Global InformationTomrair information
Tomrair | |
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 Tomrair's name and titles as they appear on folio 318r of Dublin Royal Irish Academy C iii 3 (the Annals of the Four Masters).[1] |
Tomrair (died 848) was a ninth-century Viking active in Ireland.[note 1] He is one of the first Vikings recorded by Irish sources. Tomrair is reported to have been killed at the Battle of Sciath Nechtain, a conflict in which twelve hundred Vikings were slain, battling the combined forces of Ólchobar mac Cináeda, King of Munster and Lorcán mac Cellaig, King of Leinster, in 848.
Surviving accounts of Tomrair's demise accord him the Gaelic title erell, making him the first earl noted by Irish sources. In fact, erell is the first Nordic loanword on record. Tomrair is also described as the tánaise ríg of Laithlind, which could mean that he was either an heir or deputy to the King of Laithlind. The accounts of Tomrair's final fall are the earliest annalistic references to the office of tánaise ríg. The precise identity of the King of Laithlind, or even location of Laithlind itself, is uncertain.
The context of Tomrair's fall is likewise uncertain. The year after his death, the King of Laithlind is reported to have sent a force of Vikings to contend with Vikings already settled in Ireland. In the years immediately after this, a group of Vikings called Dubgaill are noted to have battled another group called Finngaill. Afterwards in 853, a certain Amlaíb, described as the son of the King of Laithlind is stated to have won the submission of the Vikings in Ireland, and to have gained tribute from the Irish. It is uncertain if the Vikings of Laithlind are to identical to the Finngaill or Dubgaill. In the years that followed, three Vikings appear to have shared the kingship of Dublin: Amlaíb, Ímar, and Auisle. These men could well have been related to each other, and there is reason to suspect that Tomrair was yet another relation as well.
The year of Tomrair's death is remarkable in the fact that the Irish won several battles against the Vikings. Tomrair's eminent standing as a Viking tánaise ríg could indicate that it was his defeat and death that is referred to by a Frankish annal in 848. It is possible that a hoard of Carolingian coins, unearthed at Mullaghboden in the nineteenth century, may have been deposited in the context of Tomrair's defeat. These coins appear to have been looted from Aquitaine only a few years before by Vikings from Vestfold.
Tomrair may be associated with the "ring of Tomar", an object that was looted from Dublin in 994, along with the "sword of Carlus". These objects appear to have formed part of the royal insignia of Dublin, and may have been symbols of the Uí Ímair dynasty descended from Ímar. At about the same time that the ring appears on record, the Dubliners are described in Irish poetry as the "race of Tomar" and "Tomar's nobles". If these designations are not references to Þór, a Nordic deity, they may refer to Tomrair.
- ^ Annals of the Four Masters (2008a) § 846.8; Annals of the Four Masters (2008b) § 846.8; Royal Irish Academy MS C iii 3 (n.d.).
- ^ a b Ó Cróinín (2013).
- ^ Holm (1986).
- ^ Ó Corráin (1998b); Ó Corráin (1998a).
- ^ Riisoy (2015); Valante (2013).
- ^ McGowan (2003–2004).
- ^ Jorgensen (2017); Whyte (2017); Etchingham (2014); Walker (2013); Heather (2009); Downham (2007); Woolf (2007); Ó Corráin (2001a); Ó Corráin (2001b); Ó Corráin (1998b); Ó Corráin (1998a); Kelly; Maas (1999); Ó Murchadha (1992–1993).
- ^ Downham (2011).
- ^ Downham (2007); Barrett (2003); Ó Corráin (2001b).
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