User:Angusmclellan/Ivar

Ívarr (died 873), Old Irish Ímar, was a Viking king in Britain and Ireland. His ancestry and origins are uncertain and a matter of debate. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Uí Ímair kindred to which many kings of Dublin and kings of York appear to have belonged.

The recorded activities of Ívarr begin circa 853 in Ireland. In the years that followed he has been associated with the invasion of Northumbria and capture of York in 866, with the Viking conquests of East Anglia and death of King Edmund the Martyr in 869, with the siege of Dumbarton Rock in 870. At his death in 873 he is called the "king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain".

Ivarr was the basis of the saga character Ivar the Boneless, but the extent to which Scandinavian sagas and histories, or indeed later sources in general, are trustworthy sources for the events of the 9th century is questionable.

Origins
There is no general agreement on Ívarr's origins ...

Ívarr's ancestry is contained in the so-called Osraige saga within the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland. This calls him Ímar son of Gofraid son of Ragnall son of Gofraid Conung son of Gofraid (Ívarr son of Guðrøðr son of Røgnvaldr son of [King?] Guðrøðr son of Guðrøðr), but, with the possible exception of his father's name, this is considered to be unreliable. Other parts of the Fragmentary Annals make Ívarr one of four brothers, the others are Amlaíb (Óláfr), Albdann (Hálfdan) and Auisle (Ásl or Auðgísl). The Ingwar of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, who is often identified with Ívarr, is said to have been the brother of Hálfdan and another, unnamed brother. Amlaíb is described as "son of the king of Laithlind" by the Irish annals; it is possible that this king is to be identified with "the king of Lochlann, Gofraid", who "died of a sudden hideous disease" circa 873, according to the Fragmentary Annals.

Lochlann

McTurk

Woolf, Hudson

Scribbles

 * Smyth, Warlords: @148, sack of Crowland in 868 (Pseudo-Ingulf?); @151, son of Ragnar ([851] "... Danes ... possibly led by Ragnar Lodbrok and his son Ivar", WTF?, further Ragnar nonsense @152; @158 (Great Army); @160; @190 (GmF); @200 ("claims to York"); @215, Dumbarton &c.
 * Downham, "Cearbhall"
 * Ó Cróinín, Early Medieval Ireland: @251; @252; @253-4
 * Wormald, "The Ninth Century": @145; @148
 * Sawyer (ed), Ill. Hist. Vikings: @13: @54; @90; @92; @97
 * Boyer, Les Vikings: @156 (cf Ragnar Lodbrok