Overview

Lectures:

• INTRODUCTION: Themes and the early kingdom

• GODRED CROVAN: The foundation of the Crovan dynasty; Olaf son of Godred.

• SOMERLED: king or rebel, Viking or Gael?

• REGINALD GODREDSON: civil war and the descendants of Somerled.

• HAKON, KING OF NORWAY: the ned of the kingdom?

• THE CHURCH

• ECONOMY, SOCIETY, CULTURE

• ENGLAND AND NORWAY: the Angevin world, the Viking world.

• IRELAND AND WALES: kings of Ireland, Dublin, and Gwynedd.

• SCOTLAND AND THE END OF THE KINGDOM: later history.

Representative list of seminar topics:

Introduction Godred Crovan and the Chronicle of the Kings of Man and the Isles

Source: Chronicle of the Kings of Man and the Isles

Somerled and Argyll

Source: Song of the Death of Somerled (Carmen de morte Somerledi)  

Reginald Godredson, king of Man and the Isles

Source: a range of sources including English documents, Orkneyinga saga, the Manx Chronicle, and the Gaelic poem in praise of Reginald  

Norway and the end of the kingdom

Source: two Norse sagas, Magnús saga berfœttr/Magnus Barefoot’s Saga by Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), and Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar/Hakon Hakonson's Saga, by Sturla Þórðarson (1214–1284).  

The church and the descendants of Somerled

Source: ecclesiastical archaeology/architecture, focussing on Iona

Castles and community

Source: archeological evidence of castles: Peel; Castle Rushen; Dun Chonaill; Dunstaffnage; Aros; Cairnburgh

Ireland, Dublin, Wales

Source: Vita Griffini filii Conani, the biography of King Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd

Norway and England

Source: a range of English administrative documents invlolving the Manx kings, taken from Monumenta de Insula Manniae, ed. J. R. Oliver (2 vols, Douglas, 1860–1862).

The end of the kingdom?

Source: a fresh look at the Chronicle of the Kings of Man and the Isles