sh
Aldhelm first wrote rhymed Latin verse, it was because he had been a pupil
of the Irishman Mailduff, the first Abbot of Malmesbury.[10]

To speak of literary relations between the Irish and the Norse may provoke
some derision. Were not these the fierce sea-kings the "Danes," whose
delight was in war, and whose avocation in peace was the plunder of
shrines? They were, however, paradoxical enough to build Christ Church,
and to richly endow it. And it is also a curious fact that, previous to
three great invasions of other countries, for which they are severely
blamed, they had been appealingly besought for help by their supposed
victims. Iarl Hacon went to oppose the aggressions of the Emperor Otho;
King Harald Sigurdson to avenge wrongs inflicted by English Harold; and
Iarl Sigurd of the Orkneys (whose mother was an Irishwoman) could not
resist the appeal of Irish beauty in distress--in the person of Queen
Brian Borumha, who was mother of the Norse king of Dublin.

There were, in fact, many and important matrimonial alliances between the
Irish and Norse princes, who often joined forces against foes. This
happened at Clontarf, where the Irish of Leinster had the alliance of the
Dublin and Orkney Norse, whilst Brian brought up the Danes of Limerick.
This battle, let me remark, is described in the literature of both
countries, and in both descriptions there are omens and spiritual beings
such as signalise the epic of Homer. So great was Norse influence over
Ireland that three of our provinces retain the Northern name-endings, and
many a headland and bay has a Norse appellation. They delighted in the
loveliness of the land. Linnaeus, in latter days, fell on his knees before
the splendour of a furze-bush in blossom, and we can readily imagine how
tears came into the eyes of the Arctic rovers when they beheld the fresh
green of Ovoca or were dazzled by the crimson and gold of Benn Edair,
which they called Howth.[11] Irish music charmed them, and even now some
of our old airs awake echoes along the norland fiords.[12]

The latest and most distinguished authorities[13] declare that Irish
literature has largely influenced that of the Scandinavians. Their Heroic
Age was much later than ours, from the end of the ninth to the eleventh
centuries, when the ambition of Harold Haarfagre to imitate the imperial
methods of Charlemagne had driven the independent princes to far isles or
foreign voyages. They were in close and continuous