504 
The next year we find him in alliance with his half-brother Glu- 
niarn, the Danish chieftain of Dublin, who had submitted to his power, 
and now joined him in an attack upon Domhnall Claen, King of Lein- 
ster, who had so recently been liberated by Malachy, but who now rose 
in insurrection against him, aided by the Danes of Waterford. A bat- 
tle was fought, in which Malachy was victorious. This was A. D. 982, 
according to the Four Masters. 
Next year Brian invaded Meath, to revenge the insulting destruc- 
tion of the oak-tree of Magh Adhair; and Malachy soon after retaliated 
by plundering Connaught, then in alliance with Brian, destroying its 
islands, killing its chieftains, and reducing Mayo to ashes.* 
Some three or four years of predatory warfare followed, during 
which Brian’s resources seem to have been occupied in opposing an 
inroad of the Connaught chieftains, who had now revolted against 
him, aided by the Danes of Wexford. A new invasion of Norsemen 
had also attacked the coast of Dalaradia (county of Down), and plun- 
dered the venerable abbey of Hy, or Iona. This and the continued 
rebellion of the people of Leinster may have given Malachy also suf- 
ficient employment. The Dublin Danes were thus enabled to recover 
their independence. Gluniaran, in 989, was murdered by a drunken 
slave; and the same year Malachy besieged the Castle of Dublin, which 
held out for twenty nights. It appears that even at that early period the 
supply of water in Dublin was defective. Thecanals did not exist, and the 
“« Vartry scheme’’ was not yet thought of. There were no quays on the 
banks of the Liffey, and the tide flowed over the plain now occupied by 
Trishtown, Merrion-square, College-green, and Dame-street, up to the 
very walls of the Castle. The Danish defenders of the fortress were re- 
duced to the necessity of drinking this foul and brackish water, and were 
at length starved into submission. 
Brian continued to harass the territories of Malachy by the same kind 
of rude and predatory warfare, for some years; but was defeated, with all 
the forces of Munster, at Aenach Tete, now Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, in 994. 
Immediately afterwards Malachy marched again to suppress an insur- 
rection of the Danes of Dublin, and it was on this occasion that he car- 
ried off the ‘collar of gold,” or, more properly, ring of gold, which 
Moore’s verse has rendered so celebrated. This ring is called by our 
annalists ‘‘ the ring of Tomar,”—Tomar being, in all probability, an an- 
eestor of the Dublin Danes, whose ring they had brought with them, 
when they set out for Ireland. The holy ring (baugr) was essential to 
every temple of the Pagan Danes. It lay on the altars, and upon it all 
solemn oaths were taken.t ‘‘The sword of Carlus,’”’ another Danish 
national relic, was also taken from them by Malachy on the same occa- 
sion. We know nothing of the “sword of Carlus.” But if the conjec- 
ture of our learned associate, Mr. Haliday, be correct, and he can sup- 
port it by some ingenious arguments, the Ring of Tomar is now in the 
* Four Masters, A. D. 984. 
+ Dasent’s “‘ Story of Burnt Njal,” vol. i., p. xxxviii. 
