THE NORSE OCCUPATION. 



explanations have been hazarded to account for the dis- 

 tinction, 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 applied 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 in 

 these days. Equally unsatisfactory are the suggestions 

 that the distinguishing marks of the Norwegians and 

 Danes lay in the colour of their clothing, 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 foreigners. In later Irish history, we 

 find frequent references to the Danes and Norwegians, and 

 Keating writes of " the Normans," as distinct from both, 

 but gradually all sections of the Scandinavians became 

 merged in the generic name of " Danes," which probably 

 denoted, in 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 Alban 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 Rigk 

 Fiongall, or King of the Fingalls ; a statement which 

 implies the subjection of the Fingalls to his rule. The 

 term " Lochlannaigh," or "Lochlans" (sea-warriors), origin- 

 ally applied to the Scandinavian rovers, appears to have 

 received a wider signification in later years. The Dugalls 

 figure on several subsequent occasions in the Irish Annals 



