from Shetland, dated between the late 9th and early 10th centuries, has a curious ogam inscription: crossc nahhtvvddadds: dattrr: ann bennises: meqqddroann. It is a memorial. Scholars have read both Norse dattr (daughter) and Pictish mac (son of) in the sentence, suggesting a mixed family. Others taking an opposing view nitpick so much about the translation that it loses any meaning altogether.
Whatever accommodation the early Norse settlers agreed with the Picts, other bands of unallied Norse and Danes out for plunder mounted viking raids on Pictish territory, in particular targeting Christian monasteries. They also attacked Ireland and undefended islands such as Iona. Irish chroniclers refer to them as heathen and Gall (outlanders). Gall originally meant Gaul, a Continental Celt. Other terms include Lochlannach, men of Lochlan, the Gaelic name for Norway, the land of lochs.
Successive Pictish kings had to face the viking menace as a major challenge to their power. In 839 the then ruler Eoganan mac Oengus and his navy sailed out against a viking fleet from Ireland.
The Annals of Ulster has this entry:
A battle of the heathen over the men of Fortriu; in which fell Eoganan mac Oengus, and Bran mac Oengus, and Aed mac Boant; and others beyond counting were slain.
The men of Fortriu were the Picts. Eoganan and his brother Bran were slain, together with Aed, king of Dalriada, over which Eoganan had lordship, and many of their followers besides. This defeat of the Pictish forces appears to have been as much of a body blow as that dealt by them to the Northumbrians in an earlier age. Pictland was seriously weakened and now ripe for the taking.
John Marsden suggests that the Norse fleet from Ireland was none other than Gall Gael. But not just any Gall Gael on just any viking trip. According to his theory, they were allies of the warlord who was to take over both Pictland and Dalriada and combine them into one kingdom -- Cinaed the Hardy (better known as Kenneth mac Alpin).