Network Analysis of the Viking Age in Ireland as portrayed in Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh

TL;DR

This paper uses network analysis on the medieval Irish text Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh to quantitatively examine the nature of Irish-Viking conflicts, revealing a mix of domestic and international hostilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantitative network analysis approach to historical texts, providing new insights into the Irish-Viking conflict depicted in Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh.

Findings

Most hostilities are between Irish and Vikings.

Internal conflicts are also significantly represented.

Results position the text between traditional and revisionist views.

Abstract

Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh ("The War of the Gaedhil with the Gail") is a medieval Irish text, telling how an army under the leadership of Brian Boru challenged Viking invaders and their allies in Ireland, culminating with the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Brian's victory is widely remembered for breaking Viking power in Ireland, although much modern scholarship disputes traditional perceptions. Instead of an international conflict between Irish and Viking, interpretations based on revisionist scholarship consider it a domestic feud or civil war. Counter-revisionists challenge this view and a longstanding and lively debate continues. Here we introduce quantitative measures to the discussions. We present statistical analyses of network data embedded in the text to position its sets of interactions on a spectrum from the domestic to the international. This delivers a picture that lies between antipodal traditional and revisionist extremes; hostilities recorded in the text are mostly between Irish and Viking - but internal conflict forms a significant proportion of the negative interactions too.