Euphemisms

The Viking Age.   Today, under a pagan-like insistence on political correctness--or at least the present day conceptualization of "correctness"--the Viking invasion and occupation of Scotland is now called "Scandinavian Scotland".  Certainly, that style invokes softer sentiments.  In reality though, it was an age of systematic rape, genocidal murder, mindless destruction, pillage and plunder...things typically associated with the term "Viking". 

March 26, 2018  Iona Abbey overlooking Martyrs Bay

Viking incursions into the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland) began in the late 700s.  The term "rapid deployment" should be mentioned.  From some Norwegian fjords under favorable conditions, Viking longboats could reach the Northern Isles in 24 hours.  Even by today's military standards, that is a remarkable projection of force in-theater.

From the Northern Isles, the Norsemen expanded southward, down the western seaboard of present day Scotland and into the thalassocracy of Dal Riada--the Inner Hebrides and the Argyll dominions of the Lords of the Isles.

March 26, 2018  Restored St. John's Cross, Iona

In 795, two years after their infamous sack of Lindisfarne, Vikings struck the spiritual heart of Dal Riada--the Holy Isle of Iona.  In its heyday, Iona had amassed possibly the greatest library in all of Europe.

Vikings struck Iona again in 802, and then again in 806 when they slaughtered nearly 70 monks on Iona's shore, a heinous act that is commemorated by what today is called Martyrs Bay.  In the face of the relentless onslaught by Norsemen, monks from Iona sailed west to Ireland with the Book of Kells--that priceless masterpiece of Celtic art--and established the monastery at Kells in County Meath.

The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels drawn upon calf skin vellum, however, was created by scribes at Iona.  In some respects, it shows the "cosmopolitan" connections, or at least trade routes, existing to the Isles in the late 8th century.  The pigments and ochres of the Book of Kells were sourced  from the Mediterranean.  Its lapis lazuli was from Afghanistan.

Iona was then essentially abandoned.  By 849 A.D., when the relics of St. Columba were removed to Ireland for safe keeping, Vikings had essentially conquered the whole of the Inner Hebrides.

Although the history of the 9th century remains obscure, a number of sources suggest the Vikings had completed their conquests.  For example, the replacement of former Gaelic names by Norse--the linguistic study of which is called toponymy.  For the next several hundred years, the Hebrides were Viking, er, Scandinavian Scotland.

March 26, 2018  The Abbey at Iona