G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
26
Stone Carvings
The main source of evidence for the birlinn is the
medieval stone carvings. The most detailed image
of a birlinn is on a panel in a wall-tomb in St Clement’s
church in Rodel, Harris, which was erected for
Alasdair Crotach, chief of the MacLeods in 1528.
(Fig. 1) The vessel has been created in stone in such
detail that its relationship to the Viking ship is easily
recognized. Arne Emil Christensen (2006) has
described how the rigging and the general hull shape
of the 16th-century Rodel bìrlinn, show the same
characteristics as the ninth-century Norse ships that
were excavated from the burial mounds at Gokstad
and Oseberg. The main difference is the stern, which
is straight to accommodate the rudder rather than
the graceful curve seen on the Viking ships, which
carried a steering oar mounted on the right-hand
(starboard) side.
A Common Tradition
It is accepted by maritime
archaeologists that
the bìrlinn comes from the
same boat-building tradition
as the Viking ships.
Ole Crumlin Pedersen
(2010) has shown the close
connection between boatbuilding
traditions around
the North Sea in the early
Middle Ages; he showed
how the “clinker” method
of ship building was developed
at various locations in
this area.
In a clinker-built boat.
each strake or plank overlaps
the one below it and
is fastened through that
overlap by a nail passed
through from the outside
and clenched or “clinked”
on the inside over a disc of
metal known as a “rove”.
In this tradition, the vessel
is begun by laying a keel
Gaelic Bards and Norwegian Rigs
Gavin Parsons*
Abstract - The birlinn or West Highland galley has been used frequently as an image on clan crests, and appears on more
than eighty medieval gravestones in the west of Scotland, yet not a single example of the ship itself remains or has been
discovered, and definite information on its dimensions and construction is scarce. Some information about the bìrlinn can
be gleaned from Gaelic poetry from the period 1300–1760, from oral tradition, stories, and also from land charters, estate
papers, and accounts. The bìrlinn as seen on gravestone carvings appears to be closely related to the Viking ship, and my
intention in this paper is to compare the West Highland vessel with the Norse vessel, using information from the square sail
tradition still extant in Norway, to interpret information from the Gaelic bards. As well as increasing our practical knowledge
of the bìrlinn, I hope to increase understanding of its important place in Gaelic heritage and illuminate links between
Norse and Gaelic culture during the Middle Ages.
Across the Sólundarhaf: Connections between Scotland and the Nordic World
Selected Papers from the Inaugural St. Magnus Conference 2011
Journal of the North Atlantic
*Sabhal Mòr, Ostaig Isle of Skye, IV43 8QS; sm00gp@uhi.ac.uk.
2013 Special Volume 4:26–34
Figure 1. Birlinn on the tomb of Alasdair Crotach, Rodel, Isle of Harris. Photograph ©
RCAHMS Licensor (www.rcahms.gov.uk).
G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
27
and attaching a stempost and a sternpost—all the
vessels discovered from the Iron Age and the Middle
Ages are “double-enders” or pointed at both ends. The
hull is then built up from the keel; the first plank (the
garboard strake) is nailed to the keel and then each
successive plank is clenched to the previous one. In
the Norse tradition, the garboard strake is fastened on
to the keel at a steep angle adding to the depth of the
keel. The planks above then turn outward to form the
hull shape proper before turning upward to the gunwale
(Fig. 2).
The earliest clinker-boat find is that of the 4thcentury
ships discovered at Nydam in the south of
Jutland (Pedersen 2010:65–67). The best preserved
of the Nydam ships was built of oak, with a keel,
stem, stern, and side rudder. It was built for rowing,
and the planks were fastened with iron rivets. Then
there is a superb example of a 7th-century clinker
vessel from a grave mound at Sutton Hoo in East
Anglia. There was no sign of a mast or a sail with
this ship, which had places for 40 oars, but the hullshape
shows a similar development to the 9th-century
Viking ships excavated at Gokstad and Oseberg
(Evans 1986), although without the projecting keel.
The similarity of hull-shape and construction with
Scandinavian finds strengthens the argument for
common, or at least parallel, boat traditions around
the North Sea.
We might ask, though, were the same boat construction
techniques and designs used on the west
side of Britain, and particularly, were they used in
the Hebrides? Historians have tended to assume
that the Gaels did not have wooden boats before the
Vikings arrived in the eighth century; so far, there is
no material evidence at all.
However, there is manuscript
evidence from Ireland of sea
voyages made before the Viking
period. The Imramma
describe voyages made by
monks during the 6th–8th
centuries, in curachs—boats
made of hide stretched over
a framework of laths. (Marcus
1980). In his biography
of St. Columba, who arrived
in Scotland in 543, Adomnan
tells of ships made of
hide (Sharpe 1995). He also
refers to wooden boats being
built in Iona, without giving
any further information
(Sharpe 1995:201). In the
Irish Brehon Laws, which
date at least as far back as
the 7th century, and probably
futher, three types of vessel
are named: curach, barque,
and lerlong (F. Kelly, School
of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute
of Advanced Studies,
Dublin, Ireland, 2008 pers.
comm.). The largest of these,
the lerlong, was possibly a
wooden vessel, but again we
have no further information.
Raiders from Parallel
Cultures
Whatever types of boats
the Gaels were using in the
Figure 2. Clinker-built boat. Photograph © Fergus Walker. first few centuries AD, they
G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
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were using them in a very similar way to the Vikings,
who appeared on the western ocean a few centuries
later. G.J. Marcus (1980), in his book The Conquest
of the North Atlantic, describes how the Irish Gaels
repeatedly raided the western coasts of Britain in
Roman times. He points out that the Gaelic curach
played a part not unlike the Viking longship from the
end of the 8th century. “Like the longship, the curach
was a swift and handy craft, admirably adapted
to this kind of roving warfare” (Marcus 1980:8).
Speaking of the Gaels and their curachs coming over
to Britain, the Welsh monk Gildas wrote, in the mid-
6th century “Scotti emergent certatim de curucis”
(“Gaels came swarming ashore from their curachs”;
Marcus 1980:8). So it seems that the Gaels and the
Vikings had very similar ways—using fast seaworthy
craft to carry out raids on other peoples.
There is a wealth of evidence from place names,
from personal names, from the Norse sagas, and
other sources to show that the Norse had power in
the Hebrides, and that their language was spoken
widely, particularly in Lewis. Despite this evidence,
as Donald Archie MacDonald (1984:277) has explained,
there is scarcely any awareness in Gaelic
oral tradition that Norse people settled in the islands.
Most of the stories collected tell of attacks from the
sea by Vikings and how they were repelled, or the
invaders slaughtered. There are, however, tales of
Somerled, the progenitor of Clan Donald, ending the
rule of the Norse in Argyll.
Somerled and the Lordship of the Isles
In the history of Clan Donald as it is told from
tradition in the books of Clan Ranald (Kennedy and
MacBain 1892:155) and in oral tradition from Alasdair
Cameron (Camshron 1963), it was Somerled
MacGilleBrìde who led the Gaels in the defeat of
the ruling Norsemen in Argyll. After winning Argyll,
Somerled went to battle twice against his brotherin-
law Godfrey of Mann. What was particularly
interesting about these two battles was, according
to the Chronicle of the Kings of Man (Broderick
1973:18), that they were fought at sea. In the year
1156, Somerled came with a force of 80 ships and
on the night of Epiphany, fought a sea battle. In Clan
Donald tradition, this battle was fought somewhere
off the coast of Islay, possibly in the Sound of Islay.
The Chronicle tells us that two years later Somerled
sailed to the Isle of Man with 53 ships and soundly
defeated Godfrey in a second battle.
According to these sources then, Somerled had
sufficient naval strength to make war against a Norse
fleet and to defeat them. How was this possible?
Did his ships have some kind of advantage over the
Norse ships? It has been suggested that Somerled’s
ships were smaller versions of Norse ships but with
the rudder hung on the sternpost instead of on one
side of the stern and it was this that gave him the
advantage in these two battles (e.g., Clark 1993:17).
However, there is no solid evidence of Somerled’s
ships having a stern rudder. John Marsden (2000:83)
in his book Somerled and the emergence of Gaelic
Scotland argues that a seal, dating from 1292 and
showing a ship with a stern rudder, was used by
Angus of Islay, and that this seal is said to be a copy
of an earlier one struck by his grandfather Ranald in
1176 to commemorate the 1156 battle. However, in
a ship with banks of oars, there is far more turning
force available from the oars than from any kind of
rudder, so it is hard to see how a stern rudder would
have given Somerled the advantage.
The fact that the vessels depicted on the gravestones
from the 13th–15th century show a similarity
to the earlier Viking ships adds weight to the
argument that Somerled’s ships were of this lineage.
They could have been smaller, and thus more maneuverable,
than Godfrey’s large ships, if the latter
were similar to the post-Viking-age Norwegian
warships. Despite the supposed expulsion of Norse
rule from the islands, it seems as though Somerled’s
descendents, who later formed the Lordship of the
Isles, Dougall in particular, had close dealings with
the Norwegian king, and many island chiefs supported
King Hakon’s ill-fated expedition of 1263
that had aimed to confirm the Norwegian king as
overlord of the Western Isles. Praise of Norsemen
can be found in song for many centuries after this
important event. Though no wreck of a birlinn has
yet been found, the stone carvings supply valuable
evidence and this can be added to by what we might
call “literary archaeology”—delving into the song
tradition for information about boats.
The MacSween Poem
The earliest and most interesting song which
praises Norse sea skills is the MacSween Poem from
the 16th-century collection known as the Book of the
Dean of Lismore. The poem was written early in the
14th century by Arthur Dall MacGurcaigh, who used
a spelling based on Scots of that period. A scholarly
work of reconstruction has been done on the poem
by Donald Meek (1997), and through this work,
we are able to gain an understanding of the Gaels’
way of thinking during the time the poem was written—
the period directly after the end of Norse rule
over the Hebrides between 1263 and 1310 (Meek
1997:22).
The poem tells of the fleet being put together by
Eòin MacSween to regain Castle Sween in Knapdale.
What is particularly interesting about the poem
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2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
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is that it is written to praise Eòin MacSween, but
there is a place for his ships in this praise. Donald
Meek (1997) has put forward the theory that the
Norse king Hakon Hakonsson’s fleet which appeared
in the islands in 1263 had a big effect, and heightened
the heroic image of the Norse in the islands,
even though they “lost” in the skirmish known as the
Battle of Largs. This proposal makes sense of the
warriors on board MacSween’s fleet being described
as “Norsemen and Noble Stewards”. Meek (1997)
also draws attention to how close the description
of the fleet in this poem is to two descriptions of
Scandinavian fleets from the Middle Ages. One from
about 1040 in the Encomium Emmae Reginae describes
the Viking armada of Cnut, King of England,
Denmark, and Norway preparing to sail, and another
describes the fleet of Svein, father of Cnut, as it was
leaving to invade England in 1013. Meek (1997:15)
suggests that MacGurcaigh was working within a
mixed Gall-Gael cultural environment “in which a
pattern for the description of a fleet based on Viking
prototypes, was part of bilingual currency.”
The MacSween poem gives us very little information
on the actual ships. We hear how well the bows
of the ships were decorated, that they had speckled
sails, and that they had high beds for the women in
the “bower-houses” of the fleet. We do not know how
much of this description is accurate and how much is
due to the poet following a stylized pattern.
Praise Poetry
There is evidence in Gaelic songs from the end of
the Middle Ages onward that bìrlinns, or at any rate
ships, had become an important part of the praise
that the bards bestowed on chiefs and other nobles.
John MacInnes, widely acknowledged as the foremost
authority on Gaelic oral tradition, says that it
is generally recognized that much oral poetry worldwide
is panegyric in nature, consisting of the praise
of heroes, armies, and victories (MacInnes 2007:84).
He also explains that “the Scottish Gaelic bards
developed a rhetoric in which ‘personal panegyric’
and ‘nature panegyric’ are combined, sometimes
through territorial styles and titles, in the same system.
In that system, men feature as warriors, hunters
and horsemen, owners and riders of fine steeds, and
masters of splendid ships” (MacInnes 2007:91). An
example of this type of panegyric is Òran do Dhomhnall
Gorm Òg (a song to Young Donald Gorm) by
the 17th-century MacDonald poet Iain Lom. The
subject of the song is described as handsome, heroic,
beautifully dressed, carrying the best of weapons.
He is also a skilled bowman and a valiant helmsman.
To make the comparison with the Vikings in this
sense, although Hakon Hakonson’s fleet of 1263
would have fulfilled many of the heroic characteristics
required of the Gaelic noble, it seems as though
these qualities were no longer important among the
Norse, who were to a great degree pacified by the
legal systems and other civic developments brought
in by King Magnus Lagabøter in the late thirteenth
century (Helle 2001).
The Birlinn of Clanranald
The epic sea poem Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill was
written by Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair around
1760 and is regarded by many as the finest work of
one of Gaeldom’s finest poets. The poem, which
runs to over 560 lines, describes the voyage of Clan
Ranald’s Birlinn from North Uist to Carrick Fergus,
and includes the blessing of the ship, blessing of
weaponry, a rowing section, the calling of suitable
crew members to the various sailing positions, and
culminates with the voyage itself, through a storm of
fabulous intensity.
In this part, my intention is to illustrate the
sections of the poem which deal with the work of
sailing the bìrlinn by examining the same sailing
positions which are used on the traditional Åfjord
boats of Trøndelag in central Norway and also on
the Viking ship replicas which have been built at
the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde in Denmark.
The Åfjord boats are clinker-built double-enders,
which along with the superficially similar Nordland
boat, are perhaps the best-studied Norwegian boats
from the square-sail tradition. The hull shows a
steep sheer line leading to a high stem and sternpost
(Fig. 3). The shape and the fact that the garboard
(lowest) plank is almost vertical, effectively extending
the depth of the keel, display their Viking
heritage. These boats have been built in Trøndelag
since the beginning of the 19th century, and the
largest were used for cod fishing in the Lofoten islands.
Fishermen from around the Trondheimsfjord
would make the 600-mile voyage to the north in
January, staying in huts on the islands during the
season which lasted until April. The Åfjord boats
use a square sail hung from a yard on a single mast,
and though this type, built from sawn timber rather
than cleaved timber, dates only from around 200
years ago, the master boatbuilder Einar Borgfjord,
who has an extensive knowledge of building and
sailing these boats, has little doubt that “they are
part of a tradition which has continued without a
break from the Viking age” (Borgfjord 2009). The
Åfjord boats continued to make the voyage to Lofoten
under sail until after the First World War, so
when there was a revival of interest in the boats in
the 1980s, there were still a few old men alive who
had sailed them in their youth and could impart
G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
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their knowledge, thereby keeping the tradition unbroken.
That there was a blockage in one of shallow
channels of the Roskilde fjord in Denmark was long
known to the fishermen of the area, but in 1959, it
was realized that this blockage consisted of five Viking-
age ships which had been purposely sunk in the
11th century, to close off the most direct channel up
the fjord. The wrecks were numbered Skuldelev 1 to
Skuldelev 6 (The wreck originally numbered 4 is part
of Skuldelev 2). The ships were excavated in 1962,
and after conservation work, the wrecks were reassembled
in the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde.
At the same time, the joiners at the museum began to
develop their skills in Viking-age boatbuilding and to
construct replicas of each of the wrecks.
By the time Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill was written
around 1760, the age of the birlinn had passed,
but Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair had taken part
in the the Jacobite rising of 1745 and was emphatically
part of the old Gaelic way of life, which had
been declining but which was brought to an end
essentially by the Hanoverian forces at Culloden
in 1746 and by Acts of the Westminster Parliament
shortly afterwards. In his sea-poem, MacMhaighstir
Alasdair is looking back to a heroic age, when
nobles were praised, among other things, for their
maritime skills. The vessel described has, as far as
can be ascertained, sixteen oars and a square-sail on
a single mast. The sailing positions described are:
the steersman, a rigging man, a sheetman, a tackman,
a halyard man, a look-out man, a bailing man,
and two men to haul on the “back-sail ropes”.
To get an opinion on the descriptions of sailing,
I spoke to Vegard Heide (Rissa, Trøndelag, Norway,
2009 pers. comm.), who was the sailing instructor
at Fosen Folkehøgskole and was considered to be
among the most experienced of square-sail sailors
in Norway. Vegard took a look through the poem
(in English translation) and said that it was obvious
to him that the poet had at least a basic knowledge
of how such a vessel was sailed, and that there was
much in the poem that reminded him of the sailing
methods used in the Åfjord boats.
I will examine, then, the work of each member
of the crew as described by MacMhaighstir Alasdair
and will then compare that description with the same
work on board the Åfjord boats and on the Viking
replicas at Roskilde. The version of the poem used
is that published by Aonghas MacLeod in the book
Sàr Òrain (1933)
An stiùireadair (the steersman)
The Steersman needs to be, as we might imagine,
Eirmseach, foighidneach, gun ghriobhag ri uchd
tùilinn (sure, patient, without panic in the face of a
Figure 3. Åfjords boat. Photograph © Fergus Walker.
G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
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t-abhsadh, i chur stad air (for fear that if the shout
comes to slacken, it needs to be let go in an instant).
The halyard, then, is only made fast with a slip knot
gabhail uime daingeann, seòlta le lùb-ruithe so that
it can run na still le crònan bhàrr na cnaige (off the
pin without any delay). In the Åfjord tradition, the
halyard downhaul is held round a single pin with the
end tucked behind the part under strain. It can be
released by a sharp tug.
Fear-sgòide (The sheet man; Fig. 5)
The sheet is the rope leading from the aft corner of
the sail, and the man hauling on this would definitely
need to be “strong in the fore-arm” as a considerable
force is required to tension the sheet of such a large
sail. On the larger Åfjord boats, it can often be the
work of three men to tighten a sheet, as there are no
labor-saving devices on these boats. It is possible of
course that a system of blocks was used to increase
purchase, but we have no evidence of this.
stormy sea), qualities which would surely be appreciated
in any helmsman. His requirements are given
in detail: he is to keep the birlinn on course Gun dad
luasgain (without deviation) despite bàrr sùmaidean
mara a thèid air fuaradh leatha (crests of sea-swells
that will take her off course).
If he must, the steersman will keep the bìrlinn
tight to windward, but without sailing so close to
the wind that it begins to come on the lee side and
causes the luff (leading edge) to shake. To avoid
“luffing” he steers off the wind, “letting her run,
taking the wind full in her sail.” When sailing the
Åfjord boats along with the old-timers, the Norwegian
boat expert Jon Godal tells how they would
tell him not to sail too close to the wind: “You need
to keep off the wind so that you can get some speed
on her—or else, you won’t make any progress!”
(Eldjarn and Godal 1988:161)
Fear air calpa na tàirne (A man on the halyard;
Fig. 4)
The halyard is the rope used
to raise or lower the yard, from
which the sail is attached. The
English term shows the original
meaning of “haul-yard”,
which is exactly what it is in a
square-sailed ship. If one man
was to raise a yard he would
need to be, as described in Birlinn
Clann Raghnaill, extremely
Snaomanach fuasgailteach,
sgairteil (well proportioned
and robust). Einar Borgfjord,
the boatbuilder, and expert on
these boats stated in conversation
that you can “pretty well
raise the sail by yourself on
the (Åfjord) fembøring (50 foot
in length), but at over 2 m in
height, broad and steady, Einar
easily fulfils the requirements.
Wallace Clark describes two
men heaving on the halyard to
raise the sail and yard on the
Aileach, Colin Mudie’s fortyfoot-
long interpretation of a
16-oared birlinn (Clark 1993).
Maybe the man in charge of the
halyard on Clanranald’s bìrlinn
could call on others to assist,
and so was not alone in his efforts.
The halyard is not tied
around a belaying pin, but
.air eagal, nuair sgairtear an Figure 4. The halyard man. Photograph © Gavin Parsons.
G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
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Figure 5. The sheet-man. Photograph © Fergus Walker.
Figure 6. The tack of the sail secured on the windward gunwale. Photograph © Gavin Parsons.
G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
33
Fear-cluaise (The tackman; Figs. 6, 7)
The tack (Gaelic cluas) is the forward lower corner
of a sail, and so the “fear-cluaise” or tack-man is
in charge of that corner. On the Norwegian Åfjord
and Norland boats, the equivalent position is the halskar,
who has responsibility for everything forward
of the mast. We can imagine that the fear-cluaise
on the birlinn has similar responsibilities. Unlike a
fore-and–aft sail where the tack is not moved, the
tack of a square sail is secured near the bow of the
ship at a position that depends on the direction of the
wind. When the wind is from the port side, the tack
of the sail is made fast on the starboard side, and
when the wind is from the starboard side, the tack is
made fast on the port side. When the ship “tacks” or
crosses the direction of the wind, the tack of a square
sail is hauled aft and the aft corner (clew) is carried
forward, bringing the yard and sail to the other side
of the mast. The clew (aft corner) is then secured to
become the new tack (forward corner).
The tack-man, who corresponds directly to the
halskar in the Norwegian tradition, needs to shift
the tack forward or aft according to the direction of
the wind on the sail. This procedure is described in
the second verse of dh’òrdaicheadh air leth fearcluais.
The closer to the wind the ship is sailing,
the farther forward the tack must be made fast to a
belaying pin (Gaelic urracag) set in a hole through
the gunwale. On the Åfjord boats, there are three
possible holes in the gunwale (named fremste,
remma, and keipen) and this layout is also the case
in Skuldelev 3, the only one of the Skuldelev ships
which has the gunwale intact (Crumlin-Pedersen,
and Olsen 2002). The Gaelic word urracag is derived
by Henderson (1910:149) from Old Norse
urga, originally meaning the corner of a sail. This,
however, is not strictly the meaning given in the
Norrøn Ordbok (dictionary of Old Norse), which
gives reip-ende (end of a rope) (Heggstad 1975).
This term might correspond to urve, meaning a
loop of rope.
While verse two seems to correspond exactly
with practical experience on the Åfjord boats, verse
three is slightly more difficult to interpret. The sense
here is of a hurried drawing down of the tack. Ma chì
e an aonrais ag èirigh/ Teachd le osnaich/ Lomadh
e gu gramail, treunmhor/Sìos gu stoc i (If he sees a
storm arising/Coming with sighing/Let him bare it /
Down to the/gunwale)
If the sail is being referred to here, though i (it,
feminine) refers grammatically back to cluas, it
could be a movement known on the Åfjord boats
as halsing . This technique is particularly used on
the smaller boats. If a gust approaches, the halskar,
who is sitting on the gunwale, can reduce the effect
of the gust, by grasping the luff (forward edge) in
both hands and hauling sharply down and back thus
letting part of the wind go to the lee (wrong) side of
the sail. The halskar can perform the halsing when
he sees it appropriate, rather than waiting from an
order from the helmsman, since the halskar has total
responsibility forward of the mast. According to Jon
Godal, halsing can only be done on the smaller boats
(Eldjarn and Godal 1988:158), but Einar Borgfjord
(2009) says that it can be done on a 50-foot fembøring.
Figure 7. The tack-man. Photograph © Gavin Parsons.
G. Parsons
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
34
MacInnes, J. 2007 The Gaelic hero tales (pp. 64–81 of
Gaelic panegyric verse). Pp. 82–94, In J. Beach, O.
Hand, F. MacDonald, M.A. Mulhearn, and J. Weston
(Eds.). Oral Performance and Culture: Scottish Life
and Society. John Donald, Edinburgh, UK. 615 pp.
MacLeod, A. 1933. Sàr Òrain. An Comunn Gaidhealach,
Glasgow, UK. 232 pp.
Marcus, G.J. 1980. The Conquest of the North Atlantic.
Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK. 224 pp.
Marsden, J. 2000. Somerled and the Emergence of Gaelic
Scotland. Tuckwell Press, East Linton, UK. 180 pp. .
Meek, D.E. 1997 “Norsemen and Noble Stewards”: The
MacSween poem in the Book of the Dean of Lismore.
Cambrian Medieval Studies 34:1–49.
Pedersen, O.C. 2010. Archaeology and the Sea in Scandinavia
and Britain: A Personal Account. Viking Ship
Museum/Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Roskilde,
Denmark. 184 pp.
Sharpe, R. 1995. Adomnan of Iona: Life of St Columba.
Penguin, Middlesex, UK. 406 pp.
Each sailing task related in Birlinn Chlann
Raghnaill can be matched with the tasks on the
Norwegian traditional boat. The comparison shows
that the Åfjord boat, which almost certainly belongs
to a tradition unbroken from the Viking period, is
sailed in a similar fashion to the vessel described
in Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill. This similarity, along
with other evidence of closely connected traditions
of boat building around the North Sea, suggests that
the Åfjord boats continue a tradition of which the
West Highland birlinn was a part. We can also see
from the praise-poetry that the image of the birlinn
has been of primary importance in the culture of the
Gael, and that the heroic culture continued into the
eighteenth century, long after the parallel Norse culture
had been pacified.
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