268 



promise of his future friendship to the former owner. In 997 occurred 

 a very remarkable conflagration by Ughtning, in which Armagh, its 

 houses, and stone churches, belfreys, and celestial towers, were all de- 

 stroyed.* The reader will perceive in the passage as given below, the 

 marked distinction drawn between the " campanilia" and the " tur- 

 res coelestes." In 1006 Saint Columba's book before mentioned was 

 stolen fi'om the church of Kells, and not found for two months, when 

 it was discovered in a bog despoiled of its golden ornaments. -f- In 

 1012 the Danes burned Glendaloch, Clonard, Clonmacnois, Kildare, 

 and Swords ; but the extinction of their power was fast approaching, 

 the manumission of their victims' thraldom ; " libertas quse sera ta- 

 men respexit inertem." 



The year 1014 is remarkable for the victory of Clontarf, in which 

 Brien Boroimhe, the most splendid ornament of the O'Brien dynasty, 

 the lawgiver and hero, the Alfred and Epaminondas of his country, 

 for ever crushed the hopes of the Danes, but perished in the glorious 

 achievement. The particulars of this battle are detailed at much 

 length in the various Irish annals ; particularly in the Book of 

 Howth, which somewhat naturalizes the story of Lucretia, and attri- 

 butes the whole catastrophe to the revenge of an injured husband. 

 The Antiquitates Celt. Scand. (p. 120,) are also very full in its reci- 

 tal ; and the Leabhar Oiris, cited in O'Conor's Dissertation, (sect. 

 18,) is most diffuse in the particulars of the death of Brien Boroimhe; 



* " Ardmacha combusta a fulmine domus et ecclesiae lapideee, et campanilia et ejus turret 

 ccelestes omnes destructai." — Annals Four Masters. See also Trias Thaum. p. 297. 



f " Evangelium magnum Columbaj-cille, a fure ablatum nocte ex sacra domo inferiori 

 ecclesiae lapideae magnas Cellensis, prascipua reliquia sacra juramentorum occidentalis mundi 

 fuit ista, propter honorem ejus scriptoris sapientis, et inventum est post xx noctes et duos 

 menses, postquam furte ablatum fuisset ejus aurum, et cespitibus involutum." — Annals Four 

 Masters, ad ann. 



S*. 1.1 ..1 



