Men from the North.
It may be safely assumed from the known character of the pagan Northmen that they made short work of the religious communities they found in the Outer Hebrides. The men who plundered the mother church in Iona, and ruthlessly slaughtered her monks, were not likely to spare the daughter churches wherever they found them. It has been suggested - with a good deal of reason - that the merciless ferocity with which the Norsemen pursued the ecclesiastical establishments of Britain and Ireland was of a retaliatory character. It has been shown that they never interfered with the Christian religion until the persecution by Charlemagne of the pagan Saxons, and the destruction of their temples and idols had aroused within the breasts of Odin’s followers a feeling of implacable hatred towards the Christian name. The “great and good prince” Charlemagne had ordained that the Saxons should choose between Christianity and death – a form of conversion, which, in subsequent years, was imitated by the Northmen themselves in dealing with their pagan countrymen.
In pursuance of this militant spirit, the Royal missionary is stated to have beheaded no less than 4,500 recalcitrant Saxons in one day, perhaps to obtain the favour of Heaven by so meritorious an act. Such was Christianity as exemplified by this pious Emperor of the West, and such was the spirit in which ‘conversions’ were effected in those days. The smoking ruin of many a sacred building; the expiring groans of many a devoted monk; the despairing shrieks of many a violated nun; - these were the prices paid for the summary methods of converting the heathen which Charlemagne, the pillar of Christianity, adopted. And it was not too much to assume that the Outer Hebrides paid a portion of the prices in the destruction of the Columban Churches, and the slaughter of the officiating clergy. But the probable disposal of the native Christians, some to the slave-marts of Norway, and others to a condition of thralldom, which their conquerors no doubt imposed upon them, may have led to the seeds of their religion being planted in new soil. In the process of time, these seeds may have brought forth part of the fruit which so abundantly ripened towards the close of the tenth century.
About the end of the eighth century, the Scandinavians made their first recorded appearance on the coast of Ireland. The Irish Annals indicate that immediately before this event, which marked an epoch of great importance in the history of Ireland, the Northmen had devastated “all the Islands of Britain”. From this we may conclude that the tide of invasion proceeded from the Orkneys along the line of the Hebrides, and perhaps the Isle of Man, until finally it reached the shores of that fertile country which was the goal of the Northmen’s desires. In the year 794, Sci, or Skye, was pillaged and wasted, and it is highly probable that at the same period, stirring events were taking place in the Outer Hebrides. It is almost certain that previous to the eighth century, the ‘Long Island’ was a resort of Vikings, but whether or not before that period any permanent settlement by Scandinavians had been effected can only been conjectured. It is reasonable, however, to suppose that the Northmen who appeared on the Irish coast were bands of piratical adventurers from the Orkneys, and, perhaps, from the Long Island, bent on finding richer booty than those lands afforded.
The Irish Annals are full of records of the mischief wrought, during the ninth century, by the Scandinavians, who are indifferently styled “Gentiles” and “Galls”, or foreigners. We find a distinction made in the year 850 between these Gentiles and Galls. The Annals of Ulster record “the coming of the Dub-gennti to Athcliath (Dublin) who made great slaughter of the Finn-gallaib.”
And in the following year, according to the same authority, “eight score ships of Find-gentib came to fight against the Dub-gennti at Snamh-aigneach,” when a great battle took place, which lasted for three days and three nights, resulting in the ultimate victory of the Dub-gennti. These opposing bands are usually described as “Dubhghoill” or “Dugalls”, and “Finnghoil” or “Fingalls”: The dark and the fair foreigners. The Norsemen have been identified with the Fingalls, and the Danes with the Dugalls. It is difficult to see on what grounds the distinction has been made. If we assume that “Fingall” really means “fair foreigner,” and “Dugall” “dark foreigner”, we must discover satisfactory reasons for associating the idea of fairness with the Norwegians, and that of darkness with the Danes.
Various explanations have been hazarded to account for the distinction but they are all purely conjectural, and therefore, as proofs, valueless. The suggestion that the Norwegians were a fair race – which we know – and the Danes a dark race –which we do not know – will hardly be accepted. We read of Northmen called “Gorm-glasa” who fought at the battle of Clontarf. If the same argument be appled to them that is sought to be applied to the Fingalls and Dugalls, we must believe that the “Gorm-glasa” were a race whose distinguishing characteristic was the possession of greenish-blue hair, a colour which finds no counterpart these days. Equally unsatisfactory are the suggestions that the distinguishing marks of the Norwegians and Danes lay in the colour of their clothes, their shields, or the sails of their ships. Pinkerton states that Mr.Thorkelin, “a learned native of Iceland”, informed him that the old dress of the Norwegians and especially of the pirates and mariners, was black, as in Iceland. But this statement is in direct opposition to the generally accepted theory, which makes the Danes the black foreigners and the Norwegians the fair followers.
In later Irish history, we find frequent references to the Danes and Norwegians, and Keating writes of the “The Normans” as distinct from both, but gradually all sections of the Scandinavians became merged with the generic name of “Danes”, which probably denoted, in the process of time, any foreigners hailing originally from the north of Europe.
The Seanachies tell us that Somerled defeated “a large army of Lochlans and Fingalls, and cleared the whole west side of Alba from the Lochlans, except the Islands of the Finnlochlans called Innsegall.” But in the Red Book of Clan Ranald, the Lord of the Isles is termed ‘Righ Fiongalll, or King of the Fingalls; a statement which implies the subjugation of the Fingalls to his rule. The term “Lochlainnaigh”, or “Lochlans” (sea-warriors), originally applied to the Scandinavian rovers, appears to have received a wider significance in later years. The Dubgalls figure on several subsequent occasions in the Irish Annals and always as piratical adventurers; now at York, where they defeated the North Saxons, again in Alban, where they slaughtered the Picts, and –later than either event – in Ireland, once more battling with their old enemies, the Fingalls. We read of one Ragnall, or Reginald, who, early in the tenth century was king of the Dugalls; after which, Dubgall and later, Dugall, appear only as the names of persons; and in the tenth century, Fiongall also appears as a personal name.*
The modern names of Dugald, MacDougal, and MacDowell, are probably derived from Dubgall. Similarly, the Lochlans of the past reappear in the modern garb of MacLauchlan in Scotland, and McLoughlin in Ireland. On the whole, it seems probable that the Fingalls and Dugalls were rival tribes of Norsemen who had a standing feud. Their names appear to have been originally derived from the Celtic appellatives of their chiefs.
(From 'A History of The Hebrides'.)
